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Attempting to pass the boundless time of Christmas break, I've spent a few hours researching various websites (including this one, specifically Publius's informative essays) in an attempt to discover why Emperor Palpatine's body suffered from such a hideous biological decay. Now, before some of the overzealous members of the board crucify me in the name of Christmas spirit, I am aware that it is directly the result of the dark side energies within Palpatine. Where I am confused on the issue is both how and why they have such a detrimental effect on his body.

I read the contributions of a user on SDN thread "The Nature of Palpatine" who offered the conclusion that the decay is a result of "overuse of the dark side of the Force". Is that the official answer? It didn't seem as though Palpatine were performing any mind-boggling Force feats only on rare occasion (i.e., Force Storms, ect.).

The conclusion is also offered that it was immediately the result of the battle with Mace Windu when the lightning was reflected onto his face. Is that true as well? Because it seems that Palpatine's "decay" is slightly noticeable during Attack of the Clones, one notices Palpatine's complexion is much different and nastier even when compared to his canonically older appearance in Return of the Jedi.

This was Luke Skywalker's opinion on the issue (based off of the information of Mara Jade), courtest of Dark Nest I:

The shuddering stopped. Luke continued to maintain both illusions, the Force pouring through him like fire, burning more fiercely every moment. He was drawing more energy than his body was conditioned to endure, literally burning himself up from the inside. It was not really a dark side act -- to a modern Jedi, the dark side was more a matter of intent than deed -- but it felt that way to him. According to Mara, this is what happened to Palpatine, and Luke believed her.

Or was it merely a matter that Palpatine wasn't "drawing on the Force" rather than the presence of the dark side was so strong within him, since he is essentially the "dark side avatar" as Publius put it best.

It might be both. Palpatine does seem to be immensely strong in the Dark Side, which may mean that he was able to use the Force more intensely than say, Dooku or Maul (neither of whom showed the corruption that Palpatine did). Palpatine seems to have been disfigured for quite some time by the Dark Side though. The newest images of him (Jedi vs Sith: Essential Guide to the Force) show him without the melty look when he was training under Plagueis, but he seems extremely disfigured and creased by the time he trained Darth Maul. By the Clone Wars, his 'true' appearance as Sidious (going by the Sithisis story in the Visionaries TPB) was masked by some sort of ritual to make himself look like the normal, un-melted Palpatine. This ability was called 'mask' and it wore off when his own lightning was deflected back at his face. Essentially, Palaptine's face was likely disfigured by his own lightning, but the majority of his body's look seems to be caused by his heavy use of the Dark Side.

'Mask' technique info and deformity explanation:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=st ... 050804jc71

Wookiepedia articles:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mask_%28Sith_Alchemy%29
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Palpatin ... ion_debate

I'm also inclined to think that it's not just an "overuse" of the Dark Side, but his apparent immersion in it. Palpatine was manipulating events on a Galactic scale, apparently for decades. Immediately upon the conclusion of his battle with Yoda, he senses the danger Vader faces on Mustafar. I gather that this apparently passive intuition is a result of a constant tapping-into of the Dark Side. Putting aside the Jedi notions of the corruptive influence of the Dark Side, the amount of Force energy he must be throwing about almost constantly to so successfully manipulate events must be considerable. The fate of Anakin Solo in Star by Star and the aforementioned Dark Nest quote seem to show that exposure to large amounts of Force energy cause some kind of overload in the cells of whoever is channeling the energy. This may have something to do with the process by which the midichlorians in the cells are producing or manipulating the energy, whatever it is they do exactly. It seems entirely feasible that a decades-long exposure to significant amounts of Force energy would have a similar effect to a brief exposure with more massive amounts of energy involved.

That was one of my theories. It did not make any sense to me that the Emperor was somehow being crippled and decayed by constant use of the Force like a common thug abusing drugs. Palpatine didn't seem to be "using" the Force on massive scales all the time; it makes more sense -- given the Revenge of the Sith novelization's stance on Palpatine's sheer presence in the Force; George Lucas's affirmation that Palpatine is the perpetual "unbalance" that the Chosen One must correct; the fact that Yoda muses in Labyrinth of Evil that Darth Sidious was the one the Sith had "waited for", the one to "embrace the dark side fully and become its dedicated instrument" -- not to mention what I hear that the Dark Side Sourcebook and Dark Empire Sourcebook state about the Emperor's ultimate ambition to essentially consume the galaxy and all galaxies beyond.

Granted, we have seen examples of Palpatine's vast displays of power, though these conflict with the "overusing" idea based on the simple fact that he wasn't always performing such feats. If we are to take Darth Sidious's own word as fact, the major prerequisite for activating a Force Storm is the proper culmination of "knowledge and will", not essentially just power in itself. Likewise, we've seen Palpatine's chillingly demonic rituals personified in Sithisis, where he embodies the dark side to influence events and instigate anxiety and darkness within Jedi across the galaxy -- from Anakin Skywalker to Master Yoda himself.

So, is the "mask" theory canonized? As I said, if one takes notice, Palpatine's body was beginning to show signs of decay and age during Attack of the Clones, whereas this premature aging is completely forgotten during Revenge of the Sith. An out of universe explanation could be that Lucas retroactively decided that the struggle with Mace Windu would be the explanation, but an in-universe answer could be that Palpatine was simply struggling to maintain his "mask". One could note that Palpatine's appearances during the Clone Wars series depict him aging and frail as the Chancellor as well as horrifyingly demonic when he appears as Darth Sidious. Likewise, Dooku makes mention of Sidious looking "mottled" and "horrifying" during the tension-filled conversations with him in Dark Rendezvous.

I personally conclude that Palpatine's appearance is primarily the result of how potent his dark side energies are, given his status as the "dark side avatar", and perhaps Mace Windu's attack merely prevented Palpatine from ever putting that "mask" on again.

Thoughts as to the validity of that theory?

Well "lesser" Sith Lords like Darth Revan or Darth Traya) (or most Sith in KOTOR for that matter) have shown lesser signs of "Dark Side Corruption" so it's possible it is indeed caused by "overuse" of the Force or the Dark Side specificly.

I think the theory that Palps' appearance is due to both his fight with Windu and his own Dark Side energies is what explains this the best.

The interesting thing about his appearance is that when his spirit enters his clone bodies in the Dark Empire series, you can see what he looked like young without the Force corruption and how his body ages rapidly due to the Dark Side.

There is one thing which doesn't make sense with the "reflected Force Lightning caused Palpatine's disfigurement" hypothesis. If that indeed was the cause, why wasn't Mace, or above all Luke, disfigured in the same manner?

Because the use of the dark side fries the cells (or just weakens them) of the user from the inside, while the Force-lightning only fries the outside and in the case of Palpatine both effects were combined?

Which contradicts two pre-ROTS sources that show Sidious with his "wrinkly prune" face (Sithisis and Essential Guide to the Force). One of which also shows his transformation back to the more human-looking Palpatine.

Also, after 24 years of using the Dark Side and getting zapped at the end of his life, Vader's face didn't turn into a prune, either. He was scarred and mutilated, but that's from his duel with Obi-Wan 24 years earlier.

The reason that Palpatine's face was disfigured by the lightning (and those of Windu, Luke, and Vader weren't) is because the 'Mask' power would be dispelled by another Dark Side power, which would cause horrible scarring.
Again, the explanation is here:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=st ... 050804jc71