Kl-ADI-MUNDI: If he does not give up his emergency powers after the destruction of Grievous, then he should be removed from office.

MACE WINDU: That could be a dangerous move ... the Jedi Council would have to take control of the Senate in order to secure a peaceful transition . . .

Kl-ADI-MUNDI: . . . and replace the Congress with Senators who are not filled with greed and corruption.

YODA: To a dark place this line of thought will carry us. Hmmmmm. . . . great care we must take.


(Of course... Yoda didn't know Palpatine was a Sith with his trigger ready to hit Order 66 as a mass genocide weapon.)
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I generally avoid Mace, he's a well developed character in the Expanded Universe, but I think there's just too little of him in the films to properly judge him.

This involves more of the galaxy at large though.

Let's ignore the Jedi Code and Jedi morals for a moment, Mace made the final swing intending to kill Palpatine, the choice is made. I don't even really care why he made that swing for the purposes for this blog. I care about the results of that swing.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I feel Mace (and likely other Jedi) knew about Order 66. Not as a genocide tool mind you, but they knew about it. Mace figured out that Palpatine was planning to use it as a genocide tool, he also concluded that if he had revealed himself as a Sith to Anakin he was planning to use it now. So he had to confront Palpatine directly right away, or risk nearly the entire Order being wiped out.

So my real question here is: Was the Order doomed from the moment he walked in that room?

Palpatine said it best himself: "The attempt on my life has left me scarred, but my resolve has never been stronger!"

The Senate seems to not doubt it whatsoever.

So, let's say for a moment that Palpatine placed too much faith in Anakin saving him and Mace finishes his swing. Killing Palpatine. Wiping the Sith from the galaxy, once and for all!

What happens then?

Unless the Jedi out and out lie, which I find doubtful, and destroy Palpatine's body and deny having anything to do with it (And say that the Jedi that accompanied Mace there are also "missing in action"), they're in a pretty tight spot. The Supreme Chancellor is dead, with a saber wound across his chest, his lightsaber which may have been some proof of his Sith affiliation was dropped out the window, and Mace is probably on a security holocam entering the office.

How is the Senate honestly going to react to this? After electing a new Chancellor are they really going to trust the Jedi again? As keepers of the peace? After they just assassinated the head of the galaxy during a time of war with basically the only thing they have backing them up is...

"He was a witch, we swear!
Now why don't you hand some power over to us so we can replace the senators that were on his side, k?"

... Yeah, I'm sure the Senate would have gone right along with that.

I think the Jedi Order might not have been wiped out. They'd certainly be dispersed and outlawed though. The Jedi were doomed pretty much from the moment Palpatine gained the power to "Execute Order 66" and was trusted by the Senate. Since Mace didn't kill him, the Jedi were wiped out. If Mace had killed him, the Senate would have taken action against the Order.

So was Yoda right and there was still a path for the Jedi to take?
Or am I right and the Jedi's doom was spelled as soon as Mace turned on his lightsaber, even without Anakin's interference.
What do you think?
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