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Starship troopers is (Not) Satire

Starship troopers is a 1997 satirical re-interpretation of the 1956 Sci-fi novel by Robert A. Heinlein, which went on to inspire the 2015 Satirical top down shooter Helldivers by Arrowhead Game Studios and later the 2024 Satirical sequel game Helldivers 2, by the same studio. But everyone knows this..., or do they? During the popularity of Helldivers 2 there was a large spike in people and players who didn't realize that the game was a comedic and satirical commentary on fascist governments. Even some close friends whom I played the game with didn't know this was the case and as the discussion went on there were people saying they didn't know or think Starship Troopers, the games very clear inspiration was also a satire.

And there were many people throwing around accusations or poking fun at people for not knowing this, but I feel like there was and still is an important discussion to be had around this, why didn't people know this? IT'S SO OBVIOUS RIGHT? Well..., no, when Starship Troopers initially came out many movie goers didn't see it as satirical, some people even thought the film was pro-Fascist and pro-nazi. And later sequels would tone down the satirical angle of the films. When I was younger I assumed the movie was just another sci-fi American war film about brotherhood and defying the odds, it wasn't until I was told of the films satirical nature did I stop and look for it.., so what went wrong?

I believe both the issue with the film and the video game is the framing of it. In the example of Starship trooper... The movie is about Rico, a young student who wants to join the military because of a girl he likes despite the wishes of his parents who want him to go onto higher education. Sadly the girl he threw his life away for breaks up with him, so he puts himself completely into becoming a great soldier. And he's really good at it, until his strive to achieve ends tragically when he gets one of his friends killed and is punished for it. Demotivated and blaming himself he wishes to leave, only for the bugs to launch a meteorite at earth, killing his family. Motivating him to return to service and fight. The initial assault on the bug home-world is absolute failure and a slaughter, but Rico manages to survive and we learn in a shocking twist that the bugs are a lot smarter than we gave them credit for. Responding to a distress call, we learn the existence of a brain bug, that is able to drain the brains of humans to gain information about us. We've learned where one of these brain bugs might be and we push for an assault on the planet. Rico lands, saves the girl of his dreams and the army is able to capture a brain bug, learning that for the first time that they are now scared of us and the chance to win the war is growing closer, happy ending. Now, many people will read that and think, wait no, your missing out key details or important observations. Well, what I told you is probably what most movie goers would of probably picked up on when watching the movie. The important satirical and anti-fascist details we are familiar with are essentially, background noise. They are very small scenes. Example, the needing the citizen ship to be able to have a kid detail? That is in one scene, it lasts for about a few seconds and isn't expanded upon. We were suppose to take away from it that the government is controlling who and who can't have a kid and enrolling into the military is essentially indoctrination, however, without more context there isn't much else to go on. The fact that the whole war is started by the humans first by invading the bugs territory? Again, it's a really small scene and we don't know what exactly invasion means in the grand scheme of things, but through out the movie we have ONLY seen the bug be the aggressors and the manner in which they aggress is incredibly violent, cruel, painful and indiscriminate. Casper Vein Dien, the actor for Rico, asked the director, Paul Verhoeven if the satire was a bit too heavy handed, with the director saying that the satire was 'subtle'. To which after seeing the reaction with most people missing the point of the movie, agreed that maybe they made the film, too subtle. And I agree, but I don't think it's the only problem. Helldivers 2 is WAY less subtle with it's broadcasts and use of propaganda. With videos and images of robots stealing baby prams. However, most of the fanbase, who are in on the joke have responded with Pro-propaganda and in doing so, many people take the game as a pro-war game. After all, you are fighting against mindless bugs and machines who attack you on sight, slaughter workers and stuff them into cages. Your just taking back your worlds from these invaders, right?

By framing both media as the 'hero', having you defend and fight against these attackers. you convey to the audience that you are in the right, especially when you compare how much damage the enemy do compared to yourself. There is no scenes of squashing sympathies, rebellions, or seeing what life is like for the average non-citizen, we get to see the world from the 'privileged', the rewarded, the heralded. The characters we are typically seeing doing right, but we aren't seeing them doing wrong. The context is there, but it can be missed by an average viewer and the fact it can be missed is a problem as it paints the setting as one of pro-war propaganda and doing what is right for the people. Like I said, if you aren't looking for it, you don't see it.

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