master harmax
Senior Member
Man this is nuts ... I've seen it twice .... the way I see it ... firstly this whole thing about Darth Sidious being this great unbeatable sith is rubbish ... he is extremely powerful ... but in duels with the two best jedi he was clearly bested ... Mace Windu completely kicked his butt, force lightening and all ... if it wasn't for Anakin stepping in, Palpatine was a defeated sputtering dead duck, helpless at the end of the point of Mace Windu's purple sabre ....
As for his fight with Yoda, he showed a lot of bluff and bluster ... but Yoda took all he had to offer and gave it back to him worse ... and Palpatine knew that he was outclassed, which is why he tried to run ... in fact, it boggles me how this argument can even go on for 34 pages, when clearly in the film, Palpatine tries to run from the fight, and Yoda stops his path and tells him : " If so powerful are you, then why run ? " ... when you have a scene like this, where can the debate be ? You only run from a fight, when either you are too much of a coward to fight man to man, or if you know that you are outclassed and if you carry the fight on,then you are going to lose.
It was made amply clear in the film that the dark side is NOT more powerful ... in all departments,whether force powers, or lightsabre skills or whatever, Mace Windu and Yoda were both clearly superior to Palpatine .... and it was filmed that way because the fact that the dark side is NOT the most powerful, is a central theme in the STAR WARS story ... how can ya'll miss all this when it is so clear ?
Palpatine eventually came through inspite of his inferiority to the two most powerful jedi warriors, through a combination of circumstances, chicanery, deceit, and behind the scenes scheming - AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, BECAUSE OF THE WRONG CHOICES MADE BY ANAKIN SKYWALKER, THAT LED TO ANAKIN'S OWN FALL FROM GRACE, WHICH IS WHAT THIS PREQUEL TRILOGY IS ABOUT .... if you tell me that as a master of deceit and subversion, Palpatine had it over on the whole jedi council, and the senate, then I would have no arguments on that score ... however, don't tell me that Palpatine was the equal in single combat, of Mace Windu and Yoda .... because with all his dark side powers, he was clearly second best to both of them ... and the director made this amply clear in the film, in both the duels ... in a man to man, single combat situation, Palpatine was inferior to both Yoda and Mace ... and this was contrary to what most people expected before the film was released ... I've been part of debates like this WAY back around the time episode 2 was released, and everyone seemed to think that Palpatine would eventually be shown to be more powerful than any jedi including Yoda .. but this would mean that the darkside is the more powerful, that evil is more powerful than good, and what Yoda instructed Luke in Empire Strikes Back was wrong .... which is contrary to the central theme of STAR WARS ... it IS essentially a good vs. evil story and there is no doubt that Lucas is very clear that the Dark Side is NOT the most powerful ... it is the easier and more seductive path to obtain great power, but that will not make you invincible ... and in this movie he made it clear, that although evil carried the day in the end, through a combination of wrong circumstances, wrong choices, and subversion ... that does not mean it is more powerful ... in a one on one fight, the master of evil Darth Sidious was outclassed ( by Mace ) and shown to be inferior in power and skill ( by Yoda ), to the two most powerful jedi.