Sniper Team 4 said:
...
The_Darkness said:
It *is* kinda a valid criticism of The Force Awakens though - for largely unrelated reasons to why Zack's bringing it up. Hands up - who really *felt* those deaths in TFA? Who felt anything at all for the billions of completely non-characterised people who died in that scene?
I kind of did, and still do to this day, but it has nothing to do with the movie. My mind wonders on stuff like that. How many mothers just died breast feeding their newborn? How many kids were excited to be getting out of school for the day, only to be murdered for no reason besides being in the wrong place at the wrong time? How many people on that planet may have actually been loyal to the First Order, or at least The Empire, and just couldn't get enough funds together to get off world? How many normal people who just care about waking up, getting to work on time, and making enough money to survive and couldn't care less about who is in charge higher up just died because some dick pushed a button?
And that makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with literally every single person on Starkiller base. None of them even blinked as they willing slaughtered billions of people, probably the biggest death toll in the history of the entire universe. Worse, some of them cheered. That makes you a monster in my book. You are no longer human, alien, or even an animal. Monsters, every one of them, and every one of them deserves to die.
Anyway, like I said, my mind wonders on these sorts of things, probably more than most.
On to the topic at hand. For a second, I raised my eyebrow and thought, "Uh...no. A handful of villagers is NOT more than all the people in the city." It took me a second to remember what Starkiller base did, so then I was like, "Okay, he's right I guess..."
I don't remember them interviewing every single person on the base ...
The idea that
none of them had any moral-hang ups about using this weapon is nothing more than speculation, and it's speculation that seems rather absurd. I find it hard to believe that none of them felt morally conflicted about it, especially considering the fact that one of the protagonists is an ex-stormtrooper who left for moral reasons. Even those that cheered can't really be safely considered monsters, since it's possible, and rather likely, that some of them would be cheering out of fear, and considering the weapon they just witnessed, they have good reason to be afraid.
I'm not saying the people in the First Order are blameless, just that if you're going to analyze the situation that's something to consider. But bringing real world morality into Star Wars kind of kills the simple hero-villain narrative, which isn't really a bad thing for
me since I like stories with more realistic, morally ambiguous conflict, but I'm aware most people don't go to Star Wars for that. After all, if we were to think more deeply about the morality of the situation I'd say the rebels themselves would likely have done some pretty questionable things; I'm generally suspicious of
any faction who claims to have come out a war with clean hands.
Anyway, this is all kind of irrelevant, because I have to agree with the previous poster; I felt
nothing over the destruction of ... whatever planets those were. I don't think it even has to do with the whole "a million is a statistic" thing either. You can make an emotionally powerful scene of world destruction. I still find the ending to Exterminatus video is more emotional for me, and I likewise know absolutely nothing about Typhon Primaris outside of the fact that apparently little more than a million people live there (unless that line was more poetic than factual). In fact, overall I find it pretty hard to take Warhammer 40k seriously due to how over the top it all is, and it
still managed to cobble together a more emotional scene than Star Wars.
I genuinely think the Starkiller's destruction of ... whoever, was one of the most ineptly handled aspects of the movie. I just rewatched that scene again (don't ask how) and it's preceded by an absolutely hilarious man, who'll I'll assume is some kind of cosplayer who somehow found his way onto the set, screaming a comically over the top speech, then a giant laser fires out and destroys
whatever. To make matters worse, it's followed by a shot of people looking up at the sky in a way that seems more curious and confused than emotionally distraught, then Finn says "It was the republic. The First Order, they've done it ... where's Rey?" and the scene just ends. The way he so casually changes subject after ... whatever planets those were just got destroyed makes it seem like the editor forgot to add the laugh-track. Even though we know about the weapon, it still feels like it comes out of nowhere without any build up and returns to nowhere, leaving no emotional impact.
I actually think a lot of it is not just to do with how it fits into the story, but even how the scene is shot, and
especially the music that plays over it. For something that massive the music is so subdued.
Seriously, it sounds like the kind of music you'd play over a scene of someone looking at the fragments of a broken teapot that had significant sentimental value, not the
genocide of billions of people. Even the prequels managed to have some amazing music over their tensionless action. In fact, that Batman v Superman trailer, despite possibly being better than the movie itself if reviews are to be trusted, has some more appropriate "the world is ending" music.
Although, to be fair to the film, the destruction of Alderaan wasn't exactly a tearjerker, so TFA at least outdoes
that low benchmark.
Sorry for the novella-length rant about this; I really didn't expect to have this much to say on the topic when I began writing.
