Tiriol wrote:Being a Sith certainly helped, but not even Force powers can give someone such command of political, bureaucratic
Nope, but surrounding yourself with a talented staff who are too terrified to act in any way not in your interest, does. And political abilities
and military fields as Palpatine had.
Objection. Pre-wank Palpatine has demonstrated all the military leadership abilities of a turtle. And not a teenage mutant ninja one, either.
His writings on the nature of power were read throughout the galaxy's universities
After he achieved power. Mien Kamph is utter idiocy, and barely literate, but it was widely read.
and he was known to make friends in right places.
Forsight plus mind trick goes a long way.
It is certain that he would most likely ever had achieved the position of the Supreme Chancellor - not at least in the same manner as shown in the movies and EU - true; saying otherwise would be highly deceptive. However, as Publius noted in the Domus Publica, Palpatine was intelligent and had a certain charisma.
Which can certainly be attributed at least in part to his force ability. Even latent force ability is known to manifest as enhanced charisma, IIRC.
As much as it is false to say that Palpatine's achievements did not need his position as the reigning Sith Master, it is also false to say that he was not a political and bureaucratic genius, or nearly one.
Or simply very determined, and posessed of superhuman foresight, which would go a
long way as a cause of that.
Palpatine, however, had clear signs of foolhard bravery: he used himself as a bait in both RotS (although he was in very secure position then, since both sides were practically his lackies, but he did still make a dangerous move - General Grievous's ship might have been destroyed while Palpatine was still on it etc.)
And that's even assuming Dooku didn't decide to vent the atmosphere of the room he was in or some such.
and in RotJ (which showed how arrogant he had become). However, WotC's Dark Side Sourcebook clearly states that Palpatine had become so arrogant, self-possessed and, some might say, insane that he refused to listen to any words of caution: he did not heed the warnings of his military advisors, the Prophets of the Dark Side, or of Lord Vader himself. He had a strong Hitleric element in him then.
He always was a Hitler clone, but with force power, instead of Hitler's immense personal magnetism and passion.
But, still, I do agree that Palpatine's career was grealty influenced and helped by his studies of the Force; however, the Force cannot make someone a good politician:
Force foresight can. It would let him get in first in any debate, and see who would win any vote. That's a massive advantage in politics.
Darth Malak was noted to be a brute interested in the destruction of the entire Republic and its infrastructure causing much devastation and stopping his own forces from taking over those facilities, and he is not a sole represantive of the Force-users blind to the subleties of politics, diplomacy and bureaucracy.
Indeed not, but Palpatine seems to have focussed his efforts on using foresight (to the point of believing it infallible) and 'shrouding.' Malak, to my understanding, was just a brute.
And a distinguished career as a Senator is nothing to scoff at, in any case: only the Supreme Chancellor wields more power in politics.
I wouldn't say so. There are certainly likely to be many steps between Supreme Chancellor and ordinary senator. The Republic presumably has an entire cabinet, for example.
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