I haven't been here for quite some time, but I did find something interesting that seems to cast a different angle on this age-old disfiguration issue.

In the Star Wars Insider "Special Edition 2010" issue, there is a "set piece" article page 110 detailing the battle between Windu and Palpatine. While it talked about the usual things, like the effects and what changes were made over time, something quickly caught my attention.

"To represent Palpatine's decaying flesh as it absorbed more and more of his own reflected force lightning, McDiarmid was filmed wearing increasingly grotesque makeup prosthetics. This effect was enhanced by blending each makeup stage into the next with computer graphics, until he transforms into the familiar wrinkled visage seen in Return of the Jedi."

If I am reading this correctly, this means that the scarring, deforming, and disfiguration of Palpatine's face and body had nothing to do with an alchemical, molecularly-functioning mask, and everything to do with accelerated and concentrated breakdown and weakening of living tissue that is the hallmark of physical corruption via the Dark Side of the Force, and the fundamental effects of force lightning.

This also reminded me of what force lightning is officially meant to do victims; it weakens life by siphoning off a victim's life energy, weakening them to the point that they die. That is why when it flows over and into a victim, while it causes great pain, they don't get scarred, burned, or deformed noticably unless the lightning is powerful enough. A victim killed by force lightning is normally just a smoking, but normally unburned, corpse.

Now with the relfected lightning, that life-draining power is being absorbed into Palpatine's flesh, weakening its life until the skin is a sickly, grayish yellow, while the underlying flesh is decayed and warped, creating the signature facial flows, wrinkles, etc. that are apparent on his face.

I am also aware that many people have interpreted the transformation of Palpatine's face as a mask being removed, but according to this, that is not the case. After watching the scene carefully, I noticed that the animation is noticably imperfect, and doesn't look entirely natural. Watching it proceed, I noticed that it actually matched what was described above from Star Wars Insider, which was also described by the commentary on the DVD. They blended all of the makeup stages in chronological order, and combining it with the lightning striking the face.

Because of the animation's representational nature, its artificiality, and the chronological aspect, it looks like Palpatine's face is peeling off to reveal a face beneath it at first glance, when on closer examination the facial structure is actually changing, as though the lightning is shaping his face, much like an artist uses a chisel to shape a sculpture.

I also looked at the Databank and Complete Encyclopedia entries on Palpatine/Sidious, and they say only the usual "scarred and deformed" message that has been repeated before. But one thing that caught my attention was the fact that it described Palpatine becoming "a well of dark side energies." That, if anything, is not something that happens to victims of force lightning, but rather some side effect of a violent and rapid descension into the dark side to the point that it consumes the user dramatically but not fatally.

This also connects back to the DVD commentary, specifically that from John Knoll, that I mentioned on the Force Lightning talk page, where the strain of the exertion upon Palpatine of getting struck by his powerful lightning and emitting it repeatedly transformed him into his familiar state.

Taken together, it looks more like the transformation is caused by a combination of the absorption of the reflected lightning weakening and decaying his flesh, the exertion upon his body that it had while he was also firing the lightning, and escalating level of dark side power in his body as he did this. The end result of all of this is that his body and his face are withered, decayed, disfigured, and filled with so much dark side energy that Palpatine remains as a living well of dark power, and this is permanently shown in his face and body.

Such a combination and confluence of rare factors doesn't paint a picture of an alchemical mask breaking down under a barrage of force lightning, but rather the violent, corrupting and decaying effects of an accelerated loop of intense, life-weakening energy going in and out of Palpatine's body. --Exalted Obliteration 23:44, July 16, 2010 (UTC)