CT What is the best Palpatine hologram in your opinion

I can tell he has wider cheeks in ROTS than in ROTJ. There was one interview where Ian remarked how he saw a younger face under the makeup when he watches ROTJ.

 

Original on account of historical significance and how effective it was. It was perfect within the context of the film, it's only when we expand to the entire saga that there's a continuity issue. Ian was great and I love the new version (it's a great SE change), but I still prefer the impact of the original. Scared me as a kid.

There's a whole bunch of variables at play. Though first of all, age seems to be the least of the concerns. His face may look bigger, but McDiarmid is a naturally slim man and has not put on any noticeable weight. If anything, his face is slightly more gaunt. Makeup has a lot more to do with the "fatter" look; a simpler silicone appliance seems to account for a lot of that (in addition to being the makeup from ROTS). Second is that the hood is draped in the same way as it was on the 1980 Emperor and not 1983. Finally, the lighting is much different. The light source of the original hides much of the neck, forehead, and cheeks, whereas the new lighting illuminates much more of the face and hides the eye area. The only thing I'd change about it is not duplicating the original lighting (that, and the dialog).

 

Speaking as someone who saw the original trilogy out of order as a kid (not entirely my choice though), it was the ROTJ Palpatine that scared me a lot more than the ESB hologram. I literally thought he was a zombie back then.

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That's probably what lucas wanted you to think.

 

I don't blame you. I was initially creeped out by his appearance, but it was his voice and demeanor that frightened me as a child, especially when he's using his Sith lightning against Luke. I didn't think he was human until I saw him in TPM. I think my Mom had some notion that the dark side degraded him, since she said, "He's really old, isn't he?"

 

I legit did not know Palpatine was him...I'm probably showing how young and naive I was back then. The fact is, the only Star Wars material I was familiar with was the films themselves, and not once in any of the OT films is the word "Palpatine" mentioned. He's simply known as "The Emperor", so you had to go into EU material and film novelizations to discover that. Because of that, when TPM came out, I thought Darth Sidious was the Emperor based on the hood, that creepy voice, and his knowledge of the Dark Side, and thought nothing of Palpatine. It took a visit to starwars.com for me to discover that Palpatine was The Emperor while Sidious' article on the site was vague and mysterious, and this was about 2 weeks before ROTS was released, and from there I figured out on my own that Sidious and Palpatine are one and the same (ROTS was merely confirmation of that), therefore I was half-right about The Emperor's identity

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I prefer the original. I like the creepy, mysterious look (I watch in release order, so there are no prior films to be inconsistent with) and the dialogue better. Also for historical reasons.

 

Remastered, purely for consistency reasons, though there is still a bit of a difference from the ROTS/ESB Palpatine to the frailer, skinnier ROTJ Palpatine. But as long as it's the same actor, I'm fine with it. Not as jarring as it would've been had they kept the original Emperor.

 

This is one of the changes I really like. I prefer the remastered but Adywan (who does awesome work from what I've seen) is great to, I don't like the original one now that we have seen the emperor so much, it feels very out of place now. Was cool back in the day though.

 

Adywan, but otherwise the remaster. The original is pretty neat though and he looks awesome. It's just so inconsistent.

 

I've never seen the third version, and I don't plan to anytime soon. I prefer to watch the original version, but I must admit the remastered McDiarmid hologram makes more sense.

 

2004 version, of course.

How exactly is it ridiculous? Vader is confronting Sidious with the lie he told him decades ago.

 

The one from the George Lucas Canon, obviously.

 

If you don't mind me asking, which ESB release was that 3rd hologram from?

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It's a fan edit.

 

Ahh...I figured it might be a possibility.

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That's not what is happening there. The Emperor is revealing the truth to Vader. It's a silly change.

 

Even in the 1980 version, he revealed the truth to Vader, as the very phrase of "the Son of Skywalker" is a dead giveaway to Vader as to whose son it is. And what Palpatine didn't know was, Vader already found out before he was told by Palpatine ("and I'm sure Skywalker is with them" again is a dead giveaway of that, even in the original release).

I still liked the dialogue change on the "we have a new enemy" line, just for the mention of "the offspring of Anakin Skywalker".

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The Emperor was not revealing anything in the original version. There's nothing in the original dialogue to indicate that Vader didn't already know. Vader knew. The Emperor knew. And they both knew that the other knew. There were no secrets in the original version. The dialogue was perfect as is. Lucas retconned the scene with the changed dialogue.
The Emperor: "I have no doubt that this boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker."
Vader: "How is that possible?"
The Emperor: "Search you feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true."
The new exchange completely changes the scene. And no, Vader is not confronting The Emperor. If he were, The Emperor would not have followed with, "Search you feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true." That line confirms that The Emperor is revealing the truth to Vader. It's a ridiculous change, because Vader is already aware of Luke's existence. Vader mentions him by name earlier in the film. It's at least possible that Vader knew before The Emperor told him in the revised version, but it's still an unnecessary change.

Furthermore, the revised version is far too revealing. There was no foreshadowing of Vader's big reveal in the original version. The revised version foreshadows the big reveal. Anybody watching the film for the first time and now knowing the big reveal might be tipped off when The Emperor says, "Search you feelings, Lord Vader. You will know it to be true."

 

The Darth Vader comic does establish that Vader figured out the truth (and that the Emperor had been lying to him about his family's fate) before ESB.

 

2004 version.

Still don't really care who it is though.

 

I have a problem with the original: The face is suitably creepy, frightening, and alien, I actually don't mind it one bit, but the voice is off, it sounds like he's just saying his lines.
I have a problem with the remastered version: The voice is suitably haunting and degenerate, each emotion he feels is fitting and clear, but the prosthetics are clearly too hard for Ian McDiarmid to move through, which restrains his range of expression (and ironically the old makeup looks a bit more like the RotJ makeup than the RotS makeup), and too much of the face is seen.
I like the Adywan version, as it solves both problems.
However, I think I found something that's just about as good.

A haunting face combined with a haunting voice if I do say so myself!

P.S., I voted for the original anyway, because it doesn't get enough love. I'm down with criticizing the unintimidating and unemotional voice, but people go further than that, such as saying really harsh and horrible things about how scary and alien it is, in spite of the fact that this was the intended result! He's supposed to be kind of freaky, and what's more is that back then, nobody was sure if Palpatine was an alien or a human who was so badly warped by the Dark Side that he was loosing his humanity, so either way, they were going for something that looked kind of inhuman, and that's what they made.

 

Best of both worlds

 

I prefer the McDiarmid version hands down (I find that the differences in the original are distracting after being used to seeing a different actor play the role in every other movie and do it so well), but your train of thought is a very interesting one and I like your reasoning.

 

As mentioned previously, the remastered version for continuity