dobahci said:
Right, that would be the same assumption I made as well. I think that's what they were leading towards, but it's never really explained.
And honestly, I think the films would've been better if they DID spend some time explaining the background of the Sith, who they are, the history of them, and why the Jedi chose to exterminate them in the past. They could've spent a little time on that with all the screentime they'd have saved by removing all the absurd over-choreographed lightsaber fights and clumsy political and moral allegory that was shoehorned into the story.
And if the Jedi were indeed responsible for the near-extermination of the Sith in some previous event, then maybe you'd have that awkward moment after the Sith strike back where the Jedi say, "Hey, maybe we brought this upon ourselves. Maybe we shouldn't have wiped out the Sith wholesale back in those days, even if they do have a tendency to embrace the dark side." Holy cow, a moral gray area in a Star Wars story, imagine that! I doubt you'd ever see it, though. George Lucas doesn't really specialize in subtlety. Doesn't go over well with the 12-year-old boys he's marketing his franchise to nowadays.
Definitely, especially since the prequel movies were far more Sith Vs Jedi than Empire Vs Rebels. Having the long term goals and characterizations of one of the factions left completely to the imagination doesn't really work, especially for the ones who are trying to rise up against the status quo.
It could also tie into the "Chosen one" crap better. He's supposed to bring balance to the force, does that mean the The Dark Side and The Light Side were once practised equally alongside one another? Hell, the backstory just writes itself. I would gladly ditch most of the politics and padmeXanikin scenes for more explanation of why everyone was so eager to fight against the Jedi and republic.
The Chosen One stuff is just another thing they introduced that didn't really lead anywhere or become important.
Oh, I just looked it up on the starwars.wikia. Apparenty the force was never in balance(between light and dark), Jedi always protected the republic. And the sith were the newcomers who tried(and failed) to take over. And then just kept trying ever since. What a letdown.
Now that I think about it, for the jedi things were pretty much perfect at the start of the Phantom Menace. What does returning balance to the force entail, and how would it have benefited the jedi? It leaves me feeling as though they were afraid to actually come up with any real plot that hadn't been hinted at in the original trilogy.
Just realised that Anikin/Vader does bring balance to the force. He wipes out the Jedi AND the Sith. Problem solved, and a pretty good job of it too.
