G&G-Fan said:
I feel like the prequels would absolutely not be “ruined” if they were written well in terms of portraying Lucas’ intentions. In fact it’s kinda laughable IMO to say that making the audience care about and sympathathize with the Jedi, show them as kind and compassionate monks would make the movies worse. Imagine how much more heartbreaking Order 66 would’ve been if you actually cared about Ki-Adi Mundi and Plo-Koon, and the impact that Anakin betraying them all would have. The messages about not becoming too possessive of people and being selfish in your relationships wouldn’t be muddied. People would realize what Anakin actually did wrong instead of blaming the Council for his actions. You wouldn’t have people saying that the Sith “aren’t actually that bad”, despite the fact that the guy who wrote the Sith code openly said he was inspired by Mein Kampf and Lucas compares Sidious to Satan, that “bringing balance to the force means destroying the Jedi too”, or “the dark side isn’t inherently bad to use” (yeah, it is).
I feel that the PT does portray the Jedi as compasionate monks. The issue is with their dogma and theology. Given Qui-gon’s differences with the council and the issues Anakin has with the council and his training, I truly feel that Lucas wrote the Jedi to be slightly off from where they are supposed to be. George has a habit of speaking in generalities and not being terribly exact. I feel his comments about the Jedi are about the order as it was in Yoda’s youth and where the Jedi still think it is when it isn’t. When he was writing the PT he included a lot that made it into the films that counter what he said. To me the films speak more to what Lucas wanted than his interviews. He also said the force isn’t yin/yang and yet he wrote it in a way you can’t interpret it any other way. And Dave Filoni, probably George’s #1 student of the Star Wars universe, very definitely portrayed it as yin/yang - two halves of a whole. George is unreliable in interviews.