Guardsman Bass wrote:The Vaapad was highly effective against Palpatine in doing what it was supposed to do; channeling darkness through Mace's body as part of the attack, including the reflection of the Dark Force lightning that Palpatine was producing before Windu's lightsaber arm was hacked off.
I'm not denying it was effective. I hadn't yet decided whether to throw in with the "Palpy threw the fight" camp or not, but Mace definitely came as close as anybody to killing Palpy until ROTJ at least.
Moreover, it's somewhat questionable that his use of Vaapad was the reason for his choice to kill Palpatine;
I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt by thinking that it was the subtle contamination of Vaapad that influenced his hand.
He had wanted to remove Palpatine by force for some time before, and the RoTS novelization makes it clear that Anakin's news that Palpatine is Sidious has utterly devastated him, on the inside.
Yes, I know. That attachment, in itself, is supposedly against the Jedi principals.
Although his anger is clearly a problem, the RoTS book makes it clear that he has learned how to avoid the problems of his darkness.
I won't have called his Vaapad solution a real one. It seems like more a form of escape, an abandonment of Jedi ideals to say the least. Even he knows it, he describes it as "I created Vaapad to answer my weakness: it channels my own darkness into a weapon of the light."
Furthermore, he is a strong supporter of the Republic,
That would be fine except he has an
attachment, as the novel makes clear. The film went to an effort to analogize Windu vs Palpy with Anakin vs Dooku, and in the novel, the parallel is further increased. One loves the Republic, the other has a more personal love. Both wind up being played by Palpy for fools.
and his Shatterpoint ability was highly effective before the descent of the Clouding of the Force by the Dark side.
A nice trick does not a Master make.
As for his attack on Palpatine, it was not just some impulsive attack; the entire operation had been planned out. Yoda was to leave for Kashykk to draw out the Sith Lord, which Windu and the other three Jedi Swordsmasters would then take out. In fact, after Anakin's revelation, in the novelization Windu confers with Yoda, the head of the Order, so his choice to attack Palpatine was hardly 'impulsive.' They just weren't counting on the Sith Lord being so powerful, and Anakin choosing to side with the Sith against the Jedi.
Note that in the novel, how Mace dealt with Anakin's bit of news was quite different from the film - the distrust of Anakin in the film wasn't present in the novel version. Regardless, I'd withdraw that one, since other people were also in it. However:
Overall, the plan is hasty, and the most surprising thing is that Yoda went along with it. He actually already saw the danger of moving quickly all the way back at P.128 (hardcover). But their
fear of the Sith (remember Jedi, no fear) moved them fast into active motion, pushed by Windu (he was obviously the Hawk of all this).
As for the idea to immediately grab Sidious
after they knew he was Palpy (in the novel, Mace trusts Anakin - at least according to Stover's astral analysis of Windu), I can only describe as foolhardy.
Consider:
1) The guy is clearer a bigger threat than imagined because he can be one foot away from the Jedi and they never got him.
2) He's no longer an elusive target - they know where he is. To retain his hard-won political advantage, Palpy must stay around in sight. So a hasty attack is no longer as vital.
3) He got the legal advantage (a hilltop the Jedi never tried to take for themselves and it is way too late now), but he has also hyped up the Jedi appropriately during the war . Even Palpy can't reverse from supporting to totally discrediting the Jedi in one night.
4) He's in even more direct control than they thought.
So they went. The film actually saved Mace some face by cutting the conversation short. Instead, in the novel, we hear Palpy casually maintaining his legal advantage. Mace didn't even
try to refute. The supposedly had most of the evidence already - why doesn't he even try and throw it in Palpy's face. Even if he had succeeded, he would have some explaining to do - of course, he has already decided to take control of the Senate.
The attack was clearly hasty. The clearest sign is in their contingency planning for failure. Surely they knew that failure meant the annihilation of all above-ground elements of the Jedi Order, yet apparently
zero planning had been done for this. There is only a hasty order to arm the Padawans and lock the doors - not a whole lot of good that would do against the determined attack that would come after a failure. The rest of their assets (even Obi-Wan, may I add) was left completely hanging out in the open, perfectly in the sights of clonetroopers. If they had delayed for even two hours warning (say by sending the secret codes for
disperse right after Grievous was killed and then waiting two hours), a lot more Jedi might have been able to hide out.
