| “ | He has control of the Senate and the Courts. He's too dangerous to be left alive! | „ |
| ~ Mace Windu's most famous quote, referring to Darth Sidious, also showing one of his corrupting factors. |
| “ | We are keepers of the peace, not soldiers. | „ |
| ~ Mace Windu to Chanceller Palpatine, his second most famous quote. |
Mace Windu is one of the deuteragonists of the prequel era of the Star Wars franchise.
He serves as a supporting character in The Phantom Menace, one of the two tritagonists of both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and a major character in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars film and TV show.
He was the second in command of The Jedi Council, and a general that served in The Clone Wars. He was one of the most powerful Jedi to date, and yet, he also had many prideful and arrogant characteristics, and some of his actions had influence in Anakin's path to the dark side and him turning into Darth Vader, the Jedi who destroyed the Jedi Order.
He was portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson portrayed him in the prequel trilogy and in the CGI animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In most animated media, including the traditionally animated Clone Wars micro-series, the CGI animated Clone Wars television series, and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, he is voiced by Terrence C. Carson, who also voiced Kratos.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Admirable?[]
- He helped the Jedi Council ensure the galaxy was in peace for many, many years, and wanted to try to resolve conflicts peacefully.
- He saved Depa Billaba's life from pirates and took her on as his apprentice.
- He was very reluctant to start war, constantly remembering Jedi are peacekeepers, and not soldiers.
- He helps many other Jedi to attack Dooku's army of droids and rescue Obi-Wan, and saved three Jedi during the fight.
- He refused to surrender along with his fellow remaining Jedi, and fought the droid army again when Yoda came to their help with a Clone army.
- After beheading Jango Fett, he looks at his corpse with a surprised look, showing he is remorseful for it and attempted to reason with Boba Fett.
- He is one of the most active and helpful Jedi during the Clone Wars, making negotiations, coming up with strategies and leading armies.
- When a Jedi called Prosseb Dibs starts questioning the Jedi's morals after they kill many people on a planet during a mission, which ultimately leads to a fight between him and Windu, despite Windu winning the fight and having the right to kill Dibs for treason, he spares him, and even sympathizes with him during his trial.
- He liberated the planet Ryloth and its people from the Separatists, who were using their people as living shields to protect their weapons.
- He liberated the planet Malastere and was reluctant about the idea of using the Republic's secret weapon, fearing it could affect his soldiers, showing care for his troops.
- He didn’t want to kill the Zillo Beast, believing it to be the last of its species, even though the natives could wage war against him for this decision.
- He reflected on and felt remorse over his assassination of Jango Fett.
- He saves Anakin from getting blown up by a bomb planted on Jango's helmet.
- He let Boba Fett go, not wanting to him to be even more consumed by revenge, and only regretted this decision once Boba used hostages to get his revenge.
- He helps Yoda when he starts having odd feelings, and tells the other Jedi to take care of him.
- He grew suspicious of the Chancellor due to him not giving up his emergency powers, and when Anakin reveals he is the Sith Lord, Mace Windu and three other Jedi go to try to defeat him.
- Windu defeats Sidious, and even if it’s against his order’s beliefs, tries to kill him, as he is too dangerous to be left alive, only to be stopped by Anakin.
- Windu’s lightsaber skill is known as Vaapad, mainly used by those who fall to the dark side, with Windu being the only Vaapad user that wasn’t corrupted, showing how he’s wise, strong-willed and incorruptible.
- He once offered battle droids a chance to be reprogramed to do good if they surrender, showing his compassion to almost all beings.
- Defused a bomb on Anaxes that would have destroyed most of the planet.
- During the Battle of Exegol, he along with other deceased Jedi of the past posthumously offered Rey his strength, ultimately giving her the strength she needed to defeat Darth Sidious once and for all.
- He took pity on Boba Fett, who sook revenge after he killed his father Jango, despite it being an accident and didn’t want him to be more corrupted.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is, for all his positive traits and well-meaning intentions, too arrogant, condescending, and at times, unsympathetic to the emotional plights of other people to even be Near Pure Good. He was known to rarely apologize when he's wrong, was unknown to give second chances, rather arrogantly had a low opinion of several Jedi who are skilled and gifted with the Force in their own right.
- His relationship with Qui-Gon is similar to how he thinks of Anakin and Ahsoka, as despite The Glass Abyss revealing Windu considered Jinn a friend, he initially refused to admit that the Sith had returned when Qui-Gon saw it himself and also refused to believe Qui-Gon had found the Chosen One, in both case Qui-Gon was ultimately right. While he later admitted Qui-Gon was right about the probability of the Sith returning during his funeral and The Glass Abyss novel shows he regretted treating Qui-Gon this way, it ultimate was too late for Windu to make amendments.
- His relationship with Anakin is one of the reasons the latter started distrusting the Jedi and eventually fell to the dark side. Windu disliked and distrusted Anakin right from the start, even though he was, at the time, just an innocent, nine-year-old boy who was sad about being forced to leave his mother behind. While he grew to respect and even admire Anakin's skills during the Clone Wars, Windu never completely trusted him as (while Windu was correct) Anakin was too prone to letting his emotions get the best of him. However, instead of trying to offer him advice or wisdom to help him improve himself as a Jedi, Windu never really gave Anakin a chance to prove himself, nor did he ever explain his reasons for distrusting him, and even rather coldly told him to his face that he wouldn’t be given the rank of Master. Mace also didn’t like Anakin making impulsive decisions, but Mace himself had also made impulsive decisions in the past that have bigger consequences than Anakin's. If he treated Anakin a little kinder before Anakin informed him of the Sith, things would have been different.
- To make matters worse, Mace primarily distrusts Anakin for letting his emotions control him, but in Age of the Republic he sympathizes with and supports Prosset Dibs (later known as the Tenth Brother) for doing the exact same thing. Another reason Mace distrusts Anakin is because he makes impulsive decisions, but Mace himself occasionally makes impulsive decisions that only end up making things worse than Anakin's own impulsive decisions. Windu doesn't seem to realize that the Jedi and the Council especially are pushing Anakin away as he struggles with his emotions. Ultimately, Anakin was on the side of good for many years, but it wasn't until Anakin was driven to the Dark Side by desperation and manipulation rather than anything else.
- Among Windu's consequences from his own impulsive actions was not killing Dooku on Geonosis, which resulted in many padawans and masters getting killed and rejecting Anakin's offer to help arrest Palpatine, which resulted in three members of the Council being killed. Even if Mace killed Palpatine, the Jedi Order at large would be in grave danger due to the fact the public had already turned against the Jedi at this point.
- He also has a stormy relationship with Anakin’s padawan, Ahsoka Tano, often acting unsympathetic and arrogant towards her, especially during her trial. Windu immediately agrees that she’s guilty of bombing the Jedi temple without waiting for more evidence and rather coldly expels her from the Jedi Order, leaving her to be tried by the Republic, which would've very likely sentenced her to death had Anakin not found the real culprit, Barriss Offee. Once she’s proven innocent, Windu claims that Ahsoka's traumatic experience was just a test given to her by the Force, thus refusing to admit he was wrong to expel her, unlike other Jedi, who apologized to Ahsoka. He also didn’t show sympathy to Ahsoka when she leaves the Jedi, saying her emotions got in her way, even though she had understandably good reasons to renounce the Jedi, and coldly refused to give her info about Sidious' plans and Grievous’s schemes, saying that, as a civilian, she didn’t have the right to have that information (this ultimately causes the Jedi to die).
- He is one of the Jedi who is the most prone to doing (and willing with not hesitation) morally ambiguous things.
- He coldly replied to Boba Fett over the death of his father by his hand. He didn't even try to defend his actions or try to apologize to Boba when Boba says he will never forgive him. Mace could have followed the Jedi way and showed more compassion in their conversation. Instead, he did the opposite, contributing to Boba's future career as one of the most dangerous bounty hunters in the entire galaxy. It also should be noted that when Boba refused to forgive Windu for killing his father, Windu just coldly dismissed him, even after Boba felt remorse for killing innocent people.
- What's worse is that even though he felt remorse for it, he killed Jango simply for being a Separatist, not even trying to handicap him to put him in arrest while Jango was defending himself from Windu.
- Some may argue he killed Jango out of self-defense, however, he killed him by brutally beheading him and let his son Boba watch him die.
- When Prosset Dibs confronted him over a mission on Hissrich of harvesting it's resources, Mace refused to answer Dibs' accusions and when Dib declared to leave to follow his own path, Mace accused him of desertion and threaten to hunt him down.
- He came up with the idea to assassinate Count Dooku, agreeing to let Quinlan Vos go on a mission to do so, which led Vos to fall to the dark side. While it was because Dooku went to far and killed civillians, Windu thought of the most easy path and addition, Mace didn’t take responsibility for his action even when Ventress called him out on it, since Vos only went to her because Windu and the others told him to go to her.
- He agreed with expelling Ahsoka out of the order instead of standing with her. He also never apologized or admitted that what he did was wrong.
- He coldly replied to Boba Fett over the death of his father by his hand. He didn't even try to defend his actions or try to apologize to Boba when Boba says he will never forgive him. Mace could have followed the Jedi way and showed more compassion in their conversation. Instead, he did the opposite, contributing to Boba's future career as one of the most dangerous bounty hunters in the entire galaxy. It also should be noted that when Boba refused to forgive Windu for killing his father, Windu just coldly dismissed him, even after Boba felt remorse for killing innocent people.
Trivia[]
- He is one of seven Star Wars characters to be Inconsistently Admirable, alongside Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Bo-Katan Kryze, The Mandalorian, and Din Grogu.
- It’s been theorized that Mace Windu survived his fight with Darth Sidious, since several Jedis survived the Purge and Maul who thought to be dead but survived, and according to his actor, Samuel L. Jackson, believed he is alive and if Mace Windu ever returns, his status as Inconsistently Admirable may changed.
External Links[]
- Mace Windu on the Heroes Wiki
- Mace Windu on the Star Wars Wiki
- Mace Windu (Legends) on the Star Wars Wiki
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 Inconsistently Admirable
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Jedi The Path/Early Rebellion/Alliance to Restore the Republic New Republic/Resistance Bounty Hunters/Mercenaries/Outlaws Others Non-Canon See Also | ||
