District 9 thought

[adam_grif]

A battlesuit with guided missiles don't seem like an engineering tool to me.

I believe it's the Dead Space school of mining equipment.

[PeZook]

There is no reason to doubt the video account was fabricated.

Setting aside the hilarity of that sentence, since I don't think you actually meant it's certain it was fabricated

We only get a small glimpse of the inside of the ship, and the MNU voiceover provides the all-important context. There is no "video account", there is a shot of the inside and a guy talking how the prawns were stupid and incapable of looking after themselves etc.

In any case the Prawns behavior once on the ground do not prove they are capable of independent thinking similar to humans. The drones are idiot savants - instinctively capable of building and operating high technology beyond what human science can even imagine. But at same time completely incapable of looking after their welfare.

How are they incapable of looking after their own welfare? By not engaging in warfare with a numerically superior enemy who controls all their food?

They built shelter, scavenged their food and tech, traded with humans for what they wanted...the problem was that humans were the ones holding all the cards, so they had no choice.

Primitive scum like MNU were able to subvert the crew of an advanced starship precisely because of this reason. The crew had absolutely no desire or even any idea about resisting. The MNU did not outwit the Prawns - they were extreme dimwits to begin with. This is the only reason stone age (by standards of a star faring society) barbarians like MNU were able to make mockery out of the crew of an interstellar vessel.

Or...maybe it was because humans had all the food and an overwhelming military advantage, prawn tech notwithstanding? How do you propose the Prawns extract food or defend their tech from the South African government, which is a nuclear power? Even assuming they actually are mostly soldiers, which...is kinda unsupported by anything, they'd get wiped out at the slightest hint of agressive intent. Their weapons were not overwhelmingly superior, and they didn't have all that many in the first place (they ambush the MNU with AK-47s in the opening scenes of the movie) ; Their heaviest weapon system was brought down by light infantry. If they had to face the south african army, they'd get massacred ; If they somehow won, they'd have to face, oh, just the rest of the world's militaries who'd think Earth was being invaded.

They had no choice, anyway. Humans had the food and they wouldn't give them any if faced with force from the get-go, so they were forced to submit. Disarming them was easy after that. Cue generations living in shanty towns with no education. Results are predictable.

We see right in the beginning of the movie when the Prawn ship arrives the Prawns inside are starving to death. They do not contact anyone. They make no attempt to live the ship. They were just sitting inside and starving.

They floated above the ground for three months and slowly starved to death until someone sent a helicopter up there.

The Prawns were like this long before they set foot on Earth's soil. Whatever caused this happened on the ship before it made it's way into Earth's atmosphere.

You shot your own point down here: whatever happened on that ship occured long before they arrived on Earth. For all we know, it was a passenger liner or a prisoner transport and the prawns aboard had no idea where they were or that they even stopped before the humans came. They managed to get food via trade and scavenging just fine once they left the ship: the fact they couldn't operate comms or shuttles (if they had any) doesn't mean they were nitwits ; If a passenger liner lost its crew, its passengers would also be unable to operate it ; Does it mean humans are apatethic idiots controlled by a hive mind/genetic ruler caste?

A tribesman observing the ship might conclude so, yeah. After all those stupid white guys were so helpless before his tribe came over in their canoes! And man their skills are lousy they can't even skin animals properly...

Furthermore, you're making really broad assumptions about the initial contact where we just plain didn't see what happened right after the prawns were brought downstairs. You just kinda assume they always lived in the exact same way and in the exact same conditions we've seen in the movie ; When the situation was developing for thirty years before the MNU rolled in to evict everyone from the district.

[Rye]

The rejection of D9 as an apartheid analogue just beggars belief.

I'm actually in a sort of mortified shock as to how anyone could miss it.

[Aaron]

The rejection of D9 as an apartheid analogue just beggars belief.

I'm actually in a sort of mortified shock as to how anyone could miss it.

He sees what he wants to see.

[Aaron]

Man this entire thread is comedy gold.

Going by Sarevok's interpretation of the movie, Chris would have been doing everything for them (he's the only "leader" identified), organizing their food, trading for them (I guess he sent that group over with the suit to get their drugs?), organized their shelter and reproduction, while at the same time raising his boy and salvaging fluid.

And there were millions of Prawn's. That's one impressive manager, he should be promoted once he gets home.

[lance]

Its possible that as a species they mentally shut down under certain conditions.
Like a human who is suffering from severe hypothermia not getting out of the water, because he doesn't know how to get onto the beach that's 2 feet away.

[Aaron]

Its possible that as a species they mentally shut down under certain conditions.
Like a human who is suffering from severe hypothermia not getting out of the water, because he doesn't know how to get onto the beach that's 2 feet away.

Yeah but they'd been on Earth for close to twenty years. Thats a long time to shut down.

I figure they were just uneducated, for whatever reason isn't all that important and the lone guy that was (using the strict SoD) didn't have the time to educate but a small portion, like his son and his buddy that was scrounging from the dump.

[PeZook]

The ship could've been drifting across space for decades before it came to Earth ; We have no idea what it was (it could've been a troop transport like Sarevok said, but also a prisoner barge or passenger ship or generational colony ship), allowing for a thorough breakdown of society, but the MNU had obviously chosen the best interpretation of events (that the Prawns did not protest their internment because they were genetically predisposed towards taking the abuse), just slike slave owners made up justifications for their abuse).

Again, the Prawns organized at least one ambush against MNU convoys ; That's not something retards do.

[Eros]

A battlesuit with guided missiles don't seem like an engineering tool to me.

I believe it's the Dead Space school of mining equipment.

I concur completely.


As for the original post....

Memory is a bit shaky since I watched it a loooooooooooong time ago...

We have no clue about the original condition of the ship. We have no idea about the original condition of the population. For all we know, the one Prawn that tried to help the main human character was the second or third generation and the only one to retain 'Prawn-y' knowledge of sufficient scale to resurrect their vessel. So they could simple have had a knowledgebase collapse due to everyone who 'knew things' being too busy keeping the ship functioning long enough to reach Earth to actually teach people their skillset so we have a couple Prawns with significant knowledge and a bunch that are just nominally ignorant because they were taught by rote, if at all.

However, when two interpretations are sufficiently similar we should go with the original intent (Apartheid parallel).

[Lonestar]

The ship could've been drifting across space for decades before it came to Earth ; We have no idea what it was (it could've been a troop transport like Sarevok said, but also a prisoner barge or passenger ship or generational colony ship), allowing for a thorough breakdown of society, but the MNU had obviously chosen the best interpretation of events (that the Prawns did not protest their internment because they were genetically predisposed towards taking the abuse), just slike slave owners made up justifications for their abuse).

Again, the Prawns organized at least one ambush against MNU convoys ; That's not something retards do.

I bet we can disregard the "generational colony ship" idea, as Christopher was pretty certain that he would be able to return in 3 years.

[Chirios]

The ship could've been drifting across space for decades before it came to Earth ; We have no idea what it was (it could've been a troop transport like Sarevok said, but also a prisoner barge or passenger ship or generational colony ship), allowing for a thorough breakdown of society, but the MNU had obviously chosen the best interpretation of events (that the Prawns did not protest their internment because they were genetically predisposed towards taking the abuse), just slike slave owners made up justifications for their abuse).

Again, the Prawns organized at least one ambush against MNU convoys ; That's not something retards do.

I bet we can disregard the "generational colony ship" idea, as Christopher was pretty certain that he would be able to return in 3 years.

I always figured that it had some sort of accident, I dunno, maybe a solar flare messed up it's computer systems or something and it had to go out of hyperdrive, and just happened to end up in Johannesburg, South Africa during the Apartheid era.

[LadyTevar]

Chirios, next time look at how long it's been since the Last Post in a thread.

Thread Necro is a Sin.