Why didn't Luke turn all white and old and nasty after getting zapped by Sheev?

Maybe it's a reaction to the lightening with Naboo genetics? Luke's only half? ( I know, I'm reaching.)
Or maybe prolonged use of the dark side affects one on a genetic level, so Palpatine's reaction had to do with being somewhat less than human?
That's the best I could come up with. Great question, though.

 

Well before all the EU canon was scraped, Darth Sidous had used Sith sorcery to hide the true appearance of his face. After Sidious was zapped by his force lighting he wasn't really getting hurt by it, he was just manipulating Anakin and mace into thinking he was but the lighting just unmasked his true appearance. Of course you could considered it speculation but it's the only obvious answer.

 

Because PT-era Lucas subscribed to the viewpoint that "continuity is for wusses"?

 

Maybe he wanted to torture Luke for not turning to the darkside and taking Vaders place.
I think he tried to kill Mace and used full power of his force lightning.
Altough it was a good way to influence Anakin to turn immediately, Palpatines suffering from the reflecting thunderbolts and Anakins own needs to save padme were vital.
By the way, it looks like George Lucas wanted to explain why the Emperor got a monster face.
As a kid, I thought, he was a evil old man and that his hatret distorted his appearance.
My personal view is that George Lucas exaggerated the Emperors force power and him using a lightsaber in the PT.
Sure it's cool to see him and Yoda fight, but both characters should have never used a lightsaber in the first place.
Both lost their mystical persona with the expostion of their fightings in the PT.

 

Because he would wind up looking like this:

 

I've seen this debated before, I think you're on the right track here.

One thing I've always wondered is why Palpatine never got plastic surgery. We saw in the Clone Wars episode "Deception" how Obi-Wan got his face surgically altered into Rako Hardeen, and then showed up later looking completely normal with his beard grown back and everything. So it's not like the technology didn't exist for Palpatine to change his face back if he wanted to. Makes me think he liked keeping it ugly for some Sith-ceremonial reason...

 

The lightning struck Luke's body not his face,I guess the visual effects of scarring a character were not around at the time compared to TROTS.

 

"all white and old and nasty" - probably the best Palpatine description ever.

My guess would be different concentrations or levels Force lightning used. When confronted with Mace, he was facing a Master Jedi second only to Yoda in power, who was wielding a lightsaber and had the upper hand. I would expect him to throw all his ability into it, and when reflected back at him it would hit him pretty hard.

Now fast forward to Luke. Here he sees some naive Jedi-wannabe who knows nothing, and has peeved him off. To him, Luke is like an ant under a magnifying glass, so instead of throwing all his power into him, he wants to hit him with somewhat brief, low-power bursts... that way he can really enjoy watching him suffer. I mean, if he killed him too quickly, he risked being bored far too soon.

 

Those sure didn't look like low-power bursts to me. The Emperor was very clear about his intention to kill Luke right then and there. And the bolts were hitting Luke's body, his head... there were even little arcs going up his nose if you watch carefully.

IMHO, Lucas had it right to begin with and then backed off. In AOTC, he had Palpatine looking considerably older and greyer, his eyes were a bit red-rimmed, and the idea was that the dark side was already taking its toll, and he'd gradually look more like his "white and old and nasty" look from ROTJ. That made perfect sense.

Then suddenly in ROTS, he looked about 10-15 years younger than he had in AOTC, and Lucas completely backed off of his earlier plan to show Palpatine aging over time. Which would have been fine if he'd have come up with a minor plot point about Palpatine hiding his true appearance through some dark side trick.

But he didn't. We can sit here and imagine stuff like that all we want to, but the fact is, it's not actually in the movie. If it were, then the lightning scene between him and Mace Windu would have been a perfect time for him to let the "mask" down - a great payoff moment. But as it stands, we have the lightning somehow aging him decades within the space of maybe a dozen seconds, with no explanation or context.

 

An excellent point. I also wonder if we're maybe stepping into 'midichlorian' territory by trying to codify what Force abilities must and must not do..

 

I think its pretty obvious that Palp's true appearance was revealed, either intentionally or unintentionally. Because he instantly started walking all Emperor-like and using it as an excuse to kill the Jedi, and his eye's went all Sithy, much like Anakin's did once he started getting deep in the Dark Side.

I always figured that he was way older than he appeared. How else could he be powerful enough to cloud the Jedi's minds for years and defeat Mace, Fisto, those other Jedi AND Yoda? I feel like he would have to be Sithing for at least a couple hundred years to be able to even stand up on the battlefield with Yoda. AND he alludes to the idea that he can prolong life in that opera scene with Anakin. So I think he's really old, kept alive by forbidden Sith techniques, and his true old-face was revealed in the battle with Windu.
When 900 years old you are, look as good you will not.

 

He did! It just took him longer for it to show (refer to Talon Karrde post)

 

This is close to how I always saw it. I believe the Darth Plagueis novel is now considered "legends" so we can ignore everything in it. I always imagined that Palp was actually a couple hundred years old and had been kept alive AND young looking by his Master. Once he and Plagueis started to implement their master plan, which started with Palp starting in Naboo politics, he either killed Plagueis or Plagueis started to allow him to age. Once Palp killed his master he of course started to age anyway. The force lighting just revealed his true age.


EDIT: I assumed that Palp married into a powerful family and took it over and thats how he got his start. He claimed he was an orphan from the mines near naboo or something like that. Marriage = instant credibility and access.

 

Had never considered that...interesting.

I do think that he was using the Dark Side to "cloud everything" including his appearance. The change to the "Sith eyes" certainly implies that.

Keep in mind, even in Jedi, Palps wasn't just old, he was grotesque...or rather..."deformed by the dark side."

 

My thoughts on Palpatines change in appearance came from as @Shawshank put it as beeing "deformed by the dark side" I don't think the lightning itself caused it but his overall level of how much dark force he tapped into.

As far as why he did not just kill Luke with a lightsaber I think is twofold- 1. Lightsaber would be a quick death and Palpatine wanted him to suffer. 2. Luke's abilities at the time were such that he could defend himself easier and might have been able to defeat Palpatine in a lightsaber battle but he had no defense for Force Lightning

 

This is actually a really great question and one that never occurred to me. I like to leave that transformation as one of the few genuine mysteries of the SWU. Only GL knows . . .

 

Luke represents the goodness in a character, if his time comes he will continue that mood into the force.

 

As a child,I thought he was just old and twisted by the Darkside.When ROTS came out,I still thought that,but he reveals his true form to trick Anakin into defending him.