Did Palpatine's death on Endor really help defeat the Empire?

Suppose Palpatine escaped the second death star. How would that have made the rebels lose at all? If Hitler survived the battle of berlin, would the allies have lost? No. The allies were winning anyway, they already defeated the german military forces. The same thing with the rebels defeating the Empire.

However

Some SW fans told me that Palpatine's death helped the rebels win the war because in the EU, the only reason the empire was winning against the rebels was because of Palpatine controlling them through Battle Meditation. Is that true?

Is it true that when Palpatine died, the empire automatically lost the war because they needed his battle meditation?

Was the Empire really so innefficent that they needed Palpatine controlling them with Battle meditation to win?

Yes, he was using Battle Meditation on the entire fleet. Yes, once he died the Imperial forces collapsed into disarray. Yes, losing the Emperor and Vader meant they lost, partly because the rest of the Moffs and such divided into a bunch of petty warlords.

Originally posted by PhoenixSam5
Suppose Palpatine escaped the second death star. How would that have made the rebels lose at all? If Hitler survived the battle of berlin, would the allies have lost? No. The allies were winning anyway, they already defeated the german military forces. The same thing with the rebels defeating the Empire.

However

Some SW fans told me that Palpatine's death helped the rebels win the war because in the EU, the only reason the empire was winning against the rebels was because of Palpatine controlling them through Battle Meditation. Is that true?

Is it true that when Palpatine died, the empire automatically lost the war because they needed his battle meditation?

Was the Empire really so innefficent that they needed Palpatine controlling them with Battle meditation to win?

Pretty much.

Palpatine's death + the loss of the Executor + the destruction of the Death Star II = Empire was boned big time. Even without the introduction of Battle Meditation, the chain of command was completely in shambles at that point.

Ok, let's put battle meditation aside for a moment, and assume the combat would've gone as-is...

With Palpatine alive, he still has more fleet elsewhere and they'll act under his command with unified purpose.

With Palpatine dead, the number one priority of the Empire is to figure out who's in charge next. There's a power vacuum that divided the empire, he previous played different factions against each other to keep them under control, and the only other person that could've really taken over is Vader.

The Battle of Endor killed so much of the Empire's higher ups. Some of their best admirals, the Emperor himself, Vader, etc..

Personally, I think that if Thrawn had been in the known Galaxy at the time, he could have taken over and crushed the rebels.

One of my favorite SW characters ever <3