“I try to get inside their heads and figure out,
“Who are these people?" and, "What kind of situations can they be in where they're having the most difficulty?" I don't know if you've read the Mace Windu Clone Wars digest (ages ago), but really, with that one, I approached it as--again, Mace Windu is kind of the flip side of Darth Maul; he's this guy who shows up and says, "the party's over" -- y'know, he's pretty much unstoppable.”
It also compliments what he said about believing Maul despite being weaker than Dooku and Vader still stands beside them through sheer force of will.
“His power isn’t on Vader’s level, true, or even on Count Dooku’s level — but that never stops him. He stands alongside the Sith Lords only by sheer force of will."
Their sheer willpower is what makes them such as threat even towards those who seem more powerful than them.
I think Mace vs Palpatine is a prime example of this. Now Mace Windu isn’t as strong as Yoda with even Mace himself admitting to it, however Windu unlike most Jedi is extremely passionate. Mace Windu is one of the few Jedi in Star Wars that can draw upon their passion with using the darkside, hence his creation of Vaapad. The further draws the parallels between Windu and Maul, where both use form 7 which involves aggression and unpredictability. Yet Windu is able to use that in service of the light.
In his fight with Palpatine, he’s drive and passion to save the republic proved stronger than Palpatine’s selfishness and quest for domination. Windu was fighting with everything to lose which pushed him to go well and beyond his limit.
It proves that passion isn’t inherently toxic and that passion towards selfless goals can be far stronger than selfish passion. You can say thats why Maul still lost to Sidious even when he fully embraced his passion towards vengeance. It’s an example of why the lightside will always be stronger than the dark, because selfless emotions are far stronger than selfish ones. That speaks true even in real life regardless being selfless vs being selfish.