Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Mace Windu Lives




Mace Windu Lives

Have we ever seen a Jedi knight, survive losing a limb? Withstand Sith lighting? Land safely after falling great heights? Of course we have, in many different instances. So why would the supposed “death” of Jedi Master Mace Windu be an exception. Even though he lost a hand, was subjected to deadly force lighting and force pushed out of a Coruscant window to fall to his death. I think that i can prove that he did in fact, live.

In Episode II: Attack of the clones, we see Padawan learner Anakin Skywalker, jump from a speeder to free fall through the Coruscant sky lanes to surprise a fleeing fugitive. Anakin used the force to control his movement while free falling. This did not look like a challenge to the mere apprentice, and I don’t think it would be a challenge for any other Jedi Knight, let alone a Jedi Master. Why this would not be the case for the Jedi Master, Mace Windu – I have no idea. Even with the excrutiating pain of losing a hand, I don’t think Master Windu would have any problem finding somewhere to land, even if it was a rough landing somewhere in the many kilometer fall to the Coruscant undercity. We also see in both The Clone Wars animated TV series (2005), as well as The Clone Wars Computer Animated Series (2009), that any adventure where Mace Windu is present, Gravity and heights never seems to be an obstacle for Mace Windu – in fact it seems that defying gravity would be one of his specialties, as they constantly show him using the force to propel himself high into the air, only to land again with ease and no injury. For example: During the battle of Dantooine he force leaped great lengths to stop a Seismic Tank. During the battle of Corescant he commandeered a droid fighter mid flight by dropping on top of it. What if he had missed his target? He would have had to have landed – in the same circumstances and that of his assumed death. Even in Episode II at the battle of Geonosis he is shown evading Jango Fett's flame thrower by falling from the coliseum balcony with ease. Yes, the distance of the fall is small compared to the free fall of Coruscant, but they show him falling un-survivable distances more than enough in the Star Wars saga to prove that heights are no danger to Windu. Finally, in the Clone wars TV series (2009) we see Anakin Skywalker and his padawan Ashoka “skydive” to the top of a secret confederacy listening post. While the accompanying clones have to use jet packs to slow their decent for landing, the Jedi use the force to slow their fall right before impact to land safely. This proves once more that even an apprentice can use the force to land a great fall. Even the hastily trained Luke Skywalker was able to fall and cling to the underside of cloud city on Bespin, with the loss of his hand after his dual with Darth Vader. I don’t think that a lost hand would hinder Mace Windu from landing safely after his fall. After all “Trials of the flesh” is a common and acceptable Jedi trial to achieve the rank of Jedi Knight. The only way Mace would not be able to survive the fall is if he was killed by the Sith lightning from Darth Sidious (Chancellor Palpatine) before he was cast out of the window and to the depths below.

So, Could Jedi Master Mace Windu withstand the few seconds of Sith lighting before he was force pushed out of the window to fall to his “death”? I don’t see why not? After all Luke Skywalker withstood Sith lighting from the emperors hand for much longer than Mace did. When Luke’s torture was over, his body smoked from the electrocution. Where as the burst that Mace Windu received was no where near as long or as powerful as what Luke had endured. Some say that Palpatine used all his strength in the force to attack Mace Windu with Sith lightening and thats what killed him, but as we saw just prior to this, he had weakened himself sending the lighting at mace only to have it deflected back at him with Windu’s rare purple blade. He used so much of his power then that it deformed him beyond recognition. So in fact he was most likely at his weakest when he executed his last stand and used his last bit of energy to use Sith lighting on Windu before casting him out. After all, neither Mace nor Luke was deformed after their encounter with the deadly Sith lighting. That would only mean that Palpatine received the most damage when it was deflected back at him. When Luke Skywalker was tortured by Sith lightning on the second death star in Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the Sith emperor was in fact torturing him, making his death long and painful, but at the time his power would have been at an optimal stage. Since Palpatine had now been an overt Sith Master for going on twenty three years, I would think his Sith powers would have never been so deadly; therefore, I have no doubt that Luke withstood much worse than Mace Windu did. This proving with little doubt, that there is no way Mace could have been killed from the weak blast of Sith lighting, in 19 BBY (19 years before the battle of Yavin (Episode IV: A New Hope)), at the time of his supposed death.

In conclusion, I have no doubt that Mace Windu survived the encounter with the Sith Master, Darth Sideous. As the acting Master of the order until the battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY. I believe there is no way that he could have been killed, at the age of 53, he was one of the most powerful Jedi of his generation, and in the history of the Jedi. There are many Star Wars stories still to be told, and I strongly believe, the story of Jedi Master Mace Windu is far from over. With this as evidence, I would watch for a story of a Mace Windu in hiding, hunting down and confronting Darth Vader and his master, with the mission to destroy the Sith and restore the Jedi order.





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