Sponsored Links

[Sonic Screwdriver]

One thing I noticed about Space Police III is that the Space Police seem to be all human, while the criminals are aliens. Does this not promote racism and xenophobia?

I did a google search to see if anyone had similar feelings, and this had been discussed on Lego.com.

Lego.com thread

There was also a funny blog post on this subject:

BuboBlog post

Quote

In the popular Lego Space Police series, human characters pursue intergalactic criminals — all of which, coincidentally enough, are non-human. (The scene depicted below is a clear case of profiling.)

And

Quote

What does this say about the Lego worldview? (And is a "District 9" licensing deal in the works?)

The accompanying pictures are entertaining.

I have to say that a District 9 series of lego sets would be fun, but it would undoubtedly be very violence oriented.

[vexorian]

Specism ?

All LEGO non-city themes nowadays have good humans vs. bad non-humans. We have the trolls in castle, the stone monsters in power miners and I think exo force fought with robots.

also, if anything old space police was more racist with all those BLACKtrons being the bad guys!

This post has been edited by vexorian: 11 February 2010 - 10:16 PM

[simonjedi]

No, its a toy.

[Tohst]

simonjedi, on Feb 11 2010, 04:21 PM, said:

No, its a toy.

And toys do not just reflect the value of the society that produces them but also help impart those values onto the next generation.

I'm actually glad the new Kingdom's line is human vs. human. And I'm saying that as a big fan of the fantasy era.

Because:

Atlantis - humans vs. non-human
Power Miners - humans vs. non-human
SPIII - Humans vs. non -humans

At least Star Wars has Chewbacca but don't get me started on their terrible treatment of droids.

I think there is at least 1 topic about this already. It pops up from time to time. You really need to subvert the theme and turn the police into fascists and the aliens are the good guys.

-Tohst
R2 has force powers...and still can't be treated like a live little boy.

[Goldenmasamune]

I noticed in the late 90s, lego seemed to stop doing Human VS Human. I remember earlier themes there were nothing else, skeletons aside.

I think lego is trying to make itself look non-violent. For example, SPIII has freeze rays; not guns. and don't even get me started on bionicle....

[vexorian]

Tohst, on Feb 11 2010, 06:27 PM, said:

And toys do not just reflect the value of the society that produces them but also help impart those values onto the next generation.

I'm actually glad the new Kingdom's line is human vs. human. And I'm saying that as a big fan of the fantasy era.

Because:

Atlantis - humans vs. non-human
Power Miners - humans vs. non-human
SPIII - Humans vs. non -humans

At least Star Wars has Chewbacca but don't get me started on their terrible treatment of droids.

I think there is at least 1 topic about this already. It pops up from time to time. You really need to subvert the theme and turn the police into fascists and the aliens are the good guys.

-Tohst
R2 has force powers...and still can't be treated like a live little boy.

Isn't the leader of the rebels that "It's a trap!" squid guy?


SP3 has droids on their side!

[Dannylonglegs]

Yep, This is why a Blacktron re-insurgence would be good for the Space themes, it would go something like this story-wise; while the speciesiest Space Police was focusing their attention on the alien criminal under world, the were unaware of a rising force of anarchists who intended to over through the government. They were united under the name of Blacktron and in one fell swoop destroyed the Space police, revealing their massive fleet of superior ships to the galaxy. Now the remnants of Space police and the aliens who for so long were oppressed by the humans have joined forces to defeat the malicious Blacktron menace...

~Insectoid Aristocrat

This post has been edited by dannylonglegs: 12 February 2010 - 01:50 AM

[Aanchir]

Maybe it does, but it's not nearly as bad as Mars Mission. In that we're going to a planet that isn't even ours, finding advanced alien life that's already adapted to using the planet's crystals as fuel, then abducting the aliens and experimenting on them. The ethics are in general very dubious. In Space Police III, at least it's established that the aliens we've seen are genuine "bad guys", even if the implication that all aliens are bad guys and all bad guys are aliens is questionable.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that in early catalogs, Blacktrons were sometimes referred to as "aliens" despite looking perfectly human. So while the "like us/not like us" issue doesn't come up with that era's perfectly identical minifigs, there's still a clearly-established attitude that aliens are not our friends.

Also, Life On Mars demonstrated that LEGO wasn't totally afraid to cast aliens as friends to humanity. Hence why Mars Mission, an innovative theme as far as sets go, was disappointing with regard to story.

[Goldenmasamune]

The small fact about mars mission kind of made me unhappy too. we invade their world, steal their precious resources, and attack and experiment on them. I was thinking, "Wait, are the people the bad guys?"


Maybe a mars mission/space police crossover is needed... SP goes against the MM people.

[Golbolco]

Just so you know, the mars mission aliens were not from mars so i think the guys from life on mars were the explorers and the aliens from life on mars were being bothered by the jellies so the explorers called in the ones trained to fight (mars mission) to help the martians.

[Mister Blisterfists]

Yeah, because cops, going after BLACKtron would do wonders to discourage accusations of racism......



I'm only kidding, of course.

[Goldenmasamune]

Eh... I like to pretend that the life on mars sets never happened. But even in those sets, it looked like the humans were against the martians.

[Aanchir]

Goldenmasamune, on Feb 12 2010, 01:31 PM, said:

Eh... I like to pretend that the life on mars sets never happened. But even in those sets, it looked like the humans were against the martians.

Yes, but in the web comics and other media, it was made perfectly clear that, despite early competition between the two sides, neither was "good" or "bad"-- any conflicts were a result of poor communication, and were quickly resolved once the Martians learned to trust the newcomers and the people learned to trust the Martians. Anyway, the only sets that even hinted at conflict were a few of the Martian vehicles which had lasers.

Life on Mars sets were really fun IMO, since they were so intercompatible. I didn't get many of the human vehicles, but I did quite a few Martian vehicles. Also, bear in mind that without Life on Mars we might not have that awesome tile with the vitruvian minifig.

[Darth Legolas]

vexorian, on Feb 11 2010, 06:16 PM, said:

Isn't the leader of the rebels that "It's a trap!" squid guy?


SP3 has droids on their side!

No, that's Admiral Ackbar, who looks nothing like a squid, but he's a Mon Calamari, the squid-heads are Quarrens.

It's like this in a lot of Lego themes, so maybe a little, but I'm not sure it's completely intended. In Power Miners, Rock Monsters are more like animals, so it's not as wrong, but in Atlantis and SPIII, humans are the good guys and fish/aliens are the bad guys.

[vexorian]

Darth Legolas, on Feb 12 2010, 05:18 PM, said:

No, that's Admiral Ackbar, who looks nothing like a squid, but he's a Mon Calamari, the squid-heads are Quarrens.

It's like this in a lot of Lego themes, so maybe a little, but I'm not sure it's completely intended. In Power Miners, Rock Monsters are more like animals, so it's not as wrong, but in Atlantis and SPIII, humans are the good guys and fish/aliens are the bad guys.

Or maybe it is just part of your anti rock people prejudice ^^.


I'd say , would it be so hard to make an Alien cadet for SP3 ? Just change the head... And it would fix it . At least now even though all humans are good not all aliens would be bad.