Frustration wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 1:11 am
Our 'source' is our own eyes. Why in the world do you think there were so many quasi-Western worlds?
Our eyes follow a group of outlaws. We're not exactly following reliable narrators.
In a TV show what we see should be what it is rather than a character's opinion of it, but we see where the character goes, and of course we still get their opinions. So being outlaws they'll spend more time than average going to the less attractive places. It's thus reasonable to assume that we're not getting a typical view.
What we don't get though, and which may be telling, is any balance trying to portray the Alliance as anything other than how Mal sees it; I'd expect both Shepard Book and Inara to be less biased, but neither seem interested in defending it or offering an alternative view (mind you Book only rarely gives any hints about anything).
Frustration wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 9:12 pm
A comparison to the Confederacy would be inappropriate, though - only people who had an axe to grind insisted that there was a connection, as viewers of the show were well aware it was spurious.
It was the Alliance that decided to settle new worldlets as cheaply as possible by dumping people off with limited supplies and pioneer-level tools and wait a hundred years for them to build up an industrial base by themselves. If they didn't want people to resent them, and develop their own sense of ownership of their worldlets, they should have engaged with their development more actively.
The comparison to the Confederacy is very apt, given that Joss Whedon (i.e., the guy who made the show) has said in multiple interviews that the core concept of the show is based off exploring the dynamics of the reconstruction era US and the conditions and perspectives of those who lost the Civil War (i.e., Confederates) who now had to live in a world where those in power were those they fought against.
Part of the appeal of the Space Western genre is you can play with a lot of classic Western tropes (like the ex-Confederate soldier who heads West after the war) without having to include the same political context.
Like how the Reavers fill the role of "savage Indians", but without the racist baggage that carries.
Fianna wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:44 pm
Part of the appeal of the Space Western genre is you can play with a lot of classic Western tropes (like the ex-Confederate soldier who heads West after the war) without having to include the same political context.
Like how the Reavers fill the role of "savage Indians", but without the racist baggage that carries.
Never thought of it in those terms but that's an extremely good point.
Frustration wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 1:08 am
The Alliance is modeled after the worst aspects of both the US and China. All of the interactions with the Alliance in the show are negative. It doesn't care about the good of the settlers; the only difference between it and the slaveholding jerks are that the slaveholders get a more immediate benefit from the people they're using.
"That just sounds like slavery with extra steps!"
"Eek barba durkle, somebody's gonna get laid in college..."
Fianna wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:44 pm
Part of the appeal of the Space Western genre is you can play with a lot of classic Western tropes (like the ex-Confederate soldier who heads West after the war) without having to include the same political context.
Like how the Reavers fill the role of "savage Indians", but without the racist baggage that carries.
If internet discourse has shown me anything over the last several years is how little it matters how many degrees of sci-fi or fantasy seperation you have as some people will rush to bring it in anyway.
It varies greatly from the examples where you can't believe anyone would reach that far too be angry and will willfully overlook a whole bunch of mitigating context in the full on rush to condemn, cases where the character of the creator in question was not as known at the time and so maybe it highlights issues that were once overlooked and/or glossed over, to the cases of the creator being genuinely full on yikes with how they have gone about things.
(Examples I've seen for each of those three deliberately withheld as I'm sure that'd just raise more arguments as I'm well aware other people would classify them differently than I would, and then get very angry about it)
Fianna wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 7:44 pm
Part of the appeal of the Space Western genre is you can play with a lot of classic Western tropes (like the ex-Confederate soldier who heads West after the war) without having to include the same political context.
Like how the Reavers fill the role of "savage Indians", but without the racist baggage that carries.
If internet discourse has shown me anything over the last several years is how little it matters how many degrees of sci-fi or fantasy seperation you have as some people will rush to bring it in anyway.
It varies greatly from the examples where you can't believe anyone would reach that far too be angry and will willfully overlook a whole bunch of mitigating context in the full on rush to condemn, cases where the character of the creator in question was not as known at the time and so maybe it highlights issues that were once overlooked and/or glossed over, to the cases of the creator being genuinely full on yikes with how they have gone about things.
(Examples I've seen for each of those three deliberately withheld as I'm sure that'd just raise more arguments as I'm well aware other people would classify them differently than I would, and then get very angry about it)
Well that's modern thinking for you, latch on to some negative aspect, emphasise it to the nth degree, chuck in anything that can be vaguely associated with it as being all part of the same, then rant about anyone who even questions that brainlessly stupid substitute for thinking.
