Force: I think that Luke at this point should have surpassed Sidious in raw power given his potential and the years he's had to unlock it. Sidious's duel with Windu sort of sets the precedent that his lightning can roughly be resisted at point blank range by someone with a lightsaber either comparable to him (if his vaapad work was still functioning) or pretty significantly weaker (if it had dissipated), and indeed redirected back on him. Granted, Windu was taking advantage of his superconducting loop, but I think Luke's superior position relative to Palpatine's abilities compared to Windu's would compensate for that advantage. So Palpatine won't overwhelm him with lightning - he'll likely fatigue faster if he tries (he may have exaggerated his weakness but his face was actually getting burned). Force storms probably aren't practical at this distance, and Luke's UnuThul resistance feat makes it unlikely that TK would do anything for Sidious.
Luke, meanwhile, can use electric judgment, which Sidious probably won't anticipate, telekinesis, of which he has better showings, illusions, shatterpoint, force sever, force light, etc. I think he's going to win given his superior power and breadth of abilities.
Sabers: End of DE Luke can beat Palpatine with the aid of Leia "unlocking hidden resources" in him. He doesn't even seem to notice that she'd doing this until she points it out. Would a half-trained Leia's battle meditation unlock potential in Luke that 30+ years couldn't have done? I highly doubt that; battle meditation isn't that potent, even among experts in the technique. So Luke by FotJ is probably capable of solidly beating Palpatine.
All-out: put the above two together.
Originally posted by The Ellimist
Force: I think that Luke at this point should have surpassed Sidious in raw power given his potential and the years he's had to unlock it. Sidious's duel with Windu sort of sets the precedent that his lightning can roughly be resisted at point blank range by someone with a lightsaber either comparable to him (if his vaapad work was still functioning) or pretty significantly weaker (if it had dissipated), and indeed redirected back on him. Granted, Windu was taking advantage of his superconducting loop, but I think Luke's superior position relative to Palpatine's abilities compared to Windu's would compensate for that advantage. So Palpatine won't overwhelm him with lightning - he'll likely fatigue faster if he tries (he may have exaggerated his weakness but his face was actually getting burned). Force storms probably aren't practical at this distance, and Luke's UnuThul resistance feat makes it unlikely that TK would do anything for Sidious.Luke, meanwhile, can use electric judgment, which Sidious probably won't anticipate, telekinesis, of which he has better showings, illusions, shatterpoint, force sever, force light, etc. I think he's going to win given his superior power and breadth of abilities.
Sabers: End of DE Luke can beat Palpatine with the aid of Leia "unlocking hidden resources" in him. He doesn't even seem to notice that she'd doing this until she points it out. Would a half-trained Leia's battle meditation unlock potential in Luke that 30+ years couldn't have done? I highly doubt that; battle meditation isn't that potent, even among experts in the technique. So Luke by FotJ is probably capable of solidly beating Palpatine.
All-out: put the above two together.