Moment of Weakness: Mace Windu

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Lucasfilm, Ltd. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

"Moment of Weakness: Mace Windu"
by Christine Anderson

A Jedi cannot allow emotions to weaken or distract him. A Jedi is meant to stand above such things, beyond them.

We are not meant to hold the bonds of old friendship so close that we cannot bring ourselves to do what must be done. We are not meant to let that sentiment blind us to the truth.

I did.

I believed that when Dooku left the Jedi, he did so, as he said, for reasons of philosophical differences. It is not common, but others have walked away without straying from the path of light. He was my friend. I took him at his word.

By the time we met again, in the arena at Geonosis, I should have come to accept and acknowledge his betrayal. But I could not. Oh, I knew what he had done, what he had become, but I could not face him and understand, take in the knowledge that this man, my friend, was of the Sith. That he had turned so far from what he once had been.

And when I could have turned the destiny of a galaxy by killing my friend- when I knew what was at stake, what would be if I did not-

No. That's not true. I thought that I understood what we faced. I thought I knew what war was. I did not.

Yet I could have kept the war at bay. I saw it, saw how the Separatists would crumble into nothing without his leadership. At that moment, it could have been so.

But emotion and sentiment stayed my hand, until it was too late.

That is my greatest weakness. I could not set aside my feelings when it was necessary.