Star Wars Canonically Confirms Mace Windu’s Secret Power
Topics: Star Wars
Featured Image Credit: Lucas Film
Topics: Star Wars
Despite only being first introduced to Star Wars fans in The Phantom Menace, Mace Windu quickly became one of the most iconic and memorable characters from the series as a whole.
Thanks to a performance from Samuel L. Jackson in impressive form, and his unique purple lightsaber, George Lucas was able to capture the audience's imagination in a way that even he likely wouldn't have expected.
His climactic fight with Palpatine towards the end of Revenge of the Sith also didn't hurt, as he came mightily close to defeating the evil Sith after he confronts him.
This scene inevitably leads to questions about how exactly he was able to overpower him (in the first instance), when even Grandmaster Yoda struggled significantly, including over on Reddit.
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As one of the responses to that post notes, it's actually Windu's fighting style that enables him to dominate the fight at certain points. "Mace uses a special lightsaber form called Vaapad, which reflects an opponent's darkness back at them and gets stronger the more an enemy uses the dark side. So basically, Windu gets more powerful the more powerful his opponent is if he's using the dark side," the comments reads.
Also known as Form VII or the Ferocity Form (depending on the time period), Vaapad is an ancient lightsaber technique that had been in use for millennia before the events of Revenge of the Sith. Essentially, it serves as the most vicious and outright aggressive form if lightsaber combat, that also requires a significant amount of internal focus on the part of the Jedi using it.
As it requires the user to have an intense focus on their own emotions, it's also one of the more controversial approaches for the Jedi to use. Over the years, it went from frowned upon to outright banned, before making a return in the years leading up to the end of the Republic.
The Sith were far less precious about its use, and key figures like Darth Maul mastered its use over the years, following which they became some of the most formidable duelists in the galaxy.
Mace Windu was actually responsible for creating the modern version of Form VII, Vaapad, alongside Sora Bulq, which they described as more of a state of mind that allowed them to channel their inner darkness into raw fighting power.
So that clears that up! With the lore around Mace Windu expanding all the time, it won't be long before we learn about another cool power he pioneered.