Saga The Dark Side in the OT, compared to the Prequels

In the OT it seems that simply using the dark side of the force for once may be enough to turn force users fully to the dark side and even directly change their priorities so far that they may even ally with their enemies and turn on their former friends, while in the prequels the effect is working far more slowly and even demands some conviction and agreement of the person.

Considering all of this, i wonder what Anakin's fall originally was meant to have been like and what was meant to have been happening with Luke, if he stayed angry and hateful after defeating Vader.

 

It seems like the Dark Side is presented fairly consistently between the two trilogies in my opinion. In both stories the Dark Side is treated as a short cut to achieving one's desires, whether it be for the sake of conquering others or saving them. The Dark Side embraces ideologies like "might makes right" and "the ends justify the means". In TESB Yoda describes it as quicker, easier, and more seductive. I don't think the implication was ever meant to be that if you use the dark side once you will be forever turned, but more that the Dark Side's power is so seductive that once one starts relying on it, they're more likely to lose their way and have their future judgements clouded.

In the OT, all we know regarding Vader is that he was seduced by the dark side of the force. It's quite vague, but if I'd never seen the PT and didn't know about the romance with Padme, I'd likely assume Anakin started using the Dark Side as a means to an end, perhaps fueled by a desire to end the Clone Wars and bring unity to the galaxy at any cost. Luke is presented that way in the OT, where his temptation to use the Dark Side would have come from wanting to stop the Empire and save his friends, no matter the cost.

 

Luke is a Padawan. It is far easier for him to fall, compared to Anakin, who spent years studying to be a Jedi. Luke barely understands the Force and what the differences between the light and the dark. Anakin knows the difference, yet he has to be conditioned to embrace a larger view of the Force. Palpatine needed to rely on Obi-Wan to do the leg work with Anakin while slowly turning him.

 

There is plenty of consistency between the two trilogies. The OT teaches us that the dark side is the quicker and more seductive path to achieving great prowess with the force, and that passionate emotions are what unlock it.

The PT is all about Anakin's struggle with his emotions. And he seeks the quick path to power as a result, as told by Yoda to Luke. We get to see it happen in ROTS, with the path to that decision being clear in retrospect in TPM and AOTC.

The first two trilogies is a saga of a father and his son. The father makes the wrong choice and falls to the dark side. The son rejects the dark side and redeems his father.

 

Considering that Anakin wasn't struggeling with the dark side all the time after AOTC, as seen in TCW, and Luke was supposed to fall for good after once giving in to his anger, it feels as if the concept of how the dark side corrupts people was changed in the prequels to work more slowly.

 

It’s never said that Luke will fall to the dark side immediately. Just that if he starts down the dark path he won’t stop. In the prequels Anakin starts down the dark path when he kills the sand people, and then it dominates his destiny forever. No contradiction

 

But Palpatine in ROTJ, seems to have expected that he would have had an instant apprentice in Luke, if he used the dark side for once.

And the way how the scenes were depicted in James Kahn's novelization also play it that way, with Luke considering joining Palps, when he turned dark for a short while.

 

I haven’t read that part of the novelization. I believe Luke might have immediately turned if he failed. But I don’t think it means it’s always the case that killing in anger turns you into a Sith Lord.

I think we’re on the same page as to the stakes in RotJ, if Luke kills his father he’s metaphorically gone to hell and will become the Emperor’s apprentice. But that has to do with the specific situation where Luke is under the power of the Emperor, and there’s temptation for him to take the easy way out and get all that power, even If Luke killed his father and then refused to join, Palpatine can imprison him until he turns.

If Luke just killed a bunch of Gamorean Guards a few days earlier, he would have started going bad, but not turned to the dark immediately

 

In TCW, Anakin struggles when Padme and Ahsoka are infected with the Blue Shadow virus. Then when he and Obi-Wan are chained to Dooku. On Mortis. When Dooku tries to kidnap Palpatine on Naboo. When Anakin fights Barris. Both times Rush Clovis shows up. It was pretty routine.

The point is that Anakin is struggling between the light and the dark, and was failing. Luke was more vulnerable due to his upbringing and his lack of proper training.

 

It feels like Anakin let Clovis die.

 

I feel like the the way the Darkside was presented in the OT just happened to feel like "a concept we've been taught about before," and took a lot of assumption that the viewer knew about its nature. IMO the PT fleshed out those things more-as they well should have. And then the ST treated it (or rather the Sith specifically) as something historical-like a legend of sorts. And IMO that fit well too.

So ultimately to me it feels like our exposure to all things Darkside throughout the saga more or less progressed well in that way.