Originally Posted by
MammonAzrael
In that light, it make's Palpatine seem much less foolhardy. In fact, it makes me feel like Palpatine wasn't really trying to get Luke to change sides at all. Rather, he was trying to get Luke to do the same thing Anakin did to the Sand People...just a step down a darker path, not a cannonball.
Extrapolating, had Luke given in to his anger, I could see Palpatine glorying in it, rubbing it in, and subduing Luke when he came to his senses. Then engineering his escape in such a way that he continues to take steps down the path to the Dark Side.