Mace Windu - Jedi Master and Warrior
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Jedi Master Mace Windu (played by Samuel L. Jackson) was appointed to the Jedi Council at the age of 28. Despite this his fighting ability was legendary, and while on the Council he ventured forth on many dangerous missions for the Old Republic.
Such was Windu's skill with the lightsaber that only two opponents ever bested him;Yoda and Count Dooku. Windu mastered the highest form of the lightsaber art; the Form VII combat discipline, or vaapad, a technique so deadly that it came dangerously close to being considered a dark side practice.
In the last years before the fall of the Old Republic Mace Windu was a senior member of the Jedi Council, spending much of his time with the other eleven members of the Council in the Jedi Temple on the planet Coruscant, guiding the Jedi Order.
Windu was well aware of the ancient Jedi prophecy of the Chosen One, and when the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn came before the Council claiming that he had found a boy named Anakin Skywalker who he thought could be the Chosen One, Windu was concerned. His concern was shared by several of his fellow Council members, including Yoda, but reluctantly they agreed that the boy should be tested for Jedi potential.
Despite Anakin displaying abnormally high Jedi potential Mace Windu, Yoda and the other Council members still refused to allow Qui-Gon to take the boy as his Padawan learner. They were concerned that the boy's future was clouded and unclear to them, and that he was too old to begin training as a Jedi.
This decision was eventually reversed however, following Qui-Gon's death at the hands of a Sith Lord, Darth Maul. The Council agreed to let Qui-Gon's former Apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, train Anakin.
In the years that followed this decision unrest began to increase in the Galaxy. The Jedi struggled to maintain order in the Republic, and despite evidence that suggested the growing Separatist movement was being led by former Jedi Count Dooku, Windu refused to believe that one trained as a Jedi could actively foment such violent unrest.
Windu finally accepted that he was wrong when the Council received a signal from Obi-Wan Kenobi, sent from the planet Geonosis. The signal informed them that Obi-Wan had discovered a Separatist army readying itself for war, and requested reinforcements.
Windu himself travelled to Geonosis, arriving with an army of Jedi in time to rescue Obi-Wan, Anakin and Senator Padme Amidala from execution at the hands of Count Dooku. As the battle between the Jedi and the Separatist's droid army raged, Mace Windu found himself duelling with the notorious bounty hunter, Jango Fett. Windu made short work of Fett, decapitating the mercenary with his lightsaber.
In the battle that marked the beginning of the Clone Wars Mace Windu led a squad of clone troopers, and was one of the few Jedi to return unscathed.