PT Did Palpatine "allow" force lightning to scar himself?

After the initial scaring from Mace deflecting the Force Lightning back at Palpatine, I think the Emperor to be knew that he could use it to demonize the Jedi. He says at the Senate, "my encounter with the Jedi has left me scared and deformed." (paraphrase). Also, the entire experience was a perfect moment for when Anakin walked in. Palpatine I think might have done what some snakes do, they allow their prey to nibble on them and attack them and even seem omnipotent and then the serpent strikes. Palpatine I think already knew Anakin would stop Mace Windu and could have been merely buying time when fighting Mace Windu.

 

Where did Lucas and McCallum say these things? On the DVD commentary John Knoll is the one who weighs in.

 

Nah... He said this ;

I don't think after that point, lying was necessary... He was the ''Emperor'' after all, why would he lie ?

 

Sympathy points.

 

I believe this video should answer your question:

 

Can't work out how to edit, basically (can't remember if it's mentioned in the video) the more someone uses powers that are 'dark side' the more it corrupts them and can actually have a physical effect on the user

 

I think it is simply he was deformed due to injury. He's not all-powerful and I don't buy the 'I'm ugly simply to show I'm Evil' line.

 

McCallum said this in a webchat around the time ROTS came out, as I recall. GL in an interview I believe.

 

Do you have a link?

 

I was going off of memory. Doing a bit of digging, I found a transcript from the McCallum webchat. Couldn't find anything on the GL interview or article, though.

http://www.galacticsenate.com/showthread.php?9556-June-3-Rick-McCallum-CHAT-SUMMARY

 

From Star Wars Republic 78 ;

 

No different from what he says to the Senate during ROTS. But he has no problem lying, especially to Muggles.

 

I do not think that Palpatine did 'allow' it to happen.

Firstly, if his face were a mask, why would he change it at that particular moment? Presumably, Palpatine could change faces whenever he pleased (like in the hilarious Lego series - "Okay; Palpatine time"). Would it really add much to the sympathy Anakin and the Senate would feel for Palpatine? Regarding his Senate speech, it seems to me more like Palpatine was simply taking advantage of a bad situation.

Secondly, if that be his true face, why does he not appear that way when he is acting as Darth Sidious in Episodes I and II, The Clone Wars, and Episode III until that point?

Thirdly, in Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, I recall a melancholy Vader complaining about Vader & Sidious's respective appearances - the complaint being that they did not look like winners. Sidious tells Vader off for whining, but Palpatine does not suggest that he chose to have that appearance.

People do seem to have a tendency to think that Palpatine plans every little thing that happens, but then, he did not plan on Vader hurling Palpatine to his death.

 

The fact that GL doesn't correct Knoll makes me think that Knoll is right.

 

Tomsta, that is what I have always believed. The Dark Side if used often deforms and decays the body.

 

i personally think the lightning scarred him. neither maul, dooku or anakin are deformed from using the dark side when they are sith. when palps and mace are facing off it's a stalemate. the only thing keeping palps alive is the lightning he's using. the lightning is scarring him but he has no choice but to use it or he's dead. if anakin hadn't stopped mace, palps would have had to blast him again since it was his only defense.

the lightning was creating a loop from palps to the saber and back to palps which caused the deformation. palps had no choice but to keep up his defense scarring himself in the process.

 

We don't actually see scarring, though. We do see deep facial grooves which for some reason appear to be perfectly symmetrical. We also see that his eyes, nails, etc. have changed. This speaks to a true form being revealed.

 

this is just some guys opinion.

 

dark side users don't look like that though. only the emperor does. originally the emperor's appearance was explained that way because no one knew what happened until rots. rots shows it actually happening. there is no disappearing guise but a shrinking of the skin. maul and anakin have yellow eyes (anakin at times). that's a sith thing. when the emperor fries people in the e.u. they actually dessicate and shrivel like he does after severe exposure to the electricity. no one else in the movies gets the lightning that long.



palps is training under plagueis here and he doesn't look evil and shriveled.

the biggest evidence is that when we see sidious in the films in his robe talking to maul, dooku, etc, HE NEVER LOOKS EVIL AND SHRIVELED until after the lightning attack. sidious had no reason to keep a sith mask up when he was around plagueis, maul or dooku. case closed.

 

And the other things I cited. In the films Palpatine is the character who has apparently been using the dark side the longest.

 

Well for those that say that you don't see Anakin change, just remember this:

 

eyes only. no skin, no teeth, no nails. that's from lightning.

refer to my earlier post.

 

No, they don't. Nor do those subjected to lightning in TCW ( released after ROTS ) show similar effects. Just Palpatine.

Why would he look that way at the start of his training?

 

Palpatine - Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

Sidious was a master of Force lightning and was known to use this both as a lethal attack, and as a way of torturing his enemies.[3] If used to its full potency, he can instantly reduce one or more people into charred husks. CHARRED HUSKS!

this means if he hits himself with it, it can do the same to him.

palps was born in 82 bby. he met plagueis and became a sith around 65 bby when he was 17? rots happens in 19 bby. he was 63. he was never shriveled at any point before rots nor was he ever described as masking his features except by one guy who wrote about if for a sw card game.

also from the novel...

Lightning blasted the clouds above, and lightning blasted from Palpatine's hands, and Mace didn't have time to comprehend what Palpatine was talking about; he had time only to slip back into Vaapad and angle his blade to catch the forking arcs of pure, dazzling hatred that clawed toward him. Because Vaapad is more than a fighting style. It is a state of mind: a channel for darkness. Power passed into him and out again without touching him. And the circuit completed itself: the lightning reflected back to its source. Palpatine staggered, snarling, but the blistering energy that loured from his hands only intensified. He fed the power with his pain.

Now Anakin was at Mace's shoulder. Palpatine still made no move to defend himself from Skywalker; instead he ramped up the lightning bursting from his hands, bending the fountain of Mace's blade back toward the Korun Master's face.

Palpatine's eyes glowed with power, casting a yellow glare that burned back the rain from around them. "He is a traitor, Anakin. Destroy him."

"Help me! I can't hold on any longer!" The yellow glare from Palpatine's eyes spread outward through his flesh. His skin flowed like oil, as though the muscle beneath was burning away, as though even the bones of his skull were softening, were bending and bulging, deforming from the heat and pressure of his electric hatred. "He is killing me, Anakin—! Please, Anaaahhh—"

Mace's blade bent so close to his face that he was choking on ozone. "Anakin, he's too strong for me—"
"Ahhh—" Palpatine's roar above the endless blast of lightning became a fading moan of despair. The lightning swallowed itself, leaving only the night and the rain, and an old man crumpled to his knees on a slippery ledge. "I... can't. I give up. I... I am too weak, in the end. Too old, and too weak. Don't kill me, Master Jedi. Please. I surrender."