Why doesnt Mace Windu just cut off Palpatines hands after he stops the Lightning?

After he has stopped Supreme Chancellor Palpatines force Lightning the first time why doesnt Mace Windu just cut off both of Palpatines hands in one sweep without trying to kill Palpatine? instead of saying "I am going to end this once and for all!" why not just disarm Darth Sidious and remove his ability to use force lightning by cutting his hands off like Anakin did with Count Dooku? then they can take him prisoner and bring him to the Jedi Council or before the courts and Palpatine is not any danger with the force anymore because he has no hands to attack with, they could even explain his lightning being the reason they cut his hands off in the first place and the source of him being deformed because he deforms himself with lightning after Mace Windu used Vapaad to reflect it back at him again.

To the courts Palpatine might look guilty because of this and the Jedi bringing him prisoner doesnst make him look very good either, Anakin might not have attacked Windu if he hadnt said anything and just simply disarmed him right after he deflected the lightning.

 

Palpatine's power wasn't only in his hands. He also had great influence over the Senate and the judicial system of the Republic. Mace was aware that the Jedi probably couldn't hold him in prison for long and that he would soon be out, free to spread his teachings again or orchestrate an attack on the Jedi. The only way to be sure was to kill him.

 

He could probably shoot lightning out of his feet.

 

As mentioned, Palpatine was still too dangerous regardless of having his hands or not. His control over the Senate and the Courts, which would gurantee that he'd never get a fair trial.

 

I don't think cutting off the hands is a solution other than holding a saber. I remember reading that the use of the hands with the force is merely for concentration purposes, to focus. Even if his hands were cut off, he can still use the force.

Plus even if he arrested him peacefully, he still held the cards with the senate, the republic and young skywalker.

 

Keep in mind that there is evidence that Palpatine started the Clone Wars with Count Dooku as Darth Sidious and Dooku as Darth Tyranus, one side controls the Separitists and one controls the Republic, Sidious orders the invasion of his own homeworld of Naboo and becomes Chancellor because of the sympathy vote later, he and Dooku worked together to turn the Republic into a Dictatorship over the course of time, even in DL Vader knows that Palpatine was using him all along and had manipulated him into doing things in his service, now that they both know that Palpatine is Darth Sidious they can easily present evidence of what Palpatine has been doing as a Sith Lord along with Count Dooku and Darth Maul to take over the Republic, it would take a long time but they could get Palpatine sentenced in the Courts by explaining how he manipulated everything from the begining, Senators like Bail Organa and Mon Mothma would listen as would the Petition of 2000 as well, the Senators are not morons and would listen to reason and logic if things could be proven.

 

There's a problem with that. In the films, all Jedi and Sith who lose their limbs become practically useless. They give up the fight. Obi-wan couldn't even do much to help Anakin or Yoda or himself and he had all of his limbs, just a couple of stab wounds. It seems that the pain makes it difficult to concentrate on the Force. That's why when Dooku realized he was screwed he didn't do a Force shove to save his life. Or why Vader didn't do a Force shove on Luke after losing his hand. Mace couldn't even properly defend himself after losing one hand.

The eu is the only place where a lack of a hand is shown to be efficent, but that's only occured once if I recall or that I know of. And that was when Luke used the Force after having his bionic hand removed during "Dark Empire". Not severed, just removed and upgraded with a new replacement.

 

Well, yeah. Like in the Clone Wars cartoon, where Anakin's AOTC metal arm has been destroyed, and he still Force crushes that Techno Union guy.

 

I like the idea M78, even if Sidious held the Senate in his pocket. At the very least it may have prevented Mace from taking the swan dive through the broken window.

 

Exactly. This is the realization that clicks through Mace's mind as he switches from capturing Palpatine to killing him. Just because Palpatine would no longer have his hands would not be enough to silence him and stop the Sith threat.

 

so he could later use lighting on Luke!

 

*tries to picture that*

 

I can't agree with that. Vader lost more than his hands and he's deadly dangerous in the OT. You have to consider the fact that Vader throws things at Luke on Bespin, simply using his mind. Palpatine is still quite dangerous without his hands.

Mace decided he should execute Palpatine because that was the only way to end the corruption. As he points out, he controls the courts and the Senate, not to mention the Sepratist movement and is himself a Sith Master. He had to be killed or the nonsense would just continue.

 

Mace was going to arrest him before their fight and he knew all that stuff (controlling the courts). I think it would have been better had they gone in ready to take him down right from the start, i.e. none of the "you're under arrest" and "the senate will decide your fate" stuff. Whenever I hear him say that he controls the courts... that's when I grit my teeth and wish that they had gone in with the goal of killing him right off the bat.

 

Uh, something you forgot. Vader still uses hand movements when he throws stuff at Luke. He's holding his saber, but he still gestures with his hands as he is doing this. Rewatch that scene again. When Vader raises his saber the first time, he's concentrating and has his saber not only ready, but aimed in the direction of the first object his rips off the wall to throw at Luke. Then after they clash and lock sabers, Vader rips off another object. After that, he turns in the direction of each object he hurls. He also moves his saber while Luke is bombarded. So he still relys on hand movements.

Killing is a last resort for a Jedi. To go in with the intent of killing Palpatine right off, is very un-Jedi like. They have to give him a chance to surrender, which is why Mace says he is under arrest. It's the same way with law enforcement. Would you rather have a cop pull out his gun and shoot you, if you were speeding or jaywalking or something that's a piddly? Or would you rather be given a chance to walk away in one piece?

 

I'm sure that Palpatine is creative enough to shoot lightning out of, um, other parts of his body too.

 

Couldn't Palpatine aim with the stumps that would be remaining if his hands were removed?

 

I thought about going there, but I didn't, so I'm glad you went there.

 

Well for one, there wouldn't be no Episodes 4, 5, or 6.

of course, unless Palpatine got Prostethic Hands.

 

Judging by the fact that Dooku just sat there while Anakin was deciding if he should kill him or not, is quite telling. So I'm going to go with...no. As far as I know, in the eu, there's no lighting from missing limbs.

 

I can't think of any, but I see no reason why a hand would be necessary when as we see with Vader at the least some powers are able to be used without any movement(Vader's Force Choking of Ozzel.)

 

Who says that Vader wasn't using the hand gesture and we didn't see it, because Kershner had the camera tight on Vader's front and back? We don't know for sure if David Prowse didn't make the gesture.

 

The camera shows no gesture which means he didn't make a gesture. It's possible Prowse moved, but that doesn't mean Vader did canonically.

 

Kershner was directing, not Lucas. Kershner and the editor were the ones who picked the close up of Vader. So it is quite possible and nothing is definative. Given that we see Vader always gestures with his right hand, I'm gonna go with the gesture was done, but we don't see it.

 

If Kershner felt it was key for Vader to be gesturing he would have shown the gesture(Lucas also would have added it in the SE or DVD if he felt it was important.) There's absolutely nothing that contradicts that and thus Vader choking without gesturing is G-level canon. The novelization also doesn't mention any gesture. There's also an old issue of Insider which says that for the most part the gestures are simply to let the audience know what the Jedi/Sith are doing as well as a focusing mechanism. However it says that movement is unnecessary.