In belated replies to comments from 2013: I agree this section is problematic. Even if we accept that some writer sees the US as a powerful good analogue to Heaven, and if we grant that the US was more likely to use soft power / influence during the Cold War, why are we assuming that this trope was due to being inspired by that as opposed to other plot concerns? And if they were inspired by this, the #1 influence in media for a long time was World War II, with plenty of stock Nazi / German bad guys from the 1950s-80s. Certainly no subtle pressure here, seems just as likely that writers would take inspiration from Good crushing Evil with tanks & bombers.
Keeper of Arcane Wisdom
Regarding Angel, I think the entry needs to be reworked, but it's a bit wordy as it is, so I took out both justifying edits and brought them here for discussion
- As mentioned in the page description, one of the Powers That Be did come to help (Jasmine) and all Angel & Co could do was bitch about it, because she didn't do things the way they thought was appropriate. After that, you can't really fault the Powers for doing things a certain way, now could you?
- "Either we do nothing whatsoever, or we destroy free will and also eat increasing numbers of you" is one heck of a false choice setup.
- As mentioned in the page description, one of the Powers That Be did come to help (Jasmine) and all Angel & Co could do was bitch about it, because she didn't do things the way they thought was appropriate. After that, you can't really fault the Powers for doing things a certain way, now could you?
Now I made the first edit (bad, bad troper!) and it is a valid point, I think, that if you complain about someone not helping you it's a bit rich to complain when they do finally do so. Especially when that person is a God who sacrificed their Godhood when they didn't have to in order to make the world better. It strikes me as, at the least, ungrateful to complain about getting exactly what you asked for - even if it's in a weird way...but then I've always thought Whedon's characters were as sanctimonious as they were whiny.
That being said, the second troper makes a valid point too - though I will counter by saying that lots of people die for easily preventable reasons and have no say in the matter, so I'm not sure exactly what the difference is there. Is being eaten really that much worse than slowly dying of cholera for example?
Discuss, discuss...
Don’t be special be one of us. Newsflash: I am special, and I will never be one of you!
The whole "different strategies during the Cold War" paragraph seems a bit odd (to a non-American, anyway). Korea, Vietnam (which also included bombing and troops in Cambodia and "just" bombing in Laos), the Dominican Republic ("Operation Power Pack") and Grenada were all overt operations. In addition, many of the "covert" operations were only covert in the sense that the US wouldn't publicly accept responsibility for them, but clearly wanted everyone to know they were responsible (and take heed lest they become next on the hit list). No one outside the US (and some of their closest allies) actually believed the two superpowers were all that different in their foreign policies (hence the Non-Aligned Movement).
Edited by Maitreya Hide / Show Replies