Was the Emperor's overconfidence really his weakness?

The reactor shaft/low railing combo was an intentional choice. It was so he could save fuel by powering the reactor with his lightning. The man was an environmentalist, after all.

 

He was a student of Al Gore.

 

His lack of military experience is something that often comes up ...

As an astute politico and puppet-master Palps never really got a hands on feel for the military.

Folks bring up "A legion of my best troops" as a critical point where Palps seems quite ignorant of the capabilities of his forces.

For God's sake, the man never even knew of the new B-Wing class that upped the ante on fighter craft - and threw the Imperial Navy in a hard spot at Endor. (A gaff many compare to an overconfident Goring throwing his ME-109s against Spitfires)

 

I think he was blinded by his own agenda. He was so focused on being the single most powerful ruler he never felt a Shift in Anakin/Vader. That lead to his fall.

 

Yeah, that's where his overconfidence became the weakness that led to his death. Palpatine was overconfident that Vader was a broken shell who'd never make a move against him, though as he found out that was an inaccurate assumption.

 

By ROTJ, yes, I do think that overconfidence is his weakness but in ROTS, no, because he tries to leave his fight with Yoda, so I don't see overconfidence in him then but I think after decades of things going his way it does become his weakness.

 

^ Yes...

 

Yeah, it was essentially complacency. Stay at something like that long enough without anything you deem to be a real credible threat then when the real credible threat comes, you're going to disregard it and eventually find yourself falling down a bottomless pit.

 

I think there might be several reasons while Palps didn't see Vader kill him.

1. He saw Vader as a sick man (as per the Dark Empire series) that was a weak shell of a man. It came from Lucasfilm that Vader could never use Force Lighting (and we saw why, it would destroy his suit and kill him), so that gives the Emperor one very sure way of controlling his apprentice.

2. He had everything go his way for such a long time that it didn't even occur to him that something might not go his way anymore. His tempting of Anakin to Vader was a masterful move that took over ten years to come to fruitation. His plan to convert Luke took what, all of ten minutes to try? He should have known after the duel at Cloud City that Luke would have rathered died then turn to the dark side.

3. Betrayal is the way of the Sith. We don't have to look any further then Palps for proof of that. He discarded Count Dooku without a though, without remorse. He killed his own master, Darth Plegious (I know I mispelled it) the Wise, in his sleep. He was planning on betraying Lord Vader at Endor, as well. Vader knew it too, and both Palpatine and Vader knew the winner of the combat in his throne room would get to serve the emperor as his apprentice. The other would be dead.

4. Back to Darth Plegious. If he knew how to use the midi-clorians to create life, then I would supposed seeing in the future is no harder for him then us drinking a glass of water. Even Luke could do it during his training on Dagobah. Maybe, just maybe, the Force uses both the light and the dark side to get done what it feels needs to be done. As Palpatine's master couldn't see his death, maybe part of the Force is that it doesn't let you see when you will die, but it protects you from accidently death or 'untimely' death (untimely as in if the Force still has a use for you). Maybe that's why Palpatine didn't feel Luke arravial to the Endor system. And that could be why he didn't feel the conflict inside of Ana-Vader during the duel and its aftermath.