So, I have read and been told this many times before. Some times I will rewatch the movie to try and see that narrative. And I’ll admit, I’m and idiot. But I can’t get past the idea of: Bugs are just icky, no matter the size. Remove at all costs.
I watched it way back when I was young and didn’t get any of the satire. I watched in my 20s and I asked myself:
You have technology to move through space and shit, they could just rain bombs from orbit or throw asteroids onto the planet. But no! The best way to fight is to use masses of underquipped soldiers that fight the horrors of bugs.
The war seems secondary, killing soldiers looks like the first priority in these movies.
Let’s just say that the government does just rain bombs from orbit. They are humans, there are gonna be dudes that want to get their feet on the ground to start shooting things. Regardless of the type of government, humans are creatures of destruction. People are gonna want to shoot an alien bug for a multitude of reasons. Glory, honor, to prove themselves, fascist government or not, people will be lining up around the block to sign up for an interstellar opportunity to be a ‘badass’.
The most satire parts are not about fighting the bugs. The “only a dead … is a good …” is a classic fascist trope, but it’s the parts about disregard of human life and health and the propaganda in the movie that really mock fascism.
Disregard to human life and health isn’t limited to a fascist government though. As for the propaganda, I always took that at making fun of the military and their over the top commercials and other media.
Except they aren’t bugs in your home, they’re isolated to their own planet already.
Plus, consider the justification for the attack;
“the bugs attacked Earth first”
REALLY?
Consider the amount of maths and physics knowledge for us to get to our own moon. We have to calculate the trajectory of our own moon, the spin of the Earth, gravity, etc.
Now, in the movie, apparently the bugs bombed Earth.
FUCKING HOW. They exist outside our solar system. The level of maths for this is impossible without computers.
Not only have you got all the complications we had for a celestial body which was closest to us, but our sun has its own orbit within the milky way.
The narrative that the bugs attacked Earth first was a false flag. It was almost certainly just a meteor which couldn’t be stopped, which gave someone a reason to keep the perpetual motion machine of Fascism alive.
Okay, sure. But how is the bugs attacking first unlikely, when they are able to calculate that kind of interstellar trajectory to colonize all the other planets in their empire? They shoot spores into space and hit other planets to colonize.
Why could the bugs not have shot a colonizing spore at earth, or another human controlled planet, and that was perceived as an attack? The bugs empire rivaled the human empire after all.
Even if the bugs could send spores to neighboring planets, it would take billions of years for them to send spores to earth, as they aren’t capable of light-speed travel.
There is too many different versions of starship troopers to have a meaningful conversation about the logistics of how they travel. But there are transport bugs capable of interstellar travel. The first one was located on Pluto, so they were already in our system. Depending on which version of Starship Troopers you bring up Buenos Aires was either attacked directly by the bugs or had a meteor destroy it.
And the bugs have to have some sort of FTL travel since the humans followed the first transport bug back to the Arachnid homeworld. If that would take billions of years then the humans wouldn’t have been able to follow them back after they left Sol.
Starship Troopers is full of plot holes and inconsistencies that would, again, likely prevent us from having a meaningful conversation about the logistics of the Arachnids.
Lol alright, so earlier in the movie, Carmen is learning to fly the spaceship and has an accident where the run into the asteroid, which changes its trajectory and sends it to Earth, where it hits Buenos Aires. Carmen caused the whole thing 🤣
It’s very likely that the Earth military lobbed it toward earth as a pretext for war. The big planet was light years away (across the galaxy? I forget) and there was propaganda extolling the orbital defenses of Earth right before the hit. They had an orbital ring station around the Moon! No way they could miss a rock that big.
I will never understand how they made the entire movie and then had any possible thought people would understand their perspective. The problem is they got lost in the utopia part of the fascist utopia. Sure their culture looks weird from our perspective and has a fascist paint job., but is it really that bad of a society to live in as depicted? Everyone is depicted as generally agreeing with society and it’s norms, society seems to filter people into the roles that actually let them reach the best of their own abilities and that of the culture. No semblance or poverty or even elitism – except against bugs which are mindless as far as the audience knows. The closest we get to seeing that the bugs might be sentient is a psychic dude telling us that a prisoner of war is feeling fear while it is bound, defeated, and surrounded by its enemies.
The bugs colonized entire planets and has an empire that rivals the humans. That is far from being a mindless, non-sentient creature. If anything that screams they are more intelligent than humans because the bugs just shoot massive spores into space to accomplish all that.
So, I have read and been told this many times before. Some times I will rewatch the movie to try and see that narrative. And I’ll admit, I’m and idiot. But I can’t get past the idea of: Bugs are just icky, no matter the size. Remove at all costs.
I watched it way back when I was young and didn’t get any of the satire. I watched in my 20s and I asked myself:
You have technology to move through space and shit, they could just rain bombs from orbit or throw asteroids onto the planet. But no! The best way to fight is to use masses of underquipped soldiers that fight the horrors of bugs.
The war seems secondary, killing soldiers looks like the first priority in these movies.
Let’s just say that the government does just rain bombs from orbit. They are humans, there are gonna be dudes that want to get their feet on the ground to start shooting things. Regardless of the type of government, humans are creatures of destruction. People are gonna want to shoot an alien bug for a multitude of reasons. Glory, honor, to prove themselves, fascist government or not, people will be lining up around the block to sign up for an interstellar opportunity to be a ‘badass’.
The most satire parts are not about fighting the bugs. The “only a dead … is a good …” is a classic fascist trope, but it’s the parts about disregard of human life and health and the propaganda in the movie that really mock fascism.
Disregard to human life and health isn’t limited to a fascist government though. As for the propaganda, I always took that at making fun of the military and their over the top commercials and other media.
I never compared it to the actual government.
Silkworms are bugs, as are honeybees
You won’t find me hanging out with them, I’m afraid.
Except they aren’t bugs in your home, they’re isolated to their own planet already.
Plus, consider the justification for the attack;
REALLY?
Consider the amount of maths and physics knowledge for us to get to our own moon. We have to calculate the trajectory of our own moon, the spin of the Earth, gravity, etc.
Now, in the movie, apparently the bugs bombed Earth.
FUCKING HOW. They exist outside our solar system. The level of maths for this is impossible without computers.
Not only have you got all the complications we had for a celestial body which was closest to us, but our sun has its own orbit within the milky way.
The narrative that the bugs attacked Earth first was a false flag. It was almost certainly just a meteor which couldn’t be stopped, which gave someone a reason to keep the perpetual motion machine of Fascism alive.
Without a common enemy, Fascism turns inwards.
Okay, sure. But how is the bugs attacking first unlikely, when they are able to calculate that kind of interstellar trajectory to colonize all the other planets in their empire? They shoot spores into space and hit other planets to colonize.
Why could the bugs not have shot a colonizing spore at earth, or another human controlled planet, and that was perceived as an attack? The bugs empire rivaled the human empire after all.
Or am I missing something obvious here?
Our galaxy has a span of ~2 million light years.
Even if the bugs could send spores to neighboring planets, it would take billions of years for them to send spores to earth, as they aren’t capable of light-speed travel.
There is too many different versions of starship troopers to have a meaningful conversation about the logistics of how they travel. But there are transport bugs capable of interstellar travel. The first one was located on Pluto, so they were already in our system. Depending on which version of Starship Troopers you bring up Buenos Aires was either attacked directly by the bugs or had a meteor destroy it.
And the bugs have to have some sort of FTL travel since the humans followed the first transport bug back to the Arachnid homeworld. If that would take billions of years then the humans wouldn’t have been able to follow them back after they left Sol.
Starship Troopers is full of plot holes and inconsistencies that would, again, likely prevent us from having a meaningful conversation about the logistics of the Arachnids.
Lol alright, so earlier in the movie, Carmen is learning to fly the spaceship and has an accident where the run into the asteroid, which changes its trajectory and sends it to Earth, where it hits Buenos Aires. Carmen caused the whole thing 🤣
Oh shit, I missed that.
The film is so on the nose, that in the end they come out with actual nazi uniforms and child soldiers and people still didn’t get it.
It’s very likely that the Earth military lobbed it toward earth as a pretext for war. The big planet was light years away (across the galaxy? I forget) and there was propaganda extolling the orbital defenses of Earth right before the hit. They had an orbital ring station around the Moon! No way they could miss a rock that big.
I will never understand how they made the entire movie and then had any possible thought people would understand their perspective. The problem is they got lost in the utopia part of the fascist utopia. Sure their culture looks weird from our perspective and has a fascist paint job., but is it really that bad of a society to live in as depicted? Everyone is depicted as generally agreeing with society and it’s norms, society seems to filter people into the roles that actually let them reach the best of their own abilities and that of the culture. No semblance or poverty or even elitism – except against bugs which are mindless as far as the audience knows. The closest we get to seeing that the bugs might be sentient is a psychic dude telling us that a prisoner of war is feeling fear while it is bound, defeated, and surrounded by its enemies.
The bugs colonized entire planets and has an empire that rivals the humans. That is far from being a mindless, non-sentient creature. If anything that screams they are more intelligent than humans because the bugs just shoot massive spores into space to accomplish all that.
Black Mirror: Men Against Fire S03E05 will help you figure it out