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Mace Windu gets intelligence that Palpatine is the "Sith Lord". Windu goes to Palpatine's quarters to confront/arrest him. Mace Windu brings three jedi with him. Confrontation scene dialogue ends with Palpatine Sidious saying ". . . so it is treason then." Sidious whips out a light saber and instantly slays three of the jedi, leaving Mace Windu to confront him on his own.

Ignoring the fact that the Jedi have been dumbasses all through Episodes I- III (Clone army, Sith lord right next to them, por treatment of Anikan), let's examine the death of those three "duputy" jedi (Windu can play sheriff).

Those three "deputy" jedi die nearly instantaneously. They do not block, dodge nor cross swords with Sidious. They are just struck down like little newbie jedi. Mace Windu is either unable or unwilling to protect them from Sidious's attack. What are the possible explanations for this series of events?

1. Mace Windu and the deputies are surprised when the Darth Sidious doesn't come willingly.

2. The "sheriff" deputies aren't powerful enough to defend themselves against Sidious.

3. Lucas writes for crap (ok this is the real reason we all know, but we have to ingore it in favor of discovering a possible plausible explanation.)

If someone has an alternative hypothesis, I'd be happy to hear it. Let's take a look at theories 1 & 2.

1. Somehow, despite the fact that Mace Windu has had the foresight to bring a posse to confront and arrest Palpatine, they are surprised by him springing to action and resisting. They continue in the I-III tradition of being stupid dumbasses. Are they arresting a Sith Boy Scout? No. Are they arresting a Sith Sargeant? No. They are arresting a SITH LORD FFS! If I were going to arrest a Sith Lord, I wouild anticipate a little bit of resistance, wouldn't you? The idea that they are surprised by Palpatine's attack is absurd. (I suppose one might argue that they are caught off guard by the speed and ferocity of Palpatine's attack. But this is just a variation of the stupidity argument.) Which leads us to theory two . . .

2. Mace Windu, expecting a confrontation, brings backup - three jedi to help him confront the Sith Lord. Except, the three jedi are absolutely no help at all. Did he grab the newly graduated jedi? "You there? Welcome to the temple. Come with me to help arrest a sith lord. What's that? No, I'm not expecting any trouble, just routine arresting a Sith Lord. . ." Mace Windu would have been better off going alone than to bring three jedi that could not defend themselves nor be any help to him arresting Palpatine.

So, this scene still bothers me, because I can only make sense of it by calling the Jedi stupid, which I hate to do, as I have been been imagining the glories of jedi-dom since I was 8 years old.

Shame, for shame.

Does anyone have a better explanation?

After watching the original trilogy, I could imagine Vader busy in the Clone Wars and after, actively leading assault teams to search for and destroy rebellious Jedi and their allies.

He actually absorbed a blaster bolt with his bare hand. How uber is that?!?

However, after seeing Episode III, I am forced to conclude that Vader is really just a whiney wussbag, incapable of defeating real jedi, since he never defeated any worthy opponent singlehandedly.

Episode II - Dooku singlehandedly fights off and/or defeats Obi-wan, Aniken, and Yoda.

Episode III - Dooku is defeated by Aniken and Obi-wan. At first I thought this made young Skywalker very powerful. But Dooku must have spent some "mana" defeating Obi-Wan. And during his fight with Anikiken, the most powerful Dark Side wielder in the galaxy is sitting there doing nothing. Just MAYBE he's helping Aniken out a bit? So Aniken only defeats Dooku with the help of Obi-wan and Darth Sidious.

Aniken kills bunches of small children. Not much of a challenge there.

Obi-wan Kenobi defeats Aniken.

So name one powerful force wielder that Aniken/Darth Vader defeats?

Nada. Not a single one.

Every jedi that I can recall seeing in Episodes I - III is dead or accounted for (Kenobi & Yoda).

Since all the jedi and jedi disciples are dead ('cept for K & Y), who does Darth Vader have to search out and destroy?

This explains Vader's saber arts detoriation in Episode IV (according to an interview with Lucas). His and Obi-wan's skills suck because there have been no saber battles for 30 years.

If Vader had some success killing jedi, it all happened between movies. I & II should have been crammed into one movie and episode III could have been devoted to Darth Vader's missions for Darth Sidious, purging the galaxy of rebel scum (which would also give more than five minutes for the transition to "I should arrest you" to "Yes master, I will kill all the younglings."

I've been playing Star Wars as a role-playing game for about five years now and I couldn't help but think about a few things while watching Episode III last night. Some points I invite you to comment on:

Jedi Pilots - Do all Jedi have to be uber pilots? I see Kenobi wasn't as good as Aniken but he was still pretty darn good. The Jedi have a temple but I've never seen a single Jedi in flight school. My jedi character has a hard time keeping all his force skills up to par, let alone learning how to pilot a ship. Do all the Jedi fly ships?

Jedi Computer Experts - Once again the Jedi go into the Temple Database and alter the computers or change the settings. Does the Jedi temple use your "force user level" instead of "computer use" skill. My 14th level jedi character can barely turn a computer on let alone reset the temple transmitter in such a way that the badguys "would take a long time to discover".

Palpatine/ Sidious - I remember being about half way throught the movie and thinking "Cool, Sidious doesn't pick up a saber. The creators of this movie really showed some restraint. He can't the master of manipulation, plotting, and dark side energy manipulation AND kickass with a light saber." Obviously, I jumped the gun with this conclusion as he later picks a up a saber and strikes down three jedi like blades of grass. Were those level 3 jedi with Mace Windu that they just fall over? Why does Windu just stand there and let them get slain? Is he surprised that the Sith Lord is not just going to go peacefully?

Dark Side Points - Would Yoda get a dark side point for force pushing Sidioius? (Maybe they split that skill so it is ok.) I think Obi-wan would get a dark side point for leaving Aniken to die (probably his only one). How many dozens of dark side points does Aniken get for killing all those children?

R2D2 - Okay, R2 goes up in levels and adds electro-shocker and oil jetter to his rocket jets. This sequence of abilities might make sense from episodes I - III, but why does he lose so much capability for episodes IV - VI?

Jumping/Flying - It seems like all Jedi can jump around flip etc. ad nauseum. I don't think the rules really reflect this. The force speed rules are ok (no force speed in ROS). I think they need a feat called "Jedi Acrobatics" where you can spend a vitality point to do stuff that is extra cool and would normally require a saving throw. I know there is "force jump" feat or skill, but it seems like breaking all those activities into separate feats is really nerfing the way the jedi's act in the movies.

Just a few things. I'm sure I'll come up with more.