the thing is that i don't think that every story has to be morally upstanding, or that liking 'problematic' stories necessarily reflects on your morals in real life. i personally love tragedies, corruption arcs, evil characters committing evil deeds without a single ounce of regret, things i would be horrified by and always strive to work against in real life
the problem arises when the creator and audience, out of universe, talk about the corruption and evil like they are things to aspire to in real life. the entire point of 'make each other worse and be actual villains together' stories is that it's bad. it's in the word. i enjoy these narratives because they're spectacles to me; i don't want to be them. acting like they're something to want to live and celebrate and not something dark and horrific that's been twisted by an unreliable narrator takes out everything that makes them appealing to me. your 'let's be villains together' message is completely undercut if at every turn you're insisting, 'no actually the jedi were the villains all along and their fall was good and justified'
i don't even think that every story in the star wars universe has to be morally upstanding. i would welcome a well-written story from the perspective of a sith. but headland seems to think that turning to the dark side and being a sith feels good
in the star wars universe, being a sith doesn't feel good. this is established canon through every sith in every continuity. being a sith feels terrible. it's killing your own loved ones and regretting it and stewing in your own despair for twenty years because you're in too deep and this is all that's left for you. it's being abandoned by your own master and suffering in a literal trash heap for a decade. it's brainwashing your own brother who hauls you out because this is the only companionship you know, only for him to be killed by your master and you to be abandoned a second time. it's feeling empty and killing to fill the hole in yourself, but all that does is make you feel emptier and you will never feel satisfied no matter how much you kill, no matter if you kill a whole planet, because killing. doesn't. heal you. it's forcing yourself to stay alive through pain and hatred and anger even as your body is falling apart around you. it's betrayal and backstabbing at every turn. and always, always, always, the consequences of your actions catch up to you
so really this entire series is adding insult to injury to me
