I keep running into this idea that even Yoda was a little afraid of Mace Windu — not because Mace could beat him in a duel, but because he stood closer to the dark than almost any other Jedi on the Council.
But we never actually see that conversation, or hear Yoda say it himself. So I wanted to dig into the lore and see what’s really there — whether Yoda ever reveals any fear about Windu, and what the books actually show about how close Mace stands to the dark side.
Windu’s Personality Didn’t Fit the Jedi Way
Before we dive into why Yoda might be ‘afraid’ of Windu, we need to clear up the real reason first.
Everyone knows Mace Windu is famous for his unique lightsaber form, Vaapad—a style he helped create himself. On the surface, that sounds normal, so you might wonder: why would Yoda be afraid of something like that?
The core of Vaapad is what it demands from its user. It isn’t just about technique. It requires a strong appetite for combat—meaning the user has to enjoy fighting, not merely do it when necessary.
As Windu himself explain the risk of using Vaapad in the book Shatterpoint, he stated “To use Vaapad you must allow yourself to enjoy the fight. You give yourself to the thrill of battle. The rush of winning. This is so few students even attempt the style.”
And this detail is also mentioned in Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover.
From this angle, we can see why Vaapad isn’t for just any Jedi, because Jedi are supposed to be the keepers of peace and Windu’s insistence that you must “enjoy the fight” reads like a warning sign, even at the highest level of the Order.
Yoda and the Order Feared Windu Would Turn on Them One Day
But that’s only the first layer of the problem. The second fear is even more serious: Vaapad can flirt with the dark side. The same emotional doorway that makes the form work is also what can pull the user too far, especially if they stop controlling it.
A lot of people assume Windu was the only Jedi in the Order who ever used Vaapad. He wasn’t. In Shatterpoint, when Mace Windu and Yoda explain Vaapad to Palpatine, Windu confirms that there were others besides him. He specifically reveals that a Jedi named Sora Bulq also trained in Vaapad—but Bulq eventually let it consume him, fell into the dark side, and betrayed the Jedi Order.
However, that still wasn’t the full picture. Even if you master Vaapad, the risk doesn’t disappear. You can still fall to the dark side.
That’s exactly what happened to Windu’s own Padawan, Depa Billaba. Under Windu’s instruction, Billaba became a master of Vaapad, and Windu even considered her virtually unbeatable in personal combat.
In Shatterpoint, as I mentioned earlier, Billaba is sent on a mission to Haruun Kal—and that’s where everything goes wrong. She falls to the dark side, letting the blood fever of the jungle and the pull of Vaapad take over. Mace Windu is forced to travel to Haruun Kal and confront his student in a duel. During the fight, Windu realizes something terrifying: the only way he can survive against his former Padawan is to give all of himself to Vaapad. But he also understands that if he does that completely, he might fall to the dark side as well.
After the mission is over, Windu reports everything back to Yoda and Palpatine. And even then, Windu can sense something in Yoda—real concern about what happened to them on Haruun Kal.
Yoda says: “Who would have thought that fighting a war could have such a terrible effect on a Jedi? Even when we win, who would ever have thought such a thing? Who would have thought it indeed?”
