Last time, we talked about the way the Empire tried to pin a fake “crime” on Jedi Master Plo Koon—claiming he attacked a Neimoidian grub-nursery near the end of the Clone Wars. It’s one of those propaganda lines that tells you everything about how the Empire operated: don’t just wipe the Jedi out, make sure the galaxy thinks they deserved it.
And Mace Windu didn’t escape that treatment either. Even after he dies in Revenge of the Sith, the Empire still finds a way to use his name—twisting what happened and turning him into part of the story they wanted everyone to believe.
The Empire Labeled Mace Windu a Gang Leader and Blamed Him for the Clone Wars
In Lost Stars, the reveal isn’t some dramatic speech from an Imperial officer. It’s quieter than that, which is what makes it feel real. Thane and Ciena are just doing normal Academy stuff—studying, reviewing history, repeating facts the way you do when you’re trying to pass exams. And that’s exactly where you see how deep the Empire’s version of events has sunk in: it’s not presented as propaganda. It’s presented as basic education.
Thane and Ciena are deep into Imperial schooling by this point, and they’re doing that familiar routine where you quiz each other until the “right answers” start coming out automatically. Ciena is the dedicated one, the cadet who wants to get it exactly right, so she’s rattling off Imperial history the way it’s been drilled into her. And the question she’s working through isn’t framed like, “How did the Clone Wars really start?” It’s framed like the Empire’s version is simply the truth you’re expected to know.
She starts reciting it, piece by piece, like she’s reading from a mental flashcard: the Jedi weren’t peacekeepers, they were a criminal gang. Geonosis wasn’t a rescue mission, it was the Jedi interfering with a legal execution. And that interference is what “sparked” the Clone Wars. Then she hits the part that matters most—who led them—and you can almost see her trying to pull the name from whatever Imperial textbook she’s memorized. The moment is so small, but it says everything:
“The criminal gang … on Geonosis … was led by…by…” … “Mace Windu?”
That’s the Empire’s real move after his death. They don’t just erase him from the story. They keep him in the story and weaponize him. Windu becomes the “face” of the Jedi in the most important moment they can point to: the spark that supposedly ignited the war. It’s clean, teachable, repeatable. You don’t need to explain political corruption or Sith manipulation to a classroom full of cadets. You just give them a villain. In Imperial history class, that villain is Mace Windu—the “criminal leader” who turned Geonosis into the beginning of the Clone Wars.