What are your unpopular geek opinions?

[Davies]

Alderaan was a military target.

No. It was not.

 

[Sabathius42]

Joss Whedon "witty banter" style of scriptwriting ruins the tension and suspension of disbelief in his projects.

Related: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is cringibly unwatchable.

 

[Blue Orange]

The Case for the Empire

STAR WARS RETURNS today with its fifth installment, Attack of the Clones. There will be talk of the Force and the Dark Side and the epic morality of George Lucas's series. But the truth is that from the beginning, Lucas confused the good guys with the bad. The deep lesson of Star Wars is that the…

www.washingtonexaminer.com

(Written in 2002.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/10/29/the-destruction-of-alderaan-was-completely-justified/

(2015)

 

[Davies]

The Case for the Empire

STAR WARS RETURNS today with its fifth installment, Attack of the Clones. There will be talk of the Force and the Dark Side and the epic morality of George Lucas's series. But the truth is that from the beginning, Lucas confused the good guys with the bad. The deep lesson of Star Wars is that the…

www.washingtonexaminer.com

(Written in 2002.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2015/10/29/the-destruction-of-alderaan-was-completely-justified/

(2015)

Oh, so Desert Gled is a plagiarist as well. Good to know.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

An interesting take in a sort of terrorism against a oppressive totalitarian regime isn't terrorism way.

If they’re terrorist, all rebels are terrorists, and the word becomes useful only to oppressors.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

You mean, aside from that time they dissolved the elected portion of their government and then blew up a planet?

I sort of questioned them turning farmers into bloody skeletons to find plans a little…harsh. Not imprisoned and questioned, but roasted

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Oh, so Desert Gled is a plagiarist as well. Good to know.

Lol yeah it isn’t even a fresh take.

it was absurd in 2002, and it’s absurd now.

 

[MarkB]

It was established in the prequels that the senate was an illegitimate and ineffective form of government.

Ineffective I'll give you, though how much of that was deliberately engineered is another matter. But where are you getting "illegitimate"?

Alderaan was a military target. Literally every single on screen character shown from that planet is a militant terrorist.

Okay, so you're saying the Empire is bigoted as well as totalitarian and oppressive.

Tragic, yes, but no more oppressive or totalitarian than any other time one warring faction has destroyed the capital of their enemy.

And how many times is that? I'm having trouble recalling a time that an entire capital city and its population were destroyed, let alone a case where it was done by someone who wasn't oppressive.

 

[Umbran]

Oh, so Desert Gled is a plagiarist as well.

Mod Note:
Personal insults are not acceptable. Don't do that again.

 

[Cadence]

And how many times is that? I'm having trouble recalling a time that an entire capital city and its population were destroyed, let alone a case where it was done by someone who wasn't oppressive.

Does WWII have at least four non-capital cities that were close to completely wiped out?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

There is zero on screen evidence in the original Star Wars trilogy that the Empire is an oppressive totalitarian regime.

The entire plot of prequel trilogy is based on the fact the Jedi and the Old Republic are a corrupt theocracy.

You’re joking, right?

A military police state, wherein the emperor (literally a title that has extremely rarely been used by anyone but absolute monarchs or one sort or another) dissolves the democratically elected senate when it becomes inconvenient, is Peter ally intentionally coded to remind the audience of the Nazis, and that blew up a planet with billions of people entirely as a show of force, are exceedingly obviously a totalitarian regime.

As in, so obvious that I genuinely don’t believe that you or anyone else has ever actually believed the “The Empire was right” take.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I find the number of superhero movies and their interconnection a bit numbing.

saw the new spider man with the kids last night. It was fun. But I skipped a couple of captain America movies and if there was an ant man 2 might have skipped it.

perhaps the thing others might most disagree with is the idea that the multiverse lowers the stakes for me. Always a second chance, the world is a little more throwaway if there are 1,000 more almost just like it.

 

[Umbran]

Folks, if you get into arguing over the unpopular opinions, I'm going to boot you from the thread.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It was established in the prequels that the senate was an illegitimate and ineffective form of government.

Alderaan was a military target. Literally every single on screen character shown from that planet is a militant terrorist. Tragic, yes, but no more oppressive or totalitarian than any other time one warring faction has destroyed the capital of their enemy.

It was neither a military target, nor the capital of the “enemy”.

It was blown up literally to show that the empire could destroy whole planets in a shot.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I sort of questioned them turning farmers into bloody skeletons to find plans a little…harsh. Not imprisoned and questioned, but roasted

Right, they literally exercise lethal force as a first option.

There is no rational argument that they are the good guys.

 

[Umbran]

It was neither a military target, nor the capital of the “enemy”.

It was blown up literally to show that the empire could destroy whole planets in a shot.

STOP!