Originally posted by: JediSage

I agree about the moral ambiguity problem. I thought one of the classic examples of why this leads off a cliff was in Episode III - ROTS. Obi says to Annakin "Annakin, Palpatine is EVIL!", follwed by Annakin saying "From my point of view the Jedi are evil".

Well was't the whole point of the film that Anakin was wrong? There was nothing from his 'point of view' to make the Jedi evil; misguided, perhaps, but not evil. There was no reason he couldn't quit the order to be with Padme. He was just a selfish sunnavagun who wanted to save his wife from dying so badly he ended up killing her anyway and plunging the galaxy into tyranny.

More on topic, morally ambiguous villains and heroes certainly have their place, but I do agree that the concept of the sympathetic villain and the ethically challenged hero has become a bit too common in entertainment media. I think it's a trend that's begun to swing the other way, though, for the past few years.