PT The "Darth Sidious is really Palpatine" Surprise

Since I saw the OT first, I could never experience this surprise. From the first second Sidious was revealed in the hologram in the PT, I knew he was Palpatine. So for people who saw the PT first, I have two questions

(1) Was it meant to be a surprise?

(2) How effective was that surprise?

 

My dad first experienced SW I-VI going in knowing almost nothing. He didn't see it coming until the opera scene, where he began to feel a tad suspicious. When Palpatine outright revealed himself to be the Sith Lord, my dad reacted with such enthusiasm that his (barely 30 minute old) theory was correct

Personally, I think it can definitely be considered a surprise. I think it's just as powerful as the TESB father twist, except so underappreciated because the real world already knew what would happen. If you're going into SW knowing nothing about it, there's a good chance you won't know. Sidious's face is mostly concealed and he uses a deeper voice than he does as Palpatine

 

Interesting. How did your dad react when Dooku told Obi-Wan in AOTC that Sidious was in control of the Republic? Did that make him suspicious about Palpatine?

 

Yeah going into ROTS I was still unsure if Sidious was indeed Palpatine. I kept thinking it might be his brother, accomplice etc. It seemed too obvious to be true.

 

Hm, it has been quite a while, but I think I remember him interpreting that as Dooku taunting Obi-Wan like "we're so powerful, we're even controlling you without you knowing it," which is sort of what Obi-Wan and the other Jedi interpret it as, I believe, despite the fact that Dooku could not be MORE blatantly honest

 

I kinda agree with your first question. Did anybody seriously not know? I can't imagine that....

 

Well, if you read the first few replies here, you'll see that indeed, there were people who didn't know.
I myself wouldn't have known if I hadn't learned from outside the movies that the Emperor's name was Palpatine.

That is a great point.

 

I'm a 90' child but I watched the OT before the PT. But I was too young to put one and two together. But now that we know who Sidious is we all are like "ohhh, now that makes sense". Even if they didn't actually tell you who he was in the movies or novels, you could have started to figure Palpatine was Sidious because he just knew too much about the Jedi when he spoke to Anakin, and especially Palpatine talking to Anakin about the Sith and Darth Plagueis. Dooku saying Sidious controls the entire Republic Senate was just another huge giveaway.

But once again, I am only saying it is a dead giveaway because I know who Sidious is

 

I knew outright because of the voice and the way the character cloaked himself. Besides his Sith name makes sense in how he eventually took over the galaxy.

The Sith names in the films = what those characters do. Dooku was tyrannical, Maul did exactly that, Vader was the dark father etc.

 

I think pretty much anyone from back in '99 who had grown up watching the OT and had seen it over and over again picked up on the Sid/Palp thing pretty quick.

 

I really don't think it was supposed to be a twist. Even if you hadn't seen the OT first, it's too obvious.

 

Its well documented on this very forum many didnt know Palpatine and Sidious were the same guys, it was lots of Palpatine threads during the TPM AOTC days. It wasnt til ROTS come out did fans have official confirmation of this. I can vividly remember those threads from years ago.

 

I grew up with the ot. But before episode 1 came out I read quotes from lucas saying the first movie is a Vader/ emperor free movie, and that there would be two new sith. Maul and sidious. I knew palpatine was the emperor in the ot. So after my first viewing I was like "so anakin and palpatine are still good. They gonna have to hurry and show both going to the dark side in the next two movies."

I just believed lucas even though sidious looked just like the emperor. I just figured each Sith Master has a similar look. It wasnt untill after my first viewing did I read some forums and people were saying palpatine is already sidious Then it clicked for me. Dooh!!

 

It was never a surprise to me.

 

I think it was a surprise to a lot of casual fans. Anybody who saw the OT first knew and anybody whos a huge fan would know, IMDB will tell you its the same actor but I think for a lot of people it was a surprise who aren't ultra into star wars.

 

Never thought of that. Sidious' name is derived from "insidious" meaning "stealthily treacherous or deceitful". Nice

 

I saw ANH first. Liked it. Later I saw ESB and ROTJ, but I didn't seem as interested in them. Later TPM came out. Thought it was okay. Then a few years later AOTC came out. Started becoming more of Star Wars fan. It was a year or two before ROTS came out was when my sister and I finally figured out that Sidious and Palpatine were one and the same. While a lot of people think "Luke, I am your father" as their big reveal, the Sidious/Palpatine reveal is mine.

 

I grew up with the OT before the PT came out, so it wasn't a surprise to me. When I first saw Darth Sidious in TPM, I noticed that he was wearing the same outfit as the Emperor in ROTJ. He also had a similar look and voice, despite his eyes being concealed. Then when Senator Palpatine came on screen, it made sense that it was the same guy. The had the same nose, were the same age, and sounded very similar. Plus, Palpatine is Emperor in ROTJ, so there was no doubt in my mind they were one in the same. There's also hints in the three films before he's revealed to be Sidious in ROTS, like the closeup at the end of TPM after Windu and Yoda discuss which Sith was destroyed.

 

I'm so upset because before I watched RoTS, I briefly went to Wikipedia on The Phantom Menace and scrolled down.... and as I scrolled down and saw the "cast" section, I saw that Ian McDiarmid played both Palpatine and Sidious and it ended up spoiling what was supposed to be the biggest spoiler of the whole trilogy

 

I could only imagine how buzz killed you were :\

 

For me it was pretty obvious. So I don't consider it to be a shocker.

 

Yeah, I was really upset too, especially since I didn't see it coming at all.

 

I honestly can't really remember if I was shoked(I don't think so). I was just too amazed with Sidious vs Mace and Yoda vs Sidious

 

The Emperor was named Palpatine in the SW novelization published in '76, so that "twist" was spoiled before any of the films came out.

 

Like most people I saw the OT first. So did my friends who I've recently introduced to Star Wars. I caught on Palpatine's insincerity since the beginning but honestly I was too visually unobservant to notice similarities in Palpatine and Sidious' noses/mouths. What revealed his identity to me was the camera focusing on Palpatine a bit too long immediately after Mace's 'Who was he, the master, or the Apprentice?' at Gui-Gon's funeral. I thought that was too glaring a hint not to be true. I did get thrown off a bit when reading in the ROTS scroll that Palpatine had been kidnapped but that new found uncertainty disappeared when Palpy started encouraging Anakin to use his anger to fight off Dooku. He was just so familiar with the ways of the dark side in ROTS at this point it was not a matter of if but when he was going to be revealed as Sidious.

Family and friends doing the marathon in the release order either started to suspect only in ROTS or were shocked when the revelation came. Only one of them noted the cloaked figure's nose/mouth/voice resemblance to Palps as early as TPM. I'm actually doing currently the marathon with a friend who only saw the OT, never the Prequels, and so far she doesn't suspect even if she thinks Palpatine is 'off'. It literally took all my willpower not to burst out laughing in her face when she questioned the intentions of the Supreme Chancellor. She only has ROTS to see now...

From what I can see one's level of spoiling depends on their overall time on the internet and on their willingness to research movie info. Well coincidentally I tend to be friends with people with mostly internet-free lives so not a lot of spoilers went our way.