Why was Mace Wrong?

When Anakin kills Dooku, Palpatine tells him, "he was too dangerous to be left alive." But Anakin still knows it was the wrong thing to do. When Mace is about to kill Palpatine, he tells Anakin "he is too dangerous to be left alive." Virtually identical lines. This is just one of many examples of the blurred lines between good and evil found in ROTS.

So Maces ultimate failure was in being too similar to Sidious for Anakin to make the right choice

 

I don't think Mace was wrong. I think it was the very training as a Jedi that made him blind about Anakin and his intenral conflict. Mace couldn't really understand what Anakin was going through and miscalculated.

Mace was correct in that Palpatine needed to die, he was also correct in that Anakin should not be there. The way he told Anakin this was in the one way that would prompt Anakin to show up. At least that is how it felt to me.

 

I've seen ROTS 3 times but haven't spent as much time as I would have liked thinking through it all - but what repeatedly comes across to me is that Mace's mistake is not the point at which he hesitates but his general attitude towards Anakin.

It is clear Mace was cautious of Anakin, but it seems he allowed this to affect the relationship between the two of them - Anakin's mistrust of the Jedi seems to manifest itself from the lack of trust Mace shows for Anakin - Mace's bad-ass approach towards Anakin is what Palpatine manipulates. If Mace had been more accommodating of Anakin they would have worked together when confronting Palpatine.

What I'm saying is, had it been Yoda or Kenobi who had gone to arrest Palps, I very much doubt Anakin would have turned (on the evidence of what is on screen - I know Anakin's turn is meant to be motivated by his fear for Padme, but in the Chancellor's Chambers it is clearly a very marginal decision).

The recurring feeling I get when I see the film is anger against Mace for the way he treats Anakin, opening a door for Palpatine to walk right through.

 

Wrong is a point of view ;-)

I agree with SomeRandomNerd -- regardless of whether Mace is right or wrong (I think he's right), the important point is that Mace's choice reveals to Anakin the hypocrisy and moral relativism of the Jedi, and he therefore feels compelled to act for his own personal motivation: saving Padme's life.

What troubled me on my third viewing this afternoon was why Anakin told Obi Wan on Mustafar that from his point of view the Jedi are evil. Is that what he really believes? I assumed Anakin had gone beyond notions of good and evil. But then I remembered that if Anakin had been truly faithful to the Jedi code, then he would have abandoned Padme to his nightmare and let her die. Remember Yoda's advice to him in the Jedi temple: let go of that which you fear to lose. Damn near impossible advice to follow, and from Anakin's point of view, evil.

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Palpatine was more of a moral relativist than any of the Jedi. ("The Jedi and the Sith are similar in almost every way")