Saga Why Doesn’t Palpatine ever stop shooting lightning once it hits his face?

In the final episode of each trilogy (ROTS, ROTJ and TROS) Palpatine’s lightning hits his own face, yet he doesn’t stop emitting it.

My theory is this: Palpatine is the devil figure of the saga. The devil wants to destroy all creation *which includes himself*. (He obviously can’t, which is why it’s Hell). Therefore, even though Palpatine doesn’t *choose* to destroy himself (which would have to be the final step in destroying everything), he *does* choose to *risk* his own destruction in order to destroy his target. It pays off in ROTS, but not in ROTJ or TROS. Say what you want, but you gotta respect the kahoonas to go All In.

 

He does it to play the victim. He makes it look like an act of desperation, like he's out of options and is just trying to keep Mace away. Then he appears scarred and weakened, so Mace thinks he has the upper hand and Anakin takes pity on him. It's all a ruse. The Senate falls for it, too.

Simply put, he turns the situation to his advantage by appearing weak when he's really stronger than ever. The art of war.

 

My theory is that he's a masochist.

 

Maybe he was stuck in a kind of feedback loop. He was calling on the dark side to make lightning, and when it started hitting him he called on the dark side to protect himself. But since he was already using darkness to make lightning, the darkness just channeled itself into more lightning. It's a morality tale about the self-destructiveness of evil.

 

When firing Sith Lightning out of your fingertips, you have to count to three while doing it. No more, no less. Plapy often confused the number "3" with the number "5" despite the latter number being right out

 

I’m not an electrician but maybe there was a grounding issue. He should have had a circuit breaker fitted, or a grounding conductor.

 

maybe it's like when you have a wee.

 

I heard a rumor that GL has heard many fans dislike Vader's "NNNOOO!!!" before he grabs Palps, so he's going to change it and make it so that Vader picks him up and say, "Stop hitting yourself!"

 

I think it was largely desperation.
In III, it's to play the victim in front of Anakin.
In VI, he's so furious at Vader trying to kill him this way. Vader lost to Luke, and Palpatine could probably sense that Vader was killing him not in anger but returning to the light and renouncing the Sith.
In IX, it's a final desperate move. Had he stopped using lightning (his greatest weapon) Rey with her Jedi amp could cut him open with her lightsabers, a massive force push, or something else. He did kill Rey from the attack. She was dead before Ben revived her.

 

Oh right, this wasn't just about ROTS
I agree with the notion that it's just desperation in ROTJ and TROS. At that point, his only chance to score any sort of victory is to bring his enemy down with him and/or possibly survive by sheer exertion of force.

 

Don’t worry there’ll be fans that will “prove” Lucas intended it all along.

 

maybe there's an electrical explanation - like when he's lifted off the floor he's not earthed anymore ... 'cos he was wearing rubber soled shoes ... but now ... something or other.

(Do I look like an electrician?)

 

Yes, I'm afraid you do. I need you to rewire one of my outlets in my apartment living room, it keeps shorting out

 

Well in ROTS and ROTJ he was about to get killed. Mace would have stabbed him with his Lightsaber if he stopped using the lighting, and in ROTJ Vader was actively throwing him down a reactor shaft. I don't know why he would straight up kill himself with it in TROS.

 

By then, it was a habit.

 

Palpy never gets credit for using green energy.

 

Plus it gave him evidence of the Jedi trying to overthrow him propaganda.

 

He decided he needed a facelift as part of his Evil Emperor rebranding.

 

Maybe it's similar to when you grab a live wire and get shocked but can't let go because your muscles seize up. I dunno.

 

Actually, the “Skywalker Saga” is just Palpatine trying to die for three trilogies:

“Are you going to kill me?” - ROTS

“I’m defenceless. Strike me down!” -ROTJ

“Do it! Make the sacrifice” - TROS

And in ROTJ, when Vader picked up Palpatine, he was actually trying to stop his lightning, because he just knew the old man would end up hurting himself… again. But then Vader got electrocuted as well, stumbled, and accidentally dropped Palpatine down that shaft.

 

It’s an interesting question. The comic book Dark Empire had Palpatine displaying powers on the next level from lightning, which was full-on Force storms that he had tenuous control over. His storms eventually turned against him in the comics. Perhaps it was something like this in the movies too, only with his lightning.

Lucas has said before that when a Jedi or Sith uses the Force for power, the dark side also has some control over them. He characterized Palpatine as being fully under the control of the dark side, so perhaps when he uses it to its maximum, such as when he generates constant streams of lightning, he’s not really fully in control.

 

I think it makes most sense within the story to say it's like holding a live wire, you cannot easily let go. With RotS and RotJ it could work as a plot/desperation, but in TRoS I don't think it puts him at certain failure to stop because he could then use the force for another ploy. I think it's a feedback loop.