Many years ago—or perhaps not so many years ago—the Emperor clearly remembered every memory he had gained after acquiring self-awareness.
Everything that had happened every day, every hour, every minute, even every second was stored in a memory akin to hyperthymesia, yet he could still sort out the past, present, and future. He had always remembered a discussion he once had with Nick Fury. When Nick Fury had asked why he loathed the Avengers so deeply that he refused to join them, the two had argued over what made a hero. It had happened half a year after the Battle of New York. Though the Avengers had nominally disbanded, everyone knew Nick Fury could gather those people again.
Their discussion had shifted from the nature of the Avengers as an organization to whether the Avengers ought to be disbanded. In Nick Fury's eyes at the time, the Emperor had been very young, but his thoughts had been far weightier than those of ordinary people. When a born orator, agitator, walking nuclear bomb, and incomprehensible being was given dangerous ideas, his potential for destruction far exceeded that of any registered superpowered individual—even Thor.
This memory was somewhat hazy to Nick Fury, but he still clearly remembered the danger in that conversation. At the time, Nick Fury had not yet given up on drawing the Emperor into his camp. He had tried to minimize potential future losses through conciliatory means. Yet when he saw the Emperor again, he found that matters had already spiraled beyond his control. Before then, no one had noticed the slightest clue. And what happened afterward was exactly as he had anticipated: the Emperor riding a horse into the UN Security Council with a sword in hand was destined to go down in history.
"Steve Rogers is a