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How to make the disfigurement of Palpatine's face?

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Hi guys. Lately I've been thinking about the characters appearance, and I've still thinking how to make Palpatine has the deformed face that he has in ROTJ.

From my thoughts, there are three options:

  • Make the dark side wear the body and if the user is so immersed in the dark side can even make changes in the body like deformations, etc.
  • Like the original prequels, that he leaves to be deformed or after an attack, he survives, but his face is deformed.
  • That in his past, he was a general, and his face deformations were some old war wounds.

What are your thoughts? What are your own ideas? Please let me know. Thanks.

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I'm going with the idea that his total devotion to the dark side has caused his bodies* to prematurely age and deteriorate at an accelerated rate.

 

*I'm also running with the idea from Dark Empire that Palpatine's had to transfer his spirit into clone bodies to keep himself alive. 

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I'd just have him older in the prequels, so by the time of Jedi he seems ancient. He uses the dark side to keep his frail, aging body going.

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 (Edited)

He uses the dark side to prolong his life. The deformities are a result of this dark side use. The Making of books for ESB and ROTJ make it clear that this was the intent in 1980 and 1983.

Vozlov said:

He uses the dark side to keep his frail, aging body going.

This.

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Before the prequels existed I always just assumed he was an "alien". I never gave it any more thought other than that the yellow eyes, pale skin and lumpy bumps were down to him not being human. Did anyone else here ever make the same assumption?

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One theory.

No seriously, I agree that I always thought he was just really old and full of the Dark Side.

The blue elephant in the room.

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In much the same way that Darth Vader was a metaphor for mechanization, Palpatine can be seen as a metaphor for gentrification. Both have weird-looking faces which reflect these themes.

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I remember reading somewhere he was like 200 years old. I, like everyone else, thought he was using the Force to keep his frail body alive and that use of the dark side ruins your physical appearance as it does the man inside.