First impression: Initially, I didn’t have much of an impression of Mace. Later, I leaned a little towards the SNAKES ON THIS MOTHERFUCKING PLANE SLJ characterization.
Impression now: I LOVE HIM SO MUCH and Mace is a really interesting, complicated character who cares so deeply about the Jedi and the Republic, someone who really struggled with those intense feelings when he was younger, and learned mastery of himself, learned to control himself, rather than be controlled. Of course he still experiences anger, there are moments of it all across canon, but that doesn’t mean he’s consumed by it. He’s got that shit on lockdown.
But also Mace is someone who wasn’t just there to help one or two people, he was basically the Jedi’s #2, he was responsible for thousands of his people, in addition to his role in the war. That’s a shitload of responsibility!
Favorite moment: As much as I love the badass moments (his fight with Palpatine! that awesome stuff from the 2003 Clone Wars version! Mace shattering the glass to free his men!) and, if you’d asked me on another day, I might have chosen one of them, I think there’s one moment I often come back to–his quiet concern during the episode where Yoda is in the Halls of Healing and Rig Nema is talking about how there’s something strange with him, and they’re all wondering if the Sith Lord is connecting to him to attack the Jedi.
Mace doesn’t say much in this scene, but there’s a sense of heaviness about him, such a deep concern for his friend and for the safety of the Jedi. That, without Yoda to ask for advice, he’s pretty much responsible for all of this. When Anakin comes in to ask for a meeting with Yoda for the Chancellor, Mace doesn’t sigh or complain, but there’s still something weary about him. There’s so much on his plate and it always makes me intensely feel for him.
Idea for a story: MACE WINDU LIVES. I desperately want a post-Revenge of the Sith story where Mace survived his fall from Palpatine’s office, has to struggle with the anger and fury he feels over Skywalker’s betrayal and the fall of the Republic, the loss of his entire culture, while also figuring where he’s meant to go from here. I don’t think he could make it out alive from such a story, but I would love for it to end in a confrontation with Vader, Mace figuring out who he is, and saying that Vader can strike him down, but he still has his faith in the Jedi, and killing him won’t change that, won’t change that Vader is still empty inside and has no true purpose, he has nothing. Mace may die, but he dies with the Force, not against it.
Unpopular opinion: MACE WINDU DESERVES BETTER FROM ALL OF US.
Favorite relationship: I love Mace’s friendship with Yoda! They make the most hilarious “IS THIS SHIT FOR REAL?” faces! But also they seem like they really trust and rely on each other. Mace often turns to Yoda for advice, Yoda often trusts Mace’s handling of things. They feel like old friends who really like each other and draw warm and comfort from just hanging out together.
ALSO, THEIR SHARED LOOK AT QUI-GON’S ANTICS IN THE PHANTOM MENACE ARE HILARIOUS.
LIKE, “CAN YOU BELIEVE THE SHIT WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH?”
Favorite headcanon:
Mace really loves being around the younglings, they’re the future of the people he loves so much, they’re young and just learning and they’re not supposed to know everything yet so they ask all kinds of questions and they’re trying to figure themselves out and he really likes that. He is delighted by Depa’s Padawan, in his reserved, calm way.
11. who is the most underrated character? Mace Windu! As funny as the motherfucker jokes can be, because we all enjoy some fun Sam Jackson character jokes, I feel like sometimes we lose sight of who Mace really is beyond that. He’s not really what we think of as the typical SLJ character, he’s much more serious and controlled.
One of my favorite Mace things in canon was the Jedi of the Republic comic, because we got to see just how much he did indeed struggle with his righteous anger, at the way people were being hurt by Drooz, at the way the Jedi name was being abused by him, and that his burning feelings weren’t about being bad at all, but that he needed to learn to temper them, to control them, before they controlled him.
It’s a contrast against how he acted towards Prosset Dibs, who tried to murder him and Mace forgave him, gave him the most gentle punishment just about ever, and said that he was still valuable and they still wanted/needed him. You understood just how far he’d come, to temper that desire to help people that once drove him to anger because of their suffering, was now turned to compassion, to reaching out to them, to trying to help them.
Mace is someone who cares incredibly deeply, about the Jedi and about the Republic they serve, that he’s in a position with so much responsibility that he has a ton of weight on his shoulders, and it makes him really sympathetic.
THIS IS THE FACE OF SOMEONE WHO CARES SO DEEPLY:
He doesn’t go to arrest Palpatine because he hates that guy (no matter how much Mace clearly dislikes him for all the times he’s tried to object to things, like, no, we don’t want you to take one of our Padawans out solo, no, we don’t want to send Skywalker to Tatooine for a mission, and Palpatine just straight up PULLS RANK on him) but because he knows that this is the Sith Lord and he’s RIGHT that Palpatine controls the Senate and WOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN A REASONABLE TRIAL. He does it because he cares enough to know that, even if it means he himself will be arrested for it (as Dave Filoni said), he’ll be saving the galaxy from a tyrant.
He can be very reserved at times, especially as the war drags on or when he’s responsible for really huge matters or when dealing with someone who clearly never really wanted to learn control of himself.
But he can also be incredibly kind and warm to children, as the Star Wars Adventure comic shows us.
Mace Windu loved his Jedi family and culture, he loved the Republic he served (in some ways, almost too much, that he was willing to sacrifice himself for it, long beyond when he maybe shouldn’t have), and he worked really hard to get his shit together.
When he doesn’t understand someone else’s language, “emotion is our shared tongue” is his response. When someone betrays him or attacks him, he works to forgive them because that’s the best way to move forward and not drag himself down as well.
wrennette 