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I was looking at a satellite map of San Diego today, and it reminded me of a tiny moment in a Sci-Fi show that blew my mind back in my early college years. It was the first episode of Robotech on DVD. The Zentraedi fleet arrives in orbit looking for the SDF-1, and start scanning the planet. Admiral Breetai sees a series of images of human cities, smirks and says "These people are completely ignorant of space war tactics." The moment he said that I was kind of floored. He could tell humans don't know how to fight space wars by looking at how they lay out their cities? How do you lay out cities in anticipation of space warfare? Something to do with orbital bombardments probably, right? Minimizing damage. How do you do that? Big fire-breaks between essential infrastructure? Using mountain ranges to shield your most important stuff? Heavy Transit systems to ensure continued flow of resources even when you start losing cities? Massive decentralization of any of all of your essential services and resources? What even IS your most important stuff in a space war context? Second-Strike military installations? Industrial capacity? Food production? One of the big deals in the first act of Robotech is showing off how humanity has worked to prepare itself for the day that aliens came looking to reclaim their ship, all the weapons they've built, all the technology they've reverse engineered, how they've left behind their petty difference to present a united front and the combined strength of an entire planet against any aggressor. The episode takes several opportunities to illustrate that they weren't even close to ready despite what they thought. But I think that one little line by the alien military leader after doing nothing but spending a few moments looking at human cities did more to open my mind to possibilities than any other. Humans in Robotech didn't just fail to understand this alien technology and the scale of the threat they would face, there were huge swaths of knowledge and preparation that threat demanded that never even entered their minds because they thought just building better guns would be sufficient. That's pretty cool storytelling.
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Jun 19, 2020 21:26
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 08:35 |
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Comstar posted:Hey, don't those invaders end up losing anyway? Yes. The story roughly goes that the Alien invaders didn't actually care about the planet, just the crashed ship, and so they chased it cat-and-mouse around the solar system rather than continuing to attack a defenseless earth. And then the invaders are kind of won-over by humanity in the course of the chase because they're genetically engineered warriors and civilian culture like music and LOVE causes them to not want to fight anymore. Except for the ones who DO want to keep fighting and/or obliterate these humans for the infection they've inflicted on their species, and so most of the earth becomes a devastated wasteland during the final battles between the humans and defectors aliens vs the rest of the aliens. Robotech/Superdimensional Fortress Macross is a good show. Anyway, I hope other people will use this thread to talk about little details or throw-away lines from science fiction that left a surprisingly strong impression on inspiration in their wake. Sanguinia fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jun 20, 2020 |
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Jun 20, 2020 21:43
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Sarcastro posted:I saw it in the theater when it came out with some friends. We were in college at the time, and had made some homemade pot brownies beforehand that in retrospect were significantly more potent than I could handle. I 100% completely forgot that I'd seen the movie until months later. That's how lousy it is. Counterpoint: Nemesis has a really good space battle that makes the rest of the film well worth it. Insurrection has NOTHING that makes the rest of the film well worth it.
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Apr 17, 2021 20:07
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twistedmentat posted:I have to get props for Lucas having Palpatine's plan being really clever; create a crisis that causes one of the few major military powers in the galaxy to rise up, continue to feed that crisis so more and more factions join together. Then use your public position to respond to the crisis you've created and get an army of completely loyal soldiers AND put your mortal enemies in control until the right time. He destroys anyone who could challenge him, both the Jedi and the forces that made up the Confederacy, gets the best apprentice out of it and can rule with what can be argued to be a legal mandate. I just wish he could have put somewhat MORE thought into it so the movies could have told that story better. And also a better form of that story.
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Apr 19, 2021 01:42
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Paddyo posted:In Dune, after Paul kills Feyd, Princess Irulan steps forward thinking that she is the prize that's been won. Paul blows past her and prostrates himself in front of Chani, and Jessica whispers this into Chani's ear: So much about Dune owns.
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Apr 21, 2021 06:26
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I wish I could edit thread titles so I could add "The Most Rapid Boob Changes I've Observed."
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May 3, 2021 20:29
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Arcsquad12 posted:In Fallout New Vegas there's always a short bit that I love when talking to Benny's right hand man, Swank. In New Vegas, Mr. House recruits the tribes squatting in the ruins to run his casinos and he gives each of them a flavor of Vegas to run with. Swank, Benny and the Chairmen go for the smooth talking hip cats routine of the Rat Pack and they change their language from the rougher Wasteland slang to match their new aesthetic. I think my biggest regret when I finally played New Vegas was that I couldn't recruit the one Omerta who wasn't a complete bastard from his exile in the Vault Hotel to run the gang once I killed their leaders. Handing it over to the PoS you get leverage on after hearing how he abused the #1 Hooker Lady was depressing. That and there was no special dialogue option to tell Benny "The Game Was Rigged From The Start," if you successfully steal his gun and later use it to kill him. They thought to include it as an achievement challenge but not to give you the most obvious line in the world in the process?!
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May 5, 2021 05:11
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Ghost Leviathan posted:I think there's a bit where you can talk to Caesar about the White Glove Society, and how he thinks they're fascinating for going from a cannibal gang to mysterious, well-dressed gourmets, deliberately taking on the antithesis of their former persona, and believes they'll eventually have to face their past and come to a synthesis. (hence the one guy who really wants to eat other rich people, bringing up the issue of what happens when a cannibal becomes a gourmet) Actually, this reminds me that my BIGGEST regret was not being able to challenge Caesar on some of the Legion's most horrific elements when you're talking things out with him during his attempt to recruit you. At a bare minimum not being able to demand answers from him about why he treats women like poo poo WHEN YOU ARE A WOMAN is absolute nonsense. If you want me to even consider throwing in my lot with the Legion you better give me the opportunity to believe I'm not going to be a chained brood-mare the second I fall asleep in a Legion camp. The fact that there's a reason in some lore book is immaterial. Oh, and THAT reminds me how I found that letter at the NCR Ranger camp the Legion sacked saying they took one woman alive and how I really hoped I'd be able to find her and rescue her, and then I find out on a wiki that only a male who sides with the Legion can meet her and your only option when you do is to murder her. The game is a masterpiece but it really does have a handful of things that really bug me. I wish it had had like another 9 months of development time, imagine what they could have done...
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May 7, 2021 05:16
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SlothfulCobra posted:It's sort of been forgotten about in the comic in later days as the main characters have been able to take secure transit basically everywhere they go for a long while now, between defended train lines and airships, but the idea of roaming robots in the wilderness that you have to hunt down for their parts really captivates me. Makes me think of Horizon Zero Dawn
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May 22, 2021 03:54
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SlothfulCobra posted:I feel like it loses something when you're just breaking down sheet metal into pointy bits. They never actually use any of the mechanisms to do things. Ehhh, that's not TOTALLY true. Aloy uses other parts for weapon and armor upgrades as well as trap mechanism and custom trick arrows. More importantly merchants buy more advanced components that you don't use yourself, which I feel implies that people are making some use out of them beyond just breaking them down for arrowheads and coins.
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May 22, 2021 09:20
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| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 08:35 |
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That sounds good, but honestly if they were going to do a Sisko/Picard version of first contact, I would have preferred a version that did a better job of preserving Picard finding a degree of closure and enlightenment concerning the Borg because of Hugh and had SISKO be the Ahab of the story. Maybe have Picard be wounded during the battle around Earth and a rescued Sisko take command of the Enterprise as the Senior officer. Fighting and the direct approach is what Sisko does best after all, and the memory of his wife fueling his crusade just makes it that much more believable. You could have some cool divided loyalty conflict with Worf since he's 1st Officer with Riker on the planet and Data captive. Hell maybe even put Worf into Lily's place in the story completely, have him be the one who ultimately confronts Sisko over how he's lost all perspective and he needs to BLOW UP THE drat SHIP after fighting tooth and nail with him through the corridors and seeing whats happening to him firsthand. Sisko's been a mentor to him in the command role, it'd be a great moment to see that culminate in him reminding Sisko of the very things he'd taught him. ...I think I just really wanted a Deep Space Nine movie, because I just realized I kind of cut Picard out of the story mostly in my head.
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Jul 28, 2021 02:34
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