Would you watch a Star Wars movie with a darker story? (R)

It is, however, the disconnect is that it's necessary or beneficial. Violence serves the narrative and writing. In the end, depicting the violence of Anakin murdering the younglings would add nothing more to that scene than gore porn. If we wanted to elevate the maturity and gravity of his actions at the temple. Then the script needs to characterise the younglings, have the audience relate to them, become emotionally attached to them, maybe give them a relationship with Anakin. Now the audience will be emotionally invested in those kids, by extension, the emotional portrayal present is enhanced. "Master Skywalker line" wpuld be HUGELY impactful if we had an investment on the kids relationship with Anakin in the first place. Imagine the heartache of that scene if we simply switched the ROTS younglings with the TCW younglings. Totally hits a different note doesn't it?

TL;DR: The heartache or affronting tragedy of mature stories doesn't stem from the depicted gore or violence, but from the quality and intentions of the writing. If you want the audience to be heartbroken, then the writing needs to build the emotional attachment before severing it. No amount of violence works to achieve this in isolation. It just makes violence porn.

/r/StarWars Thread Parent