Sensing the Dark Side in Palpatine...

[Lord Seafood]

A question that still seems to get thrown about is why Yoda or any of the other senior Jedi don't sense that Palpatine is a Sith Lord seeing as they're hanging around with him every day.

In Attack of the Clones, Yoda meets up with Dooku and says "the Dark Side I sense in you". Why then, we wonder, isn't it damn obvious to him that Palpatine is also a Dark Side master?

I've read some pretty idiotic theories on other forums (Palpatine is a clone etc.), but how about some ideas from some intelligent fans?

I've always considered the fact that Palpatine has never USED or MANIPULATED the Force in the presence of the Jedi. Dooku, obviously was in the middle of using the Dark Side when Yoda confronted him - thus it was clear to Yoda what was going on.

There is only that one moment in Attack of the Clones when they are in Palpatine's office and Palpy finishes Padme's sentence for her - which is when we get Yoda's squinty eyed look at Palpatine... just for that brief moment Yoda felt Palpatine manipulate the Force to read Padme's thoughts. A fleeting moment, but Yoda detected it.

Just thought I'd bring this up here, because obviously in Episode 3, Palpatine will let fly with the Dark Side and "reveal" his true power. But I wonder if Lucas will have him explain to the audience why he was able to keep himself concealed from the Jedi?

Obi Wan: But Master, why after all this time could we not sense it?

Yoda: Never used his power in our presence, Obi-Wan... until now.

[Forcechoke]

Yeah, I always thought that was kinda obvious.

When they said the Sith have been in hiding for 1,000 years, I highly doubt they meant literally hiding in a cave or on a swampy planet the whole time.

[Ternian]

"I have forseen it."

Palpatine doesn't use the agressive part of the Dark Side thus the reason he is not detected like Maul or Dooku by the Jedi. Palpatine's powers lie in his ability to read the future and to change it to his whim. Look at how many times in SW Palpatine refers to things in the future. This is Palpatine's power that the Jedi can't see. Yoda tries to probe the Dark Side through meditation and knows that there is a disturbance in the Force, but because all Palpatine is doing is probing as well, he remains virtually undetected.

"Blind we are, if creation of this Clone Army, we could not see."

Palpatine is never detected because he actually isn't doing anything with the agressive part of the Dark Side. He allows others to do things under his "guidance" thus the reason that all the Jedi's attention is on Dooku and Maul - Palpatine guides them based on what he has learnt from the future.

[Lord Seafood]

Yeah, I think it's basically that Palpatine doesn't use the Force while he is walking around as the Chancellor. The minute he *does* use the Force in their company, they'll know exactly what he is.

[Ternian]

Yeah, as soon as Palp's starts zapping people, Yoda is going to be able to know EXACTLY who he is.