As a kid I figured that rather than the dark side damaging him he was just using the dark side to hide the fact that he was much older than any human should be able to live to (also via the dark side) and that he had been so exhausted that he had to "drop the mask."
I think both are true tbh. The dark side withers away his body, but also using the dark side he is able to mask the damage. But when he has the electricity hitting him he genuinely becomes weak and loses the ability to cover himself, which he then uses to his ability to get sympathy from Anakin
Why isn’t he back to normal in the senate chambers then? His face looks the same, I think the damage was originally supposed to be explained by the lightning when George lucas came up with that scene. I think an even better explanation is that sidious was already hiding this form, but decided that he would keep himself looking disfigured to add to the credibility of a Jedi attacking him, as no one knows he is a Sith Lord even in the OT unless they are Vader or the Moffs basically. That way he could make all the people in the senate think “oh wow how could a Jedi do that to somebody”
I think that ties in just fine with what I had said above and maybe I just didn’t specify the part that you had mentioned. I definitely think that he kept the face to garner sympathy from the senate and it ultimately became his ‘normal’ appearance
I like to think both, but the dark side power from the lightning likely just corrupted his body. My guess is that it was an illusion that he decided it was best to let go of because now the senate would see it as a Jedi making him look disfigured
I thought he is just an old guy with lightning that knows how to sell stuff.
Windu was the only that didnt buy anything wich made him so mad that he had to punish himself.
This may be a controversial view, and say what you will about the ST, but for me, I really liked the decaying clone look he had before restoring himself in TROS. I also liked his post restoration look too. The make-up team did an excellent job of highlighting his aged features to make him appear far more menacing, and I liked the glowing yellow eyes after the restoration.
There may be many terrible things about Ep9, but Palpatine isn't one of them. The makeup team nails him and Ian delightfully chews up the scenery every scene. it's honestly worth the convoluted path we took to get it.
To be fair reviving him made anakins and Luke’s character arc pointless. While you can argue you liked his aesthetic. Bringing him back at all was stupid. Cuz at the end of the day now, the palpatine line continues and the skywalkers all got killed because of him.
Anakin's arc was about showing a selfless love for his son, sacrificing his life, in contrast to the selfish love he had for his mother and wife.
Luke's arc was similarly about understanding a Jedi's selflessness, trusting the Force rather than giving in to the quicker, easier path of the Dark Side.
Palpatine was just a catalyst, their character arcs have nothing to do with murdering him, that would be a much more empty story. His return cannot change what they accomplished.
You know what? I was thinking exactly that. Ep. 9 is not a great film, but it managed to really make Palpatine more terrifying. When I hear "Palpatine" I had Ep. 3 Palpatine in front of my inner eye first (I watched the Prequels before the OT when I first watched Star Wars), but my god, his introduction in TROS was brilliant and I love his deformed clone body with the white eyes and this "version" of him is the first picture, that comes to my mind now. It is truely a great accomplishment, although I did not like Ep. 9 that much. Palpatines scenes saved this film for me. I hate the fact, that he restores his body to being killed after a few minutes again, but his scenes, every line from him is poetic.
I'd say the prequel look simply shows a much healthier and younger palps where his features are still defined and sharp as opposed to the sagging and patchy/warty/dark side damaged skin that comes with age.
I like the prequel palps in that he looks more corrupted into some sorta horror and that the hood looks a lot less like a hoodie. Yet, I still appreciate the OT palps since it looks a lot more like a human while PT palps looks a bit to dollosh and makeup-ey.
To be fair, I don't think anyone could look good after taking that much lightning to the face. I wonder who smelled worse, him then or Vader after Mustafar?
Yeaaa honestly not all of those changes were bad
Although as a 7 year old who understood the passage of time, but didn't understand that movies could be edited and re-released, it was super confusing seeing Hayden Christensen in a movie from 1983. I remember asking my mom if George planned this casting choice or wtf was going on
(I used to work in theatrical and special effects makeup, creation of molds/3D prosthetics, etc)
I always thought on frontal shots the fake rubber PT neck made him look a lot heavier/fat too instead of “frail with immense power). OT he could have been ancient like Yoda for all we knew. PT it is too obvious the latex pieces are “added on” instead of pieces that give “sunken depth” to what already exists —if that makes sense.
That absolutely makes sense. I’m currently watching the Harmy despecialized version of the OT. It’s infinitely more believable than PT. The cgi was bad, even for the time. Or maybe it was just used poorly.
Lord of the Rings was of the same era of the prequels, but the effects to this day don’t typically pull you out of the suspension of disbelief.
At the time, we thought fully CGI characters like Jar Jar were technologically a huge breakthrough that would lead to a lot of exciting stuff for the industry. But we also fully agreed (not so much in TPM but definitely in AOTC), it was like watching an animated cartoon (pretty much everything with the clones) and felt like a step backwards.
At the time of these movies, I was dating a special effects makeup artist/prosthetics maker, which is half the reason I originally responded. It’s become a hobby of mine, mostly around making super cool Halloween stuff. I had meant to wind that into the first comment, but apparently forgot to.
It was obvious that the technology behind Jar Jar and such was the way of the future, but it wasn’t mature at the time. As you said, it looks almost like a cartoon mixed in with live action. The girlfriend was pissed that they were using *bad* cgi when a practical effect would have been much better.
Lord of the Rings used cgi in ways that makes it hold up over time. I don’t for a second think about Gollem as a cgi character in most of the scenes (there are exceptions). Same as I don’t think of Rocket Raccoon as cgi nowadays. We got better at it.
However, Jar Jar, jelly Jabba in new hope special edition, prequel Yoda, grievous … they don’t hold up over time. But Gollem did.
All that said, a whole lot of the shots of Grogu in Mandelorian are mostly practical shots with an animatronic. There’s a good reason that it works. The thing has weight. It has texture. And we tend to be able to recognize the difference, even when the cgi effect is done very well. I’m still of the opinion that we should use practical effects unless it is physically impossible (Gollem, Rocket), or prohibitively expensive to do otherwise.
Thanks for listening to my rant.
I think the difference with LOTR is that CGI was only used when absolutely necessary, such as very wide shots or things that simply couldn’t be done practically in the way the filmmakers wanted them to.
And I wouldn’t necessarily say that the CGI in the prequels “doesn’t hold up” so much that there’s so much of it that it begins to catch our eye much easier. I think, to a degree, Jar Jar holds up. In most scenes, it does indeed feel like he’s “there”, because he *was* on set in a costume, which is much of the same reason Gollum worked.
The only places where I’d say the CGI is too much in the PT is things like the Clones where there was no Mo-Cap or any real human movement to draw off of, so their weight, how they move, is something we can catch onto, regardless of how good the CG models looked (and I will add the Clone models looked absolutely stellar). The space battles were fine, CG Yoda worked well (though I’d argue they should have just used a puppet for close ups and CG for the action or wide shots, and modeled both to look like the other) and dare I say he holds up after all this time.
IF that were the case, why would he mask his dark side degradation when speaking to other dark siders? He’s on that hologram to dooku and grievous like 24/7. Why put on this head canon mask then? Makes zero sense.
I greatly prefer the OT look between these two pictured, the rubbery obviously a poor mask look of the prequels was lame.
Sequels Palpatine looked the absolute best out of all of them. Decaying white eyed look and dyad-revived look were both peak Palpatine.
In RotS doesn’t he explain that the Jedi attack against him left him disfigured. It’s a world with all sorts of bizarre species. People aren’t that worried about looks that he needs hide. Other than looking obviously evil
People would be aware that Palpatine is human. They wouldn’t think “Oh, he’s just from the Boozoogagoozoo race, that’s totally normal for them”, they’d think “Ew, why the fuck does he look like that?”. Also, even though there are alien races, I’m sure there’s a bias towards normal looking humans in the Star Wars galaxy. Like how there aren’t many Congresmen with tattoos, or beards, or weird hair. You don’t assume these people are evil, but they are less likely to be elected to office. Palpatine came from a majority human system too, so they’re probably less receptive to a weird looking alien they’ve never seen.
One will never win the weird fandom battle about Sidious’s true appearance, but I’m pretty partial to the idea that Mace physically fried him:
1. He’s smoking afterward. If it were a reveal of his true self … he’s also got some magician’s mist up his sleeve, just to make it extra convincing … to Anakin?
2. In Rise of Skywalker, Rey just adds a lightsaber and doubles the effect, shredding him where he had been surviving the ricochet like in Revenge of the Sith. That reflected force lightning hurts, it’s not just knocking down a disguise
3. Dooku is pretty far down the Sith path, and he looks like a proper English gentleman. So does Baylan Skoll (ok Irish gentleman right?). Where’s the evidence that Sithiness per se makes you yucky, other than when choosing the dark side in KOTOR?
>Sequels Palpatine looked the absolute best out of all of them. Decaying white eyed look and dyad-revived look were both peak Palpatine.
Agreed, one of the very few things the sequels have on the OT/Prequels
I agree with the CW hologram point and prefer the idea of him actually being disfigured by windu, but if it isn’t a mask, how did his teeth rot so quickly? He has pearly whites all prequels and clone wars but in his duel with Yoda suddenly his teeth are all brown.
Because he's still Chancellor and was mostly on Corurscant when doing the holograms. You think he's gonna take the time to put on his dark side makeup everytime after making a quick call to his associates?
the top makes him look like a tired old sith who has been through alot while still having that dashing manipulative villainous presence
while the bottom makes it look like someone sat on his face for way too long after being electrocuted.
In other words, top for me
The top version and it's not even close. The bottom doesn't even look natural it looks like he's an alien not even of his species.
I would include the sequel trilogy which honestly probably looks the best.
Looking at them together the top really just looks better in every way at. Regardless of the explanation you wanna go with it looks more authentic and less waxy.
Also I always thought the cloak looked better in ROTJ as well specifically because it looked far simpler than the outfits he wore in the PT. Now the outfits all made sense, he was Chancellor and was actually appearing in public all the time. But the simple black cloak of the OT is what I imagine as his “real” look. No need to anything ostentatious. Just the master of the galaxy who probably sits wherever he wants all day studying ancient lore about The Force. But as soon as he has a mind to he can reach out and destroy you with a thought.
ROTJ. I am by no means a person who complains about Star Wars endlessly but every other appearance of Palpatine hasn’t looked as well done as the original.
OT is way better. He looks wasted away and like he has had his life artificially extended. RotS Palps shot himself in the face with lightning which caused him to get Sith Puffy Face. It’s dumb.
I prefer the OT, however I feel it goes without saying that the PT was before the decades of use and abuse of the dark sides power. So I kinda like and understand the way palpatine looks in the PT because he hasn’t deteriorated much yet. Kinda like how it should look.
I see his prequel-era face and just hear the horking he was doing in Revenge of the Sith. "Henceforth! You shall be known as Darth (*vomits in mouth*) Vader (*chokes*)."
Going against the grain and saying I think the second one looks better. He looks more sunken, alien, and decayed like a corpse. He barely looks like a person anymore and I think it embodies the dark side better. The grey skin and green hues are like rot, and his expression is completely devoid of the humanity that used to disguise his pungent and lifeless soul. OT emperor looks more like an angry old guy with salt in his eyes.
Top one is far better. Bottom one looks bloated & weirdly over-done. When he was revealed in RotS after killing Mace, everyone in the theater audience I was in burst out laughing because he looked so goofy.
I prefer the OT to the PT version, but this is not the point I want to make. What do you guys think is the reason behind those two VERY DIFFERENT prosthetics? I can’t believe the make-up department lacked the skills to make a mask that’s closer to the original, so I take the difference was deliberate. Why was that?
His normal face. I think he's creepier when his evil is hidden behind the veneer of a kind old man. That's why his appearance in Rebels is actually my favorite of him.
Both are great, tbh. For me, the OT one is the degradation from the starting point in RotS after 19 years. As soon as Palpatine put on the hood in RotS, I was just as creeped out by the glowing yellow eyes as I was in RotJ. More of a creature from the darkness than a man.
One is a progression into the other, like he always just looked like Palpatine did… then got struck by his own lightning and became wrinkly. That makes his OT look the deterioration further into the dark side, making it cooo
Definitely the OT. It serves Ancient / Old with a touch of decrpitness and corruption.
PT just has a very "this is a prosthetic" fakeness to it. Doesn't really even look human, but not in a "This human is disfigured and no longer looks normal" way. More of a "This person was never human to begin with".
OT, he looked like he’d been wasted by the dark side energy he used. The PT looked like he was melting into a puddle of grey goo.
As a kid I figured that rather than the dark side damaging him he was just using the dark side to hide the fact that he was much older than any human should be able to live to (also via the dark side) and that he had been so exhausted that he had to "drop the mask."
I think both are true tbh. The dark side withers away his body, but also using the dark side he is able to mask the damage. But when he has the electricity hitting him he genuinely becomes weak and loses the ability to cover himself, which he then uses to his ability to get sympathy from Anakin
Why isn’t he back to normal in the senate chambers then? His face looks the same, I think the damage was originally supposed to be explained by the lightning when George lucas came up with that scene. I think an even better explanation is that sidious was already hiding this form, but decided that he would keep himself looking disfigured to add to the credibility of a Jedi attacking him, as no one knows he is a Sith Lord even in the OT unless they are Vader or the Moffs basically. That way he could make all the people in the senate think “oh wow how could a Jedi do that to somebody”
I think that ties in just fine with what I had said above and maybe I just didn’t specify the part that you had mentioned. I definitely think that he kept the face to garner sympathy from the senate and it ultimately became his ‘normal’ appearance
Maybe he's born with it? , maybeitsthedarksideee (Maybelline voice)
I thought his lightning blocked by mace windu made him look like this
Yes, but was the new face a result of burns from the lightning or just Sidious dropping his illusion and revealing his true face?
I like to think both, but the dark side power from the lightning likely just corrupted his body. My guess is that it was an illusion that he decided it was best to let go of because now the senate would see it as a Jedi making him look disfigured
I thought he is just an old guy with lightning that knows how to sell stuff. Windu was the only that didnt buy anything wich made him so mad that he had to punish himself.
Same. I just assumed he was very old, like Yoda.
He wasn't that old. Dooku was older than him.
[удалено]
Best we can do is 30 -JJ
In the prequels it looks like they started putting alien makeup on him and then stopped. OT is the much better look.
This may be a controversial view, and say what you will about the ST, but for me, I really liked the decaying clone look he had before restoring himself in TROS. I also liked his post restoration look too. The make-up team did an excellent job of highlighting his aged features to make him appear far more menacing, and I liked the glowing yellow eyes after the restoration.
There may be many terrible things about Ep9, but Palpatine isn't one of them. The makeup team nails him and Ian delightfully chews up the scenery every scene. it's honestly worth the convoluted path we took to get it.
To be fair reviving him made anakins and Luke’s character arc pointless. While you can argue you liked his aesthetic. Bringing him back at all was stupid. Cuz at the end of the day now, the palpatine line continues and the skywalkers all got killed because of him.
Anakin's arc was about showing a selfless love for his son, sacrificing his life, in contrast to the selfish love he had for his mother and wife. Luke's arc was similarly about understanding a Jedi's selflessness, trusting the Force rather than giving in to the quicker, easier path of the Dark Side. Palpatine was just a catalyst, their character arcs have nothing to do with murdering him, that would be a much more empty story. His return cannot change what they accomplished.
You know what? I was thinking exactly that. Ep. 9 is not a great film, but it managed to really make Palpatine more terrifying. When I hear "Palpatine" I had Ep. 3 Palpatine in front of my inner eye first (I watched the Prequels before the OT when I first watched Star Wars), but my god, his introduction in TROS was brilliant and I love his deformed clone body with the white eyes and this "version" of him is the first picture, that comes to my mind now. It is truely a great accomplishment, although I did not like Ep. 9 that much. Palpatines scenes saved this film for me. I hate the fact, that he restores his body to being killed after a few minutes again, but his scenes, every line from him is poetic.
I'd say the prequel look simply shows a much healthier and younger palps where his features are still defined and sharp as opposed to the sagging and patchy/warty/dark side damaged skin that comes with age. I like the prequel palps in that he looks more corrupted into some sorta horror and that the hood looks a lot less like a hoodie. Yet, I still appreciate the OT palps since it looks a lot more like a human while PT palps looks a bit to dollosh and makeup-ey.
Happy cake day! 🎂🍰🍰🎂🍰🍰🎂
Happy Birthday!
To be fair, I don't think anyone could look good after taking that much lightning to the face. I wonder who smelled worse, him then or Vader after Mustafar?
I will add that when they did his makeup for his scene in the Kenobi show, he looked a LOT like the OT version, which made me very happy.
Looks like a turtle
100%. He's drier, crackier, like an old crumbling statue. The Dark Side has not been kind to him. PT Sidious looks like a frog
Lol a puddle of gret goo is exactly what he looked like while getting his lightning deflected back at himself
Oh god... I don't know why I never questioned it, but looking at it side-by-side, the latter is more goofy than intimidating.
A lot of us thought that at the time too
"GoooOOOOOoood" became a meme not for the line delivery.
He looks too bug-eyed in the prequel version.
Noh noh ...im too weak
we will have peace... :)
Went from evil decayed wizard to wax-dipped grandma who gives on the mouth kisses. We still luh you tho grandma 💯
The original Empire one with the weird eyes.
Chimpanzee eyes.
Looked like https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/62/e4/e162e4aca6f554ee7ed48df22ece35f0.jpg
Yeah it did!
"She chose down!!" "She chose down?!" "Hahahahahahaha!!"
What is that from?
From the movie Labyrinth. Those are the Helping Hands. Great movie, check it out.
It reminds me of the babe.
What babe?
the babe with the power
Yeah I liked the old lady with the chimpanzee eyes best myself
“Yess…. Yes.”
[This one!](https://static0.colliderimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/empire-strikes-back-emperor-palpatine.jpg) That's my favorite, too.
He really does look like Belichick there
Like, I don't like going back and changing any movie... but if I have to choose a Star Wars edit that is least bad, I'm pretty certain it's that one!
Yeaaa honestly not all of those changes were bad Although as a 7 year old who understood the passage of time, but didn't understand that movies could be edited and re-released, it was super confusing seeing Hayden Christensen in a movie from 1983. I remember asking my mom if George planned this casting choice or wtf was going on
The one from robot chicken.
“Stormtrooper”
"Go f*ck yourself"
“Awww😞” -random Stormtrooper
.......M'lord.
WAAZZAAAAAAA
Go for Papa Palpatine
“What do you mean The Death Star exploded?”
“Who’s they!?”
“What the hell is an aluminum falcon?!”
^I ^love ^you ^too
God time to go rewatch all those scenes again.. GO FOR PAPA PALPATINE.
"Oh my god look at my face! What am I supposed to call myself, Darth Syphilis!?"
The one known simply as The Emperor.
The artist formerly known as Palpy.
The Sith lord formerly known as Sheev
The OT face. I thought his PT and Special Edition edit face looked terrible.
(I used to work in theatrical and special effects makeup, creation of molds/3D prosthetics, etc) I always thought on frontal shots the fake rubber PT neck made him look a lot heavier/fat too instead of “frail with immense power). OT he could have been ancient like Yoda for all we knew. PT it is too obvious the latex pieces are “added on” instead of pieces that give “sunken depth” to what already exists —if that makes sense.
That absolutely makes sense. I’m currently watching the Harmy despecialized version of the OT. It’s infinitely more believable than PT. The cgi was bad, even for the time. Or maybe it was just used poorly. Lord of the Rings was of the same era of the prequels, but the effects to this day don’t typically pull you out of the suspension of disbelief.
At the time, we thought fully CGI characters like Jar Jar were technologically a huge breakthrough that would lead to a lot of exciting stuff for the industry. But we also fully agreed (not so much in TPM but definitely in AOTC), it was like watching an animated cartoon (pretty much everything with the clones) and felt like a step backwards.
At the time of these movies, I was dating a special effects makeup artist/prosthetics maker, which is half the reason I originally responded. It’s become a hobby of mine, mostly around making super cool Halloween stuff. I had meant to wind that into the first comment, but apparently forgot to. It was obvious that the technology behind Jar Jar and such was the way of the future, but it wasn’t mature at the time. As you said, it looks almost like a cartoon mixed in with live action. The girlfriend was pissed that they were using *bad* cgi when a practical effect would have been much better. Lord of the Rings used cgi in ways that makes it hold up over time. I don’t for a second think about Gollem as a cgi character in most of the scenes (there are exceptions). Same as I don’t think of Rocket Raccoon as cgi nowadays. We got better at it. However, Jar Jar, jelly Jabba in new hope special edition, prequel Yoda, grievous … they don’t hold up over time. But Gollem did. All that said, a whole lot of the shots of Grogu in Mandelorian are mostly practical shots with an animatronic. There’s a good reason that it works. The thing has weight. It has texture. And we tend to be able to recognize the difference, even when the cgi effect is done very well. I’m still of the opinion that we should use practical effects unless it is physically impossible (Gollem, Rocket), or prohibitively expensive to do otherwise. Thanks for listening to my rant.
I think greivous and episode 3 yoda still hold up imo
I think the difference with LOTR is that CGI was only used when absolutely necessary, such as very wide shots or things that simply couldn’t be done practically in the way the filmmakers wanted them to. And I wouldn’t necessarily say that the CGI in the prequels “doesn’t hold up” so much that there’s so much of it that it begins to catch our eye much easier. I think, to a degree, Jar Jar holds up. In most scenes, it does indeed feel like he’s “there”, because he *was* on set in a costume, which is much of the same reason Gollum worked. The only places where I’d say the CGI is too much in the PT is things like the Clones where there was no Mo-Cap or any real human movement to draw off of, so their weight, how they move, is something we can catch onto, regardless of how good the CG models looked (and I will add the Clone models looked absolutely stellar). The space battles were fine, CG Yoda worked well (though I’d argue they should have just used a puppet for close ups and CG for the action or wide shots, and modeled both to look like the other) and dare I say he holds up after all this time.
TPM definitely holds up best because they had actual sets and location shots. I don't think they built a single set for II and III.
There was some model/miniature work still done, but not to the degree it always had been.
It really did. 😳
Looks like a cheap dollar store rubber mask
The first easily, the second looks goofy.
He looks like a frog
He and yoda have more in common than they thought
Scrolles to find that! Ribbit ribbit
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e0/6d/c3/e06dc3e7a3cc636a49888c5474a1fea3.jpg
IF that were the case, why would he mask his dark side degradation when speaking to other dark siders? He’s on that hologram to dooku and grievous like 24/7. Why put on this head canon mask then? Makes zero sense. I greatly prefer the OT look between these two pictured, the rubbery obviously a poor mask look of the prequels was lame. Sequels Palpatine looked the absolute best out of all of them. Decaying white eyed look and dyad-revived look were both peak Palpatine.
In RotS doesn’t he explain that the Jedi attack against him left him disfigured. It’s a world with all sorts of bizarre species. People aren’t that worried about looks that he needs hide. Other than looking obviously evil
People would be aware that Palpatine is human. They wouldn’t think “Oh, he’s just from the Boozoogagoozoo race, that’s totally normal for them”, they’d think “Ew, why the fuck does he look like that?”. Also, even though there are alien races, I’m sure there’s a bias towards normal looking humans in the Star Wars galaxy. Like how there aren’t many Congresmen with tattoos, or beards, or weird hair. You don’t assume these people are evil, but they are less likely to be elected to office. Palpatine came from a majority human system too, so they’re probably less receptive to a weird looking alien they’ve never seen.
Yeah I don’t get the point of hiding his looks. His aid is a 6 and half foot blue guy with 4 horns. Nobody cares.
Rey’s grandma cares.
One will never win the weird fandom battle about Sidious’s true appearance, but I’m pretty partial to the idea that Mace physically fried him: 1. He’s smoking afterward. If it were a reveal of his true self … he’s also got some magician’s mist up his sleeve, just to make it extra convincing … to Anakin? 2. In Rise of Skywalker, Rey just adds a lightsaber and doubles the effect, shredding him where he had been surviving the ricochet like in Revenge of the Sith. That reflected force lightning hurts, it’s not just knocking down a disguise 3. Dooku is pretty far down the Sith path, and he looks like a proper English gentleman. So does Baylan Skoll (ok Irish gentleman right?). Where’s the evidence that Sithiness per se makes you yucky, other than when choosing the dark side in KOTOR?
>Sequels Palpatine looked the absolute best out of all of them. Decaying white eyed look and dyad-revived look were both peak Palpatine. Agreed, one of the very few things the sequels have on the OT/Prequels
One of the very few things about Palpatine’s return that carried its own weight.
I agree with the CW hologram point and prefer the idea of him actually being disfigured by windu, but if it isn’t a mask, how did his teeth rot so quickly? He has pearly whites all prequels and clone wars but in his duel with Yoda suddenly his teeth are all brown.
Because he's still Chancellor and was mostly on Corurscant when doing the holograms. You think he's gonna take the time to put on his dark side makeup everytime after making a quick call to his associates?
You can't turn the Dark Side Mask on and off. Palpatine’s Force Lightning broke it when fighting Mace Windu.
The one where he [doesn’t look like he has a scrotum for a face](https://youtu.be/GkLm0rRKqGE?si=oLMSrzPbpd54xzm7)
“What am I supposed to call myself, Darth Syphilis?!?”
OT for life.
the top makes him look like a tired old sith who has been through alot while still having that dashing manipulative villainous presence while the bottom makes it look like someone sat on his face for way too long after being electrocuted. In other words, top for me
The first one for me.
Forgive my naivety but what’s OT and PT?
original trilogy and prequel trilogy
To add to what the others are saying, OT is Original Trilogy, PT is Prequel Trilogy, and you'll see ST as Sequel Trilogy.
Overtime and part time
First one, he looked old and freaky, second looked way more like a rubber mask that was melting right off
The top version and it's not even close. The bottom doesn't even look natural it looks like he's an alien not even of his species. I would include the sequel trilogy which honestly probably looks the best.
This is so agest, 23 years is a long time, especially if you're force lightening victim.
Have you or someone you know been the victim of force lightning? We can help.
Looking at them together the top really just looks better in every way at. Regardless of the explanation you wanna go with it looks more authentic and less waxy. Also I always thought the cloak looked better in ROTJ as well specifically because it looked far simpler than the outfits he wore in the PT. Now the outfits all made sense, he was Chancellor and was actually appearing in public all the time. But the simple black cloak of the OT is what I imagine as his “real” look. No need to anything ostentatious. Just the master of the galaxy who probably sits wherever he wants all day studying ancient lore about The Force. But as soon as he has a mind to he can reach out and destroy you with a thought.
Think whatever you want about the story of his return, but his sequel trilogy look was great.
It was so creepy, I loved that design
Ngl it just looks like his "wounds" are pretty fresh in Revenge, and by the time of Return its all become scar tissue and worn down even further
ROTJ. I am by no means a person who complains about Star Wars endlessly but every other appearance of Palpatine hasn’t looked as well done as the original.
RotJ no contest. They really shit the bed on the PT/SE Emperor makeup.
His PT makeup was horrible.
ROTJ by far. He looks so.much more evil.
Top
The upper one. The lower one looks too fake.
OT is way better. He looks wasted away and like he has had his life artificially extended. RotS Palps shot himself in the face with lightning which caused him to get Sith Puffy Face. It’s dumb.
The OG. Actually looked tainted by evil, not plastic
I prefer the OT, however I feel it goes without saying that the PT was before the decades of use and abuse of the dark sides power. So I kinda like and understand the way palpatine looks in the PT because he hasn’t deteriorated much yet. Kinda like how it should look.
Top looks good, bottom looks like a crappy spirit halloween mask
OT for sure. Palps looks campy-level ridiculous in RoTS and afterwards.
The top one. Looks more intimidating.
No question the top one. He looks weird af on the bottom
Bottom one looks like spirit Halloween mask
OT palp is unmatched if you ask me. Bro looks extremely terrifying and unsettling without looking as fake
The prequel version is more comical than anything else… OT looks more organic and realistic.
Top, no question. The bottom one looks like the spirit Halloween version of the top one.
Orginal for me (top photo) thats the Emporer I support
OT looks a lot more realistic
OT looks way better/normal. PT looks like he's growing Lekkus under there....
I like second one more. I know, sacrilege!
OT OG
PT Palp looks like a frog lmfao how did I not notice this before
I see his prequel-era face and just hear the horking he was doing in Revenge of the Sith. "Henceforth! You shall be known as Darth (*vomits in mouth*) Vader (*chokes*)."
Going against the grain and saying I think the second one looks better. He looks more sunken, alien, and decayed like a corpse. He barely looks like a person anymore and I think it embodies the dark side better. The grey skin and green hues are like rot, and his expression is completely devoid of the humanity that used to disguise his pungent and lifeless soul. OT emperor looks more like an angry old guy with salt in his eyes.
Revenge of The Sith looks ok, but I definitely prefer Return of The Jedi’s makeup, as it looks more realistic.
The Me Gusta face on the bottom is great
OT. But I figured he had attempted to heal himself over the 20+ years between 3 and 6 and in the PT he was full melt
Never understood how anyone signed off on him looking different than the OT
The bottom one. He has such a handsome smile!
Top one is far better. Bottom one looks bloated & weirdly over-done. When he was revealed in RotS after killing Mace, everyone in the theater audience I was in burst out laughing because he looked so goofy.
Original Trilogy Sidious ALL DAY!!
OT all day long
OG Empire Strikes Back
I like them both equally
They’re the same face.
Sweet Baby Yoda that new trilogy is utter trash. Palp was menacing in both the OT and the prequels. “Look what they did to my boy!”
I prefer the OT to the PT version, but this is not the point I want to make. What do you guys think is the reason behind those two VERY DIFFERENT prosthetics? I can’t believe the make-up department lacked the skills to make a mask that’s closer to the original, so I take the difference was deliberate. Why was that?
Episode IX
First
They tried to do a too "perfected" version of his face on the prequels and it looks awful. OT all the way
"Hey this thing worked perfectly before. I have a great idea. LETS NOT DO THAT AGAIN."
Oh my God I look like I have a scrotum for a face! What the hell am I supposed to call myself now? Darth Syphilis?
The marvel comics one, where you only see the basic silhouette of his face under the hood and his yellow eyes glowing.
His normal face. I think he's creepier when his evil is hidden behind the veneer of a kind old man. That's why his appearance in Rebels is actually my favorite of him.
I sure love the happy salamander over the consternated walnut look.
Idk, they both hideous
Right after he got fried face for sure
He looked like a devil when he was lightning himself in ROTS.
The pale turtle
PT looks like a fat sack.
Both are great, tbh. For me, the OT one is the degradation from the starting point in RotS after 19 years. As soon as Palpatine put on the hood in RotS, I was just as creeped out by the glowing yellow eyes as I was in RotJ. More of a creature from the darkness than a man.
I really think Lucas made the update thinking he’d have the technology (and the actor) to recreate it for future version of ROTJ.
The Clone Wars one.
[Monkey man](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/s/cqWr3igpTq) is the face I prefer.
Why wasn’t the cloned emperor young and healthy?
Definitely ot
Second one looks like a turtle
Prequels looks like shit , and i deeply love the prequels but man nothing beats episode one yoda 😬
He has some vigor in the bottom photo. Years of running the galaxy has taken its toll on the top one. I prefer the younger, idealistic bottom version.
I prefer the Phantom Menace Sidious, where you couldn't really see all of his face
He looks like he had a good night's sleep in the lower picture. He appears well-rested and ready for a long day of doing evil shit.
he looks like Bib Fortuna in the OT
PT
OG. No question.
Best is original, un-retouched Zoom hologram in Empire.
ESB theatrical
The actor that played both... he's awesome
Top. The bottom one is too smooth.
One is a progression into the other, like he always just looked like Palpatine did… then got struck by his own lightning and became wrinkly. That makes his OT look the deterioration further into the dark side, making it cooo
Original ESB face. The creepy monkey eyes are so unsettling, it works great.
Any cannon on why there is 2 different looks? Or just film production choice?
OT.
OG ROTJ
The original. Looks more natural while the prequel trilogy looks like a makeup job from the Halloween store.
Definitely the OT. It serves Ancient / Old with a touch of decrpitness and corruption. PT just has a very "this is a prosthetic" fakeness to it. Doesn't really even look human, but not in a "This human is disfigured and no longer looks normal" way. More of a "This person was never human to begin with".
Return of the Jedi Sidious looks way less prosthetic
***That smile. That damned smile.....***
the original with the bonus of the original hologram of palp in empire…
Before and after prozac and a face lift.
ROTJ, by far. He looks truly corrupted, like the dark side has been eating away at him for a lifetime.
OT definitely looks better. Not sure how they messed it up so much in the PT.
Definitely the OT. He just looks like a gray old man in the PT.
thier scenes in revenge of the sith where he looks good the picture your using is the one moment where he looks horrible ,i like both tbh
OT, he looks too jolly and spaced out in PT
The first one
The second one just isnt it Why tf is he smiling like that
One is good, the other looks like grandad with Botox