Thread I saw on IMDb: When did you realize Palpatine's true identity? (in the PT)

When I saw the title of this thread I was rather puzzled. I thought it was completely obvious as soon as he came on screen in TPM. Apparently this was a plot twist for some people?

Lamentably, yes. Even worse, as the PT unfolded, quite a number of TFN posters were militantly committed to the theory that they weren't the same person. They tended to be Lucas apologists, absolutely intent on finding some possible double plot twist that might vindicate "the genius of Lucas."

Unfortunately, this info was on the back cover of my VHS.  That's what spoiled it for me.  I probably would have figured it out at one point on my own, though.

I thought the fact that it was the same actor sort of gave it away. I mean, I was around 9 years old at the time and I thought it was pretty obvious. He has the same chin, ffs!

As I've admitted before, it wasn't until AOTC came out on DVD that I learned that they were the same person.  I mean, I knew that Palpatine was the badguy who would become the Emperor, but I assumed black-cloaked guy must be some Sith Predecessor.  I mean, yeah, it just seemed too obvious that they were the same, so I assumed black-cloaked guy must be a different character with a hidden backstory, maybe to lure Palpatine to the darkside as Palpatine would later do to Anakin.  So much for giving Lucas the benefit of the doubt...

Cut me some slack, I was 6 XD

Lucas practically shines a spotlight on Palpy, and declares him to be "secret bad guy" during the funeral scene in Episode I. Thus tipping off even people who never saw the OT.

I'm surprised Robot Chicken hasn't made fun of this yet. If you have an overly complicated decades long plan for galactic domination, at least wear a mask and distort your voice when communicating with your minions.

All it takes is someone accidentally lighting up your face, and everything's blown. Superman has a better disguise than this guy!

I do wonder if Palpatine is someone Sidious killed and then assumed his identity. He had to have had a long history on Naboo to be so entrenched in it's politics.

I remember the TFN apologists convinced they were different people.  But as SilverWook pointed out, they practically throw a subtitle on the screen saying that they're the same person during the funeral scene.

I don't know how people could be so clueless.  The emporer appears via hologram in the oot, though the actor was changed for return of the jedi.  The fact that it was the same voice and actor who worked in jedi as palpatine.  Sidious is obviously his sith name, though the fact that the senator and emporer share the same last name and are played by the same actor?  I mean come on people this is laughable.

It is even more laughable that the Sido-dyas subplot was dropped.  As he was the dude who ordered the clone army and also happened to be sidious.

Then in the movie it was changed to a dead jedi named syfo.  And in the EU it is explained i think that dooku tricked him into ordering the clone army and killed him or something, can't quite remember exactly.

Anyway another EU patch on lucas plot inconsistencies and lack of continuity.

The lack of continuity to the oot is so large a whole you could fly a death star through it as fans have said before.

The sith often have dual personas or personalities.  One is false or the person they were.

Palpatine is obviously sidious public face or mask if you will when dealing with the republic or later the empire.  Only Vader if anything has any idea who he really is and still does not know his real background.

Vader is obviously Anakin's sith name, though Anakin is the personage and name he abandoned.

It is only now a laughable joke though, and compteley made up of fail.  You don't have a good man who fell from grace when there never was any grace to fall from as exhibited by the lousy Lucas prequels.

The forbidden sith practices could have prolonged palpatines life for several centuries if not a thousand years, and do we really know that he was born on naboo.  Was he an orphan and taken in and raised to adulthood like Maul?

Was Darth Plagueis real or just another lie of palpatine/sidious?

Sidious was actually left out of the credits of TPM as part of an ingenious, and seemingly somewhat effective plan to keep people from figuring out this brilliant plot twist. And people say George lost his touch!

Nanner Split said:

 Apparently this was a plot twist for some people?

Crazy huh?

Even weirder, apparently, this was actually a good film to some people.

neebis said:

As a viewer it doesn't work at all, but I try to tell myself that Palpatine is just so powerful that he can blind every Jedi, every Senator and eveyone else in the galaxy.

Don't do that! The problem with trying to trick youself, is that sooner or later, you might succeed. It is bad enough being fooled by other people, but when we start fooling ourselves...

Fact is, this movie is really poorly concieved. It is okay to like it, but it is truely a mistake to try to convince ourselves that it is a really good well thought out movie. It is what it is, just let it be that and don't try to pretend it is more than that.

I never thought it was supposed to be a secret, quite frankly. The minute I saw Ian McDiarmid I knew he was the Emperor. Plus, the fact that his name was Senator Palpatine......not too much of a stretch there. :-P 

I always knew Padme was Queen Amidala, too. If either of those were intended to be plot twists, then they didn't work.

Oh, Ok I see what you mean. I guess I misunderstood the question.

But still, it was always obvious to me that Sidious was McDiarmid, so I guess I just automatically assumed that Sidious was Palpatine's alter ego. It never really occurred to me that McDiarmid could be playing a dual-role.

George Lucas plot twist, c. 1980: The dark-cloaked inhuman villain of Star Wars, the evil being who struck down Obi-Wan Kenobi with his blood-red Sith blade, the ruthless blackheart who killed his officers for failure and pursued the Rebels around an entire galaxy...is Luke Skywalker's father.

George Lucas plot twist, c. 1998: The queen disguises herself by taking off all of her makeup and attending to her stand-in, as though she is not the queen.

George Lucas plot twist, c. 1982: The Rebels gather every available capital ship and commence an attack on a half-finished Death Star...and it turns out their spies were permitted to learn the coordinates of the new DS and the shield deactivation code just so the Emperor could set up a trap and painfully reveal that the superlaser on the DSII is fully operational.

George Lucas plot twist, c. 1998: The Sith mastermind behind the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo is Senator Palpatine with a cloak pulled over half his face. Innumerable Jedi living on the same planet can't even begin to figure this out.

LOL! One of the funniest posts ever..... :-D

Well... the queen was was kind of a bit sudden, but it worked.  Can't say the same for the Palpatine one.

Mielr said:

I always knew Padme was Queen Amidala, too. If either of those were intended to be plot twists, then they didn't work.

The problem was everyone knew Portman was playing the role of the queen before even going to see the movie, then sudden she is introduced to us as the queen's hand maiden. So that was another one that wasn't too hard to figure out.

i found out because of an action figure
it said (and i quote) Emporer Palpatine

Interesting. You saw an Emporer Palpatine figure, and this tipped you off that Palpatine would become the Emporer, who looked just like Darth Sidious, putting it all together you figured it out? Does this mean you hadn't seen the OT before the PT?