PT Technically, when Anakin cut off Mace Windu's hand, he did the right thing...

Does everyone who thinks Mace was wrong ignore the fact that he not only witnessed Palp murdering three of his Jedi friends, but had to fight for his life as well? Of course he was going to change from, "You're under arrest" to attempting to destroy the Sith lord. C'mon guys. There was certainly some moral ambiguity in the PTs, but this wasn't one of those times. LOL

 

Killing is killing

Aside from that;

Palpatine: "You did well, Anakin. He was too dangerous to be kept alive."
Windu: "He has control of the Senate and the courts. He's too dangerous to be kept alive."

 

Mace had already beaten Sidious once, I'm sure he could do it again. Not to mention he has the aid of Anakin this time.

 

He did the right thing to his right arm? Now that is poetry!

 

As someone astutely said earlier in the thread, the Jedi's mission is to destroy the Sith; not put them on trial. In ROTJ, Obi-Wan tells Luke that his destiny was in killing Vader. In ROTS, he implores with Yoda to send him to kill Palpatine because he can't bring himself to kill Anakin (he knew what needed to be done). Yoda goes to kill Palpatine in his office. Recognizing and destroying evil is as much a part of being a Jedi as is wielding a lightsaber and using the force.

I'll quote another post I think sums it up perfectly.

 

Good grief.

It's clear Anakin was merely acting on selfish motives in this and not protecting "innocent" Palptine for the right reasons.

This is not ambiguous people.


Also Palpatine was evil, just making sure everyone knows that.

 

Yes, the Jedi´s mission is to destroy the Sith. However, there is a big problem here because the Jedi are trying to fight them in the old fashion ways, refight the last battle, but the Sith have evolved. Politics and war are now powerful weapons wielded by the new Sith and the Jedi can´t stop them only with a lightsaber. Palpatine is the legally elected Chancellor of the Republic and Mace can´t kill him only because he is a Sith. What does being a Sith mean to the Senate in the first place? Absolutely nothing, to them Palpatine is the savior of the Republic no matter what religion he practices. At the end of the day, the "destroy the Sith we must" achieved almost nothing, it was a desperate move and the new Sith were only destroyed when Luke refused to fight against his father, bringing him back to the light and making him fulfill the prophecy. Yoda realized that the Jedi have to evolve too if they want to destroy the new Sith while fighting Palpatine inside the Senate chamber as can be read in the novelization.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith novel, page 356.

In that lightning-speared tornado of feet and fists and blades
and bashing machines, his vision finally pierced the darkness that
had clouded the Force.
Finally, he saw the truth.
This truth: that he, the avatar of light, Supreme Master of the
Jedi Order, the fiercest, most implacable, most devastatingly
powerful foe the darkness had ever known...
just—
didn't—
have it.

He'd never had it. He had lost before he started.

He had lost before he was born.
The Sith had changed. The Sith had grown, had adapted, had
invested a thousand years' intensive study into every aspect of not
only the Force but Jedi lore itself, in preparation for exactly this
day. The Sith had remade themselves.
They had become new.
While the Jedi—
The Jedi had spent that same millennium training to refight the
last war.
The new Sith could not be destroyed with a lightsaber; they
could not be burned away by any torch of the Force. The
brighter his light, the darker their shadow. How could one win a
war against the dark, when war itself had become the dark's own
weapon?
He knew, at that instant, that this insight held the hope of the
galaxy. But if he fell here, that hope would die with him. Hmmm,
Yoda thought. A problem this is...

 

What really happened was Sidious had set up the entire confrontation. Windu was silly enough to fall into the trap. Sidious quickly defeats and kills 3 Jedi masters, then keeps Windu alive long enough until Anakin shows up. He needed Anakin to commit to the Sith. At no stage was Sidious in danger of being killed. He knew for certain that Anakin was was going to become a Sith. Windu was only the tool for Anakins turn. Once Anakin made his decision, Palps no longer holds back and kills Windu instantly with ease. At no stage could Windu defeat and kill Palps.



Did Anakin do the right thing?
Yes, Windu should've seen and heard Anakin ignite his lightsabre and stopped. Anakin warned Windu it wasn't the Jedi way. Anakin did the right thing in preventing an attempted murder. It wouldn't have mattered any way, because Sidious would've stopped Windu very easily.

 

Windu was owning Sidious.



At 0:55 Master Windu almost effortlessly holds off Sidious's assault
At 1:07 Sidious gains the upper hand, only to be yanked by Master Windu into a bladelock
At 1:35 Mace goes on the offensive. Sidious is forced to flip away and is pressed on the defensive
At 1:50 Mace and Sidious smash the window. Sidious's face is contorted with effort, while Master Windu barely even registers the added challenge the wind poses
At 2:00 Sidious gives one last offensive and Mace delivers a kick to the grill. Sidious backs away in fear and panic. Anakin was NOT in the room yet.

Mace won the fight. He is stronger. Lucas even agrees in the ROTS commentary.

 

When Anakin did that,he was just a coward.
Since I doubt that Darth Sidious with Anakin turned to the dark side,
could have beaten Mace Windu in a fair fight.

 

I agree with Merkan12. I'm not saying that Mace was right to attempt to kill Palpatine. I believe both he and Yoda were wrong in their separate attempts to kill the Emperor. But Anakin's decision to cut off Mace's hand was more about his selfish desires, instead of simply helping Palpatine.

 

palps was waiting for anakin to get there. he still has his lightning and we know he has a second saber up his sleeve. he uses both in tcw at the same time and later uses his second saber vs yoda. sidious has both sabers on him at all times.

it was all a ploy to get anakin there at the right moment. also sam jackson didn't want to go out like a punk so they made it a good fight.

 

and we know he has a second saber up his sleeve.
-----------

I must have missed this pivotal bit in ROTS, was this in the US cut only?

 

tcw and second saber used against yoda. 2 and 2.

 

but that doesn't prove that he had both sabers when Mace confronted him, from what I understand he hid one inside the statue of Sistros and only one.

 

say he doesn't have another on him. he has more than enough lightning and mace needed anakin's help.

 

Doesn't mean he had it on him in the film. In fact that novelization implies otherwise.

He didn't need Anakin's help. Sidious was the one asking for help, not Mace.

 

What's stopping mace windu from cutting off palpatine's hands and thereby eliminating him as a threat (if we ignore order 66).

 

These guys use to be BFF.WTF happened to them ?

 

so why didn't mace just kill him then. he couldn't cuz lightning. when anakin got there it was all acting on palps part.

 

Mace couldn't even defeat and kill Palps when Mace has the help of 3 other Jedi masters in the one battle. Think about it...Palps defeats and kills Mace and 3 Jedi masters in the same fight. George Lucas agrees by filming this in the ROTS movie. He is showing everyone that Palps is more powerful than Mace and his posse combined. All Mace was, was just a tool to be used in Palps plan to turn Anakin to be a Sith. Once Anakin was turned, Palps easily kills Mace.

 

1) The other masters were nowhere near Mace's skill level. That's why they were cut down so quickly.
2) Even Sidious is not powerful enough to playfight against Mace Windu. I think I remember GL saying that one could only compete with Sidious if one were Yoda or Windu (and Anakin had the potential to get to that level as well).
3) No, he is showing that Mace and Sidious are way above Fisto, Tiin, and Kolar.
4) Mace had Sidious on the ropes.

5) There's an explanation for that: Mace had just lost his hand and his lightsaber due to Anakin's surprise attack, he was done for.

 

So why did Lucas claim in a book about the making of "Revenge of the Sith" that Mace, Yoda and Anakin were the only three powerful enough to take on Palpatine in a duel?

 

People forget that Mace was acting selfishly too and not behaving like a Jedi. What gave him the damned right to act as judge, jury and executioner.