6. Anakin Stopping Mace Windu – Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith (2005)
Does it count as a change if it happens in a prequel? We’re saying yes, because when you watch Star Wars chronologically, you can see the cause and effect. Though he’s already been heavily manipulated at the time it happens, Anakin makes one crucial decision in a moment that changed the franchise’s future.
After discovering Palpatine is the evil Sith lord the Jedi have been hunting, he leads Mace Windu to him. The confrontation goes awry, and Windu is poised to kill the corrupt politician, but Anakin steps in. Choosing to save the Sith lord in order to learn the dark side of the Force, Anakin seals his own fate. It’s at this exact moment that he effectively becomes Darth Vader, and switches allegiance from Jedi to Sith.
Had Anakin not interfered, Palpatine would have been killed by Windu. This would have prevented Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi, and stopped the Galactic Empire from rising to power. In choosing to spare the Sith lord, Anakin condemned the Jedi Order and, ironically, caused very thing that had inspired him to act in the first place to come to pass. In the words of Palpatine: “Ironic, isn’t it?”