Team Debate: Mace Windu vs. Darth Sidious

INTRODUCTION: We would like to return the thanks to bsh1 and 1harderthanyouthink. It is our belief that if it were not for Anakin’s intervention, Sidious would have defeated Windu. We wish the very best luck to the opposing team, and May the Force be with us all.Force Abilities - Sidious: In the Pro team’s opening argument, they omitted some very important details and powers from their description of Sidious. We will state and elaborate on two of the most important powers utilized by Sidious in his duel with Windu.Force Lightning: We would like to thank Pro for listing this as one of Sidious’ abilities and providing a definition. Unfortunately, Pro has not fully described the sheer intensity of Sidious’ Force lightning blasts. At this, we shall explain in further detail.It should be noted that Sidious’ attacks were recorded as some of the strongest in the Galaxy’s history. Force lightning is no exception. His lightning blasts were powerful enough to instantly kill his target (1). He was also proficient in the use of several variants of Force lightning (2). We will discuss his use of Force lightning in the duel later.Dun Möch:While the Pro team did list mind tricks as one of Sidious’ abilities, he has mastered several other mind-control and manipulation tactics that humble the simple mind trick. Dun Möch was quite possibly the most potent of these powers.“The Sith aimed to completely dominate an opponent's spirit through whatever means possible by employing their own lightsaber combat doctrine… Mental attacks would also be utilized during combat in order to strip one's concentration with the Force, making an opponent less precise and effective. Such a thing could be quite deadly, especially against Jedi, since concentration was of vital importance when using the Force.” (3).Unlike mind tricks, Dun Möch was also effective against strong-willed beings, as shown when he used this technique to confuse and kill three Jedi Council members within a short period of time.We will elaborate on the significance of these powers later.Lightsaber Skills: “Sidious is a master of every weapon and every style."- Nick Gillard, Star Wars choreography.Like Windu, Sidious was also proficient in all 7 forms of lightsaber combat (see quote). Impressively, he could ambidextrously utilize all 7 in a duel. As Pro stated, he was also a master of Jar’Kai, or dual wielding.Comparison Between Dun Möch and Windu's Powers: While reading this segment, keep in mind that Dun Möch is effective against even Jedi (3).While the Pro team mentioned Windu’s skill with Shatterpoint, they neglected to mention that the technique required intense concentration (4). The purpose of Dun Möch, meanwhile, was to break the opponent’s concentration (3). Thus, we must conclude that Windu was not able to use Shatterpoint effectively, or at all, against Sidious.Vaapad also required extreme concentration on the part of the user (5). With Dun Möch inhibiting Windu, it is unlikely that the use of Vaapad would have been successful.Sidious' Use of Force Lightning and Analysis of the Scene: With Windu’s two trump cards effectively negated, we shall now examine Sidious’ use of his most powerful attack. As we mentioned earlier, his Force lightning should have the power to instantly kill a being, and it had on multiple occasions. However, Sidious did not kill himself as his lightning was reflected back towards him. In addition, he made no effort to block the lightning, as Yoda did in Attack of the Clones, or to stop using his attack. We must conclude that Sidious was deliberately putting himself in a position of weakness for the purpose of turning Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, and we shall provide evidence from the circumstances preceding and during the duel (6).Analysis:Sidious had complete power over the Jedi at this time, but did not have enough power over Anakin to fully turn him to the dark side. He needed to find a way for Anakin to side with him morally. To achieve his goal, Sidious began the duel by quickly killing three Jedi Council members, but spared Windu, whom Anakin considered to be the strongest of the four masters. Just as Anakin arrived, Sidious put himself in a position of weakness and appealed to Anakin for assistance in the fight. In a manner that could be considered a usage of Dun Möch, he put Windu as the villain in Anakin’s eyes by putting Windu in a position of apparent power over Sidious’ life. As Windu was to deliver the killing blow, Anakin sided with Sidious and fell to the dark side. The duel was not a fair battle. In reality, it was merely a part Sidious’ grand scheme to turn Anakin to the dark side. This theory is proven to an extent in the Dark Lord: Rise of Darth Vader novel:“As some Jedi had feared from the start, Anakin had been ripe for conversion when Qui-Gon Jinn had first brought him to the Temple, and for well over a decade all of Sidious's plans for the boy had unfolded without incident.”This duel was an instrumental in Sidious’ plan to turn Anakin to the dark side. If Sidious was truly on the brink of defeat at the time of Anakin’s intervention, the duel would likely have been listed in the novel as an “incident”. Therefore, it can be assumed that Sidious had the upper hand over Windu throughout the duel but did not capitalize on it for his own reasons, not least of which to recruit Skywalker as his apprentice.At this, we conclude that Sidious would defeat Windu without Anakin’s intervention. Once again, we return the thanks to the Pro team. May the Force be with us all, and vote Con.(1)- http://starwars.wikia.com...(2)- http://starwars.wikia.com...(3)- http://starwars.wikia.com...(4)- http://starwars.wikia.com...(5)- http://starwars.wikia.com...(6)- See video provided by the Pro team in R1.