Palpatine and Sidious

This is something interesting i want your opinions about. What was the reason for Palpatine's remarkable change in appearance? Did the deflected Sith Lightning scar his face? Or was this merely the real face of the Sith?
Cut from the movie and in the book, Sidious says 'so the mask becomes man...i shall miss the face of Palpatine'. Sidious real face is the contorted one we see? Was the face of Palpatine an obvious diversion? You decide!

The Visual Dictionary states that his face was melted by the Lightning reflecting back on him.

My thinking is that the mask is metaphorical; perhaps he thought, since he's an evil being, that this new face made more sense? No idea...but I don't think he was wearing a mask or using the Force to make himself look different. The Force isn't used that way...

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Just about.