Sepharih said:

What I dislike about this interpretation is that I feel it does an injustice to the emperor and mcdiarmid's performance. What I always took away from his performance was how unbelievably confident he was throughout the entire run of the movie. Every single scene with him he seems practically omniscient, every single piece of the world moving just as he expects it too, everything proceeding as planned....except for three times. The first is obvious. The second is his surprise at luke's arrival on endor. And the third:

"You've failed your highness. I am a Jedi....like my father before me."

"..........so be it......Jedi."

That moment is so powerful because you can see palpatine's huge incredible machinations and plans crumbling on his face...in realization that the one thing he never foresaw happening just did.....Luke chose the right path. He bet the farm on luke...and he lost.

.....at least that's how I always saw it.....

Then his overconfidence was truly his weakness!

To me, the story completely validated his performance. It wasn't simply that he wasn't smart enough, nor that the Jedi were clouding his Force powers, it's that he was so unbelievably confident and had gotten to a point that he was simply out of touch with his own ability to persuade.