Palpatine's reactions during the Dooku duel

I remember there was some discussion about this in '05. What do you make of Palpatine's facial expressions during the ROTS fight between Anakin/Obi-Wan and Dooku?
When Obi-Wan gets force pushed Palpatine grimaces.
When Obi-Wan takes out the droid Palpatine does that "yeah!"... or is that because Obi-Wan is about to be taken out of the fight?
Thoughts?

 

I always thought he grimaces when Obi-Wan is thrown because of the move Dooku had just pulled; he had essentially knocked Anakin out of the way and threw Obi-Wan across the room. He was probably thinking about the fact Anakin might not win.

And when he goes ?yeah? I guess it was because Obi-Wan was taking the droids out of the fight.

 

I was referring to the grimace just before Obi-Wan is force-pushed, but yours is more to the point.
I wasn't sure if he is acting (either for the audience or for Anakin) or if it's like you say, concern that Anakin might not be strong enough.

Are you sure? Again, I'm not sure if this is genuine. I remember some saying that it's because he is happy Obi-Wan is about to be taken out.

 

I remember that he grimaces right after Dooku pins Obi-Wan with the platform. I always assumed he was just acting, perhaps for both Anakin and the audience.

 

I think that right then and there, Palpatine is just enjoying a good lightsaber fight. After all, it might have been quite a while since he witnessed one, let alone took part in one. He is allowing himself some excitement after years of boredom in the offices of the Galactic government.
As for the grimaces, I read that as a human reaction. No matter how evil he is, he must still feel something.

...or he's pretending to be innocent (as if Anakin and Obi-Wan could see his face while concentrating on defeating Dooku on the other side of the room)...





Palpatine - He is old
/LM

 

In don't know what Palpatine's motivations were for eliciting those reactions to the duel, but to me, they seemed out of place in the scene. He should have remained relatively calm and observed the duel with concern/ interest. The "yeah!" (if his hands weren't bound, I think he would have fist-pumped too) was really odd. He was the Republic Chancellor (and the DLOTS); he should have reacted with dignity.

 

I just think he was enjoying the battle immensely. Give him a bag of popcorn and it's like he's watching the movie with us.

 

Yeah, I think he was just looking forward to Anakin making a mess of things in front of the Chancellor.

 

Palpatine was so conniving and two-faced that he just simply had to keep up the good act.

 

So which is it? Was he completely acting with those expressions or was it genuinely getting into the fight? Both?

 

I think he genuinely enjoying the ebb and flow of the battle, I don't see any reason for him to be acting when nobody was watching.

[image=http://imgur.com/tCp90.gif]

 

I have no basis for my opinion, but with that said:

I think the grunt was both a warning to Dooku (watch your back) that could plausibly be explained away as a "yeah, way to go, Kenobi" should anyone think anything of it.

In other words - the movie does NOT make it clear so we get to speculate.

 

I believe the "yeah" was just a last minute add in by George Lucas for the kids in the audience...it's not mentioned in the novel

 

I consider the "yeah" moment to be an audience fooler. I don't agree with it serving as a warning to Dooku. The droids that Obi killed on the stairs were closer to Dooku than Palps sitting in that chair. Their destruction would serve as a louder alert than a quieter one word praise made from an old man further away.

But that's just me. I can see how this scene can be analyzed further, let's say for the 2 droids to only serve as a distraction to Obi so it lets Dooku know when to use the Kenshi Toss from Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance. At any rate, I'm sure Palps was a man with a lot of backup plans, had Dooku killed one of the Jedi, or both, etc.

I think he even smiles while Anakin is getting the upper hand near the end of the duel. Perhaps there are hidden cameras in the room, and after he lands back on Coruscant, Palps uploads them on SenateBook to prove his facial expressions mean innocence. Of course he uploads another version on SithTube for his own enjoyment.

 

Senatebook? Sithtube? I've never heard of that. And it's interesting how Palpatine showed that he enjoyed the fight---in the novelization, he made his facial expressions very fearful to trick Anakin.

 

It's hard to take that "Yeah!" comment seriously. As soon as I saw it in theaters, I was like "Wait, WTF was that?" It doesn't even sound like "yeah." It's sounds like he's prodding a horse to move. It's hard to understand how that ever made it into the final cut.