A friend of mine once asked me a question, she said that how I answred it would determine if I was a true Star Wars fan. It's kind of a simple-but-makes-you-think type of question. She asked: Why does the Emperor have a cane? It's kind of silly, but what do you think the answer is. Then I'll tell you what I think it is.
I figure the Emperor uses a cane (in public, though, notice he wasn't using it in the Throne Room) to put opponents off their guard, giving the impression that he's just a feeble old man when in fact he could wipe them out ("All of them.") with little effort. So why does Yoda use a cane? Because he's 900 years old (give or take a decade). Actually, he probably has similar reasonings, but Yoda is probably less concerned with ambushing enemies and more into getting a better sense of those around him; people tend to relax and act a bit more natural when the Jedi Master is a little old guy with a cane.
That's exactly what I thought. I mean the man is a politician, if their is one thing he knows its how to manipulate and decive people. Appearing to be a weak would give him an advantage (whether he needed it or not)! Most people I ask just say that he is an old man and needs it, then I laugh at them. If there is anyone in the galaxy that doesn't need that cane, its him.
I do think he needs it, he isn't exactly running around like a spring chicken, as powerful as he may be.
It's true, the darkside energy has rotted his body, but he could have simple floated around. But for reasons perviously said he doesn't. His body may be frail but his power would more then make up for that. In books I have read, Vader would try to heal himself with the darkside and for a brief second he would be able to breath but then he would lose it from happiness. The Emperor would have no such problems.
"Shadows of the Empire"...that was probably one of the best books written. It's kind of hard to say if he needed the cane or cane or not. I think he did because of the phsyical decay the Dark Side took on his body, and - if you had that kind of power, would you waste it on parlor tricks like floating around, or completely occupy yourself keeping tabs on all of your minions as described about him in the first "Thrawn" series? Let's face it, with the ability to strike someone down with the wave of a hand, why attempt to appear weak and feeble to throw them off.
He didn't need to decieve the people near him. But appearence would have been everything to the huge masses of the Empire. Most citizins no longer belived that the force or the Jedi were real. The Emperor all but erased them from history. Had the Emperor (or Vader) publicly been a Sith it would have caused a great uproar with the citizans. The people even belived that he had nothing to do with the first Death Star, and that it was all Tarkin. He was a politian to the core. He controled the people, by controling what they knew.
