snooker made a few tests with the Theed palace waaay in the background of one shot, and also a shot of an elder head in the background of another shot, but I don’t think anything was ever really finalized with that.

A random thought that I know I’ve brought up before, but I wonder if anyone had ideas to emphasize that Palpatine in TROS is literally all the Sith, and not just Palpatine. He mentions that all of the Sith live in him once and says he is all the Sith, but it is never really brought up besides that, despite it having huge implications. I feel like if that revelation was emphasized more, it could intensify the threat of his return, and make his return more inevitable. It’s almost like before his “death” his identity was pretty contained to the man “Sheev Palpatine”, but after his “death”, the collective consciousness speaks through the shell of Palpatine.

I think back on ROTS, when Mace is killed and the mask of Palpatine is “shed” and the true face of Sidious is revealed. When Sidious gives Anakin the name Darth Vader, Sidious has this guttural, inhuman sound to his voice that I always found unnerving. To me, this could be recontextualized as the Sith spirit showing itself for a brief moment. Or perhaps Palpatine was always that “spirit”, his wrinkled face is his true face, and Palpatine was merely a mask throughout the prequels.

I just think having Palpatine’s voice being layered with multiple voices, sort of like the Avatar State in Avatar: The Last Airbender could add to that side of this character. You wouldn’t have to use this effect the entire movie, but maybe when Palpatine says the line, “as all of the Sith live in me”, and after he transforms into “Sidious” at the climax of the film.

It would also deemphasize the dumb “House Skywalker vs House Palpatine” dynamic they tried to force in this film. The antagonist of the film isn’t really Palpatine. It’s too bad they basically refer to him only as Palpatine throughout the film. Not Sidious, not the Sith, etc.