Can I state as fact, that DE Clone Palpatine is exactly the same person as the original?

Goodness me! It's almost as if Windham read Dark Empire!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Seriously, though, good catch -- I didn't realise that EGttF had gone back to that... especially since Leland is on record as saying "No, OT Palp is the original and he was lying about having died previously in DE".

Though, to keep his death at Anakin's hands meaningful, I prefer to think that, though he has died many times, Endor was the first time he has been killed... and that as such he lost a part of himself in the process.

EDIT: Wait, no -- that's just Luke talking about what Palpatine told him in Dark Empire. So... yeah. Leland's retcon of "Palps is lying" will still stand. Boo.

Just woke up. Didn't read what you posted properly.

 

IIRC, I think the story about how he first learns spirit transference is after ROTS.

So, if one is to go with OT being a clone from after ROTS, the simplest way to reconcile it is to say in ROTS his face was destroyed by exposure to dark side energy (Sith lightning is, after all, a physical manifestation created by the dark side), which is then analogous to his clones ageing also being caused by use of/exposure to dark side energy.

I think of it a bit like an overheating computer. You can push things too hard and short out, or you can constantly be over clocking and slowly wearing things away. In ROTS he blitzed himself, which accounts for why the decay was so sudden; whereas in DE he was just over clocking in general, so was constantly wearing himself down little by little.

In each case though, it's still the dark side that's the root cause of the damage.

That could make sense. It could raise a question of "Didn't people notice he looked younger?" but in theory nothing actually stops him growing his clones to look older back when it still mattered that people didn't catch onto what he was up to.

 

Damnit! How humiliating! How could I have forgotten?! Ach, live and learn...

He has? That's a pity. I thought movie-Palp as a clone solved more than it confused. Remember where?

 

Not to be obnoxious, but where has Leland actually said that? All I've seen is a quote in which Leland says that the Palpatine of the prequels is his original body, at that it's likely ROTJ was the first time he died, and there should be a retcon.

Can someone show me where there was an official retcon made?

 

I personally go with the belief that the Palpatine of ROTS's second half and ROTS is actually a animated Force-sensative corpse instead of a true living being (perhaps Windu's antics caused the Dark Lord's heart to stop working). That way, Palpatine doesn't have to outright lie about his death but at the same time doesn't have to take on a clone body until after ROTJ.

 

While it would explain why he became all pale and pasty looking there is the small matter that he would decompose like a zombie.

 

So in effect he killed himself?

 

And I should point out that the technique is flawed. Both Palpatine and Exar Kun were destroyed for their attempts to attain immortality. They only attained longevity, and not even much of that in Palpatine's case. Palpatine didn't even live to see 90.

 

I find it humorous that Gilad Pellaeon outlived him without having to resort to body-hopping, and he looked demonstrably more human at the time of his death, to boot. Mustache powers FTW.

 

The Dark Side of the Force keeps the Emperor's living corpse intact.

 

A wizard did it, essentially.

 

Can Pellaeon's mustache be added to the ranks of K'Kruhk's sweet hat and Kyle Katarn's shoulder pad, now?

 

It only appeared to be sudden:

 

As I recall, the ROTS Visual Dictionary corroborates the "Mask" explanation as well.

 

I think so! Anyone second the motion?

 

Ohh.... so Sithisis is definitely canon now, if the mask explanation is "true"?

No doubt like Dagobah and Bpfasshi Dark Jedi, all it's going to take is Lucas one day issuing a comment that "It was the lightning", and the literal statement police concluding it must mean the mask explanation is null and void, but at least for now we have the mask.

Though, I'm fine either way really. Like I said above, I see general dark side decay and getting blasted with dark lightning as both due to the dark side, so the similarities in the decay don't worry me all that much whichever the cause. I do like that Sithisis seems to be canon now though... I loved that strip.

Yeah, the whole Sith Spirit thing only buys you longevity, not immortality.

 

If there was no difference, there would be no need to have the word "clone" - you would just call him "Palpatine" and he would be living on as himself. If Palpatine never actually "died" - the Force would have never balanced and ROTJ is retconed off the map. So you had to have any refreshing of a "Clone" be equivalent to "new birth" and in that light, it cannot be the same as the original no matter how you try to twist it - infused with his total being or whatever else, because it comes from nothing and becomes something, hence, "Clone".

 

It's still the same Palpatine but it's an undead version of Palpatine, he's still dead but his Force ghost is animating a cloned body of himself.

 

So THAT'S why he dressed like Count Dracula!

 

As for the Palp face, RotS itself shows that he did wear a mask, but that the Lightning had some impact as well.

I went over the scene frame for frame, and true enough, his skin is peeled off at the beginning, revealing a more sinister face behind. However, it was not as bad as the final version. It gradually builds up, becoming more and more pale and monstrous, almost morphing as I recall, until the face of Sidious appears in all its glory.

What I concluded was that he suffered dark deterioration that was concealed by an alchemical mask, but that the Lightning first removed the mask, and then ravaged his face even further. Simple.


It is not often that the "both answers are correct" -retcon is supported by the original source.

 

Yeah, I remember reading that shortly after the movie came out... always wondered why it was ignored. I mean I actually trusted WotC back then, rightly or wrongly.

 

And then there's the "emotional bloodstain" Leia encounters over Endor in TTT/....

 

I find it humorous that Palpatine didn't even live as long as a typical non-Force-sensitive human who doesn't die a violent death; humans in the GFFA have a life expectancy around 150 years. Force-sensitive humans who avoid the dark side can live 300 years.

And I third the mustache power, my own facial hair deficiencies notwithstanding.

 

That is something that I had wondered... why does he dress like Dracula?

 

Haven't you heard? Everybody wants to be a vampire nowadays!

(So long as you're not the sparkly kind!)