Palpatine, for all his power, all his ability to pull the strings of government, his charisma as a senator, and his scheming as Emperor was not a flawless or insurmountable genius. If you strip away all these aspects and all his mystical powers, what you are left with is the real Palpatine. An arrogant, vicious, petty man. A man so utterly determined to rule the galaxy in as oppressive a manner as possible and yet, simultaneously, so full of wounded pride that even the smallest acts of rebellion or rejection produced violent responses.
