History Headscratchers / District9

** It's that one faction being depicted as evil, not everyone. Wikus' partner in the beginning is a sympathetic character, for starters.

***** I introduce to you (the immediate prior, that is) the logic bomb: SomeoneElsesProblem.

****** Who knows if their communications system still works? Whatever happened o the ships crew could have disabled the communications system for interstellar fast news. Or it needs a "prawn" in the communications chair, is heavily encrypted, ... ----

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** My theory is that the ship was intended to colonize (and possibly terraform) new worlds for the Prawns to inhabit. Stumbling upon a world already populated with fairly technologically advanced beings was not part of the [[StarTrekTheOriginalSeries seven year mission]]. -- JTJag

** I actually thought that was pretty realistic. It wasn't comforting, but it often takes more than FireForgedFriends to make a committed racist/speciesist (I don't like either of those terms, the aliens are not a 'race' and speciesist makes it sound like you're from PeTA, but you know what I mean) realise that their bigotry is wrong. It's pretty easy for a committed bigot to think of a specific individual as different from the others. Sadly I am pretty familiar with this as I am related to some people like this. Think mighty human of ya/credit to your species/he may be a prawn but he's our prawn...

***** I introduce to you the logic bomb: SomeoneElsesProblem.

*** I immediately thought that they were called prawns for the same reason the formics from ''EndersGame'' were called that, and figured the reporter was intentionally ([[LackOfEmpathy or]] [[NotBeingRacistIsTheNewRacism unintentionally]]) trying to give it a ''[[CerebusRetcon more]]'' derogatory meaning.

* He looked like he was going into shock. (Had a rough couple of days.) When he was overpowered and tied down, he freaked out. Also! The Nigerians thought they knew what Wikus had [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean done]] which had resulted in his condition, and they didn't care, they still wanted to eat him.

**** [[WordOfGod The director said they're named after those insects]], and actually has a very good reason why: most South Americans consider them pests and kill them on sight, but Neil knows that they're quite harmless and beneficial, eating other household pests. They don't deserve the hate they're given, [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped much like the Prawns]].
**** South Americans? What movie were you watching? ;) By the way, the Parktown Prawn is basically a cockroach and can become a pest, like anything else, if its population is not kept in check. I don't think there's any hidden lesson here. Aliens look like roaches, we call roaches prawns, ergo we call aliens prawns. Simple.

* How did Christopher recognize the effects of the fluid on Wikus? When he sees his arm, he says something like "There's only one thing that can do that." He also seems certain it can be reversed with alien medical technology. Just how many humans-turned-prawn has he seen before?!
** [[WildMassGuessing My personal theory]] is that the "prawn" form isn't the aliens' true form, but is a result of they themselves being exposed to the fluid. Thus, he's seen the exact same scenario before -- namely, himself.
** It might not be human -> prawn that Chris has seen/heard/read of before, but rather other alien -> prawn.
** Plus, the MNU mention something along the lines of Wilkus being the first one to survive the process or somesuch, suggesting that this sort of thing has happened before. For that matter, Christopher Johnson may just have known what the effect would have been..Possibly the fluid'll do that to any life form it gets into.
** It seems to me that the alien technology is pretty heavily based on their own biology - the ship is probably a bio-mechanical entity, and the "fluid" that powers it is probably an analogue to the aliens' blood. Given that the first part of Wikus that mutated after exposure was his broken hand, it seems to have a restorative property, attempting to "rebuild" the damaged part, and eventually the entire body, to what it considers normal. (Think of the nanites from the ''Doctor Who'' episode ''The Empty Child''.)
** Not to mention, he said "There's only one thing that can do that," not "I see the fluid has done that." I mean, your fluid's missing, and suddenly the guy who raided your hideout is transforming into a prawn? Really...there's only one thing that can do that.
** was the fulid the fuel or something else that caused the metamorphosis? I kind of like the idea that it was a defence mechanism and it makes more sense because otherwise Christopher would be pissed

TheSpoonyExperiment said it best, my biggest issue with this movie is that for all of the examining of the social ramifications of this situation, the one thing it skips over entirely (and so many aliens among us stories do): Religion. ''"Anyway, I remembered something else that would have been good to see in the documentary approach, and a very good reason the prawns would be met with widespread hostility: religion. The presence of extraterrestrial life is heretical to many forms of organized religion, who believe that God created Man in His own image. There's nothing in those books about God creating prawns on the seventh day, and knowledge of their existence would cause global theological disillusionment, sending hundreds of millions into a crisis of faith never before imagined. Some might reform their religious texts, be progressive about the whole thing, but by and large, the prawns' arrival is the death of God. No longer is Earth the favored planet, Man the chosen life form. Suddenly we're shown to be inferior to a pack of bipedal roaches. You'd have mass suicides, wars, civil unrest manifesting in hate crime on an unprecedented scale. Millennial cults would spring up like weeds, fearing the appearance of these "demonic-looking" creatures as a sure sign of the end-times."'' It kind of bugs me that this has never been addressed in any scifi story I've seen outside of {{Contact}}.
* Um, what are you smoking? Did you see the initial video thing? There was widespread panic, religious protests and some of the protesters in the initial segment had signs like "God did not create prawns". They were even called demons or devils by some of the locals.
* Most of the film takes place 20 years after the aliens arrived. Any religious upheavel would've been dealt with and integrated by the time Wikus went to evict anyone.
* Honestly, the only religion that would have a problem with it is a very, very strictly fundamentalist view of Christianity. Judaism is largely progressive, rational, and not really concerned with such outside matters, Islam actually believes that Allah created other life forms on other worlds, and Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and Baha'i are all rather cosmic in their outlook. So it's mostly just American and African Protestant fringe groups that would have problems with the Prawns, but they have a problem with everything. You'd have a few doomsday cults pop up, but that happens with the turn of every century and wouldn't likely be a big deal. Most Christians, especially Catholics, would see the Prawns as a theological question over whether or not they have souls, but it wouldn't cause a religious breakdown. We had these very same debates over Native Americans. In any case, Catholicism, at least, believes that when Man was created in "God's image" that means having Free Will and not an actual copy of God's physical form, which doesn't exist, so the Prawns could easily be said to be created in God's image too. Oh, and they did have civil unrest and hate crimes, and African Tribal Spirituality WAS addressed in the film, but that doesn't count, I guess. - MatthewTheRaven.
** Guess what - the Vatican is accepting aliens now.
* Plus, the prawns ''are'' basically humanoid-two legs, two arms, two forward-facing eyes...for many religions, it would be an affirmation of the existence and the basic form of the Abrahamic God simply because [[StarfishAliens it's unlikely for two species from different planets to evolve so similarly]]. The fact that the spaceship didn't stop over the Vatican or Mecca or the Ganges or Salt Lake City would be to preserve free will. There would be a shift in religious circles, true, but humanoid aliens like the prawns would be a boon to religion, not a death knell. If anything, there would be missionaries constantly swarming around the walls of District 9 trying to convince the prawns that it was divine providence that led them to Earth.
** Actually the bipedal form makes a lot of sense from an evolutionary standpoint and particularly for tool-using creatures. Starfish Aliens would actually be a lot LESS likely than humanoid bipeds - in terms of intelligent, technologically advanced societies, at any rate.
*** One example is poor statistics. It may make sense to us, but then again, we're the only intelligent, technologically advanced society in the entire universe-that we know of.
* Not to mention the fact that "God created Man in His image" is often taken out of context. God is not phyiscal, or humanoid. He is an entity of pure energy (described as "Pure Light" or "Pure Love" in the Bible). God created Man in His image in the spiritual sense- humans have souls, unlike animals. The Prawn are clearly human-like in their emotions, if not intelligence. Their bizarre physical appearance should have no effect on religions, at least not Christianity.
** ''Some'' forms of Christianity. There are some sects that believe God does indeed have a physical form. These would be the forms of Christianity most likely to be shaken up by the arrival of prawns-but the wide array of human appearance already sets an important precedent about variety.
** Actually, the Bible is full of references to God's physical form, including an occasion in Exodus where Moses is referred to as seeing God's "back" after being covered by his "hands."
*** You're always free to assume God can make up a body for himself if he wants--and if that body looks human in order to be better understood by a human, so be it. Also, without knowing exactly what line it refers to, things like "hands" can be pretty metaphorical.
**** Religious texts are rife with hyperbole and assumptions. Where it's read that Eve ate the apple, in reality it only says fruit, it could mean grapes, pears, etc (But most who study the book scientifically say it's most likely a fig). Also, the Prawns clearly had hands, just not the same hands we're used too.
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What are Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and their comrades in the African National Congress are doing in this story world in relation to the alien's treatment? I would like to think that they are particularly active trying to give a fair shake for the aliens saying something like "Our struggle is much bigger now and human rights is too small a goal," but I don't know how parallel the histories of this South Africa and the real one is supposed to be.
* To quote Terry Pratchett, racism is less of a problem when black and white get to team up and pick on green.
* My feeling is that the arrival of the aliens pretty much marginalized the question of apartheid, as whites and blacks alike now had a common scapegoat for their problems. Mandela, Tutu, &c. are probably still out there and still advocating for rights for the nonhumans, but they probably aren't nearly as influential as they were in our timelime.
* The more subversive answer would be- they don't ''care.'' Blacks and whites are now equal, Apartheid for humans is over. Maybe they don't feel they need to fight anymore.
** That seems the most likely. Why would they campaign for anyone else? I'm South African BTW, so I do know more or less how the ANC operates politically, and they're populist/socialist - they're ''emphatically not'' in the business of championing minority causes. Also, since this is AlternateHistory (and Wikus has a ''new'' South African flag on his desk, as in the flag that in our timeline was adopted ''after'' SA became fully democratic), what makes you think they ''aren't'' in government? If not completely in control, then at least in a coalition with the National Party? The aliens arriving seems to have changed everything in the movie's timeline. You need to look at the ANC's motives ... not just assume that they're AlwaysLawfulGood and then wonder why in the movie they aren't living up to an ideology they don't actually have in [[RealLife Reality Land]].
* What makes you think they even exist in that universe?

It just bugs me that the fandom has taken to casually calling the aliens "prawns", when in the movie it's pretty clear the people calling the aliens "prawns" are using it as a slur with the same sort of emotional weight as, say, the N word.
* No alternative is even given in the film besides "Alien". And it should be noted that Wikus uses the term himself without malice. - {{Korgmeister}}
** Wikus may not be the best example of someone who isn't prejudiced against the aliens. Consider his almost-gleeful burning of their eggs ("popcorn") and his disgust with the way they live, with no acknowledgment that their situation isn't exactly optimal for gracious living.
* "Non-human" seems to be the preferred term of the government.
* This troper recalls Christopher using the word "prawn" (in subtitles) when referring to his race. He likely was using his actual race name, but it's hard to transliterate the clicks and such into romantic script (the roman alphabet).
** This is probably correct. Since the vocal patterns can only be identified by humans and not emulated, any proper nouns would be translated at the leisure of those converting it into English. What is translated as the aliens pronouncing "prawn" is more likely their real race's name.
*** It is very common for people's name for themselves to mean something similar "The People" or "Us Cool Strong Awesome Folks" and for their neighbors' name for them to mean something like "Those Guys" or "The Fish Eaters" or "The People Who Have a Certain Physical Characteristic That We Cool Strong Awesome Folks Don't." I do agree that "prawn" as transliterated from the aliens' language doesn't translate directly to "prawn."
* Actually, most fans that can be found on DeviantArt and Fanfiction.net found a way around it: they use the term 'poleepkwa', which was brought up briefly in Alive in Joburg, on which District 9 was based.
* Also, at least one of the [[{{Crawl}} news tickers]] shown throughout the movie gives a politically correct term: "space person."