PT Was the audience fooled by Palpatine in the PT?

I'm watching the PT again for the first time in 10 years. I can't remember what I thought the first time I saw PM but watching now it is embarrassingly obvious that Palpatine is Sidious. I mean, they look and talk just alike. Was the audience supposed to be fooled by this? At what point was the reveal?

I remember the Padame trick working on me but not Sidious.

 

I remember watching the OT first and then TPM, all within the span of 2 years when I was just a kid in the 4th and 5th grade. I distinctly remember realising that Palpatine was Sidious when I saw him in TPM, but I realised that only by the end of the movie. I remember wondering how the actor who played Sidious looked younger than he did in the OT when the OT came out 20 years prior to TPM.

Then later after watching AOTC I found out that Ian McDiarmid actually played an older Sidious and looked older thanks to make up and prosthetics and my mind was blown, haha.

Watching him turn into the Sidious we all know and love, in ROTS, was the real treat!

EDIT: Edited for cognitive dissonance at 3 AM lol.

 

For the majority of the audience - no. They had already seen the OT and knew all the plot twists.

For the younger audience - yes. They were blown away by the reveal.

For (almost) anyone who watched the saga in episodic order - yes. I personally know people who watched the PT before the OT and were genuinely surprised by Palpatine's
reveal and Anakin's turn.

Of course, there are always people who see a plot twist coming before it happens. However, I consider them to be outliers.

-Darth Plagueis

 

Damn, I wonder how that feels. I wish I could relive the saga from that perspective too. Guess I'll never know.

 

It's more of a plot twist for Anakin than anyone else.

Unlike the audience, none of the protagonists even see any of Palpatine's holograms or conversations with the other villains, so there's very little to tip them off, other than Dooku's reverse psychology with Obi-Wan.

 

Yep. It was so much fun to watch their reactions when everything was unfolding in RotS. They all loved the experience.

-Darth Plagueis

 

I recently watched all six films with a bunch of people who don't care about or hadn't seen any of it before and the opinion on Palpatine was somewhat split. Some called it right after watching TPM, others were convinced that Palpatine was working with Sidious. One was convinced Mas Amedda was a Sith after watching AOTC and a few others thought it had to be someone on the Jedi Council.

 

I was told by a long-time fan just after TPM came out. Didn't have a clue before that.

 

Well, I knew as soon as he was introduced. I remembered the prologue from the ANH novelization.

 

Some may have been; some may have guessed from the credits (if they bothered staying that long, I know that I do); some may have guessed it during the film; some may have guessed after the film; and some may have been fooled/not known (if hadn't seen it yet) until an obnoxious idiot blabbed about it.

I think that about covers it.

 

I knew from the beginning Palpatine would eventually become the Emperor

 

I knew that Sidious and the Emperor were the same person. I had a little trouble working out that Palpatine would become the Emperor, because I was confused by his seeming kindness when I was 9.

By the time AOTC came out I understood fully what was going on with his character.