SW Lucas/Palpatine question

[DarkAngel]

Just something I've been thinking about: Did Lucas intend for us to know that Senator Palpatine is Darth Sidious in Phantom Menace? In the original movies, the character was only referred to as the Emperor, never as Palpatine, yet we still knew the name before the release of Phantom Menace. TPM seemed to confirm that Palpatine was the name of the Emperor, but none of the scenes in the movie explicitly showed Sidious and Palpatine to be the same individual.

Whenever Sidious' identity is actually "revealed" on film in episode II or III, is the expectation that the audience is going to be surprised? And how exactly did the name Palpatine slip out in the years before the release of Phantom Menace?

[TuffyCatt]

Heh, heh...I've gotta funny story about this. Okay, it took me and my family a while to figure out that Senator Palpatine was Darth Sidious. We knew Palpatine was the emperor in Episodes 4-6, but at first we didn't realize that Palpatine was Sidious. Then we figured it out by catching the couple small hints that Lucas throws out in the movie and thought that we were we really smart for doing so!:rolleyes: So, yeah, I think the audience is supposed to be surprised, especially for people who aren't too smart like me and my family! :o

[Clayface]

Good question, DarkAngel. And right now, no one knows the answer. Its a topic of much debate on a lot of the Star Wars boards. Some think that it is supposed to be a surprise, some think its not, and others think that Lucas may yet have something up his sleeve with all this - a twist that will throw both sides of the debate for a loop.