PT Anyone else dislike Palpatine/Sidius' face in ROTS?

Am I the only that truly disliked how Palpatine looked after being "deformed"?
In my opinion, we should have never EVER seen him like that without his hood on,...especially when it looks that painfully fake. I feel like his look IS deformed face + hood.

Anyone else in the same boat?

 

I didn't like the look either.

In ROTJ his face looked more real and that was in the 80's.

Also the way his face deformed while getting hit with force lighting looked so fake. It happened so fast too. I think he realistically would have had burn marks something more similar to Anakin and then after it healed we'd get something more like the ROTJ look but not quiet to allow time for the final aged look in ROTJ.

 

Not really

Only thing about Palpatine's face that bugs me is it's still "fat" in TESB while it's "deflated" 8 months later in ROTJ

 

I didn't mind the look of the face without the hood, because it was iconic and creepy when he finally slowly pulled the hood on and turned into the Emperor we all know. Awesome scene.

"Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy, and we shall have peace..."

 

I can't at all in the least fathom this idea that it looks "painfully fake" what does that even mean? How does the one look fake and the other doesn't? They are both as "fake" as each other.

The whole point is that they recreated the original look but heightened it to a demonic level.

I think it's a bit much to ask that he had to somehow have the hood on all the time during his fight with Mace.

The scene where he raised the hood and became the Emperor was awesome indeed.

 

Nah, I love how he appears even more creepier and diabolical.

 

The Emperor's face was truly horrific in ROTJ. Sinister, rasping, frightening and enough to strike terror into any opponent. It is clear in the ROTS that is an actor with a face full of make up. It is like meeting Fred Krueger in the first Nightmare and then jumping straight to Freddy's Dead.

 

One thing I'm still a little confused about though, is when he is deformed. Is he actually deformed, or is it his true self coming out (as some have said) because he can no longer mask his true identity since he is using all of his power to defend against his own Force Lightning being thrown back at him during the fight with Mace Windu?

I tend to believe he is simply being deformed, since he is human, and why would a human's true self look like that? Unless it is his true look from using the Dark Side for so long, and from all the Dark Side energy inside of him. I've heard conflicting arguments on both sides.

It also might be telling when you see just how quickly and easily he gets up once Mace is killed, like he wasn't really in much danger and had it all under control. Almost kind of reminded me of a plumber getting up off the floor after working on a sink, or a mechanic getting up after being underneath a car...

 

Since when being burned by lightning causes yellow eyes, rotten teeth and ugly fingernails?

Obviously, everything he says and does before Anakin chops off Mance's hand is an act, as demonstrated by the fact that he "springs back to life" as soon as Anakin acts. Which was the whole purpose of course.

 

oierem,

So you're saying that is his true look, and he wasn't deformed by the lightning?

I suppose something that backs your up argument is when Anakin was "taking care" of the Separatist, he appeared to have yellow eyes, because he was plunging deeper into the Dark Side. Sidious had been using the Dark Side for many years, so I can see the possibility of his true self having yellow "Sith eyes" and even rotting teeth and horrible skin from excessive use of Dark Side power.

And technically, I'm not even sure the lightning was hitting him head on, he was simply absorbing it back through his hands, right? If it hit him head on, it surely would have killed him. Hence the phrase "I can't hold on any longer..." Which also was most likely a ploy.

Admittedly, I'm starting to believe on the side that says it was his true self being revealed. However, I find it hard to believe that he was so confident and unafraid against such a formidable opponent such as Mace Windu. I guess Sidious was even more powerful than I give him credit for.

 

Never did like Palpatine after the lightning until he put his hood on.
ROTJ Palpatine looks way better.

 

The makeup is inferior to the ROTJ makeup. It looks more rubbery. Can anyone honestly say the image on the right looks better?






I was never a fan of the melting face anyway. I liked how in AOTC he looked haggard, like the Emperor would look 25 years before ROTJ. That was a far better look than the ROTS effort.

 

Rick McCallum once said it was his true form coming out. I don't think GL has been quite as forthcoming about it, but I'm inclined to believe it was the Force lightning that ruined his face. Not just lightning, mind you, but lightning that was being bounced off a lightsaber back at him. There had to have been some sort of physical effect. And even if it was the lightning, metaphorically, it would still be his true self coming out given the nature of his character.

I wouldn't say the one on the right looks better, just different. And it's due to a lot of things. The biggest factor was that the method of applying the makeup was different from ROTJ in order to get Ian in and out of makeup more quickly. The second was that Ian was 20 years older. Of course he was going to look different, and even if they did recreate the exact look of ROTJ, chances are it wouldn't look the same on him anyway. In-universe, ROTJ is still 23 or so years after ROTS. So his look was bound to change anyway.

I believe at the time of AOTC, the idea was to evolve him into the Palpatine we knew from ROTJ. His look would be due to aging and stress/the dark side. When ROTS was in production, it was changed to a singular moment in which he transformed into the haggard Emperor. This may have made more sense anyway, as Palpatine didn't look natural at all in ROTJ, so you couldn't just explain the change due to typical aging.

 

My understanding is that they used a different make-up technique at Ian McDiarmid's request, so that it would be less uncomfortable and wouldn't take as long to apply.

edit: D'oh, Among the Clouds posted the same thing right above me.

 

At first I did not like it, I thought in some scenes he looked like a pig man. But after watching it several times, he looks more creepier and sinister (especially when he has his hood on) and I now like it

 

Is there any official word on this? Would make sense, since he looks sickly in AOTC.


As for ROTS, I think he looks his most sinister after knighting Anakin as Lord Vader, walks over to his desk, puts on his robe and dons the hood.

 

The image on the right looks better.

I really like the idea that it was all a calculated plan with the mask. He was already old and had been using the dark side for almost his entire life, thus it had ravaged his face. That is the natural side effect of the dark side. So he used an "unnatural" dark side ability to create a sort of Force illusion, that "clouded the Jedi's vision" along with everyone else. And it was no mistake or weakness that stripped him of that mask on that very specifically crucial moment. It was a calculated act meant to decieve Anakin and to appear before the Senate as a weak old man who was almost assassinated by the Jedi. Thus, Anakin and the Senate underestimated his powers, something that Yoda warned Luke of.

 

considering he was deformed by the Dark Side, i don't think it can be compared to how someone would look naturally. As far as the way he looked in ROTJ, he was in his 80s, but looked a lot different than any 80something i've ever seen.
As far as TESB, i just watched that last week and it didn't look like the same mask that was used for ROTS. He looked like he did in ROTJ to me.

 

Wish he was never "deformed" in ROTS. It didn't look all that good as he looked more "menacing" than in ROTJ. As a young man, I thought the emperor was the evil equivalent to Yoda, but the prequels just made him into a demon. Didn't like it.

 

I never had a problem with ROTS Palpatine.

As for why is his face like that, a result of the Sith lightning physically deforming him vs his true/hidden face coming out, the only thing that gives me pause and makes me lean towards it being his true face is the eyes and teeth. His eyes become Sith Eyes permanently, and his teeth become rotted right away. That seems to tell me that he was hiding those elements, rather then the lightning doing it to him.

 

You must surely also remember that none of the other characters who got hit by Force Lightning were deformed in any way. Luke, Anakin, Mace. No physical signs of damage at all.

 

Trust me, I remember, this topic has been discussed at length in other threads, and I have also brought that very issue up as well.

 

None of them had the Force lightning amplified by a lightsaber and reflected back at themselves at point blank range either.

 

Neither of them look 'good'. That's a creepy looking face.

 

Qui-Riv-Brid

Well, yes, they're both fake, but that's like asking how the 1933 King Kong could look any more fake than Yoda in ROTS since, after all, they're both as fake as each other. But just because two things are both equally fake, it doesn't mean one can't LOOK more fake than the other.