The Mandalorian has indirectly made Mace Windu even more canonically powerful, confirming he was the Jedi’s greatest warrior. Though Mace Windu didn’t live through the prequel trilogy (at least, as far as audiences know), he remains a fan-favorite character due to his fierce fighting style, Samuel L. Jackson’s excellent performance, and of course, the purple lightsaber. Now Star Wars has added yet another example of how Windu was one of the Jedi Order’s greatest masters.
The Mandalorian season 2 adds a lot of interesting lore to the planet Mandalore and the warrior race that calls it home. Part of that lore relates to beskar, the hyper-durable steel native to the planet that composes the Mandalorians’ armor and weapons. Season 2 reveals that beskar – pure beskar at least – can block direct blaster fire and even strikes from lightsabers. The show has also re-canonized some history regarding Boba Fett and his father Jango, the latter of whom is now confirmed to have been a proper Mandalorian even fought in the Mandalorian Civil Wars.
What does any of that have to do with Mace Windu? It all comes back to the battle of Geonosis, which lit the fire of the Clone Wars. Master Windu leads a force of Jedi Knights to the remote Outer Rim world to rescue Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Senator Padmé Amidala from the forces of Count Dooku and his Separatist faction. During the battle in the Geonosis arena, Windu faces off against Jango Fett himself – currently under the employ of Dooku – in a duel that ends with the Jedi victorious, and the bounty hunter, headless.
Windu’s victory over Jango is now even more impressive given what’s been revealed in The Mandalorian. Fans now know that beskar can block lightsaber attacks, which explains why Jango was confident in standing his ground while the Jedi charged. That also means that Mace’s killing strike was incredibly precise. He charges full-throttle, unarmored, against one of the galaxy’s most feared fighters, knowing that his chance for success was as slim as the space between Fett’s chest plate and helmet. And he still made that blow, coming out of a sprint, while deflecting a head-on barrage of blaster fire.
It becomes even more impressive when you take Jango’s confirmed Mandalorian heritage into account. Part of Fett’s re-canonized backstory is his relationship with Jaster Mereel – one of the fiercest and most famed Mandalorians since the era of the Old Republic (at least, in Legends). The Mandalorian bringing back that relationship and Jango’s involvement in the Civil Wars mean that he was fully trained by one of the Mandalore’s greatest warriors, and that his armor was surely pure beskar. And still, it only took Mace Windu one precise blow to end the bounty hunter, once again establishing him as one of the Jedi’s greatest fighters, and one of Star Wars’ most illustrious combatants.