icarus-suraki:

flamethrowing-hurdy-gurdy:

This was a theme that was evident to me from the start (meaning, the movie made it VERY clear), that the escape is not an escape at all costs, but that there are rules which make it worthwile. “No unnecessary killing.” What kind of dumbass rule is that in a world with so much violence, why would you impose the chore of having to evaluate every attacker as someone you have to or don’t have to kill when you’re escaping from enslavement?

Well, probably because if you accept the rules of the game, there’s no point in trying to escape it.

Or a bit more poignantly: if you decide that you are not a thing, you must also defend other people’s autonomy. Otherwise it’s just you walking over corpses until you find respite, and THEN start living life better than your abusers…which, you know, okay, sometimes that’s necessary. No one would have blamed the wives for it, I think, no one blames Furiosa for being just a tad less discerning with her deadly force. But it’s so important that the wives still decided they want to be ‘above all that’, to quote the Dag. Their escape wasn’t worth jack shit to them unless they tried to fix things as they went along.

The other thing, and this is most clear when Angharad and Capable are yelling philosophy back and forth with Nux (while he hangs out of the cab of the rig, whatever) is that the “wives” seem to believe that the Warboys are also victims of Joe’s regime. 

“He’s just a kid at the end of his half-life” and “You’re an old man’s battle-fodder!” they yell. Angry as they are, they still seem to view the Warboys at least as victims–both like and unlike themselves of course, but still victims of the regime and its systems. They have come to the conclusion that they’re all being used in one way or another–in this case, used physically.

In that case, no wonder they’d be hesitant to kill or will make a promise not to kill if they’ve begun to view these other people, the Warboys and Warpups and so on, in a sympathetic or at least compassionate way. Especially one like Nux who really does seem to be totally taken in (listen to him repeating what amounts to chapter and verse with “He’s the one who grabbed the sun” and “By his hand we’ll be lifted up” &c). Hence, throwing him out rather than killing him.

The problem is that it becomes necessary (and has been necessary from the start) for someone to act in overt defense of them (that would be Furiosa and, eventually, Max–and eventually Nux) as the attacks against them mount. That defense has to respond in kind to what’s being dished out. Killing becomes the only way to stay alive. It does, unfortunately, become necessary to kill. One has to answer force with equal force in this imagined world. (As an aside, it seems like Toast knows this already–Toast is the Knowing, after all. She’ll reload the gun. She gets it. Philosophy is nice, but sometimes reality is more complex.)

In this same vein, I feel like the Keeper of the Seeds and her reaction, her silence, when The Dag says she “thought you girls were above all that” means more than just surprise. I feel like that silence, then the immediate turn to show The Dag all her seeds speaks to the need that the Vuvalini have found to simultaneously be “above all that” needless killing but still perfectly aware of what it takes to survive, what it takes for a woman to survive, in this violent and ruined world.

The Vuvalini are “above all that” but in a complicated way. They won’t seek out bloodshed for fun–that’s a game for Joe and his cohorts. But they’ll stand against force with equal force and strength and method. They will even take the initiative–they’re not purely defensive. It’s a very delicate balance to maintain. And I think it’s important in terms of character development that the “wives” with their promise that “it’s not necessary to kill” and Furoisa with her readiness to attack (not just defend) encounter this “third way.”

Reposted from http://ift.tt/1Gq5JBR.