3 Reasons Why 'Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith' is Amazingly Important to the Franchise and My Favorite

In 1988 I was first introduced to Star Wars thanks to my parents. It's a series that they had shared with me out of reluctance, but not because of the fighting, the magnificent battles, or even the ideology of the monk-like Jedi. It was rather a reluctance due to my obscene love for everything Dune and Top Gun.

Little did I know that I would wait till my much later years to absolutely fall in love with Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The movie took the franchise to all new heights as it portrayed kinship, love, hate, anger, and betrayal all at once. It was a movie that wasn't just a piece of a franchise that placed puzzles into place. It's a piece that brought the puzzle together in order for the fans to have an amazingly crafted backstory to enjoy.

How is this movie the best and probably one of the most important films of an entire franchise? That's the real question and as we prepare for Star Wars Rogue One - A Star Wars Story, we must first look at how Revenge of the Sith will play as an important role within the franchise as it will.

"Execute Order 66" - The Destruction of the Jedi

While many will look at the actions of Anakin Skywalker to be the most important, there's something more important than that, and it's what shapes the uniqueness of Jedi in the more current movies. They are rare, there are few, and those that are "Force Sensitive" are hunted down like ravenous animals by the Empire and executed for being Jedi, well that's what we can assume anyways, and it's a rather safe assumption with the events that unfolded in every Star Wars movie this far.

Order 66, however, is where it all began the moment Emperor Palpatine ordered the clones to take out every Jedi possible. While Jedi such as Ashoka Tano escaped, it's also important to note that this took out the entire Jedi order, except for the few that managed to escape. Without a true structure available, the Jedi found themselves scattered across the universe, and in turn they were ultimately defeated by the Sith Lords.

The Sith Have No Limitations to the Lengths They'll Surpass to Win

During the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, we did witness the events of Order 66. We also got to witness just how far the Emperor would go in order to win, but we also saw encompasses any moral value that Anakin had left. During the events of Anakin's life before he became Darth Vader, we were ones to witness his ascension to Sith Lord. Even with the power of The Force at his side, we witnessed Anakin fight his way between light and dark, but ultimately lost out due to the Emperor having played his cards just right.

The Sith Lord (Palpatine) gave away just how far he would go in order to win a war against the Jedi Order. Let alone did he raise an entire army through cloning, he also made it so that these clones were brainwashed into their training, and would do anything he said when the time came. This army was just proof of what he would do in order to set up his inevitable victory over the Jedi Order, but it wasn't the only proof of just how far he would go to win.

Another is the execution of the Jedi children within the temple. Without hesitation, we learn that Anakin cut every single child down and left knowing what he had done. This placed his mind, his heart, and his will in a place much darker than anywhere else. Doing so prevented the Jedi from having future members of their order unless other Force Sensitive children were born, which we do witness later on, and it's safe to assume that Rey from Star Wars: Episode VII gave us a glimpse of the future of the Jedi.

While this scene is one that has originated more memes than we can imagine on the internet, it's also a scene that served the most importance next to Order 66. It's the very scene that shows Obi-Wan Kenobi break as a person. It's the very scene that lets us see what made him Old Ben. His heart broke, his will shattered, and even with the help of Luke Skywalker, we see Ben Kenobi once more face his ghost of the past in order to come to peace with what happened in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

It was because of this very moment that we saw everything unfold the way it has to this point and even why we have seen the events that lead to Luke hiding away on some distant planet.