I suppose I imagined that he would play about as much a role as he did in the OT... virtually no screen time but mentioned quite a bit. I would have liked to have seen the Republic already essentially having gone to crap and being led by a more mysterious and naturally aged and ancient seeming Palpatine who had no direct connections to any other characters in the series.

One of my arguements with the PT is that in the short timeframe of the three films Lucas tried to show too much and put too much of the focus on the politics. It just seemed rushed to me- Senator to Chancellor to Emporer... I would have liked to have more of a feeling of the *history* of it all. As it plays out they *mention* Jedi history but don't really get into it and the Republic is painted to be essentially a normally operating government that one creepy guy can undermine with a few choice words here and there. Also like I mentioned the connections between characters in the PT just served to shrink the SW Universe in my mind- I saw no reason (plot wise or logically) that Palpatine had to be from the same planet as Padme in a similar way to whyever Anakin had to be on Tatooine and have created C3PO... what are there like 3 whole planets in the Republic?

And I'm not trying to start a big PT dispute, just stating what I would have liked to have seen.