It's nice to see this thread back in the land of the living.

I always hoped that these ideas would be thrilling and unpredictale no matter which way you watch the movies. If I - VI, we need to keep the secrets. If IV-VI then I - III, then we need to play with peoples expectations. Make it look like the are getting what they figured THEN twist it.

For example: I've always been a fan of NotPadme NOT being a queen, just because everyone expects it. But it works out really cool if NotPadme eventually ends up with Bail, that would still make Leia his step-daughter AND a princess, but not in line for the throne. Which kind of explains why she is always princess even after the rest of her family and all of Alderaan are destroyed.

My other question for all of you stems back from pretty much the early pages of this thread: Who says that the NPT has to be all about Anakin? Way back... it was proposed that the focus be on Obiwan and Alderaan...those things that are taken from us in IV. This allows us to be more vague with Anakin's fall (heck, I wanted to "kill off" Anakin in Ep II). And hopefully gives us a great story arch for Obiwan about the loss of his friend, the betrayal of a student, and why he would lie to Luke about his father.

The Dark Jedi for me were my use of the Sith concept. I always wanted them to cross the lines that my version of the Jedi would not. They would be masked as others have shown here in the past. Again it gives us wiggle room in EP II for who the bad guys really are. In fact, in Ep III, I want the audience to actually support these Sith guys right up until they destroy the Jedi along with Vader (oops these guys may have gone too far). Then, since the Emperor is paranoid about others with power, after the Jedi are gone, he has Vader destroy the rest of the Sith. Thus the DARK LORD OF THE SITH title. The Emperor keeps Vader around since he controls his life and death because of the machinery in his body.