PT Force Scream: How Palpatine tooled the posse

Nope, it's bad editing.

 

Yes, we're all well aware of that. The purpose of this thread, however, is to propose an in-universe explanation for how the scene went. I think Lucas's intention was for Sidious to simply be moving incredibly fast, but due to issues with the stunt doubles and Ian, he couldn't properly show that. My idea is that Palpatine's scream was a powerful Force attack that carried with the full power of the Dark Side and caused the Jedi to freeze in terror. It certainly explains why Tiin and Kolar are unable to react as Palpatine cuts them down, why Kit Fisto's parries look so panicked, and why Mace swiftly retreats from the office, as if in terror. Because he's stronger than the other 3, Mace is able to conquer his fear and fight back. But none of those Jedi had ever faced a power like Sidious before, which explains their incredibly poor reaction.

 

So just having rewatched this...I'd forgotten how ridiculous it all looked. In general, I do like the Force Scream explanation. And I don't think it's just from KOTOR. Didn't Anakin use it after taking out Ventress on Yavin IV, and again in the infamous NUUUUU scene? Or was that a separate thing?

However, I can also buy that this is just supposed to be in slow motion. Or rather, is in fact in slow motion, regardless of whether it was supposed to be. If you look closely, the whole thing seems rather surreal, and the choice of music and sound design tends to support this. That said, even if you sped it up, it still looks a bit odd.

But anyway, the Scream theory has quite a bit of merit. I remember it striking me that that roar...thing...sounded rather strange, so it fits that it's in fact just a Force ability that wound up confusing the posse.

 

Mace defeated palpatine. He used vaapad and without anakin, palpatine would be dead

 

I don't know about this Vapaad thing, which is never mentioned in the movies, but there is no indication Palps would be dead without Anakin. He had yet to start blasting Mace with lightning. He lost the saber duel, true, but the force duel had yet to start.

 

The novelization version of Palpatine's "defeat" in the saber duel:

He found a knot of fault lines in the shadow's future; he chose the largest fracture and followed it back to the here and the now—
And it led him, astonishingly, to a man standing frozen in the slashed-open doorway. Mace had no need to look; the presence in the Force was familiar, and was as uplifting as sunlight breaking through a thunderhead.
The chosen one was here.
Mace disengaged from the shadow's blade and leapt for the window; he slashed away the transparisteel with a single flourish.
His instant's distraction cost him: a dark surge of the Force nearly blew him right out of the gap he had just cut. Only a desperate Force-push of his own altered his path enough that he slammed into a stanchion instead of plunging half a kilometer from the ledge outside. He bounced off and the Force cleared his head and once again he gave himself to Vaapad.
He could feel the end of this battle approaching, and so could the blur of Sith he faced; in the Force, the shadow had become a pulsar of fear. Easily, almost effortlessly, he turned the shadow's fear into a weapon: he angled the battle to bring them both out onto the window ledge.
Out in the wind. Out with the lightning. Out on a rain-slicked ledge above a half-kilometer drop.
Out where the shadow's fear made it hesitate. Out where the shadow's fear turned some of its Force-powered speed into a Force-powered grip on the slippery permacrete.
Out where Mace could flick his blade in one precise arc and slash the shadow's lightsaber in half.
One piece flipped back in through the cut-open window. The other tumbled from opening fingers, bounced on the ledge, and fell through the rain toward the distant alleys below.
Now the shadow was only Palpatine: old and shrunken, thinning hair bleached white by time and care, face lined with exhaustion.
"For all your power, you are no Jedi. All you are, my lord," Mace said evenly, staring past his blade, "is under arrest."
"Do you see, Anakin? Do you?" Palpatine's voice once again had the broken cadence of a frightened old man's. "Didn't I warn you of the Jedi and their treason?"
"Save your twisted words, my lord. There are no politicians here. The Sith will never regain control of the Republic. It's over. You've lost." Mace leveled his blade. "You lost for the same reason the Sith always lose: defeated by your own fear."
Palpatine lifted his head.
His eyes smoked with hate.
"Fool," he said.
He lifted his arms, his robes of office spreading wide into raptor's wings, his hands hooking into talons.
"Fool!" His voice was a shout of thunder. "Do you think the fear you feel is mine?"
Lighting blasted the clouds above, and lightning blasted from Palpatine's hands, and Mace didn't have time to comprehend what Palpatine was talking about; he had time only to slip back into Vaapad and angle his blade to catch the forking arcs of pure, dazzling hatred that clawed toward him.

 

In the Darth Bane novel I read a few years back, there's a precedent for the Sith and Jedi alike being able to manipulate entire armies using the force; Lord Kaan used it to sow confusion and hopelessness among the Old Republic fleet at the First Battle of Ruusan, while an unnamed Jedi Master on one of the capitol ships was able to push back his influence. The Jedi was killed by a Sith Lord whose name I forgot, and Kaan throws the Old Republic fleet into such a state of disarray and fear that not a single soldier fighting on the Old Republic's side was able to escape alive. Lord Kaan also used this skill to manipulate the rest of the Sith Order, so it's possible that Sidious could have distilled that general ability into a single powerful pulse that would impact even a Jedi Master, even ones as strong as Mace Windu. The scream was likely just for show.








Or, Palpatine might just be the Dragonborn...

 

I know he's a twi'lek, but I can't remember his NAME.

 

Lord Kopecz.

He found Darth Bane in a Sith prison and brought him to Korriban for training. He was killed on Ruusan by Lord Farfalla.

 

Thanks!