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Form VII is considered to be a very dangerous yet powerful form. Known primarily as Juyo, it feeds on one's own emotions to guide its blades. As such, it is strongly associated with the dark side and the Sith, a form forbidden by the Jedi to members of its own order.

Mace Windu, however, created a variant, Vaapad, that feeds on the emotions of one's opponents rather than that of the self. This supposedly allows one to use this aggressive and powerful form without using the dark side, although a Vaapad practitioner still skirts close to the dark side nonetheless and needs to be strong enough to resist it at all times.

At first glance, Mace's Vaapad seems to be the perfect counter to Sidious' Juyo. However, the full power of the dark side within Sidious, revealed in all its terrible glory, is unprecedented for any living Jedi, overwhelming all but the greatest masters (like Yoda).

Due to the nature of Vaapad and the circumstances of events that happened in the Supreme Chancellor's office, is there any chance that Mace, master though he may be, has subconsciously succumbed to Sidious' overpowering darkness, possibly influencing his decision to kill Sidious there and then rather than arrest him for trial before the Senate?

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No. This is in-line with Windu's personality.

Windu tried very hard to bring a swift end to the war. He felt that by failing to do so, the Jedi were failing the people of the Republic who they were sworn to protect.

In the book Dark Disciple, Windu convinced the Jedi Council to authorize an assassination attempt on Count Dooku. Despite this being "against the Jedi way" he justified it as a way to bring an end to the Clone Wars.

So it stands to reason that when Windu found out that Palpatine was both a Sith Lord, and suspected he was the mastermind behind the war, he decided to end Sidious's life. Taking the life of a Sith Lord would have been nothing compared to the risk Windu felt Sidious/Palpatine posed to both the Jedi Order and the Republic as a whole.

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  • Aren't "easy ways" just a path to the dark side? I've rewatched Windu's death and he seems to be skirting the dark side here. It even led to his downfall and tipped Anakin over the hedge. In both form and effect, Windu was acting on behalf of the dark side in that scene...
    – Andres F.
    Oct 4 at 21:48
  • In other words, "This is in-line with Windu's personality" --> isn't this another way of saying that Windu's personality is perilously attuned with the dark side, just on the light side of the divide?
    – Andres F.
    Oct 4 at 21:49

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