He wouldn't have been disfigured
there if Mace didn't repel it.
Also, the statement of lucas in reference to the scene. He states that Windu was
always going to overpower him and that acting like he was losing his power was added. Neither in the novel nor in the movie does it truly state when he starts acting like his power is fading. It does state when he portrays this to anni but not when he starts. So through this statement it is still a feasible option for Vapaad to have over powered Sidious without using much force abilities on him.
So Sidious anticipated for Anikan to show up right there at the moment:
But didn't see this betrayal coming?
Yeah okay lol
He fried like a chicken and Sidious said i took scars from this fight.
When George Lucas said
That is what he meant. Simplest explanation.
He wasn't "switching audiences" halfway through talking. Or retracting his earlier statement by modifying it mid-thought. Nobody talks like that. Especially not if you are being filmed on a blockbuster triple A movie commentary. They would just edit it out.
If he wanted to say Palpatine was faking the entire fight, he would have said "Well, this entire sequence between Palpatine and Mace is where Palpatine is playing possum while he waits for Akain to arrive against Mace."
^ Simple. Easy. But not what was said.
If you can't put it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
Simply put: Mace beat Palpatine. Why?
Lucas said it. Jackson said it. Movie says it. Novel says it.
Can you interpret what they said? Sure. But that is YOUR interpretation, NOT what they SAID.
Mace was WAY younger than both Palpatine and Yoda, more physically overpowering, he overpowered Palpatine in the saber duel. That is what happened, and what the director intended, because he SAID that.
Palpatine is the ultimate mastermind Sith, the ultimate mastermind Sith does not take unnecessary risks. He does not "allow" a Jedi Master to hold a light-saber to his throat in hopes that it will turn the Chosen one to his side or hopes that that Chosen one does actually stop him in time.... or hopes that Mace doesn't simply pressed it an inch forward when it was at his neck. The dude would've ran from Yoda if he could've
Sith don't gamble their own well being.
Seriously. The movie was released 2005. But in now its "Oh, no Palpatine was totally faking".