Darth Sidious question - **RotS Spoilers**

[Desdichado]

So, when Palpatine's face goes from the regular Ian McDiarmid to the "super make-up" Ian McDiarmid Emperor look, what is really going on? There are two schools of thought, and as near as I can tell, neither is contradicted by the movies, so it's speculation time:

1. Just like Palpatine says, the lightning rebounding on him really does deform and deface him. Problems with this include the fact that lightning doesn't actually cause your face to get all wrinkly and leathery, and did not when it hit anyone else in the movies either, as in Luke in RotJ. A twist on this theory is that Palpatine was actually in some serious danger from Mace Windu after all (as opposed to mostly putting on a play for Anakin's benefit) and so was channelling the Dark Side of the Force so strongly that he literally became corrupted and mutated before our very eyes.
2. That was his face all along, and he just revealed it at a carefully considered point in his plot to gain sympathy against the Jedi with both Anakin and the Senate. His nice face was just a disguise to cover up the fact that he was a warped and corrupted Sith Lord.

Which do you favor? Or do you have a variant?

 

[ShinHakkaider]

So, when Palpatine's face goes from the regular Ian McDiarmid to the "super make-up" Ian McDiarmid Emperor look, what is really going on? There are two schools of thought, and as near as I can tell, neither is contradicted by the movies, so it's speculation time:

1. Just like Palpatine says, the lightning rebounding on him really does deform and deface him. Problems with this include the fact that lightning doesn't actually cause your face to get all wrinkly and leathery, and did not when it hit anyone else in the movies either, as in Luke in RotJ. A twist on this theory is that Palpatine was actually in some serious danger from Mace Windu after all (as opposed to mostly putting on a play for Anakin's benefit) and so was channelling the Dark Side of the Force so strongly that he literally became corrupted and mutated before our very eyes.
2. That was his face all along, and he just revealed it at a carefully considered point in his plot to gain sympathy against the Jedi with both Anakin and the Senate. His nice face was just a disguise to cover up the fact that he was a warped and corrupted Sith Lord.

Which do you favor? Or do you have a variant?

I like 1.

 

[Mystery Man]

Ah I posed another question on another thread relating to this. To me, its pretty obvious that he was faking helplessness only to get Anakin to finally turn. Am I alone in this?

I'm for option 2. In other scenes before III you can get hints with little glimpses of his face. You can tell that he's already deformed.

 

[demiurge1138]

I think it's a combination of the first two poll options. The lightning that blasted him didn't so much cause the deformation directly so much as cause an overload of the Dark Side in his body, forcing it to visibly manifest.

I also liked how he actually managed to use his hideousness to gain sympathy from the Senate. A nice touch.

Demiurge out.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I could accept either. Although largely hidden, when he was appearing as Sidious to his various flunkys via hologram, it hinted that his face was already somewhat deformed, lending credence to the disguise theory.

FWIW, I think Windu was really kicking his ass. Mace was supposed to be the premier Jedi warrior, whereas Yoda was more the wise thinking type, and Yoda seemed evenly matched with Sidious.

 

[fett527]

Number 2. He was deformed all along. I loved it when he put the hood over his face and looked just like he did in Jedi.

 

[Hand of Evil]

He was already deformed; his regular face was a disguise. He used the dark side of the force (or tech which was blasted from the lightning) to keep his true appearance unknown. Bad guys do it all the time.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I went into episode III that it was already deformed and I left episode III thinking the same thing…

He may have given up his mask cause he could no longer maintain it do to the vast amounts of power that he was using for the force lighting or like much of the man himself he might have plotted so far in advance that it was planned but he wasn’t at all shocked at what had become of himself…

 

[Psion]

I think its a combination of choices 2 and 3.

He's appeared that way before... just never in public. Obviously, using the dark side warps him. He can disguise himself, but it's an effort.

 

[Dagger75]

Well in the noveliazation its closer to 1. Mace redirected the lighting and it started burning and maiming the Palapitine.