Originally posted by: Number20
For me, the whole turn to the dark side bit was ruined by the prequels. In the OT, the Dark Side is like a drug. Once you use it once or twice, your hooked on it and it comsumes you, and controls you. So for me, thats why Vader said things like that he "must obey his master" because he was a slave to the dark side at this point. In ROTJ, the emperor and vader are both pretty sure that all it won't take much to turn Luke dark, with Vader simply telling Luke to 'join us', or make him mad enough to use the dark side once or twice and the emperor wanting Luke to get angry enough to kill Vader. So at this point, it looks like to me that it doesn't take much to make a person dark side.
Now enter the PT. Anakin pretty much is always angry, slaughters a whole tribe of Sandpeople in a blind rage, and cold-bloodedly killing Count Dooku, and he stays light. Throw in the EU with him also using the darkside to defeat Assaj Ventress multiple times, and it seems like it is really hard to actually fall to the dark side. I guess it helped draw out the movie, but I was expecting something more quick, sudden, and not this drawn-out process that it became. I mean, something slower makes sense for something like Smallville, were we are talking about personal choices and personallity, but in Star Wars, the dark side seems to be much more of a controlling force.
This is so true, as I have always contended if you really watch the movie, Anakin never turns to the darkside, he just uses Palps to get info on saving people from dying. He is never stronger, which the darkside does to you as it did Luke when he was kicking Vader's ass in ROTJ, witness the lame battle between Obiwan/Anakin on Mustafar. Think of it, ObiWan gets his ass handed to him twice by Dooku, Anakin beats Dooku in ROTS, and then they pretty much have an even fight all the way on Mustafar, yet Anakin is supposed to be consumed by the darkside?
Zombie has talked about this before, and he can go into greater detail, the reason why the turn makes no sense in ROTS, is cause Lucas changed the whole context after shooting the original turn scene where he is protecting Palpatine instead of just doing for this trick of saving Padme. That is the dirty little secret that the PT gushers don't talk about, all of the stuff that was suppose to be built up from TPM/AOTC on Anakins turn is literally thrown away after Lucas thought the original turn scene was too quick and held no emotional weight.
From the first time I saw the turn scene in the movie theater, I always thought something didn't make sense, and once Zombie exposed Lucas for rewriting/reshooting the turn scene, I realized it wasn't me.