An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

[u/Morr4Seiya]

Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

[u/Independent-Couple87]

Starship Troopers is infamous for doing this on purpose. And the public (or some of them) LOVED it.

[u/Independent-Couple87 → u/Independent-Couple87]

Also, I am not sure if the part where the schools of Argentina teach democracy as a "failure" is accurate to real world Argentina. Maybe during the dictatorship?

Argentinians out there, please confirm or deny.

[u/PrimusAldente87 → u/Independent-Couple87]

Wasn't it that the book was a love letter to fascism and genocide and the movie went "nah, fuck that" and did the exact opposite?

[u/5050Saint → u/PrimusAldente87]

The book was not. Whether or not Troopers portrays a fascist government is up for debate, but if you took every book that Heinlein wrote as a love letter or even an endorsement of the ideas within, the man would have been schizophrenic. He'd be a free love hippie, a get off my lawn libertarian, a big stick militarist, and an anti-religion anti-capitalist, among several other things wrapped into one. He does have author diatribes that come out some characters at points, though but none that support fascism IIRC.

Verhoven, the director, famously read one chapter of Starship Troopers and based the movie off of that impression.

[u/CalmPanic402 → u/5050Saint]

It's almost as if Heinlin, a writer often called "one of the grandfather's of scifi" could write about diferent fictional ideas.

[u/Independent-Couple87 → u/5050Saint]

I heard Starship Troopers was the main inspiration for Muv-Luv, which in turn was one of the main inspirations for Attack on Titan.

Though I argue that Attack on Titan also borrows elements from the movie, particularly in the later arcs.

https://giphy.com/gifs/tliXLSkzfq2C4

[u/anironthrownaway → u/Independent-Couple87]

AoT is pro-fascist

[u/Ulq2525 → u/5050Saint]

Asimov, Harlan Ellison, Heinlein.

That era of science fiction had some of the most interesting writers ever, as individuals. It's simply insane the work they could put out, and then you read about them and are just something different, but people all the same.

[u/Thundarbiib → u/5050Saint]

Paul Verhoeven grew up in the Netherlands when it was under nazi occupation. He viscerally hated fascism and anything that smelled of it. I read that he shot the movie as a giant middle-finger to the book (and its author). Not sure if that bit's true or not.

[u/Independent-Couple87 → u/PrimusAldente87]

I heard it was partially based on Plato's Republic, ... which some people argue was the basis of Fascism.

Robert A. Heinlein also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land, which has a different style of society, but people generally assume Starship Troopers is the story that shows HIS ideology.

I am not as informed, but I am curious as to why that is the case.

[u/Shkval25 → u/Independent-Couple87]

Because he gave a speech to a military academy that was taken from the book almost word-for-word in places.

[u/OneCatch → u/Independent-Couple87]

I am curious as to why that is the case.

Because people are idiots. Heinlein thoroughly enjoyed shocking people and a lot of his stuff is very 'out there' socially and sexually. He was deliberately provocative in much of his work.

Red Planet is enthusiastic about youthful revolutionary fervour, Stranger in a Strange Land is a love letter to hippy liberalism, Moon is a Harsh Mistress is an ode to fiery libertarianism, and, yes, Starship Troopers explores militarism.

One shouldn't infer from Starship Troopers that Heinlein was a fascist, any more than you'd infer from Red Planet that he was a fan of the Chinese Red Guard movement.

[u/zedascouves1985 → u/PrimusAldente87]

Starship troopers the book is about a boy falling in love with the military service. That's it. That's also why it's so popular with soldiers, it's what boot camp and field service feels like turned up to 1000.

It's also how the author can trick the white race is the default reader into reading 80% of the book until the reader finds out the main character is Filipino and can speak Tagalog. As far as I know Heinlein was the first to do that, before Ursula K Leguin did that in Wizard of Earthsea. It was an experiment in storytelling that aci Fi was doing in the 1960s.

The director of the movie didn't get to that part of the book, as almost all the charactes in the movie are white.

[u/Independent-Couple87 → u/zedascouves1985]

I have seen people argue that they made the characters white Argentinians in order to imply that they are the heirs of Nazi Germany (due to the Germans received in Argentina by Juan Peron), and possibly Juan Peron / Peronism.

Interestingly, the current president of Argentina, Javier Milei, is sometimes accused of being a Fascist due to his proximity to Donald Trump and Israel. Ironically, he is an enemy of Peronism.

https://giphy.com/gifs/EANUvq6hnSA171coqF

[u/OneCatch → u/zedascouves1985]

As far as I know Heinlein was the first to do that

I think some of Asimov's short stories did it earlier, but not by much. Same generation of writers in any case.

[u/tarekd19 → u/zedascouves1985]

It's been a while since I've read earthsea, but isn't ged's description as non white pretty apparent in the first chapter?

[u/MGD109 → u/tarekd19]

Yeah, the point is Heinlein did it first, and he did it in a way that the readers didn't even realise they were rooting for a non-white protagonist.

Considering this was written when segregation was still the law of the land, that was pretty blunt.

[u/ChristianLW3 → u/PrimusAldente87]

No, it was not

Honestly, whoever told you that was either trolling or received all their information from a grifter

The author was a libertarian leaning guy who believed might preserved civilization

[u/AustinTheFiend → u/PrimusAldente87]

Never read the book, but have read some of his other works. The only thing I know for sure that the movie changed, was that they removed an allied alien race (not clear to me how coerced those aliens were) and made a lot of the main characters white to push the facism angle, as in the book the I believe the cast was pretty mixed ethnically (I believe Rico was meant to be Filipino).

I know Heinlein expressed that he liked the idea of compulsory military and civil service, but I think a part of his like for it was it's capacity (in his opinion) to erode social lines like race and gender and unite people. Someone who read starship troopers should talk about this though lol, I really don't know how fashy or pro genocide the book ends up reading, and how satirical or critical it is, but I don't peg those as things Heinlein believed based on other things I've read by him.

[u/Independent-Couple87 → u/AustinTheFiend]

The third movie even reveals that there is mandatory conscription, even though the books and the first film leave it clear that the service is voluntary.

Interestingly, Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy has been argued to be something of a lighter and softer version of Starship Troopers, even using some of their props. They technically also have mecha like the books.

[u/cc17776 → u/PrimusAldente87]

No

[u/Icy-Acanthisitta8192 → u/Independent-Couple87]

"i Didnt do fuckin shit"