[ROTS] The Office Duel - What's the Verdict?

I voted for the combo choice. Mace is a great fighter, but I think Palpatine had forseen that Anakin would come to his aid, and was quite confident that Mace would not get the chance to kill him.

 

I voted for Mace- he defintely had things under control, at least until Anakin arrived and ****ed things up.

 

I think the entire thing was a complex ruse to draw Anakin in. Palps could have sliced and diced him in about 5 seconds but needed him to love until Anakin arrived. Then he put himself in a position of jeopardy just before he sensed Anakin's arrival, to make it look like Mace was attacking him in a defenseless position. Convenient that his saber went out the window, no evidence for Anakin to spot.

 

Yes, but then we all know your thoughts on Palpatine, storm.

I picked Mace better with a saber, but got played by Palps.

Palpatine could have demonstrated the power of the Dark Side to Anakin by "slicing and dicing" Mace, as you put it.

 

Yes Garth...the lure of the Dark Side has consumed me once more. I worship at the feet of the Dark Lord again...

 

I dunno...I just mean, why bother to throw away your lightsaber if you're going to *zap* Mace in front of Anakin anyway?

Imagine if Mace had Palpatine in a similar position, but Palps still had his saber - kind of like Luke out on the ledge with Vader in ESB.

Then, instead of continuing the fight a la Luke, he drops his saber, says something like "This is a Jedi weapon, I don't need it to destroy you" and *zaps* Mace.

THAT would have been Palps playing Mace the entire time.

 

I chose the 3rd one.

 

Yeah, I did too. Mace is far superior with a lightsaber, but Palpatine had this all played out in his head.

 

Although Mace is an excellent swordsman, it only would have been a stalemate with Sidious. Where Sidious is the clear winner is in his manipulations and force powers.

Sidious had the situation under control because he knew Anakin was on the way. And I noticed two things...Sidious seems to look at the doorway a few times during the fight, as if he's expecting Anakin. The other thing was that it looked like he purposely tossed his lightsabre out of the window. This is what I could gather from watching it in digital. Perhaps on DVD in slo-mo it will be more apparent.

 

it looked like he purposely tossed his lightsabre out of the window

Probably just because Sam Jackson didnt actually kick Ian McDiarmids hand.


I voted for #3.
Mace kicks ass... but he got played.

 

I went with Mace, gotta love Vaapaad, I also think it adds to Sidious's character that he's able to talk his way off the edge of death.

 

Mace had him.

 

Well even if Sidious tossing the saber intentionally is due to bad directing...it is still canon! If he threw it, he threw it!

 

LMAO

 

Yeah, Mace had the upper hand, but, he got punked by Sidious, as well as Anakin.

I remember seeing those conflicted, hateful eyes Anakin throws toward Mace when he's deciding what to do. Anakin didn't forget how Mace punked him in the Jedi Council Chamber earlier when Mace said, "Take a SEAT, young Skywalker."

 

I went with the third option.

 

It's obviously the third option, but it also doesn't nessecarily mean Mace is better with the saber.

I hate absolute answers like that. Do we all think Padawan Obi-Wan in TPM was better with a saber than Darth Maul? Of course not. But he won.

As Lucas says in the Making of ROTS, only two people can compete with Sidious, Mace and Yoda... and Anakin being the potential one to surpass them all.

 

It's a poll, Wrath. I had to make SOME specific answers.

 

Oh, don't mind my rants.

 

Palpatine could have demonstrated the power of the Dark Side to Anakin by "slicing and dicing" Mace, as you put it.

I don't think so. Mace Windu was simply the better swordsman. Unfortunately for him, Anakin betrayed him by helping Palpatine.

 

Mace had him OWNED. Sidious just thinks really fast and works well under pressure. Good traits to have when you are ruler of the galaxy......

Mr. P

 

Palpy was faking it the whole time. In the duel with Mace, he acts as if he's exhausted and can't hold his Force lightning any longer after only a short while. But in the Senate chamber with Yoda, it's pretty clear that he's infinitely more powerful than that. ESB shows that even Yoda got winded after lifting an X-wing. Palpy was throwing 10,000 pound pods around and just standing there laughing while doing it.

Perhaps saber dueling isn't Palpy's forte (and we do have to remember that he's an old guy, so his body isn't necessarily in as good form as Mace's), but I don't think there's any question Palpatine is a much stronger Force user. If he had genuinely wanted to whoop Mace as quickly as possible, he would have dropped the saber and just started throwing heavy objects or something.

THE DARK SIDE IS STRONGER. JUST ACCEPT THAT.

 

Mace had Palpatine on the ropes. If we learned anything from the saga, we see parallels between the PT and the OT. Palpatine was about to fry Luke to a crisp until Vader interfered in ROTJ, and while Palpatine wasn't as helpless as Luke in ROTS, he did need Anakin to come to his aid as throwing Force lightning in Mace's direction obviously didn't work, what else was he going to try?

That, and I think GL intended to show that even someone as powerful as Palpatine had a weakness. If Palpy cleaved his way through Mace like the other Jedi he'd be just another cookie-cutter villain. When Anakin arrived, his jaded and distrustful feelings towards the Jedi and compassion for the Chancellor worked to Palpatine's advantage.

 

THE DARK SIDE IS STRONGER. JUST ACCEPT THAT.

"No... easier, quicker, more seductive."