# The mundane unrealistic details that take you out of the batshit fantastically unrealistic setting **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755 "2015-03-23T02:44:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/81 "2015-03-24T23:49:44Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > That’s what bothered me about the _Star Wars_ original trilogy…every planet was ONE type of climate. Ice, desert, forest, swamp. No temperate zones along with polar regions. While I don’t want them to be just like Earth, it seems odd that there’s no variation to be found. Those are just the areas you see onscreen. > [@](#): > > A [nerf](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nerf) is yak-like animal that was native to Alderaan, but found all over the galaxy. Quite right! > [@Morbo](#): > > Like shooting fish in a barrel I know, but it really bothered me in **Attack of the Clones** when Owen said “This is my girlfriend, Beru.” Was that necessary? Couldn’t they just have been married? Why bother with that crap? > > “This is my girlfriend, Beru. Well, more than my girlfriend, I mean, we’re living together and she’s helping with the moisture farm - I guess you could say we’re engaged to be engaged. I’ll probably marry her someday, but we want to take things slow…marriage is a big decision, you know? We met one night at Tasche Station, you know, not a lot of humans out here. Anyway, after that night we started seeing each other - dates for Pod racing, drinks in Mos Eisley, picnics at Beggar’s Canyon…” I liked that, actually. It was a nice touch. For the same reason, I like the deleted bits involving the domestic scenes at Padme’s place, like when her nieces run out and play with Artoo. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/82 "2015-03-25T00:11:03Z")
> [@Lemmytheseal2](#): > > Those are just the areas you see onscreen. [Not a lot of lakes on this shot of Tattooine from the movies.](http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070811234425/starwars/images/7/7f/Tatooine.jpg) [And not a lot of green on this shot of Hoth.](http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/dvd/zs/tesb/lslaunch1.jpg) And speaking of green, they explicitly refer to place where the Ewoks live as “the forest moon of Endor.” So, I’m guessing mostly forests there. That said, monoclime worlds are kind of a real thing. Mars is pretty much all desert, and most of the planets and moons past Mars are all frozen. An all-forest moon is stretching things, though. And how the hell does an ice-ball like Hoth support a predator the size of the wampa? ---
**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/83 "2015-03-25T00:25:53Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Not a lot of lakes on this shot of Tattooine from the movies.](http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070811234425/starwars/images/7/7f/Tatooine.jpg) > > [And not a lot of green on this shot of Hoth.](http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/dvd/zs/tesb/lslaunch1.jpg) Those are both very high-altitude shots, and gorgeous ones, at that. Only a small part of either planet is even marginally habitable. > [@](#): > > And speaking of green, they explicitly refer to place where the Ewoks live as “the forest moon of Endor.” So, I’m guessing mostly forests there. Yes, but if you’ve ever seen those Ewok movies, they cover more territory than just forests, IIRC. > [@](#): > > That said, monoclime worlds are kind of a real thing. Mars is pretty much all desert, and most of the planets and moons past Mars are all frozen. > > An all-forest moon is stretching things, though. And how the hell does an ice-ball like Hoth support a predator the size of the wampa? The wampas mostly eat tauntauns, among other things. There’s a great book from the 90s called The Illustrated Star Wars Universe that explores all of those worlds (in-universe), using Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork throughout. You see things like tauntauns eating lichen in caves and such. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/84 "2015-03-25T00:41:45Z")
[quote=Lemmytheseal2] Those are just the areas you see onscreen. [quote] Canonically, those planets \*are \*all swamp, all desert, all ice etc. > [@Miller](#): > > [url=“[http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/\_\_cb20070811234425/starwars/images/7/7f/Tatooine.jpg](http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070811234425/starwars/images/7/7f/Tatooine.jpg)”]That said, monoclime worlds are kind of a real thing. Mars is pretty much all desert Mars has larger climatic variations than Earth. > [@](#): > > … and most of the planets and moons past Mars are all frozen. Frozen isn’t a climate, it’s a temperature. Mars is “frozen” by Earth standards, but it still has very large variations in climate. But the real problem is that most of these planets are not frozen. They are just uniformly hot and dry, or cool and wet or similar. You can’t actually sustain an entire planet like that \*and \*still have liquid water, which they all do. > [@](#): > > And how the hell does an ice-ball like Hoth support a predator the size of the wampa? The largest terrestrial and oceanic predators on Earth are inhabitants of the Arctic. Just because the land is permafrost doesn’t mean that the planet doesn’t have highly productive oceans that thaw out occasionally and are teeming with space seals and space penguins. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/85 "2015-03-25T00:52:58Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > Really? What page is that on? That’s a pretty embarrassing continuity error, given that she is one of the four major characters and that was the sixth book King had written about her! I read it on my a Kindle, so page 46%, location 6106. 😛 It took place right after Eddie got shot in the head. The full line reads _At the sight of this terrible head-wound Susannah leaped to her feet and began to scream again._ ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/86 "2015-03-25T00:53:11Z")
Speaking of vampires; does anyone else get annoyed when a movie or TV show follows the does not have a reflection (or no photo) rule and inexplicably extends it to the vampire’s _clothing_ was well. The only aversion I can think of was **Daybreakers** where Ethan Hawke’s animated suit was seen a mirror. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/87 "2015-03-25T01:08:57Z")
In modern movies, my biggest peeve has always been the never-ending firearm clip. Even as a little boy, playing with my toy cowboy six-shooters, I understood about limited ammo. Yet no one ever really worried about ammo; even when it became a plot point, it was only after they had fired dozens, if not hundreds of bullets. Very heavy bullets. ---
**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/88 "2015-03-25T01:22:14Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > In modern movies, my biggest peeve has always been the never-ending firearm clip. Even as a little boy, playing with my toy cowboy six-shooters, I understood about limited ammo. Yet no one ever really worried about ammo; even when it became a plot point, it was only after they had fired dozens, if not hundreds of bullets. Very heavy bullets. Do you have an example that ruins a batshit fantastically unrealistic setting? I’m sure there are lots, I just can’t think of any right now, and I’m wondering what you have in mind. That happens in a lot of movies that are unfortunately trying for realism. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/89 "2015-03-25T02:01:26Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Have you seen [her dad’s helm](http://twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.com/2011/08/horned-helmet-of-henry-viii-1514.html)? Or his buddy [Henri II’s armour](https://wanderingmuseumconsultant.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/7076352219_f99fa3ed90.jpg). > > [Elizabeth’s armour](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/08/28/article-2031177-021DB610000004B0-326_233x423.jpg)is perfectly fine armour (if somewhat thin parade-style and not nearly as decorated as it _could_ have been). There’s not really anything fantasy-like about it. > > Shit like the _300_ movies etc, those feature [fantasy armour](http://payvand.com/news/14/mar/300-Rise-of-an-Empire-Queen-Artemisia-HR.jpg). Cool! Thank you! I had taken Elizabeth’s armor, in the movie, to be not only fantasy, but absurd and exaggerated fantasy. I guess I’m wrong. Oopsie! That helmet, meanwhile, with the dorky pince-nez glasses and the absurd spiral horns – holy crap, that’s queer! Steampunk meets H.R. Giger! Reality is more absurd than fiction! Figures… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/90 "2015-03-25T02:08:43Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Speaking of vampires; does anyone else get annoyed when a movie or TV show follows the does not have a reflection (or no photo) rule and inexplicably extends it to the vampire’s _clothing_ was well. The only aversion I can think of was **Daybreakers** where Ethan Hawke’s animated suit was seen a mirror. I always took it as magic, or, worse, theology, in which case who knows what the rules are. Otherwise, we’d see a vampire’s shape in a mirror by the dust, film of sweat, dead skin cells, fragments of hair, etc. all clinging to their skin. (Sort of like the problem of the Invisible Man: why are his bones, hair, blood plasma, or digestive by-products invisible?) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/91 "2015-03-25T02:38:47Z")
Actually, in the original novel food passing through IM’s system \*was \*visible. And in the chapter where he discusses the invisibility process with Kemp he explains about blood, bones and hair. The fact that he was an albino helped. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/92 "2015-03-25T04:22:29Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > She’s a double amputee. Much better than what I thought–because he used “leaped,” yet I’ve only heard that expression used with “leapt.” Weird that he’s using it as a purely colloquial expression then. ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/93 "2015-03-25T06:12:58Z")
These are mostly from x Reasons to Hate the Star Wars prequels but the actual examples bothered when I first saw them in the films as well: In The Phantom Menace When Obi-Wan first encounters Darth Maul. He asks Qui Gon Jinn “What was it?” as if it were something totally strange when clearly “it” was a man. In a universe where they refer to a giant slug as a “he” why would a guy dressed in traditional male clothing, with male features, be referred to as “it”? Then there’s a two headed announcer that talks like a modern day American sports commentator: “I don’t care what galaxy you’re from, that had ta hurt!” Star Wars takes place _a long time ago_…not in the future. So why talk like American sports commentators? All it takes is one senator to say “I vote no confidence” and they pick a new chancellor. I was like, “wait, what? That’s all they have to do to kick out the chancellor?” Why do so many of the starships look brand new in Ep I, but in the OT they all have that used technology look? I’m guessing that since it took place before the OT the rational is that things were new. But that doesn’t make any sense unless they just started making starships when Ep I happened, and they stopped making new starships after Ep III ended. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/94 "2015-03-25T11:16:55Z")
> [@Gerald\_II](#): > > Then there’s a two headed announcer that talks like a modern day American sports commentator: “I don’t care what galaxy you’re from, that had ta hurt!” Star Wars takes place _a long time ago_…not in the future. So why talk like American sports commentators? At least one of those heads was voiced by [Whose Line Is It Anyway?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvXXytks29E) favorite [Greg Proops](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Proops). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/95 "2015-03-25T11:34:44Z")
Greg Proops talks all about that scene in great detail [in a podcast](http://iwastheretoo.wolfpop.com/audio/20361/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-with-greg-proops), if you’re interested. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/96 "2015-03-25T11:56:36Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I always took it as magic, or, worse, theology, in which case who knows what the rules are. > > Otherwise, we’d see a vampire’s shape in a mirror by the dust, film of sweat, dead skin cells, fragments of hair, etc. all clinging to their skin. > > (Sort of like the problem of the Invisible Man: why are his bones, hair, blood plasma, or digestive by-products invisible?) If you read H.G. Wells’ _The Invisible Man_, he does address those issues. He has all of Griffin’s bodily tissues have a refractive index of 1, and even talks about what happens to the food he eats. It’s absurd, of course – Even if you could make biological tissue completely transparent and lower in index, you still couldn’t get it as low as the index of air\*. And, even if you did, it’s absurdly difficult to make things completely vanish by index-matching. I know – I’ve worked at it (not with people, of course). It’s too easy for dirt on the surfaces or reflections at high angles of incidence to screw up the illusion. And, of course, there’s the whole issue of being able to see. A truly invisible man would necessarily be blind. \*\* there certainly do exist water creatures that are invisible, or mostly so. But they don’t have to match the refractive index of air – only of water, a much easier proposition. It’d be much easier to have an Invisible Aquatic Man, but that has fewer dramatic possibilities in rural England. ---
**Author:** ![Chopsticks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cab0a1/32.png) [@Chopsticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopsticks)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/97 "2015-03-25T12:06:02Z")
The Matrix. Keanu Reeves, brain in a vat, artificial intelligences? Sure. The robots use humans as fuel because there is no sunlight, and humans are fed recycled humans? :dubious: :smack: Let’s see, what grade was it where we learned about the food chain, some time in elementary school? My faith in humanity was restored later when I heard that the original story was ‘humans used as idea-generators’, and the change was due to movie exec meddling. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/98 "2015-03-25T12:14:34Z")
> [@Gerald\_II](#): > > All it takes is one senator to say “I vote no confidence” and they pick a new chancellor. I was like, “wait, what? That’s all they have to do to kick out the chancellor?” No, that one senator _[called for](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Finis_Valorum#Removal_from_office)_ a vote, which just lead to the actual [vote](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Vote_of_No_Confidence) of no confidence the next day. [Which is a real thing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_of_no_confidence) in parliamentary systems. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/99 "2015-03-25T12:17:47Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It’d be much easier to have an Invisible Aquatic Man, but that has fewer dramatic possibilities in rural England. But think of what it’d add to the JLA ! Of course, Aqua Man’d have to be naked… ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755/100 "2015-03-25T12:42:48Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > But think of what it’d add to the JLA ! Of course, Aqua Man’d have to be naked… …Do Atlanteans have to worry about shrikage? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mundane-unrealistic-details-that-take-you-out-of-the-batshit-fantastically-unrealistic-setting/715755.md?page=6)