Theres This Thing About Palpatine That People Often Leave Out And Its That Hes Not Only Clever, The Cast

theres this thing about palpatine that people often leave out and its that hes not only clever, the cast of PT and OT is populated with clever characters who struggle to get anywhere, but somehow in a world ravaged by the plague of emotional incompetence, hes somehow the only one who has ever glimpsed the dreaded feelings wheel. he understands the power of a growth mindset, he understands affirmations, hes the only one making connections such as bad childhood -> struggling to be a stable adult. never forget that the jedi council could literally hear anakin say "i burn like a sun on the inside and also if i dont recklessly endanger my own life the demons will get me" and theyre like hmm sounds like someone is a little bored, sounds like something to do would sort you out. you wanna have a mission??? you wanna have a mission?? here, have a mission! good boy, enjoy your first kill! and then 10 years later the grand entrance of darth vader is a fucking m night shyamalan plot twist to them. meanwhile palpatine zeroed in on the cause and effect of every vulnerability and intrusive thought anakin has ever had from the beginning. people say all the time the jedi practice [insert therapy practice] but really, its palpatine. the key to palpatine tho is that he uses this for evil. hes doing evil cbt out there. "i am capable of choosing evil" "my master 100% hates me for real" "the judgemental eye of my superiors is upon me at all times" "every attempt at surpassing the circle of violence & death i was born into will crumble to dust in my hands" "people cannot be reasoned with and are inherently selfish" are a few select s. palpatine approved affirmations you can practice by yourself!! each time he and anakin had a meeting (a session if you will) he immediately made him talk about whats going on in his life and how that makes him feel and then skillfully made it worse. he had anakin doing sithium when he should have been doing lithium but you gotta account that even doing this kinda twisting on purpose still means he needed a good understanding of how people work to begin with. in the PT everyone is trying to ignore the small, petty day to day issues they have because not being strongly affected is the easiest way to be lawfully good while palpatine remains the one singular person comprehending that those things can build up and thats why he wins. hes better at building distrust than the jedi are at building trust precisely because he works WITH feelings not against them. and THEN once hes consistently validated those feelings his advice will be to kill some kids about it