But he didn't need precognition to fix that battle, he just needed the ability to sense Anakin's presence approaching and throw the fight at the right moment. That doesn't necessarily mean he would have won the fight with Mace otherwise - he did seem to be backing up thoughout, and was about to be pushed to the wall.Darth Wong wrote:You know, you can make all the efforts you want in order to show that Palpatine wanted to set up that general situation, but you will never prove that he planned it to turn out exactly the way it did. You will never prove it because it's utter bullshit. If Palpatine had such perfect precognition of every variable, he wouldn't have fucking died in ROTJ.
And Palpatine didn't need perfect precognition of every variable to ensure that the general event occured the way he wanted it too. Palpatine's cunning was never about seeing the future, it was about being able to take advantage of what ended up happening. He sent Anakin off with the intention of turning Palpatine in to the Jedi. He must have known that they would be coming soon anyway, to request he lay down his emergency powers. All he needs to do is make sure he doesn't die. Consider alternative outcomes:
Anakin doesn't show up. Palpatine would continue his "plead for his life" act, and be put under arrest. From there you still would have the "Jedi taking over" aspect to work over Anakin with. The Senate would have a shitstorm (beloved leader betrayed by evil unelected Jedi!), and popular opinion would turn against the Jedi. Order 66 and Anakin's fall might come a few days later, but Palpatine would still come out on top. This one's hard to work with, but Palpatine is arrogant enough to consider it unlikely, while simultaneously smart enough to know what to do if it happens, unless he gets too mad and trys the zappy thing while he should be pleading for his life.
Or Anakin shows up with Mace to arrest the Chancellor. He'd have to be trickier here - can't go with "I AM THE SENATE" in that creepy voice of yours and expect to seduce this idealistic young man - but either he surrenders and goes the way he did above, or tries to manipulate the Jedi into fighting him under more ambiguous circumstances than the one surrounding the even that actually happened. There's risk here, but then there's risk everywhere.
More ideally, Palpatine beats Mace before Anakin shows up. From there he can make it look like he was beaten to within an inch of his life, and guess what? Same thing happens. This was probably what Palps was going for, being arrogant enough and all that to think he can dispose of Mace without too much problem.
One of the trickiest possibilities would be if Anakin showed up while Palpatine was in his psycho catbeast mode. But would Palpatine let that happen? Would he be able to sense Anakin coming in battle frenzy? I find it hard to believe that Palpatine would not pay all attention to Anakin, the very shatterpoint of his plot. At any rate even were that the case Palpatine would probably start to throw the fight right there. Anakin's stupid enough to forget that Palpy was a snarling man-beast when he entered if it ends up that the Evil Jedi is holding a saber over the wounded and deformed body of My Beloved Mentor.
Now, assuming for a second that Palpatine didn't thow that fight at all, he could either have been carted off and arrested, saved by Anakin, or killed, if he chose to make the grievous mistake of provoking Mace without his new apprentice to protect him. We'd have to get into his mind to figure that out, but I like to think he was smarter than that.
Of course, it could have ended right there, if Anakin didn't decide to stop Mace, but that confrontation was the crucial moment any way you look at it.
