Darth Sidious vs. Scar vs. Azula: A Battle of Manipulation

[Supreme Evil]

The combatants are:

Darth Sidious of Star Wars.
Scar from The Lion King.
Azula from Avatar the Last Airbender.

The rules are:
They are all average citizens in a monarchy
None of them is aware of the other two
None have any special combat abilities, forcing them to rely on their wits alone
They are in completely different parts of the country
The winner is the first one to depose the monarch and take over
If you have a question about any rules I may have forgotten, I am the supreme authority on them

To be honest, I have no idea which one of these three magnificent manipulators will win this.

[Moff Chumley]

How, exactly, can a lion be an average member of a monarchy?

[Supreme Evil]

How, exactly, can a lion be an average member of a monarchy?

They are all normal humans in this. Except for their manipulative genius, of course.

[Mr. Scaly]

As much as I adore the other two...I have to give this one to Palpatine. With Scar and Azula there's no doubt that they're evil. Heck, even by their voices you can tell they're villains. But you literally can't tell anything about Palpatine. Everything he ever did was a lie and the only person to find out, Anakin, did so because he TOLD him.

[Saithis Bladewing]

As much as I adore the other two...I have to give this one to Palpatine. With Scar and Azula there's no doubt that they're evil. Heck, even by their voices you can tell they're villains. But you literally can't tell anything about Palpatine. Everything he ever did was a lie and the only person to find out, Anakin, did so because he TOLD him.

And nobody knows how many lies and deceptions the things he told Anakin were peppered with.

[Mr. Scaly]

And nobody knows how many lies and deceptions the things he told Anakin were peppered with.

Yep. Everything about Palpatine is so deeply buried in lies that it's impossible to unravel them all.

[Gungnir]

I'm going to give it to Pulpy for experience. I think Azula could definitely give him a run for his money in say 20 years, but right now she isn't quite well tempered enough to take the Gold Medal of Magnificent Bastardry(Bastarditude?). Scar is definitely the Bronze in this one. His plot was pretty much just "kill the royal line". He was made leader by default. And then everything fell apart quite quickly.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

A better Battle of Manipulators would be Senator Palpatine vs Prof. Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes series. No using the Force, that's too easy.

[Metal Head]

Considering the fact that lions have fairly low IQs, and I don't know a thing about avatar, I'd have to give it to the sith lord. Seriously, Scar was only any good because all the lions happened to be stupider. A redneck could out-manipulate scar.

[Anteros]

I'd also like to see this. The king knows that some people are trying to overthrow him, so he hires L (From death note fame) to root them out. I think he could give Palpy a run for his money. Or at the very least it would be fun to watch.

[H. Zee]

As much as I adore the other two...I have to give this one to Palpatine. With Scar and Azula there's no doubt that they're evil. Heck, even by their voices you can tell they're villains. But you literally can't tell anything about Palpatine. Everything he ever did was a lie and the only person to find out, Anakin, did so because he TOLD him.

Meh, I think Azula could match him there. She lies with her whole body - even Toph, a walking lie detector, couldn't tell if she was lying or not. Also, the show has proven that Azula is incredibly believable when lying to those who don't already know she's evil (like when she pretended to be Suki in order to penetrate Ba Sing Se).

I'm still not sure who'd win this between Palpy and Azula, but don't dismiss Azula's lying skills like that. Remember, as the viewer, we usually know when she's lying - the characters don't.

EDIT: I said 'lying' WAY too often for my own good there.

[Caewil]

You could be right. Quite a bit of Palpatine's skill in manipulation came from his ability to read people using the force and to predict the future with his visions. Without that, he's essentially matched with Azula. Plus, much of his plan involved being in the senate in the first place. I think it's a draw, until we get some more information about this hypothetical kingdom.

[Eita]

Azula and Sidious both start their plot on the same night. The machinations interfere with each other and after ten or so years they both try again at the same time. However, this time they find each other and combine their manipulative genius to take care of the king once and for all. The House of Horrors should be able to cook up what happens after they win.

Oh, and the entire time Scar is looking for a gorge and some wildebeests to stampede.