And it turns out, the political/military angle isn't even the real story. The fight is actually going on, on the mystical level. What happens between the Emperor, Vader and Luke is the important thing.
But it's still ambiguous. The Republic has been established as corrupt enough that the Seppys can be seen as having a valid point, but not so corrupt that Bail, Padme, Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi are idiots for not abandoning it, too.
And crucially, that ambiguity could be a plausible reason why Anakin might jump one way while the Jedi jump the other way, without anyone needing to be stupid or naive.
And however the political story is told, it still needs to take a back seat to Anakin's mystical journey, which was utterly ignored in the PT. It's like the Force was just something people used so they could jump around like grasshoppers, and had no greater meaning than that.
I think a big problem in both Anakin's mystical journey, and the state of the galaxy is that the movies leave
so much out. Never in the films do we see what changes Anakin from being an idealistic child to a bitter moron; from the moment he turns up in AOTC hes just so obviously spoiling to join the sith.
The same thing happens with the war. AOTC ends with the start of the war, and the ROTS starts at practically the end. This is then carried over into the lesser story elements, we hear all about the corruption and the political situation, but we never actually see anything connected with it. Just like we never actually see Anakin and Obi-wan as friends, the people of Naboo dying, or uncliched love between Anakin and Padme.
In the OT, the struggle of the rebellion works as a symbolic framework for what is going in with the characters themselves.
A New Hope: We're told that the empire now maintains control seperate from any senate, the rebellion is almost crushed. As Leia tells Kenobi, 'this is our most desperate hour'. Suddenly theres this piece of information to destroy the new superweapon, they risk everything and eventually gain a major victory. This parallels the story of Luke, who moves from no hope of attaining his dreams to being the one who destroys the death star, and starting to realise his powers at the same time.
Empire: Both rebellion and Luke have won a victory, but they still have far to go. The rebellion is forced to retreat from combat with the empire as its still fairly scattered; Luke faces Vader with inadequete training and focus, therefore leading him to fail. Its emphasised that both are staying strong but not yet ready for final victory. At the end of the film we see Luke's new hand while he's recovering, at the same time we see the lonesome fleet of the rebellion, indicating a new marshalling of strength.
Jedi: Both the rebellon and Luke face their foes in a climactic battle, taking their new found strength to the point where they either win or die. Eventually they both overcome what faces them, and the film ends on this dual victory for Luke and for the rebellion.
This also seen in Han. He starts off a sleazy smuggler with a price on his head and no kind of moral compass, but at the end of ANH we see the first change as he also risks everything in his first noble act. In ESB hes obviously become a respected part of the rebellion, but he still feels the need to escape back to his old life, and seems worried and confused about becoming a 'good guy'. In ROTJ, he is now voluntarily leading a mission which even Leia seems dubious about, defeating his own demons and becoming the mature man we see that the end of the film.
In the PT you get nothing like this, because its so sloppy, and writing well is harder than CGI lava fights. The movies are about the development of Anakin from light to dark, and yet they skip the whole of his training, and his involvement in a drawn out and costly galactic conflict. These are the two most obvious points to develop that darkness in Anakin, and yet we never see anything! The important parts of Anakin's development are:
1. His relationship with Padme.
2. His friendship with Obi-Wan.
3. His friendship with Palpatine.
4. His training.
5. His involvement in the war.
Nothing is ever developed. He and Padme are just in love, for not reason, we see no evolution in their feelings for each other. Same with the relationship with Obi, Palps, his training, and his involvement in the war. It would have been nice to see the relationship between Palpatine and Anakin evolve, but instead its just assumed that they are now close and Palps has suddenly become his dear friend. This is why the Anakin character feels so disconnected from the world and characters around him. Theres no solid foundation or context for those things because they are forced into the script without any sort of development or thematic relationship with the rest of the story, purely to move the story along.
If a story should contain an arc between two points, then the PT was basically just two points. Instead of moving between them in the films, with dialogue and characterisation etc, the script just jumps from one point to another. Garbage, total garbage.
