Samuel L. Jackson made a heck of an impact across his brief Star Wars appearances as the Jedi master Mace Windu. And fans have looked deeper into one of his scenes alongside Anakin Skywalker, discovering what could be an even more tragic edge to the whole thing.
In the pivotal Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith, we see Anakin Skywalker fall from his Jedi roots to become one of the most feared Star Wars villains ever. One of the most important moments in Anakin’s turn is Windu’s death at the hands of Palpatine – who’d top any list of the most malevolent Star Wars characters. But the exchange before that contains something fascinating.
Anakin visits Windu to tell him that he believes Chancellor Palpatine to be the Sith Lord they’ve been looking for. Windu tells the young Jedi to wait while he goes to arrest the Chancellor, but says that, if the allegation is true, “you will have earned my trust”.
The superbly named Reddit user DarthBootyCakes believes this line to be very important. “Why did Master Windu tell Anakin to wait for HIM in the Jedi Council chambers? He could have just as easily told him to wait in his room or quarters. It was because he wanted to personally bestow the rank of Master on Anakin when he returned from the Supreme Chancellor’s office.”
This would have completely changed the complexion of how the movie played out. The Jedi Council’s refusal to bestow the rank of Master on Anakin is one of the main reasons he is seduced by Palpatine’s tales of the Dark Side, as well as the prospect of saving his wife Padme and their children from the nightmares he had foreseen.
So if Anakin had indeed chosen to allow Windu to apprehend the Chancellor, he would never have faced the final decision that saw him side with Palpatine and doom Windu to death. But hey, without that decision, we never would’ve had one of the best movie villains ever, Darth Vader.
Of course, we can’t know for sure whether Windu really intended to make Anakin a Master, but he had certainly done the job he had been assigned in spying on Palpatine. It’s entirely plausible that he would finally have got what he wanted.
So now that we’ve recovered from this latest twist of tragedy around one of the best movies in Star Wars history, it’s time to look back through the Star Wars movies in order for the millionth time. It doesn’t matter how many decades pass, we still get so much joy from the Star Wars cast.
With that in mind, it’s exciting to think about the new Star Wars movies and Star Wars series we have ahead of us. Chief among all of that, we’re very excited for the Andor season 2 release date, but there might be some bad news about Andor’s future.