Which of the reasons for his physical ruination did you like more? The explanation before the prequels was that he had become so unimaginably powerful with the dark side of the force, that it was physically eating away at him. Hense his need for clones, in the Dark Empire series. It's even mentioned directly in the beginning of Shadows of the Empire, where Prince Xizor notices his physique, "as if something was slowly eating at his flesh." The prequel explanation is, obviously, that his dark power got radiated back at him in combat, forever scarring him.

 

Now, it's kind of a given that the former sounds more dark, and more fun to think about. But, on the other hand, there is a strong reason that the latter could be better. There's a very symbolic reason that Palpatine becomes physically disfigured in Revenge of the Sith - it's not simply to show how his once handsome looks belied a true monster, the so-called mask becoming the man thing, but his degradation is to contrast with Anakin's. They are both fallen and ruined people, and the reason that Lucas probably had Palpatine and Anakin become disfigured in the same period of time was to illustrate their ironic similarity, and their striking difference; the difference being, of course, that one was a fallen hero lured into evil by good intentions, and the other was a mendacious beast who chose it in full judgement.

 

So thoughts?

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couldnt it nbe a little buit of both though? like palpatine was on clone 445 or something and this clone got disfigured so he stuck with it until he had a new one then inflicted the injury to keep his terrifiying physique?