CT Palpatine's body evolving?

I don't know about him splitting in half, but before the Prequels I always assumed his deformed came from his usage of the Dark Side. I just thought that was a given and we were supposed to think that. I felt it was equated to the effect the One Ring had on Gollum's appearance.

So I hated it when they the Prequel explained his appearance by that one moment with Mace Windu. That just ruined it for me because I liked the idea that he was soooo taken over with the Dark Side that he would allow himself to look that way. That just made him even more evil to me.

 

Not this again...

If you read over the end of page 4, you will find it is more of an open topic and the debate rages on. However, I have provided a lot of evidence and sources to back up the mask theory which you refer to. It very much was GL's intention to be this way. Take a read...

 

The real question is... what will be his final form? Will he get all his HP back when he changes?

 

According to who? I don't seek online databases to back up onscreen happenings. Using the films, and the films alone, it's more than possible to fold in the masked Palpatine idea and have it contradict nothing that actually happend onscreen. We certainly so nobody else undergoing any disfiguration from Force lightening at all, not a single mark, crease or wrinkle.

We have the following:

A. Why doesn't Palps simply stop projecting the lightening to "save" his own face?
B. Since when did Force Lightening cause rotten teeth?
C. Since when does Force lightening literally cause your cranium to begin splitting in two?
D. Since when can somebody be hit by Force lightening so hard that it not only totally changes their entire facial and cranial bone structure, yet they aren't in pain at all. Palpatine certainly seems to recover rapidly the moment Anakin attacks Mace, showing no sign of pain, distress, or even weakness.

Again, going by the film, and the films alone, which is all I care about, the Palpatine Force mask scenario fits well and is not contradicted. I think even that deep, animal like screech he lets out before attacking the Jedi masters is a sign post to him being something else beneath his Palpatine visage.

 

That is an old post of mine. Since that post, I have asked Pablo on Twitter. He said that Lucas had given multiple mutually exclusive explanations for Palpatine's experience, implying that the mask theory, scarring theory, etc were all explanations given by Lucas at different points in time.

He said as it stands now, there is no canon explanation for why he looks the way he does, and that if it were up to Pablo, he'd rather keep it open to interpretation, because he likes the idea of keeping the Force mystical.

So last I heard from Pablo itself, "make of it what you will."

If the mask theory makes you happy, then stick with it. But other theories are just as valid. There is currently no official answer.

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This depiction of Sidious well before TPM, during the tutelage of a young Maul was released by the 2017 canon comic: Darth Maul #2. This puts the final nail in the coffin of the self-deformation theory. Disney has made its intention transparent.

 

Interesting. He'd be like 30ish years of age. Odd to see him so warped already, considering nobody other than maybe Snoke really shows such deformation.

Though it was established in Lando that even Palpatine's Royal guards aboard his ship were deformed by being in the presence of Sith artifacts for an extended period.

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If I recall correctly one of Lucas' original ideas was that the Emperor was to be some sort of shapeless mass encased in a metallic box but he ultimately decided it was too out there and nixed it. I agree that it sounds like a good idea on paper, but I don't really think it would have fit in the type of films that the Star Wars movies are.

 

I am happier with the "mask" theory as really the deformation issue was almost the only part of the PT(dislike not thinking the film had a few serious flaws) I actually found damaged by viewing of the OT a little. Looking back I can somewhat see the idea that Ian Mcdiarmid seemed in somewhat better shape and generally "nicer"than the previous films although that tends to give the idea that the mask was only needed during the events of the PT.

Going back to the OT I did always take the Emperors appearance to hint at extreme age extended by the use of the force with as mentioned Gollum being the obvious comparison. This does obviously increase his threat as well since its not just a case of waiting for him or Vader to die of old age, they could remain in charge for vastly longer than a typical lifetime.

 

Deformation by lightning is still a thing, though maybe not in Palpatine's case. A character shocked by Palpatine's lightning in the Star Wars annual #1 later shows up in the Star Wars comic deformed.

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In that case I suppose we could attribute his deformity to massive spice consumption.

 

LOL! I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking of one of the Guild Navigator's when I read that post!