Force lightning/Legends

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"The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." - Darth Sidious

The subject of this week’s Force for Thought is one of the biggest unanswered questions in both Legends and Canon - was Palpatine’s true face concealed by Sith alchemy and revealed in Revenge of the Sith, or was he disfigured by his own Force lightning? As we do every week, let’s explore some material, both Legends and Canon, and see if we can make sense of this conundrum.

In Revenge of the Sith, we see Darth Sidious seemingly deformed by his own deflected Force lighting. Right off the bat, this is by far the most popular and likely explanation for his appearance. The fact that the Revenge of the Sith novelisation goes into gruesome detail about the effects of Force lightning on Palpatine’s face pretty much confirms that this is the case. However, while it might be an acceptable explanation for the disfigurement, it does raise some questions and possible inconsistencies.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Palpatine use Force lighting on his foes, and in all other cases his target remained unscathed. Take Luke in Return of the Jedi for example. He is tortured by torrent after torrent of Force lightning, however his body is not fried nor burned in the slightest. Luke remains the same contrary to what happened to Palpatine in Episode III.

When you look at it, there are several in-universe possibilities for this inconsistency. First off, Lucasfilm Story Group’s Matt Martin has said that he personally believes Palpatine used a lower voltage of Force lightning against Luke. This is entirely possible and a perfectly simple and reasonable explanation in my mind. It could be argued that Palpatine was toying with Luke, using a less powerful form of Force lightning to torture his foe rather than kill him immediately. It’s likely Palpatine perceived Mace Windu as a real threat, so used his full “unlimited” power on him. Maybe because he believed Luke to be less of a threat, Palpatine was content with toying with him before finishing him off? After all, Luke said it himself, Palpatine’s overconfidence was his weakness.

An alternate explanation and my own personal favourite theory is that lightsabers enhance the power of Force lightning. In Episode VI, Luke's electrocuted directly, whereas in Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine’s lightning is bounced off Mace’s lightsaber. Perhaps lightsabers contribute some sort of extra energy to Force lightning, thus making it more potent? The same can be applied to The Rise of Skywalker, in which Rey uses two lightsabers to fend off Palpatine’s attack. By this logic, having two lightsabers would surely amplify the power of Force lightning even more. Alongside Palpatine’s magnified power due to absorbing the life force of the dyad, it seems entirely viable that the Sith Lord would be vaporized.

But what if Palpatine was never disfigured by his Force lightning? What if in Revenge of the Sith he actually revealed his true face, a face deformed due to many years of exposure to the dark side? Palpatine is certainly no stranger to hiding his appearance, as we’ve seen him do so in Star Wars Rebels. There’s a popular theory, especially in the Legends continuity, that Palpatine used Sith alchemy to conceal his true identity behind a sort of mask, only for this mask to be torn away in Episode III. It would certainly be a very Palpatine move; making Anakin believe he was being severely deformed by Mace, when in fact he’s revealing his true form. This strategy of revealing his true self would be less shocking (no pun intended) to Anakin than Palpatine simply showing his real face, and would also ensure Anakin sympathised with Palpatine as the Sith Lord presents himself as the victim.

In the Legends comic Sithisis, Sidious performs an arcane Sith ritual in seclusion on Coruscant before walking out of his chamber and presenting himself as the friendly Chancellor the Galaxy knew him as. Some say this implies he wore an alchemical mask in public and many have theorised that this is the very ritual he used to maintain this facade in the Legends continuity. There are many more references to Palpatine concealing his true identity in Legends, including the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, in which a section on Masks and Sith alchemy reads:

“Palpatine, who has delved extensively into Sith lore, was using an almost-forgotten technique to hide his true self.”

Furthermore, an article published in Star Wars Insider #82 once discussed this theory. Interestingly, it combines aspects of both explanations for Palpatine's appearance, stating that the Force lightning may have been the catalyst that caused Sidious' true dark side form to surface:

“The real Palpatine is the one who bursts forth at a calculated moment . . . That is when the true person comes out, letting the evil fully manifest itself. The Emperor . . . looks like he does because he's very old and very evil -- it is what he always looked like.

It’s the intensity of reflected lightning and the channelling of such raw dark side power that are the catalysts for Palpatine’s transformation. Perhaps the face that boils up to the surface is shaped by his dark side corruption, but the lightning is definitely the cause.”

As for Canon, in the 2017 Maul series, Palpatine appears seemingly disfigured despite the fact these events took place before The Phantom Menace. This could be due to the art style, but some may take it as an implication that Palpatine conceals his true face in public.

Although I think this theory isn’t likely to be true due to the lack of evidence, especially in Canon, it still makes a lot of sense to me and feels very fitting for Palpatine. He’s a master of manipulation, and when someone wants to tempt others, they aren’t going to appear to them as a horrifying demon. They’ll want to seem pure, angelic and benevolent.

I personally think these are all good, viable explanations and believe they can actually be combined to form a greater explanation. I propose that Sidious was already partially deformed due to his use of the dark side and utilised some sort of Sith Force power or alchemy to improve his looks when appearing as Chancellor Palpatine (common side effects of practising the dark side include yellow eyes and pale skin, so this would explain the way Palpatine looked in the Maul miniseries). However I also think that the deflected Force lightning led to even further disfigurement and scarring. Perhaps Palpatine's mask and real face were even morphed or melted together due to the sheer heat and energy generated by both his lightning and Mace's lightsaber?

Either way, we know that Palpatine always viewed his scarred and disfigured face as his true “Sidious” form. Going back to the Revenge of the Sith novelisation, upon seeing his new appearance, Sidious states “And so the mask becomes the man. I shall miss the face of Palpatine, I think. But for our purpose the face of Sidious will serve.” To him, Palpatine was dead and his face before his disfigurement represented that politician from Naboo. He embraced this new deformed appearance as a visualisation of his true self - evil, twisted and unnatural. And although this subject remains unanswered for now, one thing we do know about Palpatine is that he has an affinity for Force lightning, even if it’s being deflected directly back at him. Seriously, the guy needs to learn when to stop...

How do you guys like to explain Sidious’ appearance? Do you subscribe to any of these theories in particular? Let me know in the comments below and as always let’s try to get some good discussions going. Thanks for reading and don’t be afraid to leave suggestions for future posts in the comments. Remember to upvote this post if you enjoyed it and be sure to follow the Force for Thought archive to stay up to date on the latest editions as well as find any you might have missed. I hope you all have a great week and that you’ll be back again for the next Force for Thought, but until then may the force be with you!

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Sources

• Revenge of the Sith

• Revenge of the Sith novelisation

• Return of the Jedi

• Matt Martin (@missingwords) on Twitter

• The Rise of Skywalker

• Rebels - "Family Reunion - and Farewell"

• Sithisis

• Star Wars Roleplaying Game (Wizards of the Coast)

• Star Wars Insider #82

• Star Wars: Darth Maul