PT The Fantastic Ian McDiarmid

Welcome to the Ian Side of the Force, Antpocalypse!

I see you are already a dab hand at the liturgy of FIGS. Good text and imagery.

You have done well.

And a belated Happy 2016, everyone! The mission of FIGS continues...

 

525 pages?? How?

 

Exactly. How do we have over 500 pages talking about one man?

 

Because he's Ian McDiarmid and he's fantastic

 

true brotha

 

Inspired by my recent appreciation of the ROTS soundtrack, I went back and attempted to watch the film again (I lasted just long enough to hear Padme talking about decorating a baby's room in Naboo .. urrrrghhhhhhhhhh .. ) anyway - even in the little bit that I saw, I just LOVED how you could see the glee in Ian's eyes when he is goading Anakin into killing Dooku ..and the subtle acting he does throughout the entire "rescue". Just back to worship at the shrine of Ian once more - def the best thing about the PT.

 

"DEWWIT!"

Would be nice if Palpatine gets a little face time in Ep 8. Like, an 100 foot high portrait in the Imperial base or something, nothing major or anything.

Which reminds me, we finally managed to that the giant gold statue of The Almighty Ian finished up and in place above the entranceway to the Temple.
You wouldn't believe the shipping and handling costs. They always get you on the packaging, eh? The statue looks very shiny, as it should.

According to his wishes, LottDodd's giant statue was left intact. While according to my wishes I've thrown a giant blanket over it so it doesn't overshadow The God's.

Whilst the Holy Halls remain sealed, with Palpigeon much too dangerous to clear out now, the rest of the Temple is intact and fully operational.
Our resident droid army remains active, about a mere hundred units. Not enough to get yet another civil war going, but enough to police and guard this place.
Some of the cobwebs were particularly tricky but the place is in lovely shape. Even though there are fewer of us here than before, and some areas were permanently demolished, the quality is up to the former high standards. We even managed to get the stains out of the carpet!

I hope everyone is well *burst of force lighting*

 

What's goin on here guise?

 

(but in gold)


I have MISSED you guys and gals btw!

 

Good to see you, Chewies_bandolier!
This here, folks, is the guy that came up with the FIGS name for the fledgling group way back around mid '02 when this thread was just getting started.
(I told everyone I'd pored over the FIGS history books, didn't it? )

And what a lovely statue! Worthy of the Almighty Ian.

Antpocalypse - Welcome, we don't get many Jedi Grand Masters up here, they tend to be a little stand-offish about all this Sith worship and force lightning.
And ahh, it's safe to say our humble little FIGS Temple here has a loooooot of history around it. Back in the good old days, barely a week went by without an assassination attempt on the current Spiritual Leader, battle droids stomping through the halls or the ceremonial and rather jolly roasting of Darth_Bog.

I just came along to help tidy the old place up again and gets things operational. We might not be able to reach our horrific devastation glory days of the past but there's still a place up here on the mountain for any worshippers of the God.

 

DamonD - lurking around on the ST forums these days .. you are too kind wrt the naming. It was a joint moment of gleeful, cackling madness in though days .. sigh...

Btw.. I was looking up wookiepedia for another reason and found this comment wrt the boards and alleged VIPS who posted here.

• • • 
      Is this true? Can anyone recall the posts in question? Could the exalted one even now, be reading this?

 

We never got confirmation about it, unfortunately. The Temple represents him in spirit, though!

With the Rogue One teaser trailer out, I'm sure I'm not the only one holding out hope that Palpatine might make an appearance in there somewhere.

 

Rogue One news coming out

Spoiler

No word on Iain being present but the aim of the main antagonist is to rise up to the Emperors favour or some such which, together wtih the presence of the Imperial Royal Guards in the trailer makes me just wonder whether we might be blessed by a five second cameo of the most exalted Iain..

And here's some amazing art from super talented artist, Tsueno Sanda.

 

That's certainly my hope for the film, Chewie!

And that's outstanding art. We could have that airbrushed over the portrait of Spiritual Leader DarthChina! I'm sure he wouldn't mind, or plot against us.

FIGS: Being Plotted Against

 

Some more, from the same artist --->http://www.sandaworld.com/gallery/shadow/

btw . I noticed that this thread has been going on for about 14 years - if that is not an indication of the POWER of the brilliant acting that IS Palpatine personified thanks to amazing Iain, I am not sure what is.

ALL HAIL THE MOST MAGNIFICENT IAIN MCDIARMID!

 

Holy cow, has it really been that long? It seems like just yesterday I was e mailing the Almeida to tell them about this thread...

 

Whatever other flaws the prequel films may have, I can’t deny that Ian McDiarmid was by far the best thing about that trilogy. A brilliant manipulator, a brilliant strategist, a brilliant diplomat, a brilliant charmer, and a brilliant deceiver. Frankly, the Emperor was probably the only thing in the prequel trilogy that nearly everyone actually liked, and much of that credit has to go to McDiarmid. He just excels at everything he does in these movies, whether it’s being subtle and pretending that he actually cares about you, or whether he’s just hamming it up enjoying how evil he is. He’s the only character in these movies who’s cheerful and actually has a sense of humor. He has a clear, comprehensible goal in mind and he has a passion for what he does. I don’t even mind his more over-the-top moments because you can just tell he’s just having so much fun.

As far as I’m concerned, the Emperor is the real hero of the prequel trilogy. He’s easily the most charismatic, likable, appealing, engaging, relatable, understandable, sympathetic, and intelligent character in these movies. I know I was certainly rooting for him. Honestly, if you just removed any scenes that don’t feature him, I might actually agree with some of the claims that the prequels are misunderstood and unfairly maligned masterpieces. The Emperor is a truly great character and he’s the only STAR WARS character I ended up liking more because of the prequels.

 

Gosh, 14 years, yeah...18th May 2002 was when this was started by JohnWesleyDowney (as DarthKarma), fresh off The Almighty Ian's performance in Attack of the Clones.

Time really does fly. I was the second FIGS Spiritual Leader after Darth_China, from July '03 - Jan '04, but I remember much of it and other events as if they were yesterday.
Such as roasting the heretical Darth_Bog, the terror of Palpigeon (still wild in the Holy Halls, remember), the mass Ariadne-Whitey battle demolishing much of the FIGS Temple and me being held on trial due to throttling LottDodd in a psychotic break.

Ahh, precious memories.

 

(EDIT: And this is my new "go to" facial expression for work )

For anyone thus inclined .. the prologue / training level of the new Lego Star Wars - Force Awakens game is set during the closing stages of ROTJ ... I won't spoil it too much other than ..

 

I wasn't aware of that! Unexpected, does tempt me to check it out. I did enjoy the Complete Saga Lego game a lot, just by the end of it I needed a total break.

 

He is my favorite character of the saga. And it was largely the PT that cemented that for me, as he consistently gave the best performance, IMO. ROTS was really his time to shine and I find the character to be extremely quotable and that slimy Palpatine voice is fun to imitate.

I feel like the backlash against the prequels was unfortunate, especially if it causes people to overlook his performance.

I haven't seen him in any other films, and I've never really seen a stage production. But as far as Star Wars goes, I think he stole the show when he's on screen.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

London Figsters - the most exalted one is signing at London Film and Comicon next Sunday!

http://www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com/

 

McDiarmid is such a good actor that only after eleven years do I question the meaning behind this line: "I know you've been searching for a life greater than that of an ordinary Jedi, a life of significance, of conscience." Of conscience? Why do those two things go together? I thought Anakin was seeking greater power, not conscience. It makes no sense. Could someone explain? I know McDiarmid made the line sound credible, but I never thought about it until now.

 

Are you mixing conscience and consciousness?

Conscience has more to do with morals and it's an inner sense of what's right or wrong. There are numerous occasions where we see Anakin striving for justice. Palpatine knows this and uses Anakin's hunger for power to bring "peace" and "justice" to the galaxy. That's the way I see it.

 

Cool. Thanx for the clarification. Captain Logan on Geekvolution was confused about this, too. We were talking about conscience, and I was reiterating his befuddlement over how Lucas handled the line.

No doubt, however: ROTS is the best prequel film thus far. Repeat: Thus far.