Didya ever wonder...?

[p51]

A few things I always wondered about sci-fi movies:

• How come almost no sci-fi soldier ever carried food, water or even bag for extra items?
• In Dune, the entire house Atreides left Caladan to run Arrakis. After they got wiped out and the remaining people clearly never were coming back, whatever happened to the people who lived on Caladan? Who ran the planet after that?
• In Alien/Aliens, the Nostromo was ordered to land on that rock to (maybe) find an alien. The company put Ash on the crew for that reason. So, the ship goes poof and nobody apparently has a clue what happened until Ripley turns up almost 60 years later. The company seriously never thought maybe something was found and decided to divert another ship there once the Nostromo didn't show up?

 

[Richard Baker]

• In Alien/Aliens, the Nostromo was ordered to land on that rock to (maybe) find an alien. The company put Ash on the crew for that reason. So, the ship goes poof and nobody apparently has a clue what happened until Ripley turns up almost 60 years later. The company seriously never thought maybe something was found and decided to divert another ship there once the Nostromo didn't show up?

What is even more perplexing is that the company first sent the Nostromo to that rock to learn about the alien signal. It gets destroyed and instead of rerouting another ship to investigate, they decide to plant a colony and start terraforming just a few miles from where the alien signal originated from. .

 

[Riceball]

What is even more perplexing is that the company first sent the Nostromo to that rock to learn about the alien signal. It gets destroyed and instead of rerouting another ship to investigate, they decide to plant a colony and start terraforming just a few miles from where the alien signal originated from. .

Maybe whoever in the Company ordered the Nostromo to LV426 didn't want to draw any undue attention to themselves and/or the Company after the Nostromo blew up. What if they send another ship and it too blows up? Some people (mainly the government types) might wonder if there was some sort of connection or it might bring attention from someone else in the Company and either punish them or steal their thunder. The Company does seem to run on a sort of turning a blind eye on some thing as well back stabbing amongst junior executives as they to climb the corporate ladder. It's probably not uncommon for them to do things off the books as well as one part of the Company having no idea what another part is doing, possibly even with a dept. itself with one team doing things that another team has no idea about and possibly even actively sabotaging other teams.

 

[p51]

Maybe whoever in the Company ordered the Nostromo to LV426 didn't want to draw any undue attention to themselves and/or the Company after the Nostromo blew up. What if they send another ship and it too blows up? Some people (mainly the government types) might wonder if there was some sort of connection or it might bring attention from someone else in the Company and either punish them or steal their thunder. The Company does seem to run on a sort of turning a blind eye on some thing as well back stabbing amongst junior executives as they to climb the corporate ladder. It's probably not uncommon for them to do things off the books as well as one part of the Company having no idea what another part is doing, possibly even with a dept. itself with one team doing things that another team has no idea about and possibly even actively sabotaging other teams.

Yeah, but that means all these ladder climbers went their entire careers without making another attempt.
Most likely, they'd get someone they were grooming later in their careers, so if it went wrong, they could blame the new guy/gal, and if it went right, the older and more cunning exec would cash in.
Almost 60 years either way, I just never bought into that.

 

[Strikerkc]

A few things I always wondered about sci-fi movies:

• In Dune, the entire house Atreides left Caladan to run Arrakis. After they got wiped out and the remaining people clearly never were coming back, whatever happened to the people who lived on Caladan? Who ran the planet after that?

A different Duke was put in charge. It left Leto's fiefdom and entered another.

 

[Riceball]

Yeah, but that means all these ladder climbers went their entire careers without making another attempt.
Most likely, they'd get someone they were grooming later in their careers, so if it went wrong, they could blame the new guy/gal, and if it went right, the older and more cunning exec would cash in.
Almost 60 years either way, I just never bought into that.

It's possible that whomever it was that sent the Nostromo out to LV426 originally never got another chance to act on it. It's possible that they got transferred to a different team or division before they could make another attempt at sending someone out there and for the rest of their career they never got the same authority/access to starships to send that way. It's like someone in military who started in combat arms but later got moved into a staff position and remained there for the rest of their career. Whereas previously he had troops under his direct command, access to all the weapons in their TO&E but now only commands a few staffers and has access to nothing more than sidearms and maybe service rifles.

 

[Birdie]

What I want to know is why Special Order 937 was so easy for Ripley to access. Assuming Ash was placed on the Nostromo specifically to carry out the order (as implied by Dallas' comment that he was a last minute addition) why would the order even be in Mother's databank? Seems to be asking for trouble...

Obviously the answer is plot convenience, but it always seemed like a bit of a plot hole to me...

 

[Richard Baker]

One thing that always perplexed me is about Anakin being the chosen one to bring "Balance to the Force".
What on earth does that mean? If all those years and years of peace being maintained by the Jedi was some sort of problem because the bright side is far too dominant, wouldn't balancing the force mean the dark side needs to be brought up to equal prominence? IMO Anakin did exactly that- it has always been two Sith, a master and an apprentice. Anakin resulted in all the Jedi being killed except for two- Yoda and Obi-Wan- there, it is now balanced two for two.

 

[p51]

One thing that always perplexed me is about Anakin being the chosen one to bring "Balance to the Force".
What on earth does that mean? If all those years and years of peace being maintained by the Jedi was some sort of problem because the bright side is far too dominant, wouldn't balancing the force mean the dark side needs to be brought up to equal prominence? IMO Anakin did exactly that- it has always been two Sith, a master and an apprentice. Anakin resulted in all the Jedi being killed except for two- Yoda and Obi-Wan- there, it is now balanced two for two.

Good points.
I also never got how there could only be two Jedi left in all the Galaxy, both right in the very heart of the Jedi HQ? It'd made more sense to later on acknowledge there were a couple of Jedi in some outlying area where the order never got to the Imperial troops, or that they were simply nowhere near any to get offed by them.
There's a good concept there for the timeframe between the prequels and the Episode 4, whatever happened to... everything between those two timeframes? Sure, we have Rogue One but that place a short time before Ep 4 does.

 

[Riceball]

Good points.
I also never got how there could only be two Jedi left in all the Galaxy, both right in the very heart of the Jedi HQ? It'd made more sense to later on acknowledge there were a couple of Jedi in some outlying area where the order never got to the Imperial troops, or that they were simply nowhere near any to get offed by them.
There's a good concept there for the timeframe between the prequels and the Episode 4, whatever happened to... everything between those two timeframes? Sure, we have Rogue One but that place a short time before Ep 4 does.

Not to mention that not all Jedi could have been generals, I can't imagine the Republic having that many troops or that many Jedi being qualified to lead troops into battle. There had to be at least some Jedi serving on their own in the boonies acting as ambassador, spy, commando, etc.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

One thing that always perplexed me is about Anakin being the chosen one to bring "Balance to the Force".
What on earth does that mean? If all those years and years of peace being maintained by the Jedi was some sort of problem because the bright side is far too dominant, wouldn't balancing the force mean the dark side needs to be brought up to equal prominence? IMO Anakin did exactly that- it has always been two Sith, a master and an apprentice. Anakin resulted in all the Jedi being killed except for two- Yoda and Obi-Wan- there, it is now balanced two for two.

That's not how it works, it's not literal balance. I know it's beating a dead horse, but let's try this again. Bringing balance to the Force is a Jedi prophecy, so it's what the Jedi believe not what you think balance means. They think Balance is a complete absence of the Sith and their influence on the galaxy. When the Dark Side has any sway over the galaxy, it is unbalanced. When the Light Side is dominant the Force is in balance. That's how Lucas explains it.

Good points.
I also never got how there could only be two Jedi left in all the Galaxy, both right in the very heart of the Jedi HQ? It'd made more sense to later on acknowledge there were a couple of Jedi in some outlying area where the order never got to the Imperial troops, or that they were simply nowhere near any to get offed by them.
There's a good concept there for the timeframe between the prequels and the Episode 4, whatever happened to... everything between those two timeframes? Sure, we have Rogue One but that place a short time before Ep 4 does.

I think when we are told in the OT that Luke is the last of the Jedi it's just as far as Yoda knows. They made it harder to add surviving Jedi because now we know from the Rebels show that Yoda can reach out and sense and talk to other Jedi through the Force. So unless you say Yoda has a certain range, then he'd have to sense all surviving Jedi unless those Jedi can hide their Force presence, which we know is a power because Sidious could do it. Also Disney doesn't give a crap so they will do whatever now whether it breaks canon or not.

Not to mention that not all Jedi could have been generals, I can't imagine the Republic having that many troops or that many Jedi being qualified to lead troops into battle. There had to be at least some Jedi serving on their own in the boonies acting as ambassador, spy, commando, etc.

I think all Jedi were recognized by the GAR as Generals and Commanders, but they didn't all command troops in the field. The Republic Commando novels did a great job of showing the inexperience of some Jedi Generals and Commanders and how the Clones felt about them. There's a great part where a Republic spy tells the commandos that their Jedi Commander, who they're trying to meet up with, is not what they are expecting and she will need their help and not to completely trust her as an officer yet.

 

[Riceball]

There's a great part where a Republic spy tells the commandos that their Jedi Commander, who they're trying to meet up with, is not what they are expecting and she will need their help and not to completely trust her as an officer yet.

That would make a lot of sense. Somehow, I doubt that military officer training would be a regular part of Jedi at this point in the Old Republic. It probably hadn't been for centuries, if it ever was.

 

[sztriki]

I just wish stories did away with prophecies unless they're really particularly clever about it (Harry Potter book series treated prophecy as it should be, Dune is fantastic in that sense, but no other really comes to mind). It's a super lazy thing, practically tells what will happen in the story and anyway WHO in the hell makes these ominous prophecies all the time that people blindly believe in and follow? "It was foretold", "it is as the prophecy says", who the hell cares that someone wrote something in a notebook ages ago? So annoying building entire stories around prophecies.

 

[Strikerkc]

 

[Richard Baker]

That's not how it works, it's not literal balance. I know it's beating a dead horse, but let's try this again. Bringing balance to the Force is a Jedi prophecy, so it's what the Jedi believe not what you think balance means. They think Balance is a complete absence of the Sith and their influence on the galaxy. When the Dark Side has any sway over the galaxy, it is unbalanced. When the Light Side is dominant the Force is in balance. That's how Lucas explains it.

Not exactly my definition of "Balance" but OK, if that is how George is using the word.
Following that a bit- since the Jedi were waiting for the Chosen One to bring this balance to the force, this implies the force was unbalanced. At this point in the trilogy nobody even knew ant Sith were even around until Darth Maul showed up and then it was just conjecture. I wonder what led them to believe the Force was unbalance before that since the Jedi were in complete dominance and had been for generations in the Old Republic...

 

[p51]

I never bought into the "you can't have light without dark" shtick that screen writers love to put to paper.
You're just justifying how the good guys can't win out for a long timeframe.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Not exactly my definition of "Balance" but OK, if that is how George is using the word.
Following that a bit- since the Jedi were waiting for the Chosen One to bring this balance to the force, this implies the force was unbalanced. At this point in the trilogy nobody even knew ant Sith were even around until Darth Maul showed up and then it was just conjecture. I wonder what led them to believe the Force was unbalance before that since the Jedi were in complete dominance and had been for generations in the Old Republic...

That's where they got to a point they didn't explain very well. In TPM they think the Sith are extinct. So unless Yoda knew something and was just ignoring the comment, then it was bad writing. On top of that, they know the Sith have started using the Rule of Two and that was after the Sith supposedly became extinct. So which is it Yoda?

 

[mortifactor]

In the OT it always seemed to be that there was no 'light side', just 'the force'. The dark side is like a cancerous growth fuelled by misuse and evil etc etc etc and is unbalancing the force as a whole. Bringing balance to the force is removing the prime dark side users (Palp/Vader). It is like a kid standing on one side of the see-saw and when he is pushed off, the see-saw balances again.

Further media like games etc and even the new movies go on about light side this and that, following a yin-yang approach which I don't think makes any sense.

 

[p51]

Okay, another didja wonder...

• Who or what was Mister Shadow in "The Fifth Element"? I've never understood the idea of any entity which seeks to destroy everything. You might have a being that seeks revenge off a population for some (real or imagined) slight, but I've never understood the motivation of any character which wants to destroy everything...

 

[Strikerkc]

Hmm, it was a simple enough "good vs. evil" premise in 5th element, that the idea of a giant ball of sentient evil seemed straight forward enough to me.

And to be fair, all they had was the prophecies of the guys who kept the stones. Who's to say they were right about understanding the motives of the bad guy; or even capable of understanding it's goals. Could be that step 1 was "destroy everything". Step 2 could have been "remake the universe in my image". Doesn't matter to us if that's step 2, cause step 1 is all that impacts us.