It always seemed to me that in order for a Jedi to defeat a Sith in a duel, they are forced to stray from the Path of the Jedi, and delve into their Darker Side.

Anakin had to use Rage to destroy the Assasin sent by Dukoo in the Cloan Wars. Obi-Wan used Lust for Revenge to destroy Darth Maul. Anakin used Vengance to defeat Dukoo. In all other confrontations between a Jedi and a Sith, The Jedi was unable to overcome the Sith without using thier darker side.

The Jedi strives always for balance. I always kind of figured that facing a Sith was the ultimate challenge to a Jedi. Not as a physical adversary, but as a spiritual one. The Jedi training is designed around supressing emotions that can lead them to the Dark Side. The degree of exposure to the Dark Side energies surrounding a Sith Lord would likely be enough to tip most Jedi off balance, and force them to give in to their darker desires in order to defeat the Sith.

I am not really an EU guy, and have so far mosty stuck just to the Movies and the Cloan Wars cartoons. But I looked up "Mace Windu" on wookiepedia out of curiousity. Mace had a tendancy to lean toward the Dark Side more than he should have. This is why he had a Purple Saber. He used his special Saber to channel his Dark Side energies into, in order to keep himself from becoming a Dark Jedi.

I love the Idea of Mace being one of the Jedi that survives the purge, and fighting on, but what would have happened if Mace had struck down Sidious as he intended to do? I think that his duel with Sidious strained his ability to control his Dark Force energies that he would normally channel into his blade. I think he inadvertantly dove head first into his Dark Side while fighting with Sidious, and had he struck him down, he would have become a Dark-Jedi (or possibly the next Sith Lord?)

If this theory is true, then Anakin actually saved Mace by chopping away his evil Saber, cutting off his link to his Dark Side. Also, Anakin was in a lose/lose situation. Anakin, who had already begun down the Dark Path, was given a choice over who would be his Sith Master: Sidious, or Mace?

If this is true, and Anakin had not saved Mace, what would Mace's Sith title have been? Darth ........?

(A POWERFUL Sith, he would have been!)