The uniforms were inspired by Starship Troopers, a 1997 space epic about a future Earth governed by a fascist regime that wages war against giant alien bugs
Yeah, ever since reading it, I’ve been confused by seemingly everyone’s complete certainty that Heinlein was portraying the militarism of the troopers as a good thing. I thought it was abundantly clear that we were being specifically shown that the “bugs” these yokels were firebombing were just people, in their homes watching TV, as the alien invaders rocket jumped from rooftop to rooftop, indiscriminately killing anything that moved. IIRC, everyone in the book seemed to have a gut feeling that the original attack on earth was actually retaliatory at least, or a false flag at worst.
I thought it was about as pro-military as fucking Full Metal Jacket. Yeah, it makes it a big point that there’s a deep camaraderie borne out of being forced to do awful things together, but it also looks as deeply into those awful things as it can, while it’s being told from the perspectives of indoctrinated “children ardent for some desperate glory”
Maybe I need to reread it and look for more of the authorial pro-fascism stuff. I don’t think that Heinlein put a lot of effort into trying to convince anyone that the troopers were bad, but all the signs were there by authorial intent, IIRC.
Yeah, ever since reading it, I’ve been confused by seemingly everyone’s complete certainty that Heinlein was portraying the militarism of the troopers as a good thing. I thought it was abundantly clear that we were being specifically shown that the “bugs” these yokels were firebombing were just people, in their homes watching TV, as the alien invaders rocket jumped from rooftop to rooftop, indiscriminately killing anything that moved. IIRC, everyone in the book seemed to have a gut feeling that the original attack on earth was actually retaliatory at least, or a false flag at worst.
I thought it was about as pro-military as fucking Full Metal Jacket. Yeah, it makes it a big point that there’s a deep camaraderie borne out of being forced to do awful things together, but it also looks as deeply into those awful things as it can, while it’s being told from the perspectives of indoctrinated “children ardent for some desperate glory”
Maybe I need to reread it and look for more of the authorial pro-fascism stuff. I don’t think that Heinlein put a lot of effort into trying to convince anyone that the troopers were bad, but all the signs were there by authorial intent, IIRC.