Palpatine and Mace Windu dueled at a critical point in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, with Windu proving victorious, but perhaps Palpatine lost on purpose. Both combatants are among the most skilled duelists and powerful Force users in the respective orders, but the entire melee played perfectly into Palpatine’s sinister machinations. Moreover, various non-movie sources, including commentary from George Lucas himself, provide fascinating insights into the fateful duel on Coruscant, indicating that regardless of who won, the duel was complicated, with Palpatine planning every move carefully to ensure his ultimate victory over the Jedi and the fall of the Galactic Republic.
While the Star Wars prequel films only hint at Mace Windu’s true power, non-movie material, especially from the Legends continuity, depicts it spectacularly. The Legends-era backstory of Mace’s signature purple-bladed lightsaber involves his acquisition of a rare Hurrikaine lightsaber crystal, completing a mission too perilous for most aspiring Jedi In 2003’s Star Wars: Clone Wars, Mace Windu almost single-handedly obliterates CIS forces on Dantooine, including a gargantuan seismic tank. In the show’s final chapters, he bravely defends Coruscant and his Clone forces with dazzling displays of his Force powers and defeats the dreaded General Grievous with jarring effortlessness. In the canon timeline, Mace Windu is known as the Jedi Order’s greatest champion. With this in mind, it’s easy to understand why Mace is one of the few beings capable of defeating Palpatine.
In both canon and Legends, Palpatine is one of the most powerful Sith Lords in the order’s history and one of the galaxy’s most dangerous beings. As the final Sith Master in Darth Bane’s post-Ruusan legacy of Sith Lords, Palpatine had the benefit of generations’ worth of dark side knowledge and combat techniques imparted into him by his master, Darth Plagueis. In his Dark Empire and sequel trilogy appearances, Palpatine seemed to transcend humanity, becoming a being akin to an eldritch abomination at the peak of his dark side power. Despite this, Palpatine’s greatest asset was his ruthlessly brilliant and Machiavellian mind. As one of the most intelligent beings in the galaxy, Palpatine manipulated galactic history and pitted portions of the galaxy against each other in his quest for power, often without using the dark side or his lightsaber. A conflict between Palpatine and Windu isn’t won with simple strength.
What George Lucas Has Said About Palpatine vs. Windu
Mace Windu’s duel with Palpatine seems rather straightforward in the Revenge of the Sith film, with Palpatine swiftly and brutally killing the three experienced Jedi Masters who accompanied Mace to the Supreme Chancellor’s office and fighting Mace until a precise kick disarms the Sith Lord. George Lucas, an understandably authoritative voice regarding Star Wars’ story details, has stated directly that Mace Windu won the fight. For better or worse, however, Lucas has a history of changing his mind regarding continuity, even within the original six saga films. So while Lucas stated that Windu won, that doesn’t definitively answer the question of whether or not Palpatine allowed this victory, nor does it determine who’s the more powerful of the two.
Several non-movie sources reenforce Lucas’ point, however, with the most definitive of these being the Revenge of the Sith novelization a Legends-continuity book whose every word was personally overseen and approved by Lucas. The novel explains that Mace Windu and Palpatine were fighting on even terms due to Windu’s use of Vaapad, a non-dark side variant of lightsaber combat Form VII which channeled dark side strength against a Jedi’s opponent. Windu was also one of the few users of a rare Force ability called Shatterpoint, which allowed its practitioners to detect the exact point of weakness in an opponent or more esoteric situations. Vaapad strengthened Windu immensely, considering Palpatine’s dark side strength, and Mace’s Shatterpoint ability helped him disarm the Sith Lord during the briefest moment of opportunity. While Mace truly won the fight, Palpatine was the more powerful combatant.
Palpatine Had Opportunities To Overpower Mace
The Revenge of the Sith novelization also explored Palpatine’s thought process in the moments preceding his duel with Mace Windu. For Palpatine, the fight itself was almost irrelevant, with his framing of events in the eyes of the people and Anakin Skywalker specifically being far more important. Predicting that a small team of Jedi would confront him, Palpatine ambushed them, explaining how he killed three of the Jedi Order’s finest masters in mere seconds. With the element of surprise, Palpatine could have killed them all rather quickly, but dueled Windu on even terms, anticipating that Anakin would soon arrive in his office.
Palpatine was by no means helpless after being disarmed by Mace Windu, as shown with his onslaught of Force lightning. As described in the Revenge of the Sith novel, Palpatine was slowly pushing Windu’s lightsaber blade towards him and could have killed him with his own weapon if he persisted. But killing Mace Windu in front of Anakin (or before he arrived) would have been detrimental to Palpatine’s plans of corrupting Skywalker, as doing so would vindicate Mace’s description of the Sith as dangerous enemies of the Jedi. Palpatine needed Anakin to see him as the only way to save Padme.
Palpatine's Defeat Helped Corrupt Anakin
With Anakin watching, Palpatine put up a façade of a helpless old man, who conjured lightning against Windu as a means of self-defense. By framing himself as the victim of a Jedi coup, Palpatine blurred the lines between Jedi and Sith for Anakin and forced Mace Windu into a situation that villainized him. Mace, unintentionally, repeated a phrase that Palpatine had said to Anakin about Dooku. With the Jedi and Sith seeming philosophically the same to Anakin, he inevitably chose the side that at least might save his wife. Anakin dismembered Windu, allowing Palpatine to drop his façade of weakness and assault the Jedi Master with lightning once more, killing him.
It may be true that Mace Windu overpowered Palpatine during their lightsaber duel, but Palpatine had the opportunity to ambush him as he did to the other Jedi and kill him without a prolonged fight. Mace’s use of Vaapad allowed him to keep up with the legendary Sith Lord and his Shatterpoint ability allowed him to deal a disarming blow. Despite this victory, Palpatine was in almost complete control of the entire conflict, as he often is, orchestrating nearly every detail and securing his ultimate victory of Anakin’s allegiance. Palpatine may not have specifically allowed Mace Windu to defeat him in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, but his control over the situation and superior strength in the Force made him the true winner of the duel.