“This is how liberty dies - to thunderous applause.”
Here I go replying to a 16 year old comment. My sister wasn’t even born yet when this comment was made. Damn.
This is a really cool line (above par for the prequels), but it kind of gives me icky vibes. It feels super misanthropic, and so does George Lucas when he talks about the politics in the prequels. It seems like he thinks dictators come to power because people are stupid and get tricked into dying in an authoritarian hellhole. Unfortunately I feel like I have to say that that’s not how the world works.
I kind of like the implication that the Blackened Mantle gives with this line, Padme’s in shock because she’s now realizing why putting up resistance against Palpatine in the Senate was so difficult: They were in his pocket the whole time. They were working with him. He was rigging their elections, or spreading lies, or just generally pulling strings to get them in power, and they did the same to make him into the Emperor.