Mace Windu runs the gauntlet!

Palpatine didn't underestimated Mace's strength. It wasn't about Mace, he was just a pawn. Anakin was main goal in Palpatine's plans. Palpatine knew, that Anakin doesn't care of his freedom etc. he just wanted him alive. When Mace "defeat" him in sword fight, he was counting that Mace will try to kill him, but Mace wasn't angry enough. So he used FL to bring Mace deeper into vaapad. After that, Mace's judgement was clouded by the dark side, and he decided to do something, what Anakin cannot allow. It forced Anakin's do choose, and it was obvious for Sidious, that Anakin willl choose to defend his life.
So he was toying with Windu all the time. Maybe even Mace was better duelist, but who cares. Palpatine was superior force user, with superior TK, FL, speed... Mace can't block TK with his sword. Even full power lightning would be to much for him.

Prove Sideous could defeat Mace with the force.

I find it hard to believe that Sideous WANTED Mace to melt half his face off.

Mace is just highly overrated.
He admitted in "Shatterpoint", that his TK skills aren't even close to Yoda's. His shatterpoint doesn't help him, when he fell right into Bane's trap (TCW S2 E3). Even Sora Bulq was able to catch him offguard and force push him. In his duel with Sidious he barley defend himself against lightning:
1) Movie version - he defends himself, but Lucas confirmed, that Plaptine wasn't using his full power.
2) Comic veriosn - at the end of the lightning we can see him lying on the ground.
3) Book version - he admits, that even vaapad wasn't enought to block Sidious's FL.

Palpatine was able to fight on par with Yoda with the force. He's considered as much more powerful with the force then Cound Dooku (who is more powerful force user then Mace).

Lets be real.....

The most powerful Sithlord of all time>>>>>Mace

Indeed, but Windu happens to have Vaapad and Shatterpoint which evens the scales.

Originally posted by Tzeentch._
Prove Sideous could defeat Mace with the force.

I find it hard to believe that Sideous WANTED Mace to melt half his face off.

👆

Yeah, not sure how Plagueis wins this. Mace's Vaapad allows him to turn the darkness back onto the source. And if Vaapd was sufficient for RotS Sidious it is more than sufficient for Plagueis. That plus the fact that he has shatterpoint and Plagueis has an easily exploitable weakness should allow Windu to win far more often than not.

In all honesty, I see Bane as being the bigger threat here. Those orbalisks are going to be hard to get around even for a swordmaster like Mace.

A one on one fight in an open space would have Sidious start off with a massive force wave/crush on Windu like the one he used against Maul and Opress. Possibly added to some FL. Then throwing huge objects at him telekinetically like he did against Yoda.

Even in a Saber fight Sidious would probably take a majority against Mace Imho. Just because Mace won that one which began with help and ended with Mace gaining an environmental advantage, does not mean Mace would win every time.

Originally posted by Intrepid37
This is exactly why I hate Mace-topics.

Palpatine's fear led to a shatterpoint, allowing Mace to win. But it wasn't Palpatine's real fear (Mace thought so), it was Anakin's fear. Palpatine misdirected the fear so it seemed like his own and Mace realizes this at the end of the fight. Palpatine wanted to lose.

I'd hate topics that show my favorite characters getting disarmed but that doesn't make a good argument at all.

Originally posted by DARTH POWER
A one on one fight in an open space would have Sidious start off with a massive force wave/crush on Windu like the one he used against Maul and Opress. Possibly added to some FL. Then throwing huge objects at him telekinetically like he did against Yoda.

Correct.

Even in a Saber fight Sidious would probably take a majority against Mace Imho. Just because Mace won that one which began with help and ended with Mace gaining an environmental advantage, does not mean Mace would win every time.

Sidious threw the saber fight, buddy.

Originally posted by Tzeentch._

I find it hard to believe that Sideous WANTED Mace to melt half his face off.

This.

Originally posted by Col. Valerian
This.

Thats his original form buddy.

Originally posted by ROTJ Vader
Thats his original form buddy.

Um, no it's not.

He got his face disfigured by his own lightning. I seriously doubt that was part of his plan.

Originally posted by Col. Valerian
Um, no it's not.

He got his face disfigured by his own lightning. I seriously doubt that was part of his plan.

That he couldn't avoid. Even if he wasn't pretending to be weak and carried on firing and overpowered Mace's blade, it would have been at the expense of his face. (Not a big loss really).

lol.

Originally posted by ROTJ Vader
Sidious threw the saber fight, buddy.

I have no idea why it's so hard to believe he threw the whole fight.

Because there is no proof that he did.

Originally posted by ares834
Because there is no proof that he did.

I just posted it. Palpatine setting up a record device so it sounds like he'd been getting assassinated which would have Anakin hate the Jedi, implanting fear in Anakin's mind so he needed Palpatine's help, and in the end redirected the fear so it seemed like his own, allowing Mace to win.

Originally posted by Vensai
"Okay, well, this sequence always started out with Mace overpowering Palpatine, and then Palpatine using his powers to try to destroy Mace, and Mace deflecting his rays with his lightsaber. And it always was that Anakin cut the lightsaber out of his hand. But this part where he pretends to lose his power and be weak was something that I added later, 'cause this is, it moved the point where Anakin turns down to this moment right here, and you can see now, that it's very clear that he's, he, he wants him to go on trial so he can pump him for information about how to get these powers."
--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith commentary

That refers merely to the force contest not the saber duel. Which Lucas firmly established that Windu won without giving any hints that Palpatine was holding back.

Also interesting enough, Lucas says Palpatine is trying to "destroy" Mace with his lightning initially. So, yeah, Palpatine was trying to kill Windu.

Originally posted by Intrepid37
I just posted it. Palpatine setting up a record device so it sounds like he'd been getting assassinated which would have Anakin hate the Jedi, implanting fear in Anakin's mind so he needed Palpatine's help, and in the end redirected the fear so it seemed like his own, allowing Mace to win.

That's not proof but rather a theory. And it doesn't even make sense, I mean if Windu decided to put him on trial rather than kill him his entire scheme would have collapsed.

Anyway, the entire "fear" argument is irrelevant as it's non-canon. Anakin isn't there when Mace and Sidious fight nor does Sidious shout that the fear Windu feels isn't his.