Palpatine and Darth Vader both end up getting disfigured from using the Dark Side of the force

Palpatine goes from being a normal looking politician and Sith Lord to being horribly disfigured and deformed as a result of using his own Force Lightning against Mace Windu and not stopping because of his hate for the Jedi, his face is melted and aged badly because of it and he now looks like a freak of nature for life, such is the price for using the dark side of the force and letting someone use it against you like that, sucks to be Palpatine, i'll bet that even the Royal Guards laughed at him after seeing his face.

And poor Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, he is full of hate and rage gets deformed as well because he cannot control himself or his temper, being told not to do something and jumping arrogantly anyway to prove that he can, he gets his legs cut off and his arm cut off as well and then gets caught on fire by the lava that ignites his robes in flames, having his hair all burned off and his entire body being burned to a crisp requiring a metal suit with a built in mechanical lung just to survive and artificial arms and legs to walk around and do things normally, all of his potential ruined and his looks ruined as well.

Bottom line is dont use the Dark Side of the force, it will ruin your looks and possibly your body as well, the one plus side is being a galactic dictator that can do anything that you want to do or a tyrant that everyone is afraid of that controls the military forces.

 

"We are not this crude stuff".

Both the Jedi and the Sith think alike here.

Sidious certainly did not care about the face of palpatine.

 

No wonder Palps didn't get married. Maybe a Hutt would fall in love with him.

 

Palpatine did not care much for love.

At least not by the time we came across him.

As he explained to Vader in RODV, the Darkside is the only companion that a Sith needs.

 

What exactly are we debating here, Joe_Garelli?

I highly doubt that. Those closest to Palpatine knew his power. Don't you remember RotS? Palpatine politicizes his attack and uses it to garner further sympathy and cement himself as an able dictator.

 

It's to show that absolute power corrupts.

 

Not all Sith end up disfigured.

It is noted that the darkside will change a user and the user must accept that change.

 

None of the other Sith ever reached the heights of power Palpatine and Vader did.

And no, I don't mean "zomg I can blow up a star by thinking about it!!" power that the EU represents, I mean actually you know, controlling the galaxy.

So it follows that they're disfigured where the other Sith aren't. They had to sacrifice something to get where they were.

 

In this case we only have two test subjects which is not much to go on.

 

While I agree that Palpatine was disfigured by his own Sith lightening, I disagree about Anakin. He was burned by fire caused by his proximity to the lava. There was no ?Sith fire? or ?Sith lava?.

While we know that using the Dark Side causes your eyes to change (except for Dooku for some reason) but other then that, there is no other example of it changing your looks.

 

The main problem with the theory that it represents how power corrupts is Dooku. Darth Maul wasn't corrupted by the Dark Side, but his demonic appearance have a similar effect(showing how the Dark Side twists people.)

 

Darth Maul was also physically altered, though it was voluntarily via his tattoos. There seems to be a common theme of physical scarring among the Sith (a tattoo is a deliberate scar)that are shown to us in the movies, except for Dooku. But why not him?

 

I assume because people aren't supposed to know he's a Sith.

 

Or maybe that Dooku has been a jedi for the 8 decades of his life, he doesn't know how to fully embrace his Dark Side emotions like the other Sith have.

 

Yes. IMO, Palpatine's gravest error... was turning Jedi.

 

Other than the multitude of EU examples which have appeared in Lucasfilm-sanctioned books, comics, and cartoons over the last twenty years.

Don't believe what Palpatine told the Senate.

 

One would think that if he couldn't fully embrace the Dark Side he wouldn't be able to use "the full power of the Dark Side" a.k.a Force Lightning.

 

Vos summoned Force-lightning when he lost his memory.
At that moment, he wasn't even remotely close to being Sith, nor was he truly a Jedi. Due to his amnesia, he was simply a force-sensitive humanoid that gave in to his emotions and thus he fried Secura's uncle. Given this as an example, I do not believe that one must be immersed in the darkside to conjur lightning.

Now, about the eyes... IMO, for them to be crimson and marigold, that person must be immersed in the darkside of the Force. See AnaVader for details.

 

I thought his red skin color and weird eyes were a product of the Darkside?

 

I think it's fairly clear that Lucas's ideas about lightning and the EU's are very different.

 

All I'm saying is anybody can do it, its a matter of choice.... not light or dark. If you know how to do it, then the only thing stopping you, is you. If Yoda gave into his anger, he'd throw some serious lightning around.

 

The lightning thread is like Mr.Smith in the Matrix sequels... eventually it will spread to the point where it will cover the entire internet.

 

I know the eyes are a product of the darkside. But as far as the red and black skin, i think that is a voluntary tattoo. I don't think its requirement. i think Dooku was a too conservative for that kind of thing, he was a count after all. Besides wasn't he like an undercover Sith?

 

True, but Yoda also would truly give into his anger/hate as Sidious, Vader, Dooku, and Maul did.

 

But compared to Sidious, Dooku's power was pitiful.