I remember reading a few of the scans from the book and thinking it was interesting to see that outlook. Obviously to us the viewer/reader such a thing is impossible because of what we know about him, but it is interesting to know that ordinary people bought into it, at least during the Republic years.

Lost Stars is on my too read list, but yeah seeing propaganda work so well is pretty chilling. And yeah, absolutely! These people have no idea how truly evil he is because he has hid it so well that even Jedi can be in the same room as him (and not just any Jedi, but the council and Yoda) and not see it. It does make me wonder at which point that image slipped, because by the time of Jedi people, even on Coruscant, celebrated his death.

Yeah, Palpatine had made himself so powerful that if they had said no to him there would have been repercussions. Palpatine could very easily have used it as more ammunition that they weren’t to be trusted. I really need to read the Propanda book properly, but even without that it’s obvious the Jedi were pushed into a corner with no real options.

And that makes me wonder what if the Jedi had suceeded in arresting or killing Palpatine, what the public backlash would have been against them. It wouldn’t have been as bad as order 66 of course, but they probably would have been diminished further