if you watch the film once, palpatine comes across as a nice guy, watch the film under the illusion that he may be evil, and you can see things shot in a different light.
and a good clue is at the end of ep1, when qui gon gin is being burnt, yoda is saying "there is always 2, a master and an apprentice, but which one was the master", after which, it focuses on palpatine, it makes it obvious, has anyone else spotted this??

"DUH"