Star Wars: Palpatine Was a Great Politician, But He Sucked at One Thing
The Dark Side was so close to victory.
There's hardly a Star Wars fan who would argue that Palpatine was not an exceptional politician and a witty manipulator. However, there was one thing Darth Sidious could have been better at.
According to Redditor sammyjamez, Palpatine was not the best military strategist. His defense choices were not as outstanding as his devious political plans, especially when he finally became the emperor.
Among the military mistakes Palpatine made, the fan listed replacing the Clone Troopers into Storm Troopers, lack of hierarchy planning, and too much "fear and propaganda". Besides, it was weird that Palpatine basically forgot his own Force gift and never made sure to turn it into an advantage.
"If the Force allowed people to do many things, even people who were not the Jedi, how come he did not recruit Force users or Magick users? How come he did not develop other Force skills such as visions of the future or a special sense for danger from long afar?" the fan wondered.
According to other fans who weighed in on the discussion, Palpatine became the victim of his own propaganda, delving too much into politics and ideology instead of actually developing the military. Others suggested that Darth Sidious must have believed that he had already won, which is why he did not put too much effort into his military force.
After all, who wants an evil emperor who is capable of handling everything perfectly? Palpatine's mistakes made sure we all received a happy ending; besides, it is good proof that manipulation and political thinking are not always everything.