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How old do you think he'd have to be to be that powerful or hide so successfully?

Forget all that stuff from Dark Empire/2 for a second. What if, say he's just really really old? (and using his Dark Side Face-Dancer powers to appear as "only" a normal man in his 60's)

Other Force users have taken their frail, aged bodies and made them as sprightly as any youthful person (even though Lucas keeps saying that old and injured Jedi are weaker than youthful and able-bodied Jedi). So Palpy takes it one step further by using the Force to appear younger and perhaps even BE younger. A Dark Side fountain of youth so to speak. But even if he doesn't appear young, he goes on living, as an Immortal Sith Emperor, without any need for cloning bodies!!!


This is a half-baked theory I admit, but it might help explain the (canon, as of the ROTS Visual Dictionary) claim that Darth Plagueis REALLY WAS Palpy's master. The VD also claims that the "rebounded Sith lightning" is what "deforms" his face. So his disguise drops when he accidentally hurts himself with another Force power.

And yet Plagueis is also a "legendary" figure. Assuming it's even the same Plagueis of course.

Then again this Plagueis stuff could all be a bunch of baloney cooked up to impress Anakin. But I bet there is already a bio on him in some EU book being written, so this probably won't even matter...

Ian Mcdarmid has said that Palpatine is his age, so about mid 60's in RotS. (May be non-canon, outside commentary is not always official.)

Kurgan wrote:Forget all that stuff from Dark Empire/2 for a second. What if, say he's just really really old? (and using his Dark Side Face-Dancer powers to appear as "only" a normal man in his 60's)

Bzzt. Its part of the continuity and a legitimate part of canon. It does bare on a discussion of analyzing the SW evidence for this answer within the scope of the official Star Wars saga.

Bzzt. Its part of the continuity and a legitimate part of canon. It does bare on a discussion of analyzing the SW evidence for this answer within the scope of the official Star Wars saga.

Your right ofcourse, but his question is about the ROTS era Palpy, who doesn't yet use clones to extend his life.

I would say Sidious is older that he appears; but that is not surprising with SW technology humans probably can live well past a hundred years, possibly longer.

Taking only the movie continuity into account, I'd say he's about 60 and is more or less just your basic vanilla Sith Lord. His unique ability that differentiates him from the rest is his ability to read the currents of future that the Force brings with a bit more clarity, and to process that information to come up with great big hairbrained plots.

I guess he's also probably the first Sith Lord to figure out that the best way to destroy the Jedi (guardians of the Republic) is to use the Republic to accomplish that feat. He plans to finally fulfil the dream of a Sith-ruled galaxy, where his successors will form a line of strong rulers.. forever.

He also just so happens to be the one who has accumulated all the necessary discoveries, increasing the cumulative Sith knowledge of the Force to the point where they have the techniques they need to carry out such a plan.


OR maybe that's just what I think.
Anyway, taking the EU into account, I think he's also 60ish, but he wants to live forever through clone bodies.

Then I guess the next question is... why does "rebounded Sith Lightning" turn him into an ugly crone with giant forehead ridges, a crackling voice, etc. and he stays that way for the next 24 years?

Nobody else shot with "Sith lightning" has undergone such a change that we've seen...

IP: I knew somebody would say "stfu, Dark Empire is canon, get over it!" which is why I said "forget Dark Empire for a minute."

Well duh! So tell me, what changes (if any) or new wrinkles (no pun intended) does ROTS apply to our understanding of Dark Empire/2's portrayal of Palpatine?

Would you say that he just quickly "wore out his body from power drain" in that scene with Mace Windu, and that he needed to resort to cloning shortly after the events of the movie to avoid dying? He could hide himself as a sprightly 19 year old until he turned into a crone again, or maybe use the Force to appear as a crone all the time, even though at times he'd have the body of young man. Or something to that effect?

Is it really that hard to understand that Sids was masking his true appearance. Then when the lightning rebound on him he has to drop the glamour treatment to focus all his power on Mace. He as much at says it in the novel " the face of Palpatine would be missed, but the face Sidious would surfice...".

He looks decrepit like that because he's been mainlining the darkside. Seriously, we know he's been drawing allot of power: maintiaining the cloak of the darkside, masking his pressence from the likes of Yoda and Mace. This is dirt simple really, why there is any debate over it is beyond me.

There's probaly some records of Palpatine birth and such in Naboo, so can't be unnaturally old (for a SW Human)

Lord Revan wrote:There's probaly some records of Palpatine birth and such in Naboo, so can't be unnaturally old (for a SW Human)

Actually, the visual dictionary states that after Palpatine came to office as a senator, all his birth records and such mysteriously disappeared.