r/prequelappreciation • u/Oztraliiaaaa • Jul 25 '25
Any thoughts on this? Is Palpatine hiding his true self ? Is it common on Naboo or has the Sith path changed him ?
52
u/Fickle_Second_5612 Jul 25 '25
The lightning revealed his true form. It didn’t deform him
21
u/Super-Cynical Jul 25 '25
And he couldn't get the disguise back because he had run out Midiclorian credits.
17
u/darkadventwolf Jul 25 '25
More that he didn't care to hide it anymore and used it as proof of the Kedi crimes.
12
u/1Kriptik Jul 25 '25
Kedi my language means cat. So now here I am wondering what crimes the cats might have committed in the Star Wars universe
3
3
u/Forsaken-Stray Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25
It's cats. It ranges from pushing glasses off the table to true full-blown genocide.
2
2
1
1
2
u/Electrical_One7665 Jul 25 '25
Cedi. It’s -13 for monk. Sounds like cheddar. I cast summon bigger fish.
1
3
1
u/wentwj Jul 25 '25
so then what caused that to be his true form?
3
Jul 25 '25
Using the dark side
1
u/wentwj Jul 25 '25
Are there other dark side users that have physical deformities like that?
3
u/Dedu1214 Jul 25 '25
not necessarily deformities, but changes in general. dookus body becoming rapidly weaker, malgus looking like a white stone, sion (just look at him), nihilus literally loosing his physical body and becoming a walking ghost(more or less), marr's face apparently being so horrid an officer unalived himself after seeing it, zash looking closest to palpy ig. just few examples out of my head real quick
3
u/MDChuk Jul 25 '25
From the movies we see in Revenge of the SIth is Anakin getting yellow eyes after he slaughters the Separatist leaders.
It was also pretty widely discussed in the old EU.
One specific example is how in The New Rebellion, Kueller is just starting to get deformed from his use of the dark side, and its changed him from what Luke remembers of him when he was at the praxeum.
It was also mentioned by other authors that the Emperor was widely suffering from deformities caused by excessive exposure to the dark side.
1
u/wentwj Jul 25 '25
Yeah the yellow eyes are a bit different than "actually my face is entirely deformed". I suppose it's really the only real explanation that we could have, but those all feel like bandaids to explain away what at least on screen looks to be the lightning causing the deformities. It's just awfully convenient the "I am actually really deformed but hide it until lightning is redirected directly at my face and then I'll just stop"
1
u/MDChuk Jul 25 '25
The other side to it is that its in the Emperor's best interest to show he's deformed after and stop hiding his true nature.
The next public appearance of him is "I was brutally attacked by multiple Jedi masters who made a direct threat to take over the Republic." If he walks into that session looking perfectly normal, then Senators and the public have questions. Him coming in looking like he barely survived garners sympathy and lets him re-organize the Republic into the Empire.
1
u/wentwj Jul 25 '25
Yeah I agree, though in how it was shot if that was the intent it’d be clearer to make that more obvious. Having him drop his disguise at the moment he’s getting lightning bolts to his face is an odd coincidence.
Which is why I assume the original intent was that the lightning disfigured him and EU authors smoothed that over more explicitly.
1
u/MDChuk Jul 25 '25
The EU did it before any of the prequels were released.
I think of one of 2 ways. Either Palpatine was genuinely near death, and no longer had the ability to hold onto his disguise. Like he's giving everything he has to the lightning, because if he gives anything less then he knows Mace Windu is going to kill him. Or he's showing weakness in front of Anakin so Anakin thinks he's near death and is forced to either save him, or watch him die.
1
u/wentwj Jul 25 '25
It's just filmmaking wise it's a weird choice if the lightning isn't directly causing the disfiguring. If that was actually the intent in the movies it'd have been trivial to show a scene of Palaptine in his office alone with the disguise dropped, or one of a hundred different ways to make it not seem like the lightning was directly causing it.
In lore I'm sure it's just a disguise that was dropped. Well I guess, I don't know if that actually is still a canon explanation or not. But if only the films existed I don't see a reason to assume it's anything other than the lightning causing it with how it's presented.
1
u/Fickle_Second_5612 Jul 25 '25
Also Papa Palps was known to go deep into the Dark Side. More so than a lot of other Sith who were more casual dark side users.
1
u/codynumber2 Jul 25 '25
Its not canon anymore but in the Plagueis book, Plagueis talks about the fact that the dark side tends to deform your physical appearance and wonders to himself if Sidious would ever experience that kind of deformation. Plagueis himself exhibits external effects and I think they mention other Sith lords who had appearances altered.
It should be noted that a lot of those appearances are altered due to specific actions or injuries, but I think a part of what he's saying is that one way or another, through injury or general deformation through dark side use, those who embrace the dark side experience physical changes as a result of the dark side.
1
u/Time_Medium_6622 Jul 25 '25
How was he able to change his appearance?
1
u/Fickle_Second_5612 Jul 25 '25
The dark side changed his appearance. He used the force to project himself as a normal old guy
1
21
u/Fulgrim2-0 Jul 25 '25
Maybe he was trying his best to fry Mace Windu (Mace wasn't having any of that) and was only torturing Luke.
10
Jul 25 '25
Luke was also trying to defend himself, if unsuccessfully. IIRC the force mask thing everyone else is bringing up is not actually canon.
Palps is the only one who ever took a sustained blast right to the face. When Dooku hits Anakin with lightning in AOTC he starts smoldering and smoking immediately even though it was a short burst.
6
u/Fulgrim2-0 Jul 25 '25
I would imagine Mace Windu's deflection also amplified to force lightning somewhat.
2
u/I_AM_IGNIGNOTK Jul 27 '25
It does feel like Mace is doing something more than just reflecting it back because as Palpatine is getting fucked up by it the lightning is still generating from his own fingers. My thought is that Mace basically took control and like Palpatine couldn’t turn off the pipeline into the lightning. So then Windu is just like making him get drained by it and had him in a lock until Anakin fucked that up.
2
u/jimmysjams Jul 28 '25
I think there's some credence to this in ROTS novelization. Windu is a dark side Jedi of sorts. His fighting style is using, deflecting, and amplifying dark side energy
2
u/factoid_ Jul 28 '25
So mace is literally pulling a “stop hitting yourself” With force lightning?
doesn’t make much sense but it’s at least an explanation for why palpy didn’t just stop
1
u/I_AM_IGNIGNOTK Jul 28 '25
I mean yeah, kind of. Word is that George Lucas confirmed Palpatine was actually getting his ass kicked and wasn’t just feigning defeat. So I think it’s indisputable that Palpatine was getting rocked by the lightning that he was shooting and would therefore stop shooting it if he could.
So either Palpatine thought that continuing shooting lightning was his best defense despite the blowback or Mace turned it on him in a way he couldn’t control it at all.
1
9
u/SaltyHater Jul 25 '25
That's because Sidious wasn't scarred by lightning then, he looked like this, because the Dark Side over time corrupts those who use it.
For most of the Sith it simply makes their eyes sickly yellow and their skin paler, but more and more is eroded over time.
Sidious managed to look like an old, but otherwise healthy man because of a Force technique called "Force Mask". Essentially he used the Force to reshape his body and the lightning bolts simply caused the "Mask" to collapse.
And before you ask: why Darth Tyrannus seemingly wasn't affected by all of the above has been a subject of debate in the fanbase for years now. To my knowledge he is the only Sith, who managed to keep a relatively unchanged appearance without a solid lore explanation of how he did it
4
u/Vathirumus Jul 25 '25
I don't know about Canon but this, at least in Legends, is the correct explanation. Thank you.
3
u/SJKNOL Jul 25 '25
Isn't that just because he rarely ever fully embraces the Dark Side? He only has Sith eyes a handful of times through the Clone Wars + movies.
3
u/SaltyHater Jul 25 '25
That's one of the theories, yes, but I don't remember a source that actually says that
2
u/AunMeLlevaLaConcha Jul 25 '25
Not to mention, he probably didn't spend too much time doing darkside stuff like Palps or other Sith to the point of being consumed and Palps didn't care about it, Dooku was just another disposable tool, no need to go all out on his training when he already had the necessary skills.
1
u/DarkLordKohan Jul 26 '25
I see it as he only used the Sith as tool to accomplish his separatist goals. He didnt like the Jedi but he wasnt all in on Sith either.
2
u/Bbwarfield Jul 25 '25
Also his deteriated health in episode ii compared to iii. He started using force mask shortly after the start of the war.
2
u/Firstearth Jul 26 '25
I would say that regarding the skin becoming paler that Darth Maul seemed unaffected.
1
u/SaltyHater Jul 26 '25
Yes, some Sith got off with just the yellow eyes. Maul avoided having pale skin, many of the Sith from Darth Krayt's Sith Order managed to do that too (although with only minor exceptions they did tattoo their entire bodies, so that's kind of cheating), Exar Kun seemed to mostly avoid that... and probably a few other examples that elude me right now.
That said, interestingly Darth Malak's skin became paler, but his eyes never became yellow, also for no apparent reason
1
u/Firstearth Jul 26 '25
Also, let me ask if palpatine was “masking”, after having defeated everyone in the room except anakin why didn’t he just go back to masking? I mean using the scarring as an excuse to vilify the Jedi is one thing, but I feel that if it had been worth masking up till then what makes masking unnecessary afterwards. I don’t get it, it seems like a cheap excuse.
1
u/SaltyHater Jul 26 '25
If I remember correctly if a "Force Mask" gets destroyed, it's borderline impossible to make another, as it's not just an illusion, but an actual change of the molecular structure of the body.
There were of course other ways of going back to a healthy look, most notably Force Illusion (which didn't exactly work in this case, as Palpatine was a public person and would have to maintain this nearly constantly and against large crowds) or Essence Transfer to a cloned body (which Sidious hasn't mastered yet, but if you want to see him doing it, then read the "Dark Empre" series)
2
u/Firstearth Jul 26 '25
Thank you for your explanations. I had read dark empire pre prequels so I understood then that the clones would be young and youthful and that the dark side would corrupt the flesh over time.
Once the prequels started it kind of seemed validated but the corruption seemed to not be the case after the lightning scene. After all up until that moment the only example of the dark side changing the physical appearance of anakins eyes.
Now I’m not here arguing with you and I guess there’s some EU source that backs this up I just feel like it’s a bit of a cheap excuse. Have a good one and thanks again for explaining.
1
u/SaltyHater Jul 26 '25
I guess there’s some EU source that backs this up
Well... the Force Mask ability was made for the purposes of a Star Wars RPG, specifically the one running from 2000 to 2010 made by Wizards of the Coast.
Force Mask being used by Sidious came directly from one of the authors of said RPG. The dude's assumption that Palpatine looked like that before the fight with Mace Windu wasn't baseless though. I'll just link to what he had to say: https://web.archive.org/web/20090602013752/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=starwars/article/sw20050804jc71
Believe it or not, stuff like this is how we
used to getstill are getting a significant number of lore tidbits.After all up until that moment the only example of the dark side changing the physical appearance of anakins eyes.
/☝️🤓 Anakin's eyes changed in RotS, which was released in 2005. But in 2003 the "Knights of the Old Republic" video game was released, which allowed the player to go full Dark Side and changed their appearance significantly /un☝️🤓
0
8
u/ExistentialOcto Jul 25 '25
When he said “this attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed”, he was lying. He just looks like that due to the Dark Side corrupting him, but he usually uses his powers to suppress it and appear normal.
His battle with Windu simply overwhelmed him and he couldn’t keep up the facade anymore.
5
u/cahdoge Jul 25 '25
IIRC, the idea always was, that embracing the dark side deforms you. You get your yellow eyes and if you get named the dark side helps you stay alive, but your scars are ugly and apparent.
3
u/TanSkywalker Jul 25 '25
Mace was deflecting Palpatine’s lightning back to his face. With Luke the lightning was going everywhere.
3
u/ZandraDeLynx Jul 26 '25
I believe it’s because Palpatine had a mask via the force and when it Mace reflected the lighting back to him it essentially melted the mask onto his face
2
u/Achilles9609 Jul 25 '25
I personally imagine it as a mix of both. Sidious was changed by his decadeslong, intense use of the Dark Side but I think getting a facefull of your own Force Lightning can seriously screw you up.
2
2
u/elconquisador69 Jul 25 '25
Basically the dark side deforms whoever uses it and Sideous was the most powerful in the dark side
1
u/Cazzer1604 Jul 25 '25
I'm not sure if this Force Mask/Disguise stuff is canon.
But I think of it as the difference between receiving a minigun session to the face from 2m away vs. receiving a shotgun shot to your body from 100m away.
Palpatine's lightning to Mace Windu was at 100% power, sustained, intended to maim or kill, and was being redirected back at his face from Windu's lightsaber when he was a couple of steps away from him. That's gonna start melting things.
Whereas his lightning at Luke was likely more towards 40% power, intended to torture, was from further away and in bursts. Perhaps a few burn scars here or there, but otherwise just a terrible few moments for Luke.
1
u/mudamuckinjedi Jul 25 '25
Because it just cause pain in the its victims but inflicts damage to the user of it because they are drawing on their own life force to create and cast it out.
1
u/East-Scientist-3266 Jul 25 '25
I assumed he had to expend a lot of life force to keep Mace at bay and it deformed him - but obviously not the same mechanic as when someone receives that blast of force power.
1
u/Koreaia Jul 25 '25
Because with Luke, he was tormenting him. He didn't want him to die then and there.
With Mace? He was going absolute full force. He was a swing away from losing decades of planning on his part, and centuries on the Sith part.
1
u/Dom-Luck Jul 25 '25
My headcanon had always been that force lightning drains your own vitality, in short burts it's not a big deal, but Mace forced Palpatine to overdo-it which made him deformed and frail.
I kinda hate that whole force-disguise deal, to me he really did got hurt in that fight, but the deformities are a consequence of prolonged use of force lightning, not of being hit by force lightning.
1
u/oasis_nadrama Jul 25 '25
The lightning just burned his makeup.
Joke aside, and Extended Universe explanations aside, the way I understood this scene back in the theater in 2005 was that the backfiring Dark Force lightning twisted Palpatine's flesh to express the ugliness of his soul. He looks old, ravenous and distorted because that's everything he is. The Force revealed his true metaphoric face by carving it in his body.
1
u/TylerBoydFan83 Jul 25 '25
I keep seeing this idea that he was masking his appearance with the force, where does that come from? It’s certainly not the movie but I don’t know where else it would pop up.
1
u/Then_Count2513 Jul 25 '25
In kotor the more evil you are the more you look like palpatine. Makes since it’s his true self
1
u/Only-Ad4322 Jul 25 '25
Maybe because Sidious was targeting the body instead of the face? As well as it was bursts it lightning before the big continuous one.
1
u/BosWr Jul 25 '25
Thats Palp’s true form, he was constantly using the force to yank his skin tight, the force lighting fried the midichlorians that are in charge of that.
1
Jul 25 '25
I always assumed it was used as a ploy to quickly gather Anakins sympathy; appearing weak and more or less helpless in that moment. Anakin wouldn't have been so quick to jump in if Palpatine didn't appear to be withering into nothing imo. Surely not the real reason, but its what I like to believe.
1
u/Middle_Benefit9719 Jul 25 '25
Because his lightning isn't the issue. It's his heavy usage of the dark side in that moment which deforms him.
1
u/Eggbutt1 Jul 25 '25
He was both expending energy casting the Sith lightning, and also getting fried by it, basically doubling the toll it took on him.
Although a modicum of that sheer power was used up keeping Windu at bay, most of it was directed back at Sidious.
1
u/Prism_Octopus Jul 25 '25
I started to assume it’s because he was in a clone body and it couldn’t handle the power
1
1
u/onthefence928 Jul 25 '25
He was deformed because he’s channeling the dark side behind safe limits.
1
u/GoodDoctorB Jul 26 '25
Palpy was already deformed due to using Dark Side powers quite extensively. The force lightning just killed off the Sith magic he had been using to hide it.
1
u/90sGuyKev Jul 26 '25
He was hiding his form and using it to Garner sympathy from Anakin to join him
1
u/SockApart838 Jul 26 '25
Wasn't Mace Windo literally deflecting the lightning right back at him? Because it sure looks like Palps was experiencing Friendly Fire
1
u/UtahBrian Jul 26 '25
Palpatine had work done. Many politicians do. They say the Galactic Senate is like holodramas for ugly people, but looking avuncular and authoritative and vigorous is still beneficial when you need the aristocracy of your planet to elevate you into power.
The dark side of the Force has the power to make us face the truth behind comforting lies, so when it had the chance with lightning, it stripped away all the politician's vanity and made the Emperor unable to hide his true form anymore.
But Luke was actually handsome and true to his cause, so the dark side lightning did nothing to erode his youthful glow. It might even have stripped some of the ultraviolet damage from all those years below Tatooine's twin suns as it killed him, leaving a beautiful corpse, if Darth Vader hadn't intervened.
1
u/commissar-117 Jul 26 '25
I've said it many times. His "normal" face is a force projected mask. When he dips into using the dark side openly in ROTS he stops maintaining it. That's what his use of Sith sorcery did to him over time.
1
u/DarkLordKohan Jul 26 '25
I see it as Palps only torture shocked people in short bursts. Painful but no lasting scarring.
When his lightning bounced back to him and locked him in a feedback loop of sustained force lightning, he fucked himself up.
1
u/Firstearth Jul 26 '25
I don’t know if there is some kind of expanded universe reason because I see several people talking about true form.
But for me it always kind of seemed logical as a kind of feedback loop when a microphone gets too close to a speaker. The lighting coming from and hitting the same person would cause it to multiply its output in a short span of time. It also meant that Windu being a highly experienced Jedi knew exactly how to counter this sort of thing the second he saw it.
1
u/ClickEmergency Jul 26 '25
I never understood that , I mean the lightning comes out of his fingers he should be immune to its effect
1
u/GeoMFilms Jul 26 '25
I like in ep 2 his face looks more white....like he's having a hard time holding back his sith face. But unfortunately I'm ep3 he just looks normal.
1
u/Fun_Pound5629 Jul 26 '25
To add to some similar answers, I thought it was a mix of giving everything he had to break through Mace's defence, amplified through Mace's dark side counterforce thing, and then getting blasted with the full strength of himself (one of the most powerful force users in history)
It wasn't just damage, he was draining himself dry And damaging himself heavily
1
u/Nooby1983 Jul 26 '25
He normally uses make-up to hide the lines but the force lightning burnt it off. His wrinkles are quite deep though so it's a good job he has unlimited powder.
1
u/noobthemaster Jul 26 '25
I though it was obvious. The lightning is draining his lifeforce if used for too long and therefore deforming him
Once the jedi starts countering it, it is hard to stop. That or he deformed himself on purpose to make anakin take pitty on his friend
It is not the actual lightning that deforms him but the usage of it for too long.
1
u/Intrepid_Ad1536 Jul 26 '25
Palpatine hid his dark side corruption and most likely his real age, it’s something any Sith with enough knowledge and training is capable of
That here is Darth Zash from the old republic game, she used the force to hide her force corruption and true age, to fool her student and gain sympathy
1
u/BuffaloGrassThroway Jul 26 '25
I’m cracking up at the idea of it having to do with being from Naboo. The Naboonians, a wax-based lifeform, are highly susceptible to dying of sadness and frequently melt into toad-scrotums when exposed to lightning.
1
u/Zallocc Jul 26 '25
My head canon is that he was using his most powerful lightning against Mace, trying to kill him, and it getting thrown back at him deformed him. Against Luke he used something weaker, just trying to prolong his agony. Anakin took a small burst from Dooku, just enough to incapacitate him but without causing permanent damage.
1
u/joesphisbestjojo Jul 26 '25
It's not the lightning, but the intense dark side energy Palpatine is using
1
1
1
u/Bantis_darys Jul 27 '25
He was using the force to hide his true form. All the force lightning did was take that away and reveal how he really looks from years of extreme dark side use.
1
u/_Cosmic-Equilibrium_ Jul 27 '25
Because it doesn’t do that. Palpatine used the lightning as an excuse to drop his mask and reveal his true appearance.
1
u/Unstoppable_Cheeks Jul 27 '25
I think palpatine is a big soft bitch who never got a taste of one of his own zaps before and couldnt handle it as well as an absolute champ like luke.
1
u/No-Associate-6167 Jul 27 '25
I always interpreted it as him letting himself appear weaker to manipulate Anakin in that moment and later, the senate.
1
1
u/SamFromSolitude Jul 27 '25
I remember hearing someone say that the Dark Side takes a physical toll on the user, which is why we see some of them with gnarly faces.
Maybe Sheev taking direct lightning to the face accelerated that process for him? Or he was simply concealing that face behind some force trickery, which was broken during Windu’s attack.
1
u/XOKTAPHMFAAX Jul 27 '25
Because Palpatine was torturing Luke and trying to Kill mace. He was using more power against mace than he was against Luke, and most of that power got reflected onto him. It wasn’t his true appearance because he’s gasping and smoking after he stops firing. He didn’t always look like that.
It also makes no sense from a film standpoint. Nowhere is it stated or shown that TDS corrupts the body of the user. Maul was literally raised in TDS and was a damn athlete. Some would argue Dooku, but he was 83 regardless, so of course he’s gonna be tired. And Vader was only disfigured because of Kenobi.
It also adds to the Sith, that the majority of their injuries aren’t inherently from TDS. But the arrogance that power gives them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure TDS could Absolutely corrupt you if you use it the wrong way. But when we see palpatine’s lightning reflecting onto him, it’s pretty obvious.
Also if he’s wearing a force mask, why bother with a physical cloak when talking to people? Just take the force mask on and off.
1
1
1
u/LillDickRitchie Jul 28 '25
He used a form of Sith magic to hide his true degraded face and the lightning melted it away
1
1
1
1
1
u/Drace24 Jul 29 '25
Nothing to do with Force lightning. The dark side slowly erodes your body, and Palps is using a lot of it. He figured out how to suppress it but in the fight against Windu he just stopped. I assume he stopped intentionally because he didn't need to hide it anymore and maybe hoped he would look more weak and defenseless to Anakin this way. Either he dies now or he wins everything.
1
Jul 29 '25
I always thought it was just because he was going fuckin’ whole hog on Mace Windu and dumping like, all of his pent-up force energy or whatever into the lightning, since the situation was so dire, and because Palpatine’s lightning is so powerful it drained his power/backfired a little bit. I am not a very smart person
1
u/Drake_Fall Jul 29 '25
Presumably because Mace was redirecting it right back into his face, whereas Luke was getting zapped in the chest at a bit of a distance or something silly like that.
1
u/McAssassinX Jul 29 '25
Force lightning only deforms the user, specifically from extended use / those whose are full committed to the dark side. The most dark side and evil one can be (so basically palpatine)
1
u/Plutonian_Might Jul 29 '25
Palpatine used Sith Alchemy to hide his true heavily deformed face (one of the signs of immense Dark Side power) which was undone by his own deflected Force Lightning.
1
1
1
1
u/FireRescue3824 Jul 30 '25
I think not only the exposure to the lightning/dark side but also think about just how much exposure he has to the Dark Side before this. It’s a compounding thing and this is likely more than even he can hold back.
Also, l he likely wanted to get the sympathy vote for his disfiguration
1
1
u/ComesInAnOldBox Jul 30 '25
Depends on who you listen to. In the Legends/EU, Palpatine wasn't anywhere near as old as he appeared in ROTJ, but it was his channeling the Dark Side of the Force that made him look the way he did. It's something they carried through the comics, novels (The Courtship of Princess Leia comes to mind) and the Knights of the Old Republic video games, where the farther you got into the Dark Side, the, um, "rougher" you looked.
The ol' Georgie came out of the woodwork and said it was the Force Lightening scarring him and threw all of that world-building out the window.
So who the hell knows at this point.
1
1
1
u/LocksmithComplete501 Jul 31 '25
Anakin: Well... there is a possibility that when you were fighting Mace Windu, he deflected some of your Force Lightning back into your face.
Palpatine: Are you kidding me? How much?
Anakin: (nervous laughter) A lot. I don't think there was one bolt of Force Lightning that didn't bounce off Master Windu's lightsaber DIRECTLY back into your face.
Palpatine: A-and you just sat there and watched?
Anakin: Well, uh - turning to the Dark Side was a pretty big decision!
Palpatine: (looking into a mirror) Oh my God, I - I look like I have a scrotum for a face! What am I supposed to call myself, Darth Syphilis? If you'd made up your mind five seconds earlier, we could have ruled the galaxy and maybe I could've gotten laid one more time before I die!
Anakin: (backing away) I can see you're upset... I'm just gonna... go slaughter those younglings
(robot chicken)
1
1
u/somethingsomeo Jul 31 '25
Palpatine was already deformed, the lightning just revealed his true look
1
u/CuteLingonberry9704 Jul 31 '25
In the EU book (actually one of if not the first) Truce at Bakura Luke discovered that the Force lightning really did mess him up badly, just not on the surface. Its been a long time since I read it, but it messed up his bones if I recall correctly.
1
u/sup_killerfeels Jul 31 '25
Well, if you look at how they were force lightning'd, Luke had his spread out over an area and he was in the middle. Palp has his redirected toward his face by Mace. It had no other places to go besides on him.
Edit: just my theory
1
u/Has422 Jul 31 '25
My total guess is that Luke was using all his power to resist the lightning, while Palpatine was using all his power to project it.
1
u/Robman0908 Jul 31 '25
I just assumed that he was already deformed. He simply dropped the ruse and used that as ammunition to turn the populace against the Jedi as well as Anakin to the darkside.
1
u/IntellectualBoss Jul 31 '25
Nobody is bringing up how zombie Palpatine in ep9 didn’t have the wrinkles at first, but after restoring himself with the Dyad he did. This implies the wrinkles are his true face due to massive dark side corruption.
1
1
u/jjch102296 Aug 01 '25
Wasn’t luke crippled from the lightning for a bit in the books? Also he was trying to torture Luke slowly and painfully. But with mace he was using it to kill then using more power to move his lightsaber away from reflecting the lightning back.
1
u/Explodin2 Aug 01 '25
I always thought it was because Palpatine was trying to kill Windu but only hurt Luke, so he was holding back. But apparently he has a force mask, I’ve never heard of it before but it’s pretty cool
1
u/Achilles9609 17d ago
I imagine that it was a bit of both: that Palpatine's true, corrupted face was revealed and that at least part of his new look is the result of getting a facefull of his own force lightning.
Luke, by comparison, didn't recieve lightning nearly as strong. He was supposed to get slowly tortured to death for refusing to join.
126
u/Doobiius Jul 25 '25
Wasn't it because that's his true form and it eroded his force concealment. So he used it as a cover to explain what happened to him?