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Originally posted by: Bossk
Well, considering how the "long live" cheer is usually used for inanimate objects ("Vive le France" --> "Long live France") and the like, I don't see why it's a problem to use it on a dead man. Especially since I'm being more figurative than literal. I want his scenes in the movie to live on, not the man himself, dingbat.
Quite right Bossk.
It is even more often used in the case of a recently deceased monarch or figurehead.
"Le roi est mort. Vive le roi!" -- "The king is dead. Long live the king!"
In old England, when one monarch died a successor immediately took the throne. Hence the chant, “The king is dead—long live the king!”.
It signifies the continuance of the position regardless of the mortality of the holder. The man may be gone but the empire will live on.
"Sebastain Shaw is dead, long live Sebastian Shaw" is perfectly fine as we aren't advocating his immortality of his physical being through some bizarre Doktor Frankensteinesque resurrection of his bones as a reanimated zombie more the immortality of his celluloid presence rather than the abomination that is Hayden Christensen.
Clear enough now Jimbo?