What caused Palpatine's change of appearance?

Lightning. I'm more interested in the difference of Palpatines's ROTS look Vs ROTJ look. Completely different. Fat bloater (ROTS) vs Skinny (ROTJ). Any preference?

 

there are certain moments, especially at the end of sith, where he looks almost exactly the same as jedi. I think the bloated appearance of his face is probably because it just happened. look at anakin. we see them in jedi after like 25 years of healing. if your face got cooked i'm sure it would be a bit swollen too. i would have to check but i think the new emperor in ESB looks slightly differant than rots. it would show that time was slowly changing his features.

 

Palpatine looks the same in ROTS as he does for the 2004 edition of ESB.

 

I think it was caused by Injury from deflected lightning.

 

Quoted for simplicity and utter truth. No need for a lengthy analyses.

 

Yeah but the funny thing is that his eyes change colors too.

They went from normal to sith eyes.

 

So do Anakin's. Maul has sith eyes that don't change. Dooku never gets the sith eyes.

 

The answer to this age-old question lies within TPM and AOTC IMO. When we see Palpatine as his alter Sith ego, Darth Sidious, does he have the face? When he is posing as the Sith Lord, you would think he would take his normal Sith appearance and present himself in that way. So when he is talking to Gunray and Dooku with the hood, does he have the face? IMO he doesn't, he looks the same in the hooded Sith Robes as he does in his Supreme Chancellor attire.

There really is no need to delve into a whole explanation as of to why his face changed? Why would you want to go into a lengthy reason, when a simple one is presented before you? The lightning melted his face and there is really no more to it. He let his yellow eyes come forth because he no longer had to hide them.

 

This is how I feel.

 

It was his force lightning be reflected back at him by Mace Windu.

 

It was most defenitly caused by the deflecting lighting.

 

I agree...i get angry when people say he was using a sith mask...the EU helps the films and contrdicts it at the same time....

did any1 notice vader when he got de limbed that his eyes went 4rom whit 2 yellow?
i didnt notice it until i watched it 2 weeks ago!!

 

"The shroud of the dark side has fallen"

There is no explanation, Lucas said so. He left it up to interpretation and discussion. Personally I like to think he used so much dark side energy that his face melted. I like to think that excessive use, or rather manipulation and abuse, of the force deteriorates the body.

 

Tough one this. I couldn't work out which out of the two it was myself, so I opted for "a bit of both".
Look on the bright side people, if Lucas explained everything, then there would hardly be anything in this forum for us to discuss!

 

I really hope that the upcoming Darth Plagueis novel will provide some insight into this.

 

I voted something else. I believe that it was due to him allowing the dark side to flow through him completely. IMO the excessive use of the dark side causes deterioration of living tissue. Though he's been using the Dark Side for many years his plans are finally coming together, there's no need to hold back. All his pent up anger and rage being released, the dark side has been sitting there like a massive river behind a dam, finally the dam breaks and the dark side comes rushing through him so fast that his body can't handle it. This causes his body to become permanently disfigured and his eyes forever changed to the color of burning rage that is the Sith. The first piece of evidence I have of this is the deepened echo of his voice right after. This was done to show that it was b/c of the dark side finally allowed to flow through him unhindered. The second is that while fighting Yoda his skin actually changes color from pink to the greenish/yellow that everyone is familiar w/ from RotJ. I believe this shows that the dark side has a negative effect on the human body (at least when Sideous uses it).

 

Thats because they filmed Ians scene in TESB at the same time he was shooting ROTS on the set so its the exact same make up hes in.

 

I'm not buying that at all. Palpatine is not Anakin. He's not finally giving in to the dark side after a lifetime of holding back. He's been fully committed to the dark side for quite a while.

 

The OS Databank - The evil energies twisted Palpatine's face as they flowed through him, scarring and disfiguring his once handsome features. His eyes burned yellow, his voice grew ragged and deep, and he became a well of dark side energies.

Based on these accounts, I voted for "A combination of the two," meaning IMO that the darkside energies -- manifested in the lightning -- scar his human flesh, thus revealing his true form as a "well" of those energies.

 

Uh-huh, but when did you see him actually use his powers? He sat back waiting for years before revealing himself to the Jedi. Had he gone full blown the Jedi would have detected it.
Force lightning does not cause one's skin to melt. It didn't melt Anakin's in AotC or RotJ. It didn't melt Luke's face in RotJ. Some will argue that it was less powerful only meant to torture him. Well I doubt that the lightning used on Vader/Anakin just before he chucked the Emperor down the reactor shaft was meant to torture Vader. I didn't see his face melt. But this is one area where we will never see eye to eye, so let's just agree to disagree. This is a poll, not a debate.

 

It was the lightning hitting him in the face and since it was so strong it disfigured him.

 

I really miss this thread and forum. I still think and will always feel that's just how he looked. He used that moment as an excuse so he didn't have to hide anymore or use energy to conceal himself. He could say the Jedi disfigured him. No other person afflicted with Force lightning ever sustained anything even remotely similar to him. It's his true self.

 

You should watch The Karate Kid.

Left of road, OK. Right of road, OK.

Middle of road, get squish.

I hate these "compromise" arguments.

And you should know that the Databank is not infallible.

ALSO:
The EU is full of instances of humans ( or others ) whose appearance has changed over time due to the dark side, without Mace being there to reflect lightning at them, **** it!!!!
Ever hear of Uthar? Qordis?
Any dark side PC in KOTOR or KOTOR 2?

Bueller?

 

You get it, but then somehow you don't get it.

This is ludicrous.
There was a darkness in the Force, but Palpatine never used his powers? Maul and Dooku were trained as Sith, yet Palpatine never used his powers?
Are you saying that if it didn't happen on screen, then it didn't happen?

And as far as the Jedi detecting it, there was a conversation between Obi-Wan and Dooku in AOTC that settled that issue.

 

I was going to leave this alone, but since you insist on a debate because I don't feel the same way you do....

I'm not saying he didn't use his powers, he didn't however go full blown, never unleashed all of his hatred on a Jedi. The concept that he wore some kind of mask is ludicrous! If your referring to some kind of prosthetic facial covering it would never cover the dimensions of his twisted features. If it's some kind of force trick like a mind trick allowing no one to see his face, you must think this guy is pretty powerful to use this on the Jedi. Now if this was a power he had available to him, why under the persona of Darth Sidious did he bother to cover his face w/ hood, why not make himself appear any way he wished? Not to mention the fact even though you can only see the bottom portion of his face is it obvious that he looks nothing like he does after the battle w/ Windu.

Oh and telling me I don't get it is not your place unless you happen to be George Lucas. Just b/c your interpretation is different than mine does not make you right and me wrong. They simply differ.