On paper, the math doesn’t make sense. Yoda is the Jedi Grand Master, the guy everyone treats like the final boss of the light side… and yet he can’t put Palpatine down. But Mace Windu storms into the Chancellor’s office and, for a minute, it looks like he’s straight-up dog walking Sidious.
So what gives? Is Mace just built different?
Mace Could Hold His Ground Because of Vaapad
The biggest reason Mace can stand in front of Sidious and not get instantly erased is Vaapad. Most Jedi are trained to avoid that kind of fight. The dark side feeds on anger, fear, and aggression, so if you try to match a Sith’s intensity blow-for-blow, you risk doing the Sith’s job for them. That’s why so many Jedi styles lean defensive: survive the storm, don’t become the storm.
Windu is built for the opposite problem. Vaapad is basically the Jedi style that’s designed for dealing with a storm head-on. It’s not “rage,” but it looks like it, because it’s fast, heavy, and relentless. The difference is control. Vaapad lets Mace take the pressure Sidious is putting into the duel—speed, fury, killing intent—and redirect it instead of absorbing it. That’s why the office fight doesn’t feel like a normal Jedi trying to parry and retreat. It feels like Mace is constantly pushing, constantly meeting Sidious at the same intensity, and refusing to give him the breathing room he normally uses to break people.
And that’s the key: Palpatine is used to Jedi collapsing under that kind of assault. In the movie he kills three Masters in seconds. Against Mace, it doesn’t work the same way, because Vaapad turns Sidious’ own momentum into something Mace can ride. The more vicious the Emperor gets, the more fuel he’s feeding into a loop that Windu can send right back at him.
Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novel describes Vaapad making Windu an open channel, like a superconductor, with the duel becoming an endless loop of power between him and the “shadow.” It even frames the fight as an “impasse,” like it could have gone on and on—at least if Vaapad were the only thing Mace had going for him.
Why Yoda Didn’t “Do the Same Thing”
Vaapad explains why Mace can hang with Sidious in a blade duel—but it also explains why you shouldn’t use that fight as a straight “Mace > Yoda” power ranking.
Yoda isn’t built to fight the way Vaapad fights. His whole approach is control, patience, and letting the Force flow—not taking an enemy’s rage and reflecting it back at them. So when Yoda faces Sidious, the fight naturally shifts into something bigger than swordplay. Once Palpatine has space, he stops playing “duel in a small room” and turns it into a Force contest—distance, terrain, thrown objects, raw power. That’s a different kind of battle than the office fight, and it’s the kind where Sidious is at his most dangerous.
The setting matters too. Windu fights Sidious in a tight office where he can keep pressure on him and keep the fight “close.” Yoda fights him in a massive chamber where Sidious can create separation and escalate the chaos whenever he wants. Same Sith Lord, totally different battlefield.
And one more thing people forget: Sidious isn’t only trying to win—he’s trying to stage the moment that breaks Anakin. In the office, that means keeping the fight framed around “will you strike down the Chancellor?” The timing of Sidious looking cornered lines up a little too perfectly with the choice Palpatine wants Anakin to make. You don’t have to claim he “threw” the whole duel, but it’s fair to say the office scene is also a manipulation, not just a clean sports match.
So no—Yoda isn’t “worse.” Mace just has the style that lets him meet Sidious in the nastiest part of Sidious’ game (blade aggression) and in the kind of space where that matchup actually matters.