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Notes -
I'd just like to chip in that Matt Stover's Revenge of the Sith novelization does a good job at fleshing out Anakin's worldview and motives, as well as his dynamic with Obi-Wan - though it's also helped that my copy of ROTS is the three-in-one binding of the Dark Lord trilogy. You get the entirety of Labyrinth of Evil first to set up Revenge, and that's a great story that also shows Palpatine's surrogate-uncle relationship with Anakin and how he's been playing the long game of being Anakin's confidant while subtly cultivating his worst traits - his pride and his fear of loss.
Not to invalidate your critique of the prequel trilogy, I think it's a fair critique. I know saying "they fixed it in the novelization" doesn't fix the problems with the film, but I do think the novelization is worth your time if you want an official version (well, Legends-official...) of the story that's more coherent.
Also, I haven't talked about Rise of Darth Vader as the third part of the Dark Lord trilogy - it's good, but really more of an epilogue. Aftermath of Revenge and some character work on Anakin grappling with his cybernetics and dependency on the suit. I'm not doing it justice, unfortunately.
Yeah, Matthew Stover’s version is the best version of RotS for sure.
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