Mace Windu

"Windu" redirects here. For the cycle of 8 lunar years, see Javanese calendar.

Mace Windu is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. He is portrayed by actor Samuel L. Jackson throughout the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Character overview

Mace Windu is a Jedi Master of legendary status and one of the last members of the Jedi Council before the fall of the Galactic Republic. A diplomat by nature, Windu is the Council's primary liaison to the Chancellor, although the Clone Wars cause him to question his firmest held beliefs. He is a senior member of the Jedi Council, second only to Jedi Master Yoda in authority. His wisdom and power are legendary, as is the weight of his words.

Appearances in the Star Wars films

The Phantom Menace

Windu first appears in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He is present when Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn brings Anakin Skywalker before the Jedi Council, claiming that the young slave is the "Chosen One" whom Jedi prophecy foretells will bring balance to the Force. Windu shares the Council's concerns that the boy exhibits a great deal of fear and anger, and agrees with the body's decision to deny Qui-Gon permission to train him as a Jedi. (That decision, of course, is rescinded at the end of the film.)

Attack of the Clones

In Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Windu tries to help the Council defeat the growing threat presented by the Separatists, led by renegade Jedi Master Count Dooku. He also watches with growing concern as the now-adult Anakin Skywalker begins to rebel against Obi-Wan Kenobi's tutelage. In the film's climactic scene, he leads a cadre of Jedi and clone troopers in a battle against Dooku's army, the opening salvo of the Clone Wars. In this scene, Windu fights, overpowers, and kills Jango Fett (by beheading).

Revenge of the Sith

Windu makes his final film appearance in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. By this point, he has fought in the Clone Wars for three years, during which time he has come to distrust the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine. When Palpatine appoints Anakin as his personal representative on the Jedi Council, Windu fears that the move is designed to give the Chancellor a vote in Jedi affairs, and casts a key vote in denying Anakin the full rank of Jedi Master.

Shortly afterwards, Anakin tells Windu he has learned that Palpatine is in fact a Sith Lord. Windu, accompanied by Jedi Masters Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin, goes to the Chancellor's office to confront him. Resisting arrest, Palpatine brandishes a red lightsaber and launches himself at the Jedi, quickly killing all three of Windu's compatriots and engaging Windu himself in an epic lighstsaber duel. In the heat of battle, the dueling pair shatter a nearby window with their lightsabers and continue their fight on the ledge. Windu eventually seems to gain the upper hand and disarms the Sith Lord with a powerful kick; however, Palpatine may have accounted for this, since it is at this moment that a conflicted Anakin Skywalker arrives at the scene. Palpatine uses Windu's momentary distraction to attack him with Force lightning, but Windu blocks the barrage with his lightsaber and reflects it back. In the process, Palpatine's face is scarred and twisted into an unnatural visage, though it is unclear whether this was the result of Windu's deflection, Palpatine's intense exertion, or the compromise of some type of Sith alchemy or illusion. Regardless, Windu emerges from the struggle exhausted but unharmed. As he prepares to strike the death blow, however, Anakin intervenes and cuts off Windu's sword arm, thus allowing Palpatine to hit him with another lethal torrent of Force lightning. The force of the attack propels Windu out of the window and he falls to his death. The Revenge of the Sith novelization indicates that, in the last moments of Windu's life, he regrets only two things—that he had chosen to save Anakin's life in the Geonosis arena instead of killing Dooku, and that he had not looked for Anakin's shatterpoint in the Palpatine arrest.

Appearances in the Expanded Universe

Mace Windu appears extensively in the Star Wars Expanded Universe of novels and comic books. He is a major supporting character in the animated micro-series Star Wars: Clone Wars, which appeared on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005. In the series, he is voiced by TC Carson.

In an episode in the first series he is shown defending a grasslands planet against a large hovering "fortress" and over the course of the episode loses his lightsaber, forcing him to instead use a lethal form of martial arts powered by the Force. In the series' final episode, he and Yoda help defend the planet Coruscant from an attack by Dooku's second-in-command, General Grievous. In the midst of the battle, he realizes that the attack is a ruse to distract the Jedi from Grievous' true objective: to kidnap Palpatine. He is too late to save the Chancellor, but manages to use the Force to crush Grievous' chest, inflicting upon the cyborg general the wheezing, asthmatic cough heard in Revenge of the Sith.

Windu is the central character of Matthew Stover's novel Shatterpoint, in which he is called to his home planet of Haruun Kal to defeat his former apprentice, Depa Billaba, who has turned to the dark side. The novel establishes that Windu has the unique talent of seeing "shatterpoints", or faultlines in the Force that could affect the destinies of certain individuals, and indeed the galaxy itself. Stover also referenced this ability in his novelization of Revenge of the Sith.

Lightsaber and combat style

Shatterpoint establishes that Windu is responsible for creating Vaapad (so nick-named by young Padawan learners), the full seventh form of lightsaber combat. Vaapad creates a superconducting loop that reflects the enemy's attack while allowing for speed and power on an unprecedented scale. Named after a predatory animal on one of the moons of Sarapin that used multiple tentacles for a blindingly fast attack, Vaapad led through the penumbra of the dark side in its requirement for the user to actually enjoy the thrill of the fight.

His unique lightsaber form aside, Windu is also distinctive in that he is the only major character in the films to possess a purple lightsaber. Within the Star Wars universe, the purple symbolizes Mace's closeness to the darkside (purple is a mixture of red and blue).

Jackson's requests

When series creator George Lucas offered Samuel L. Jackson the role of Mace Windu, Jackson signed on, but with certain stipulations on the portrayal of his character.

One of the conditions was that his character die in a spectacular death, rather than be killed off "like some punk."

Also, according to an interview on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 13, 2005 (as well as other interviews dating back to the promotion of Episode I) Windu's purple lightsaber was a personal request from Jackson to Lucas as a quid pro quo for appearing in the films, as well as a way of making the character unique and easily distinguishable. Jackson, a huge Star Wars fan, especially wanted his own color so that his character could be easily spotted and recognizable in the final battle scene of Attack of the Clones amid all of the other Jedi.

References in popular culture

• Rapper Mr. Eon refers to Mace in a collaboration track entitled "B-Boy Document" on Rawkus Records' Soundbombing II. He raps: "I'm Jedi Master, Mace Windu, what you been through?"

• In the Robot Chicken Star Wars tribute there is a scene where Darth Maul is chopped in half and he falls to the bottom of the pit. A janitor sweeps him up and says, "I can't wait to get transferred to Coruscant." Once he gets transferred, Mace Windu falls on a platform where the same janitor sweeps him up and says, "Can't wait to be transferred to the Death Star". He goes there and the Emperor falls to the ground after Vader throws him in the pit. The janitor exclaims, "What are they doing up there all the time?"

Etymology and Influence of Windu's Name

James Whitlark has suggested that the name "Windu" appears to come from the word "Window." An early draft of the original Star Wars script had Mace Windu serving as narrator, and thus the "window" through which the action is viewed. . He also, ironically, dies by being thrown out of a window.

According to the Star Wars Galaxy Guide #7: Mos Eisley (published by West End Games, 1993), Windu is also the name of the Squib who works at Jawa Traders, a second hand droid shop located in the town of Mos Eisley on Tatooine around the era of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Known for occasionally striking convoluted bargains in lieu of credits, he is something of a headache to the Jawa proprietress, Aguilae. The name was reportedly borrowed by the author of the Guide from an early draft of Lucas' original script for A New Hope.

References

General references

• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Novelization - Novelization, 1st edition hardcover, 2005. Matthew Woodring Stover, George Lucas, ISBN 0-7126-8427-1
• Shatterpoint, 1st edition, 2003. Matthew Woodring Stover, ISBN 0-345-45573-8
• The New Essential Guide to Characters, 1st edition, 2002. Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin, ISBN 0-345-44900-2
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1999. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-4701-0
• Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2002. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-7894-8588-5
• Revised Core Rulebook (Star Wars Roleplaying Game), 1st edition, 2002. Bill Slavicsek, Andy Collins, J.D. Wiker, Steve Sansweet, ISBN 0-7869-2876-X
• Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Power of the Jedi Sourcebook, hardcover, 2002. Michael Mikaelian, Jeff Grubb, Owen K.C. Stephens, James Maliszewski, ISBN 0-7869-2781-X
• Star Wars Galaxy Guide 7: Mos Eisley, softcover, 1993. Martin Wixted, ISBN 0-87431-187-X
• Star Wars Novel: Shatterpoint

External links

• Mace Windu in the StarWars.com Databank
• Mace Windu on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki