Star Wars Clone Wars data 4: Mace Windu

MACE WINDU

Mace Windu was a Human male who was a prominent Jedi Master during the final years of the Galactic Republic. Hailing from the world of Haruun Kal, Windu served as one of the last members of the Jedi High Council before the Great Jedi Purge. On the Council, Windu was often regarded as second only to the Grand Master Yoda, though Windu was eight centuries Yoda's junior. Windu's wisdom and power were legendary, as were the weight of his words.

Widely considered one of the the best swordsman in the Jedi Order, Windu created Vaapad, the modern seventh form of lightsaber combat, and was one of only 2 people to fully master it (the other being Sola Bulq), and the only one of those two not to fall to the dark side.

Mace Windu served the Jedi Order his entire life, training numerous Jedi, including Depa Billaba, Echuu Shen-Jon, and Iguni. It was Master Windu who led 212 Jedi into combat at the Battle of Geonosis and defeated the infamous bounty hunter Jango Fett. He continued to serve the Republic throughout the Clone Wars, often on the frontlines of fierce fighting.

CLONE WARS TIMELINE

Six months after the Battle of Geonosis, Mace returned to his homeworld of Haruun Kal to track down his missing former Padawan, Depa Billaba. He was attacked twice in the capital city of Pelek Baw, but met up with a team sent by Depa to bring him to her. While trekking through the jungle toward Billaba, he managed to defeat three Sienar Turbostorm gunships, destroying two and crippling the third, in a masterful display of the versatility and lethality of Vaapad. Mace, along with four companions, were frequently in danger from the numerous hazards of the jungle and militia attacks.

Throughout his stay on Haruun Kal, Mace was often attacked, beaten, and injured by a variety of opponents. After meeting up with Depa, Mace resolved to bring her back to the Jedi Temple. He also had to deal with the powerful lor pelek Kar Vastor. After the militia launched an all-out attack on the Korunnai that Depa had been leading, he then devised a plan to capture the world for the Republic and battled Kar Vastor, spiritually facing the dark side. Mace would also duel his former Padawan after she succumbed to pelekotan, and won without actually defeating her.

Though Windu survived this trial and his strategy was successful, the memories of his return to Haruun Kal would continue to haunt him. Mace Windu, in Force-assisted dreams on Haruun Kal, accurately predicted the fall of the Jedi and the destruction of the Temple, in addition to the Yuuzhan Vong terraforming of Coruscant.

Near the end of the Clone Wars, when General Grievous attacked Coruscant and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine and attempted to transfer him to Grievous' ship, the Invisible Hand, Mace Windu went to rescue Palpatine, attacked the General, and used Force Crush on the plates covering Grievous's organ sac. This crushing of Grievous' organs, most particularly his lungs, mostly accounted for the coughing fits the droid general would face during the end of his life, and weakened Grievous' armor enough so that Obi-Wan could later defeat the General in the sinkhole planet of Utapau.

AFTERMATH

The Clone Wars had divided the Republic at it's highest level of authority, thus pitting the Jedi High Council against the Supreme Chancellor. Toward the end of the Clone Wars, Master Windu began to distrust Chancellor Palpatine and question his motives. The war was ending, yet Palpatine was taking more and more emergency control, even the Senate itself was becoming little more than an advisory board. By the aftermath of the Battle of Coruscant, the Jedi were on the lookout for ways of "peacefully" removing Palpatine from office, first by stating that the war would end with Count Dooku finally dead, then by promising to destroy General Grevious so that the Chancellor would no longer have a valid excuse to hold on to his extraordinary powers.

When Palpatine appointed Anakin as his personal representative on the Jedi Council, Windu fears that the move was designed to give the Chancellor a vote in Jedi affairs, and cast a key vote in denying Anakin the full rank of Jedi Master. Thinking pragmatically, Windu concluded that the Jedi Council would have to seize control of the Senate in order to secure a peaceful transition of power from the Office of Supreme Chancellor to the Jedi High Council.

When news of Kenobi's victory reached Coruscant, Mace felt ready to demand that Chancellor Palpatine relinquish his empergency powers at last. As Windu prepared for a meeting with the Senate chair to bring him news of the elimination of General Grievous, a distraught Anakin Skywalker arrived and confirmed the Jedi Council's greatest fear: the elected leader of the Galactic Republic was in fact the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Master Windu ordered Anakin to wait in the Jedi Council Chamber for his return and boarded a gunship along with Jedi Master Kit Fisto, Saesee Tiin, and Agen Kolar to confront the Chancellor.

The 4 Jedi marched into Palpatine's office and Windu promptly announced that the Chancellor was under arrest, demanding that the Chancellor step down and face a trial in the Senate. Resisting arrest, Palpatine brandished his crimson red lightsaber and launched himself at the Jedi, quickly killing all three of Windu's companions and engaging Windu himself in a lightsaber duel. Windu's mastery of Vaapad served him well in countering Palpatine's dark side mastery, and he managed to disarm the Sith Lord. Anakin arrived while Palpatine, showing exhaustion, begged him for help as he was sowly deformed by his own Sith lightning, which was being deflected by Windu's lightsaber. Anakin pleaded with Windu not to kill the Chancellor, that it is not the Jedi way. Windu remarkd that Palpatine was too dangerous to be kept alive because he had control over the Galactic Senate and the Courts. As Windu prepared to strike down the Sith Lord, Anakin intervened by severing Windu's lightsaber hand. Shocked, Mace realized he had been too focused on Palpatine, and he had failed to sense Anakin's shatterpoint. Palpatine, now no longer seeming weakened, continued to hit him with another lethal torrent of Force lightning, sending Windu out of the chamber window and crashing to his death.

At fifty-three years of age and after decades of serving the Jedi Council, Master Mace Windu was dead. At a single stroke, Palpatine had removed one of the few Jedi who posed any threat to him and secured the allegiance of the promising Anakin Skywalker, who would be renamed Darth Vader. With Windu's death, the Great Jedi Purge had begun.