Thing is, Jacen doesn't really envision himself as in charge.
He sees a vision both during his journey, and at the end of his life-of Allana reigning in age of peace and friendship.
That to me is really interesting, in that yes he's ambitious but its not so he can be a messianic ruler, but so his child can be. At some point in her life.
Allana is either the Dark Man(as the time goes Krayt)'s right hand woman, or she's queen of a peaceful galaxy. Jacen has no vision of himself ruling, in a permanent capacity.
Presumably...any empire of his would be intended to be passed on to Allana, or even might be something temporary for her to do away with. A sort of light side version of what Palpatine planned to do with his empire-dispose of it for something grander.
So Jacen becomes a monster, a tyrant, so someone else can reign in an age of peace and friendship, not a tyrant. His own child, but still.
Its the same sort of thinking as Lumiya-his sacrifices have someone else's future in mind.
He might envision Allana uniting the galaxy, just in a mundane political sense, but personally I've always reconciled Jacen's emphasis on the spiritual with his political focus in LOTF-to be Allana is more than just a Hapan queen that knits the galaxy together peacefully for a few decades, but as an actual Messianic figure of sorts. Hence her significance to everyone in FOTJ, as the "future Jedi Queen". Jedi and Sith alike. Perhaps his failure is why Allana is never Queen, or if she reigns its only until her own death and Krayt's reveal.
Jacen hopes that good will come from his evil. That is his sacrifice. Allana's triumph is his. Even if he is dead.
This describes his underlying intent well. The issue with it is that he's very much willing to do evil things; indeed, hoping that "good will come from his evil". But in the setting, this is impossible.
Evil comes from evil. Allana is just a kid, Caedus will be in charge for quite a bit longer, and every passing moment darkens him further.
Just like Anakin wanted to save Padme, and actually ended up killing her (or at least being instrumental in her death), the same kind of thing will happen to Jacen due to his choosing of this path. He ends up becoming so dark that he no longer wishes to yield power, truly believing that he knows best. Or Allana refuses to go along with his plans (recognising that his is evil and his empire is distorted and vile) and she becomes the 'Leia' to his 'Vader'. Or he manages to raise her, but since he's a Sith... he inevitably raises the dark version of her that he wanted to avoid, and she perpetuates the evil ways of his reign.
Not that I think he'd be saintly, but how bad would Caedus as "galactic Augustus" be relative to Palpatine as "galactic Caesar"? The personality analogy applied to the former mean that he's not an unwavering hero who'd rather die than do evil, but matching (let alone exceeding) a complete monster like Palpatine for sheer evil is an order taller than Mt. Everest.
Ditto given that, while Caedus is redeemable deep down, Palpatine shows no signs of changing his ways unless it's to carry out his malevolent designs "more efficiently" or something. So there's that.
In the context of the setting, he'd be less evil-for-the-sake-of-it than Palpatine. But of course, as has upon occasion been noted: there is no worse tyranny (in the long run) than the kind that genuinely believes it's doing "what's best". That kind of self-righteousness is inherently dangerous. (There's a reason I've long argued that "the ends justify the means" are the most evil words in history.)
Realistically, someone like Caedus in a "Force-less" setting would be an utterly hypocritical figure (much like Augustus himself), ruthlessly murdering a whole load of people, but ultimately establishing order that lasts for quite a bit. And he'd get to write the history books, so she'd be well-remembered. The main thing making that impossible in SW is the Force. Choosing Darkness only ever leads you further down that path.
Comparing all this to another famous setting: Caedus is basically the guy who says "we should use the Ring to defeat Sauron!"
There's only one way that kind of thing can end. No matter how good or selfless your intentions are. In fact, your pure conviction paradoxically only makes you
more vulnerable to the corrupting influence of such power.
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Well, in a "fair" fight with Sith influences removed, the Republic wouldn't have been sitting on an act of plot secret Army and Navy of massive proportions, so it would have essentially zero expeditionary military forces with which to coerce systems to remain in the central government.
That's true, although a lot depends on what the CIS does. Without Sith influence, if they still decide to just secede, the Republic may just let them go. If, however, they do the kind of thing that was actually the
casus belli (attacking and conquering non-seceded Republic worlds for strategic reasons), the Republic will fight.
At which point the Republic will need to get its war economy into gear, yes -- but it can, and it will.
Political negotiations between a non-Sith Chancellor and non-Sith Seperatist leadership would have actually been in good faith and could have potentially resolved the grievances without war in the first place.
True. If the Sith had died out early enough, the whole crisis would simply have been averted. Almost every major problem of the latter decades of the Old Republic can be traced directly to Sith manipulation.
My favourite POD for this is Plagueis and Venamis killing each other in 67 BBY. Ends the Sith lineage, before they can really kick the truly staggering feats of sabotage of the Republic into gear. The 35-year period between that duel and the invasion of Naboo truly formed the "Jahre der Entscheidung" for the Republic.
