Firstly regarding the "disfigured" issue :

"...he was using it (lightning) to provoke mace. Provocation is provocation, hurling lightning is hurling lightning...if your going to provoke somebody to lure them into trying to kill you, you might as well electroshock them for a bit. Palpatine had everything under control from the get go. Just because his appearance changes does not mean he was "going all out"...it can simply mean that the mask he has been wearing all this time (friendly looking old man) is actually melting away once he releases the dark side and his TRUE self appears. Not the other way around. He is not disfigured. THAT IS HIS REAL AND ONLY TRUE IDENTITY. And if you are wondering why the hooded Palpatine in the first 2 movies is not so hideous, the explanation is very simple and sensible: That is still only part of the mask, except he is hooded because obviously he does not want anybody to find out he is palpatine as well. His true voice is what we hear in ROTJ, NOT in TPM and AOTC. These are all facades. Also, he isn't just going to morph back and forth to normal/hideous just because he is wearing a hood. There is no need. But there IS a need to change the voice, otherwise his identity would be revealed. "

Regarding Palpatine faking weakness:

EVEN if Mace might have defeated him, i.e. Palpatine's little plan to keep mace alive till Anakin arrives to witness the treachery himself, Palpatine would have surrendered, and waited to grab the institutive at another time. When Mace after his supposed defeat "you are under arrest my Lord" and Palpy goes "no, no, YOU will die"...this all points towards one thing...the dark side clouding the minds of the Jedi once again is ahead of the Jedi in that Palpatine already has foreseen the outcome...Mace dies, Anakin joins the dark side.

Do you people think it is a coincidence that Palpatine tells Anakin that he will soon witness the treachery of the Jedi? Do you think that it is NOT important that Anakin witness this for himself? There are nowhere any implications in the film that Anakin plans on killing Sidious. He himself says "I will get to the bottom of this" (bottom of who to trust, [Palps or the Jedi)...And indeed this is the moment where Anakin makes his final choice. Lucas makes it clear that there are many contributing factors that result in Anakin's fall. It is not just Padme. Every reviewer and everybody working on the film makes it clear that it is only logically viable that Anakin's turn was motivated by many factors, INCLUDING Padme, INCLUDING the apparent treachery of the Jedi. Also, Mace being a smart ### toward Anakin earlier "You stay here while we arrest Palpatine---I sense great confusion in you..." etc etc...These are all contributing factors.

If palpatine was indeed bested, (I'm not saying mace is not strong enough), then why on earth did he continue hurling lightening at Mace to provoke him and motivate him to actually kill him? Do you think Palpatine wants to die just like that after years of meticulous planning? Remember how Palpatine purposefully gave the plans of the death star to the rebels to plan their destruction because he foresaw the outcome? (The Ewoks being a threat is just stupid but that's another story). This is the exact same thing. Palpatine is powerful and foresightful (If foresightfuls a word) enough to legitimately predict the outcome and is confident enough to risk it. Besides, Palpatine was never planning on killing them all, if it weren't Mace, it would be some other Jedi he would use to turn Anakin, but perhaps Mace was his best choice. It is very possible that Palpatine indeed underestimated Mace and indeed got his lightsaber kicked out of his hand by mistake...but I am sure he had more than enough resources to either give himself up to fight another day, or escape. But escape was never his plan. He knew that this would be the final straw that leads to Anakin's turn. Palpatine being a scheming, evil, very wise and foresightful ruler who used mace as his pawn like everybody else (remember he used Dooku and Maul as his pawns as well, so he was powerful enough to cloud Dooku's mind (I am sure Dooku never planned to become Cannon fodder for Anakin's dark side journey) who occasionally overestimates himself and is overconfident at times but still gets his own way, is so much more sensible, and consistent, than him actually being a hot headed idiot who just goes out killing Jedi and after genuine defeat continues to provoke an already very pissed off Mace Windu. It just doesn't make sense at all. Think about this for a while...PLEASE.

Everybody who somehow believes that Mace is suddenly an over god who has a chance against Palpy (who kept Yoda in check at all times), think about this:

Dooku is very powerful. I am sure he would be a worthy foe for Mace. So if Palpatine is not powerful enough to use Windu as his pawn, how can he do it with 2 (possibly more) powerful Sith lords? All of you by now know that he used Dooku not only to forge the clone wars to gain more powers in the senate, but his final plan was to be captured by grievous and use Dooku so that Anakin makes his first step, his first kill of a defenseless Dooku. This is already one step. Remember, Dooku lost his saber, he was now a prisoner of war, but he killed him. NOBODY besides Palpatine knew this. Anakin does not tell Obi Wan that he killed an unarmed prisoner. He is ashamed but Palpatine rejoices. Think about this. Palpatine is so powerful he uses Anakin, Dooku, the entire "capture"...in fact, almost everything in this movie proceeds according to HIS will, and HIS will alone. This is confirmed in return of the Jedi "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design"...This is one of the greatest and most important quotes in the entire saga. This underlines just how dangerous and powerful this guy is. Even NG said that "you are a fool if you think you can ever get an advantage with Palpatine...he will draw you out and kill you." Yes folks, that's how powerful he is. It's time to accept it. He did not become ruler of the galaxy by accident. He did not become ruler of the universe by luck. It doesn't work that way, Obi Wan said the same thing in ANH. There is no such thing as luck when it comes to the ways of the jedi/sith. Only who gets wealthy and powerful (Palpatine) and who ends up dead (Mace)...its that simple. I have no doubts that Mace might have done some damage to Palpatine because his weakness was his overconfidence. Hell, I'd even be willing to accept that his overconfidence in the duel was the reason he is so scarred in the OT (although this is not true, it was the dark side that ate him up...) But lets just say Mace is this all powerful god who indeed could have stopped him at that day. Perhaps it indeed was the case. But if Palpatine had sensed that this was his time, he would surely have surrendered, and manipulated himself to freedom/power through other means. In the duel it was not a fight to the death, when mace unarmed him he was STILL only trying to arrest him, when Palpatine continued to provoke him. (It is possible that Palpatine accidentally lost his saber, but he was never in doubt of the outcome, hence "no no, it is YOU who will die"---and continues to hurl the lightening to provoke Mace. Nothing in either the OT or the PT suggests that Palpatine is stupid enough to actually resist arrest in such a way after so many years of planning and deception, only to die like a punk because he had too much pride to give himself up. That's not what he represents. He doesn't care about pride, Anakin, Mace, Dooku, Yoda, anybody. All he cares about is power, and he needs Anakin to maintain his Empire. I wrote in a previous post to all the "if he is so powerful then why does he need Anakin" theorists out there that he needs the chosen one to maintain his Empire. He needs a powerful right hand man to carry out and oversee his operations. It is not his duty to run around chopping off heads and killing armies. His job is to maintain and control his power and move the pieces around, as he so ably does in the OT. Also, he cannot afford Anakin NOT joining him, as he would eventually become powerful enough to dethrone him. Palpatine would risk everything (including his own life) to get Anakin on his side. And there is no way anything or anybody that will get in his way, not the Clone Wars, not Grievous, not Dooku, not Mace, and finally, not even Yoda himself.

Regarding the question as to why Palpatine did NOT foresee Vader killing him :

It was his overconfidence in the destruction of all that was once good in Anakin. Throughout the entire trilogy and even near the end of ROTJ he was absolutely confident that Vader had completely become his loyal puppet. He had not a doubt in his mind that also Luke would follow the same path. But this did not come into fruition so all of his power and intensity, not to mention focus was now letting his anger and hatred let loose on Luke in the form of lightning, because of his own sense of failure. Think of it how you like, but even the most wise men cannot see all ends, as Gandalf would say. This can be due to many reasons. At that point Palpatine was desperate. He had failed in turning Luke and he actually had also become careless. Just because Palpatine had manipulated anything and everything in his path up until that point does not mean that he is perfect. Also, it is symbolic. Many great wars or defeats were won/lost/suffered because of small things like this. It could be arrogance, carelessness, overconfidence, traits of the Sith, but also of the Jedi. Yes in the end it was not a star fleet or all the Jedi in the universe which could kill him, or the rebellion itself, but his own dark side pupil. Remember Lord of the Rings? The great and powerful Saruman was not killed by Gandalf, Sauron, or some other powerful beings, but he was killed by none other than his very mortal and cowardly, not to mention quite weak servant, Grima Wormtongue. Remember this before some of you spit out nonsense like "it makes no sense that Palpatine got killed by Vader if he could fake his defeat against mace". Yes, it makes perfect sense actually. That which he feared less, and believed in most, was his own undoing.

Well I hope you all have enjoyed this I know I enjoyed writing it.

Please just tell me what you think and I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes.

Even in Death May you be Triumphant