*Warning: Spoilers!* Why are the Skrulls in the MCU so bad at science?

[bz316]

So far, we've encountered the Skrulls twice. Once in Captain Marvel, and once in Spider Man: Far From Home. In both cases, the Skrulls proved to be weirdly incapable at the whole "science" thing. In Captain Marvel, a pair of Skrulls (one of whom was a SCIENCE OFFICER for fuck sake!) who had been wandering the planet for days needed a couple of humans, a species probably several centuries less advanced than them, to point out that the information they had was not a set of planetary coordinates but rather orbital position data. And in Spider Man: Far From Home, Mysterio has zero problem convincing the Skrulls that he was from another universe, despite the story being complete bullshit. I mean, c'mon guys, he described the "Elementals" as being made of the primordial "elements" of Fire, Wind and Water. That's goddamn Greek Alchemy! Human's stopped practicing that shit centuries ago, but these hyper-advanced aliens got fooled by an actor claiming to have found the Philosopher's Stone?! What's the deal? How could a species with that level of technological sophistication be so bad at incredibly basic science?

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Well theres humans who don't believe in climate change and think vaccines cause autism.

 

[bz316]

Well theres humans who don't believe in climate change and think vaccines cause autism.

Ouch. It hurts because it's true

 

[09philj]

And in Spider Man: Far From Home, Mysterio has zero problem convincing the Skrulls that he was from another universe, despite the story being complete bullshit. I mean, c'mon guys, he described the "Elementals" as being made of the primordial "elements" of Fire, Wind and Water. That's goddamn Greek Alchemy! Human's stopped practicing that shit centuries ago, but these hyper-advanced aliens got fooled by an actor claiming to have found the Philosopher's Stone?! What's the deal? How could a species with that level of technological sophistication be so bad at incredibly basic science?

To be fair, magic is real in the Marvel universe, and if they're aware of magic but not experts they might swallow Mysterio's bullshit.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Like who said that aliens with advanced tech have to be smarter right? I mean in the future we will have more advanced technology but does that make us smarter?

Advanced technology just implies they have been around longer, not that they are super intelligent. Its probably just like humans %99 percent idiots with a handful of geniuses pulling us forward.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Just because a species has advanced technology doesn't mean that every member of that species is good at science and knows how that technology works.

We all use smart phones, but I'll bet the majority of people in the world couldn't explain to you how they function.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Just because a species has advanced technology doesn't mean that every member of that species is good at science and knows how that technology works.

We all use smart phones, but I'll bet the majority of people in the world couldn't explain to you how they function.

Obviously witchcraft and tiny squirrels working the phone banks inside my Galaxy. What else could it possibly be?

 

[Trunkage]

Just because a species has advanced technology doesn't mean that every member of that species is good at science and knows how that technology works.

We all use smart phones, but I'll bet the majority of people in the world couldn't explain to you how they function.

Obviously witchcraft and tiny squirrels working the phone banks inside my Galaxy. What else could it possibly be?

They actually talk to each other through magical invisible gas being shook up and down. Did they teach you nothing in science?

 

[the December King]

Just because a species has advanced technology doesn't mean that every member of that species is good at science and knows how that technology works.

We all use smart phones, but I'll bet the majority of people in the world couldn't explain to you how they function.

While this is absolutely true, I would suspect that the scientists of an alien race, especially the ones involved with contacting other races, might be among the brightest and the best.

It's why I really didn't like the War of The Worlds remake. The gimmick was fresh and an exciting twist that the audience might never have thought of at the time (microbes being lethal to completely alien biology), when the original came out. But the idea that the aliens had such amazing weaponry but no idea of the planet's environment that they were attempting to conquer didn't work for me in 2005.

The same as Signs, I reckon. We have these alien entities that can travel across space (or even dimensions), but... let's run around naked on a world made of poison and stab some dogs.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Just because a species has advanced technology doesn't mean that every member of that species is good at science and knows how that technology works.

We all use smart phones, but I'll bet the majority of people in the world couldn't explain to you how they function.

While this is absolutely true, I would suspect that the scientists of an alien race, especially the ones involved with contacting other races, might be among the brightest and the best.

Typically people's areas of expertise are pretty narrow. Someone may be the best computer engineer in the world but have no idea how basic navigation works. Maybe the Skrull's science officer was an expert in bio-chemistry or something, that's not going to lead to them knowing how to interpret orbital position data.

Typically in movies scientists know "all of the science" in order for the plot to move forward, but that's really not how it actually works.

 

[Dalisclock]

Just because a species has advanced technology doesn't mean that every member of that species is good at science and knows how that technology works.

We all use smart phones, but I'll bet the majority of people in the world couldn't explain to you how they function.

While this is absolutely true, I would suspect that the scientists of an alien race, especially the ones involved with contacting other races, might be among the brightest and the best.

It's why I really didn't like the War of The Worlds remake. The gimmick was fresh and an exciting twist that the audience might never have thought of at the time (microbes being lethal to completely alien biology), when the original came out. But the idea that the aliens had such amazing weaponry but no idea of the planet's environment that they were attempting to conquer didn't work for me in 2005.

The same as Signs, I reckon. We have these alien entities that can travel across space (or even dimensions), but... let's run around naked on a world made of poison and stab some dogs.

Well, part of the problem with War of the Worlds is that the book was essentially a take-down of colonialism and imperialism, except with this "What if aliens did to Earth what we do to Africa?" vibe. With that in mind, the "Microbes kill the invaders" thing suddenly makes a lot more sense, because Tropical diseases did kill Europeans in places like Africa, India and Asia(yeah, I know India is part of Asia).

Kinda like the Time Machine had a rather unsubtle commentary on class struggle and the rich living in luxury while the poor toil in underground factories

HG Wells loved political commentary in his books. It just tends to get stripped out of all the film adaptations. Just like the thunderchild scene.

Seriously, why the fuck can't one WotW film keep the goddamn Thunderchild scene in it?

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Just because a species has advanced technology doesn't mean that every member of that species is good at science and knows how that technology works.

We all use smart phones, but I'll bet the majority of people in the world couldn't explain to you how they function.

While this is absolutely true, I would suspect that the scientists of an alien race, especially the ones involved with contacting other races, might be among the brightest and the best.

It's why I really didn't like the War of The Worlds remake. The gimmick was fresh and an exciting twist that the audience might never have thought of at the time (microbes being lethal to completely alien biology), when the original came out. But the idea that the aliens had such amazing weaponry but no idea of the planet's environment that they were attempting to conquer didn't work for me in 2005.

The same as Signs, I reckon. We have these alien entities that can travel across space (or even dimensions), but... let's run around naked on a world made of poison and stab some dogs.

Aren't the Skrulls essentially a collection of refugees that managed to escape the genocide?

 

[TrulyBritish]

To be fair, magic is real in the Marvel universe, and if they're aware of magic but not experts they might swallow Mysterio's bullshit.

Yup, I mean, Ice Giants are literally a confirmed thing in the MCU, Thor exists and Doctor Strange fights beings from other planes of existence or whatevs, so elemental beings aren't that far fetched.

 

[Agema]

And in Spider Man: Far From Home, Mysterio has zero problem convincing the Skrulls that he was from another universe, despite the story being complete bullshit. I mean, c'mon guys, he described the "Elementals" as being made of the primordial "elements" of Fire, Wind and Water. That's goddamn Greek Alchemy! Human's stopped practicing that shit centuries ago, but these hyper-advanced aliens got fooled by an actor claiming to have found the Philosopher's Stone?! What's the deal? How could a species with that level of technological sophistication be so bad at incredibly basic science?

Well...

1) I know biologists who believe the world was created about 6000 years ago, plus all the creatures in it, etc.
2) Given all the shit in the universe (including that the Marvel Universe includes magic, e.g. Steven Strange) it seems reasonable the Skrulls might believe in the existence of some extremely powerful entities that are more magical than technological. Or they could just think whoever they were speaking to was unable to distinguish magic from technology and describing some amazing tech in mystic terms.

 

[happyninja42]

They are also a species that has been hunted to the edge of extinction. Galactic refugees just trying to survive and evade the pogrom squads of an intergalactic empire, hell-bent on purging them from the galaxy.

In real world terms, most people who are part of a group in that situation, don't spend a huge amount of time studying high science and math courses. They are busy trying to survive until tomorrow, and find a way to possibly stop the people killing them. It seemed like the emphasis of their culture, during the course of the films, at least Cpt. Marvel anyway, was emphasis on espionage and infiltration. Learning how to quickly adapt to any new planet, so they can more easily accomplish their objective. That itself takes a lot of training and skill, time not spent reading science books.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

In Captain Marvel, a pair of Skrulls (one of whom was a SCIENCE OFFICER for fuck sake!) who had been wandering the planet for days needed a couple of humans, a species probably several centuries less advanced than them, to point out that the information they had was not a set of planetary coordinates but rather orbital position data.

See, I take the first thing there to be the result of the second. Talos' science guy knows humans are several centuries behind the Skrulls and don't really have much of a space thing going on...so why would he think it was orbital? As far as he knows, Mar-Vell has been working with the humans, he's got no idea she had her own secret space lab up in orbit, and every base and hidey-hole we have is terrestrial.

And in Spider Man: Far From Home, Mysterio has zero problem convincing the Skrulls that he was from another universe, despite the story being complete bullshit. I mean, c'mon guys, he described the "Elementals" as being made of the primordial "elements" of Fire, Wind and Water. That's goddamn Greek Alchemy! Human's stopped practicing that shit centuries ago, but these hyper-advanced aliens got fooled by an actor claiming to have found the Philosopher's Stone?! What's the deal? How could a species with that level of technological sophistication be so bad at incredibly basic science?

As explained in Doctor Strange, magic in the MCU works by basically stealing the physics and energies from other universes to use in ours. So we know both that there is a multiverse and that the different strands of it can work in wildly different ways. And the Skrull mostly likely know that. So honestly the idea that Mysterio is a magical dude from another universe? Probably not that unbelievable to them

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Because they're written by hack screenwriters?

 

[CaitSeith]

Because... SCI-FI! (emphasis in the FI as in FICTION!)

 

[the December King]

Well, part of the problem with War of the Worlds is that the book was essentially a take-down of colonialism and imperialism, except with this "What if aliens did to Earth what we do to Africa?" vibe. With that in mind, the "Microbes kill the invaders" thing suddenly makes a lot more sense, because Tropical diseases did kill Europeans in places like Africa, India and Asia(yeah, I know India is part of Asia).

Totally. Good point, sir. Again, it was the remake that didn't gel with me personally (I like the idea of the conqueror being capable).

Typically people's areas of expertise are pretty narrow. Someone may be the best computer engineer in the world but have no idea how basic navigation works. Maybe the Skrull's science officer was an expert in bio-chemistry or something, that's not going to lead to them knowing how to interpret orbital position data.

Typically in movies scientists know "all of the science" in order for the plot to move forward, but that's really not how it actually works.

This is also a fine point. As an example, I do compositing and CG art, but I know nothing of computer maintenance, nor database management.

Aren't the Skrulls essentially a collection of refugees that managed to escape the genocide?

Aaaand this is where you catch me at a disadvantage, because I actually know nothing of the Skrulls nor the Marvel storyline. I guess, desperate times and all that, work with whom you have. Fair enough.