Info Wanted: Emperor Palpatine -- Sith form "reveal" vs. force lightning backfire?

Greetings,

In my opinion the force-lightning backfire felt like a simple shortcut for Lucas & Co. to explain Palpatine's white and wrinkly face.

For me, Palpatine's character throughout the Prequels was all about 'manipulation'. He manipulates the other characters in the films, he manipulates the Senate, he even manipulates the Jedi.

I brought this idea up in another forum topic: It would have been more interesting if he manipulated how others saw him using the Force to hide his true face. When Mace and the other Jedi came to arrest Palpatine, he would reveal his true face to them, catching the Jedi off guard and easily killing the other Jedi.

In the scene where he addresses the Senate after the incident, he again 'manipulates' them by saying that his deformed face was the result of a Jedi assault.

The ideal option would have been to continue Palpatine's physical decay from AOTC (something Lucas backtracked on causing a continuity error) so that he just looks the way he does in ROTJ because that process has just brought him there.

However seeing as Lucas thought his audience too stupid to fill in the blanks themselves and had to show Vader wearing a more perfect and less interesting version of his OT costume and have the wrinkly Emperor by his side he went down the route of having the Force lightning blowback explanation which is daft as neither Anakin,Mace, Yoda or Luke receive any facial warping from the full blast of direct Force lightning but Palpatine does on the rebound.

The transition effect is rubbish so I don't mind losing it on a technical level either.

The only problem it leaves is why doesn't Palpatine restore his false face and how does he explain it if he can't?

The obvious answer being he can't for some reason and he lies about being the victim of a Jedi assassination attempt and scarred.

Which then makes it seem to make as much sense that he is scarred.

In the end it all rests on the editors ability to pull the effect off because no form of tinkering (that I've read or seen) can make the scene make narrative sense thanks to Lucas.

The reveal was Kerr's idea. L8wrtr gave him full credit for it. Personally I think it's brilliant, one of the best edits I've ever seen in a fanedit.

I remember suggesting something along those lines for bobgarcia74's project and the Cutter's too.

Bingowings said:

The ideal option would have been to continue Palpatine's physical decay from AOTC (something Lucas backtracked on causing a continuity error) so that he just looks the way he does in ROTJ because that process has just brought him there.

However seeing as Lucas thought his audience too stupid to fill in the blanks themselves and had to show Vader wearing a more perfect and less interesting version of his OT costume and have the wrinkly Emperor by his side he went down the route of having the Force lightning blowback explanation which is daft as neither Anakin,Mace, Yoda or Luke receive any facial warping from the full blast of direct Force lightning but Palpatine does on the rebound.

The transition effect is rubbish so I don't mind losing it on a technical level either.

The only problem it leaves is why doesn't Palpatine restore his false face and how does he explain it if he can't?

The obvious answer being he can't for some reason and he lies about being the victim of a Jedi assassination attempt and scarred.

Which then makes it seem to make as much sense that he is scarred.

In the end it all rests on the editors ability to pull the effect off because no form of tinkering (that I've read or seen) can make the scene make narrative sense thanks to Lucas.

This is one of the best arguments against the 'canon' explanation of Palpatine's face.  In addition, what kind of Jedi assassination attempt leaves a man with a white, wrinkled face?  It's absurd.

I prefer the idea of Palpatine closing himself away after he declares himself Emperor (normal appearance intact), immersing himself completely in the study of the dark side, and handing over governing duties to the likes of Tarkin and other Imperials.  He gains his appearance through the degrading effect of the dark side as well as natural aging.  This was a pre-PT EU idea.  The general public never knows what he looks like as his appearance grows worse.  This also fits in with the original conception of the Emperor in the Star Wars novel.

Unfortunately, this can't come to pass with the footage we have available.  Kerr's idea might be the best we'll get.  However, BobGarcia had attempted to have Palpatine's face melt as soon as he revealed himself to Mace Windu.  It looked very promising.

chyron8472 said:

I watched L8wrtr's Ep. 3 "Dawn of the Empire" fan edit a few days ago, and in it he made Palpatine to "reveal" his "true form" (ie. white and wrinkly) instead of having his appearance change as a result of his force lightning rebounding on himself.

Now, I have an older version of Stankpac's edit (v3.1) which I considered as definitive except for the stupid Yoda-Dance DVD menu. This edit had Palpatine change appearance as a result of the lightning. When I got Stankpac's 3.2 version, the menu had changed but he had also changed Palpatine to "reveal" himself similar to L8wrtr. In his changelog, he gives credit to Kerr for it.

I think I like the force-lightning-rebound better because the movies (nevermind the extended universe) never discuss how being a Sith changes your appearance, nor do they allude to that Palpatine's appearance is false. As a result, his "reveal" is rather a WTF moment in my opinion. Why do so many people like a "reveal" better than a backfire?

What do you prefer and why?

That Anakin eye thing is anything but subtle. He turns and looks directly at the camera just to show it off!

So in this telling is Palpatine really some kind of shape shifting alien or does he throw a Dark Side disguise spell when he is being the kind old Chancellor?

It seems that I'm in the minority here among both OT and PT "fans", but I 've always though it was plain and boring natural aging. The Emperor is very old. He's, what, 90 by the time of RotJ ?

I've always thought, way before the PT, that he was very old and just like Yoda his strength in the Force kept him alive. But while Yoda had that aura of a wise, honorable even if fragile looking old creature, the Emperor looked scary but warped, disgusting and hunched.

For me RotS was a huge letdown in this regard, either with a "reveal" or "Force lighthing" cause-effect.