Palpatine=Sidious ... its so obvious!

I knew he was named Emperor Palpatine from the comics so when I saw Senator Palpatine I immediately put 2 and 2 together.

 

He was first referred to as Senator Palpatine in the ANH novel.

 

He was, but I didn't read the ANH novel until after TPM came out.

 

You could just look at the cast:
Hey, the dude who plays the Emperor in ROTJ plays that nice senator from Naboo in the new ones. That's weird

 

So what does everyone think? I'm still not sure.

You've got to remember that the only thing available at the time of this thread was leaks. Before TPM, the character had only ever been known as "Emperor Palpatine". When the name "Darth Sidious" leaked out, people were like, "Huh?". Of course, anyone who still held that theory after they saw the movie has no excuse.

 

It is amazing to look back on this!

Since I was not interested in Star Wars when I watched ROTS, I still was trying hard to figure out who this "Emperor" guy was.

I thought that Palpatine was just giving Anakin sensible advice when he killed Dooku.

I caught on about half-way through I think.

 

I am sorry, but, unless you have never seen ROTJ before watching the prequels, there really is no excuse not to have figured this out... Maybe if you were new to Star Wars entirely, and TPM was the first movie you ever saw from Star Wars, it wouldn't be obvious. But, if you have seen the OT prior to the PT, there is simply no logical reason you shouldn't have been able to put the pieces together. It might not have been explicitly stated that Senator Palpatine=Darth Sidious=The Emperor, but George Lucas gave us so many clues, it should have been blatantly obvious.

Clue #1. The same actor played the Emperor in ROTJ and Senator Palpatine in the PT, Ian McDiarmid. (assuming you saw the original version of TESB, before Lucas changed it all, otherwise McDiarmid was the Emperor in both TESB and ROTJ). Even not knowing ahead of time that he was also Darth Sidious, you should have been observant enough to notice the vocal similarity between Senator Palpatine and the Emperor of the OT. Senator Palpatine sounds like a younger, less gravelly throated Emperor.

Clue #2. Darth Sidious bears a STRIKING resemblance to the Emperor. Even assuming you didn't know that Ian McDiarmid was under the hoodie as Sidious, the vocals and physical presentation, the identical black hood, etc should have tipped you off. Like Clue #1, you should have been observant enough to notice the vocal and costume similarity between Sidious and the Emperor.(if you did know that Ian McDiarmid played Darth Sidious, as well as the Emperor and Senator Palpatine, and STILL didn't figure it out, there really is no excuse)

Now that we have established ties between the Emperor and Senator Palpatine, and then between the Emperor and Darth Sidious, the vocal similarities between all three, and in the case of Sidious, the wardrobe also, that should have been enough...but, even if that wasn't enough for you to piece it together, we move on to one more clue.

Clue #3. We know from the OT, that Darth Vader is a Sith Lord, serving the Emperor. While it is never explicitly stated, given the Emperor's knowledge of the Force in the OT, it should not have been too great a leap in logic to figure out that the Emperor was probably a Sith Lord as well, otherwise why would Vader serve him? We know from TPM, that both Darth Sidious and Darth Maul are Sith Lords. Darth Maul ends up dead, so who could be Vader's connection to the Sith? Darth Sidious perhaps?...the one that looks and sounds exactly like a younger version of the Emperor from the OT? He couldn't be related to him, could he?

Sorry, folks...but my friend's 7 year old nephew figured it out right away...if he could do it, after seeing the OT only once before seeing the PT on DVD, everyone should have figured it out. I feel like the guy who watches Superman, and is baffled by Lois Lane's complete inability to figure out that Superman and Clark Kent are one and the same...

 

I was 9 when TPM came out. I had seen the OT many times. I immediately knew that Senator Palpatine became the Emperor. But being 9, I couldn't quite figure out that Sidious=Palpatine.

 

Fortunately, I need no excuse

But for the record I only went to see Kenobi v Vader. I paid little to no attention to the rest of the film the first time around.