Keep in mind:
- Sign your entries.
- One moment per movie to a troper, if multiple entries are signed to the same troper the more recent one will be cut.
- Moments only, no "just everything he said," or "The entire movie," entries.
- No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
- No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
- Explain why it's a Dethroning Moment Of Suck.
- No Real Life examples, including Executive Meddling. That is just asking for trouble.
- No ALLCAPS, no bold, and no italics unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the DMoSs out loud.
- Enchanter 468: During the Starship Troopers movie, the Roughnecks are heading through a canyon and one of them is snatched by a huge, flying pseudo-arachnid, which proceeds to land on a ledge and begins to torture the man with its stinger and bladed limbs. Lieutenant Rasczak calls for Sugar Watkins (another soldier) to toss him a specialized sniper rifle. He zooms in on the bug and its prisoner, and I'm expecting some kind of Moment of Awesome where Rasczak snipes the Bug, but instead he shoots the wounded man (the one who had been screaming for help) through the heart...and lets the Bug get away. The Mercy Kill might be justifiable, but would it bother you too much to shoot the damn thing rather than letting it fly off to tell all its friends where all the tasty humans are?
- Garm: What makes it even worse, is that he had plenty of time to shoot the bug before it started ripping the soldier apart, but he just watches through the scope as it rips into him, and then kills him. Also, why did Rasczak demand that they kill him after he lost his legs, when the rescue ship was right there? Remember how when the characters first go to enlist, the recruiter has fully-functioning robotic legs, paid for by the military...?
- Azzizzi: Yeah, this is kind of a poor ripoff of a similar scene in The Sand Pebbles where it makes sense when Jake Holman (played by Steve McQueen) wants to shoot the Chinese who are torturing his helper, Po-han (played by Mako). The ship's captain orders Holman not to shoot at the Chinese because it will start a war. Holman shoots Po-han to put him out of his misery.
- Erik Modi: Hearing Johnny Rico finally say "On the bounce" in the third film. Sure, they finally worked the book's Power Armor and related Catchphrase in, but like most everything else, it's butchered. The phrase in the book was so cool because it's never really explained where it came from, though one can imagine it's due to the fact that the Marauder suits primarily maneuver with their jump jets, "bouncing" from place to place. In the film, one Marauder "bounces" exactly once. Also, in the book the phrase is used as kind of a generic "get ready" or "get moving" phrase, like "let's rock" or "up and at 'em." In the film, Johnny uses it first as a kind of awkward departing line to two other characters, and then again in one of the overblown recruitment commercials. Finally, he says "See you on the bounce" or "See you on that bounce," not just "On the bounce." As of this moment, there is officially nothing from Heinlein's novel that hasn't been completely subverted by the films.
- Galahad PC: While so much of the movie is blissfully stupid and enjoyable if you don't think too hard... try watching it with the commentary by Verhoeven and the writer. Many delightful moments include explaining how the actors aren't really in orbit around Jupiter (that's just a special effect, you see), constantly changing gears on what the movie was trying to be about, talking about how faithful they were to the "message" of the original book, and Verhoeven getting the point of one scene completely backwards until he was given a reminder. That stuff is just plain hilarious to listen to. No, the mind-boggling self-dethroning comes when they start talking about Carmen. It turns out that Carmen tested really badly in test audiences in every single demographic, everywhere in the world. Verhoeven's response? Clearly, the entire world just isn't ready for a strong and intelligent woman, who apparently never existed in fiction until 1997. Even better, they try to take credit for creating everything about her, when she was already a smart, talented and combat-tested pilot in the original book.
- Tropers/TMB: Test audience intuition comes into focus when you see the deleted scenes. Her loyalty to Rico already seemed suspect in the movie from the get-go, but in the bits that got cut her feelings started drifting back to Rico the moment he was discovered to still be alive and she gave him a victory kiss at the end completely forgetting Xander died five minutes ago.
- Snarf: Specifically, the original book makes a point of mentioning that women were more talented than men at space piloting (going into detail about reflexes, stamina, emotional stability, etc.) and only the very brightest people of either gender get into that particular assignment. Verhoeven, et.al. apparently didn't read thoroughly enough and want to blame the source material rather than their own casting decisions. Although there is a certain amount of Fridge Brilliance to not shooting the flying Bug—such lapses in judgement do explain why the humans appear to be losing the war rather badly.
