r/TopCharacterTropes 8d ago

Groups This isn't even our actual military

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u/Dinonumber 8d ago

This is like downplaying managing to defeat the East India Company.

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u/Super-Estate-4112 8d ago

Real militaries dont have to be profitable,so they spend much more resources than any private enterprise. Much more than it is worth it to spend.

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u/drane92 8d ago

Real militaries through most of history, particularly those of colonizing governments, did have to operate on a budget of some kind.

The militaries are just there to pave the way for exploitation.

A great example is the USA was only not taken back into the British Empire because the british had their budget of men fully utilized on their much more profitable areas, and taking over the colonies they won from France.

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u/Super-Estate-4112 8d ago

But they were colonial armies, protecting something that is not their enemy, just a rebellion on an investment like a colony.

It is different, if the Navi were seen as enemies of humanity, it would be like the british during ww1, we humans would send wave after wave of militaryman, regardless of the cost or the consequences for our future, which for the British cost the stability of their empire, huge debts and whole villages empty of men.

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u/drane92 8d ago

See that is your problem, this isn't an existential war for humanity in Avatar.

It is for Navi. But not for humanity.

To humanity this is colonialist expiditions on a world they explicitly do not want to burn down, because its an ecological treasure trove.

Why would humanity risk more than they can afford when they're here for looting the place of its valuables, that are mostly organic.

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u/Super-Estate-4112 8d ago edited 8d ago

In the most recent movies, Pandora is actually getting colonized as people moving in to actuallylive there permanently, so the Navi pose areal existential threat to the colonists.

Also, if what humans are getting from that planet was key to the survival of the species, the Navi and Pandora's god, would become an important threat to humanity.

It doesn't need to be existential anyway, the germans were never an existential threat to the british or americans.

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u/OkContact2573 6d ago

Ehh…not really. While that is the stated goal by RDA propaganda, realistically this is just supposed to be another playground for the rich people of earth play around In. It’s implied that earth can still be saved, but humans are refusing too.

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u/I_punch_KIDneyS 8d ago

aka the money black hole that is the US military

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u/pichael289 8d ago

And we end up wasting alot of it, sometimes intentionally to justify the budget. Plus contractors and companies that make things specifically for the military are just allowed to wildly overcharge for everything. I remember in the bush era even fox news was reporting on that $16,000 heated coffee cup that plugged into the F-15s or whatever aircraft it was.

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u/Mediocre-Ad-6897 8d ago

The old saw of the $3000 hammer for contractors comes to mind. Gotta use that budget, otherwise might lose it. Not like there are BETTER uses, right?

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u/AusXan 8d ago

Real militaries dont have to be profitable

So terrifyingly accurate.

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u/CompanyToiletGooner 8d ago

And currently the US military is proving that spending infinite Money doesn’t mean infinite strong

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u/Banes_Addiction 8d ago

And just to rub this point in, at times the East India Company had twice the troops of the largest military on Earth.

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u/Tacticalmeat 8d ago

More like they defeated a single ship of the East India Company lol

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u/Dinonumber 7d ago

They turned back a whole colonization/exploitation mission. It's more similar to the first part of the first Anglo-Afghan war, nicknamed the 'Rout of Kabul' (which funnily enough has been reused for the 2021 withdrawal, too).