you mentioned liking military fiction, I'm curious whether you see the emphasis on disobedience in tcw and tbb as something specific to star wars, or as something that applies to fiction in general?
I wouldn't consider myself a military fiction sort of person, but similar franchises that come to mind, (destiny, mass effect, etc) also portray orders in a military setting as being optional for the main characters, that heroes can go against the grain if they know in their hearts it's the right thing to do, and don't face consequences, because things always work out in the end. this can partially be attributed to being games instead of a non-interactive media like a show, but it seems to me like the option to disobey an order is something a main character very often has in fiction even if it's unrealistic, displaying either a misunderstanding by the writers or an attempt to make a military hero more palatable to the general public.
idk, just spitballing, something to think about if you want ig? I don't mean to throw so many words at you lmao. I love your pulls from the books, maze saying "crazy null boy" is an all-timer for me LMFAO
omg yeah absolutely, it drives me insane every time in pops up in stuff like video games and other tv shows, where the Main Hero gets to disobey a direct order, not die, and then miraculously pull of a huge save, and not face any consequences. this even bothers me in pacific rim, where raleigh has a very anakin-esque attitude and that little nerdy doctor does the stupidest thing possible and saves the whole world because of it
i guess it especially bothers me in tcw and tbb (even though, like, theyre kids shows, its fine, this is something that even adult military fiction frequently fucks up) because i really see the inhibitor chips as the writing team scrambling to reconcile fucking this up with the ending that has to happen and pulling out mind control, which is second only to time travel on the list of Total Clownshoes Scifi Tropes to me
now that i've claimed to like miltary fiction i'm struggling to think of more examples lol. Halo Kilo-5 Trilogy also did 'following orders is good actually' really well, but that's not surprising, because kt wrote that too
murderbot does pretty decently although i don't know if that counts as military fiction. murderbot has to balance appearing to follow orders with its own limited expression of free will, especially at first, and is Extremely annoyed when the dumb humans dont follow the orders it gives them for their own safety
that episode of the mandalorian where din has to deal with that fuckin newbie does it well- the kid doesn't follow orders, nearly dies multiple times, almost gets everyone around him killed, improvises at the end because he thinks he sees an opportunity, and gets his ass killed in the end for it. ten outta ten very satisfying, because in another story, that idiot would have won
andor did this pretty well, in that when cassian improvises he causes himself and everyone around him enormous problems, and luthen's entire Thing is very much about putting the collective good above heroism, but andor did literally everything well
'it seems to me like the option to disobey an order is something a main character very often has in fiction even if it's unrealistic, displaying either a misunderstanding by the writers or an attempt to make a military hero more palatable to the general public'
i think you're totally, completely spot on here. i suspect it has something to do with how western society values independence and heroism over a collective good. we love to see our hero Stick It To The System and Follow Their Heart, and then Come Out Victorious and Prove All You Boot-Licking Cogs In The Machine Wrong
hell. even repcomm DOES do this. the skirata band explicitly disobeys so so many orders, breaks out of the system, and comes out (mostly) victorious. i guess i'm fine with that because of the context and how the system they're sticking it to deserves to be escaped from, and they don't do it as an individual, but as a collective that has to be very, very careful with how and when they go about disobeying orders
i sort of laser focused in, but everything i'm saying about orders applies to improvisation, too. in hard contact specifically, omega squad plans their asses off and still has to improvise at the end, and it's actually treated as extremely dicey
and then there's the bad batch that never does any recon whatsoever and just runs blind into most situations, narrowly avoids death through sheer luck and Main Character Gumption
