Quackula said:

I know this is about the prequels, and in a way trying to make sense of some of the aspects of those films is futile, but...

Is Palpatine's true identity supposed to be that obvious? I honestly can't tell...

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I didn't think it was obvious either.

I thought that Palpatine was a clone of The Emperor and when the time came he was going to replace him. The clone was evil and doing the bidding of the Emperor. That way the Jedi couldn't sense Palpatine as a Sith Lord. Because in the original trilogy there was a lot of sensing going on. Darth Vader sensed Obi-Wan and in the trench run knew Luke was strong in the force.

It stood to reason that if Palpatine was the Emperor he would be picked out by the Jedi pretty quickly.

Appropriately Yoda has to explain to the audience that the Dark side clouds everything. Fixed the problem there with that one line.

After watching The Phantom Menace I thought that the Clone Wars was referring to the fact that Palpatine was a clone and he starts a war. Only after watching Attack of The Clones (or hearing the title) that I realised this was wrong as well.