Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Xantalos]

Spoiler: Radiocontrolled (click to show/hide)

Think of it as the guy has excessive amounts of PTSD and a raging hateboner towards the US military. He sees things he shouldn't be able to see (zombie heads with the jaws still working) flying around the place - this was happening miles away, he wouldn't possibly be able to see this amount of detail. He's kinda embittered against the institution, so he's being bitter and stuff. Unreliable narrator.

[Bohandas]

I'm assuming you're being sarcastic here, but there is a difference between my statement and yours. Giant robots are presumably man-made, usually in a sci-fi context, thus they should to some extent obey the laws of physics. The types of robots I'm talking about are the humanoid looking ones, which really would not be possible (or pilotable).

Dragons are mythical creatures usually found in a fantasy setting/context. Such creatures can actually exist (flight and flame can both be explained with the storage of flammable, lighter-than-air gases, like methane, in a special organ), but more than that the setting can usually justify their existence one way or another. It is usually the opposite for giant mecha movies.

Which is obviously why you won't watch any movies or shows with FTL travel, telepathy, slower than light lasers, dogfighting spaceships or anything else that is entirely unrealistic and implausable. As opposed to dragons which could totally exist.

Scifi shows don't have to follow the laws of physics, especially if they're soft scifi like the ones giant robot shows usually fall into. They can bend or play with physics using 'science' in pretty much the same way that fantasy does it with magic. How many fantasy shows actually go in-depth into how dragons can exist? They generally violate the square-cube law, and several other things, just as bad as giant robots do. Yet people still accept them without batting an eye or demanding a reason on why they work. So why can't we do the same for mecha? It's just a different set of base assumptions after all. As long as your audience's suspension of disbelief remains intact then you can do pretty much whatever you want, and throw whatever made-up junk you want at them.

In conclusion: Soft scifi is a thing and nobody minds if you don't like giant robot shows because of it. But saying that you don't like them on grounds of realism without clarifying anything beyond that statement will probably earn you many sarcastic replies on the internet. Especially if you turn around and say that dragons could exist.

The point, obviously, is internal consistency. Any development of special materials that might make mechas plausible would also make them redundant. The point is not that they can no exist, the point is that in the logic of the series, they have no reason to exist.

The only reason why you would want to have a giant mech is style points, basically.

It's definitely ludicrous in a science-fiction setting; even in soft sci-fi. Being an unnecessarily topheavy design and whatnot.

I could see it working in a fantasy setting however, If the controls relied on sympathetic magic or something, making it necessary for the construct to have at least approximately the same shape as its controller.

[Bohandas]

Spoiler: Saw this comic about the Lord of the Rings films (click to show/hide)

[Radio Controlled]

Spoiler: Radiocontrolled (click to show/hide)

Think of it as the guy has excessive amounts of PTSD and a raging hateboner towards the US military. He sees things he shouldn't be able to see (zombie heads with the jaws still working) flying around the place - this was happening miles away, he wouldn't possibly be able to see this amount of detail. He's kinda embittered against the institution, so he's being bitter and stuff. Unreliable narrator.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

yes, but even so, within the book, the general result has to be the same, or else the whole timeline of his history goes down the drain. If realistically the zombie horde would be dead in a week, the rest of the book is what, a fever dream of mr. Hateboner?

[Xantalos]

Spoiler: Radiocontrolled (click to show/hide)

Think of it as the guy has excessive amounts of PTSD and a raging hateboner towards the US military. He sees things he shouldn't be able to see (zombie heads with the jaws still working) flying around the place - this was happening miles away, he wouldn't possibly be able to see this amount of detail. He's kinda embittered against the institution, so he's being bitter and stuff. Unreliable narrator.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

yes, but even so, within the book, the general result has to be the same, or else the whole timeline of his history goes down the drain. If realistically the zombie horde would be dead in a week, the rest of the book is what, a fever dream of mr. Hateboner?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since by that point IIRC the whole Middle East was collapsing under their own refugee problems and the US was running out of gas and oil and such, they had to find a way to more efficiently kill zombies, and the Redeker plan let them regroup and get their shit together while they figured out a way to do it cost-effectively.

[Radio Controlled]

Spoiler: Radiocontrolled (click to show/hide)

Think of it as the guy has excessive amounts of PTSD and a raging hateboner towards the US military. He sees things he shouldn't be able to see (zombie heads with the jaws still working) flying around the place - this was happening miles away, he wouldn't possibly be able to see this amount of detail. He's kinda embittered against the institution, so he's being bitter and stuff. Unreliable narrator.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

yes, but even so, within the book, the general result has to be the same, or else the whole timeline of his history goes down the drain. If realistically the zombie horde would be dead in a week, the rest of the book is what, a fever dream of mr. Hateboner?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since by that point IIRC the whole Middle East was collapsing under their own refugee problems and the US was running out of gas and oil and such, they had to find a way to more efficiently kill zombies, and the Redeker plan let them regroup and get their shit together while they figured out a way to do it cost-effectively.

Spoiler: a more cost efficient plan against zombies (click to show/hide)

[Arx]

Spoiler: a more cost efficient plan against zombies (click to show/hide)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Reaping what you sow, ahah?

[Sheb]

Also, you seem to assume that all the zombies were in a few great hordes. They were horde, surely, and crushing them was good PR material, but my guess would be that they weren't the main threat: you just had too much zombies biting civilians everywhere. If you want, the US army won every battle, but lost the war, because the guy manufacturing guns was being chewed by the guy manufacturing bombs.

[Radio Controlled]

Also, you seem to assume that all the zombies were in a few great hordes. They were horde, surely, and crushing them was good PR material, but my guess would be that they weren't the main threat: you just had too much zombies biting civilians everywhere. If you want, the US army won every battle, but lost the war, because the guy manufacturing guns was being chewed by the guy manufacturing bombs.

The discussion was whether that particular scene was ridiculous or not, you are arguing something else.

Though even then, it still doesn't work. Zombies, as depicted by brooks, aren't a threat great enough to warrant the scenario he imagines. The zombie in the movie though, they were. They were also supernatural force, even more so than brooks' zombies, but actually a credible threat.

[Sheb]

Why? As far as I can tell, they're pretty similar, just better at piling up in gigantic zombie flesh ladders.

[Radio Controlled]

Why? As far as I can tell, they're pretty similar, just better at piling up in gigantic zombie flesh ladders.

Superhuman strength, resilience and speed in the movie, next to whatever powers they had in the book (such as laughing at conservation of energy. HAH, laws of physics, what a joke.)

[Urist_McDagger]

Hobbit part 3: Battle of the Five Armies

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sting didn't glow despite Orcs being the only thing Bilbo is close to, the military tactics were laughable, Gandalf knew Thorin was going to contract 'dragon-sickness' yet still sent him in amongst others.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

The only zombie movie that depicts a zombie outbreak properly, IMO, is 'Shawn of the Dead'
Spoiler alert/movie breakdown

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This guys whole town gets infected (ok everywhere does) but he doesn't notice till somewhere in his morning routine zed actually almost gets him. Then he rushes to save EX fiancé or something because he still loves her, he also saved his dad, his friend, and some other random people. They then go and fortify themselves in a pub. They hunker down for the night. Zed gets and attacks his friend, he and his fiancé hide in the basement then the military comes in and shoots most of the zed and saved them. His friend is still alive but is now infected and he keeps him locked up in a shed in his backyard and plays videogames with him.

[Neonivek]

Why? As far as I can tell, they're pretty similar, just better at piling up in gigantic zombie flesh ladders.

Superhuman strength, resilience and speed in the movie, next to whatever powers they had in the book (such as laughing at conservation of energy. HAH, laws of physics, what a joke.)

Ehh, those are fine in my book. I don't call them magic zombies until they start to basically become immune to things an undead creature should be... For example advanced stages of rot.

[DJ]

This is a good place to criticize TV shows, right? Anyway, I've been binging on Sons of Anarchy lately, and I really enjoyed it at first, but as it went on I've come to realize that the whole show is a series of Diabolus ex Machinas, whose main purpose seems to be preserving status quo and preventing organic character development. And that's really tragic, because the characters are fairly interesting and development opportunities are constantly in sight.