Titan AE: A critical analysis of motivation

This entry makes two assumptions, one directly based on the other. Firstly, it assumes you've seen Titan AE. Second, it assumes you thought it was awesome. I fit both these categories, and I suggest that you only read on if you do too.

The characters are well-developed, the animation is beautiful, and the story is well thought-out. On the whole, the movie is a superior one. Or so it would seem. After the uplifting ending, I began to question how much sense the movie made. Thinking about various motivations throughout the film, I began to see circular logic, and I fell into a rather deep plot hole. The plot hole I uncovered is at worst, a simple oversight in the course of creating a good vs. evil story or at best, a questioning of who the villain really is.

The main players in the movie are the humans and the Drej. The humans have just begun to explore beyond earth and make contact with other species. The Drej are much higher beings, made of pure energy and generally unconcerned with the affairs of lesser species. The movie opens with the Drej destroying Earth, because they fear humanity's new advancement: The Titan Project.

This brings us to our first problem. The Titan project is three plot devices in one: It is the villain's motivation for attacking, the heroes' motivation for their quest, and it is the weapon that eventually results in the heroes' victory. The main question of the plot from the beginning is; what is the Titan Project? At the end, it is revealed to be a backup copy of Earth, and it was activated by draining the power from the Drej, destroying them. A happy ending? Maybe. The Titan as a backup Earth does not seem to equate with the Titan as a reason to destroy humanity before they use it, particularly for beings as powerful as the Drej. They are like gods next to all other races, why would they care about one race's ability to make more planets, that would be like dust next to the vastness of the galaxy? Of all the races out there, they just had to single out humans, and just for the reason that they want a backup home? But wait, you say, the Titan DID kill the Drej at the end! Doesn't that justify them to be threatened? Well, no. The Titan only killed them because they shot at it, and it used their energy (their entire bodies, that is) to assume its final form. So if the Drej had ignored them, nothing bad would have happened. The Humans would have had their home away from home, and the Drej could go back to looking like random techno videos.

This is the point of divergence. Maybe it was just an error on the part of the writers. Maybe they tried too hard to combine villains with a motivation and villains who are just generically evil. Or maybe the Humans were planning on using the Drej for a power source all along. Maybe it wasn't a coincidence that the power intake devices on the Titan were compatible with the energy produce by the Drej. Maybe the humans would have expanded across the galaxy, consuming other races and replicating their natural environment, ad infinitum. Sounds farfetched? We've done enough of it on Earth, as Agent Smith can attest.

DJ Wars: Official rules

After being thoroughly disappointed by the quality of Muskingum University's Homecoming dance, mostly due to the awful DJ, I found myself wishing that someone of true skill could have replaced him, namely David "Asian" Saum. But what method to use, when it comes to selecting your master of music for public events? Only trial by combat will reveal the victor.

You will need:

• An empty basketball court or room of similar size
• Two DJ stations with whatever equipment the contenders need, hooked up to a prominent and electrically safe master switch
• Two equal teams of minions (size to be determined by size of room and consensus, ten being a good baseline)
• Four judges
• A set of good quality wireless headphones for each minion and each judge
• Proper lighting

The object of the game is to win and to look cool doing so.

The game begins with each DJ preparing their station with a playlist, giving instructions to their team, and initiating their light show. Each team is given headphones hooked up to the station of their DJ. The judges are given headphones too, two for each DJ. At the game's start, the DJs activate their playlists. Minions then proceed to fight in time to the music, as long as music is playing in their ears. They cannot inflict physical harm; the object is to remove the headphones of the enemy team. Upon the removal of headphones, the minion is out. The game ends if all minions have been disarmed or a DJ station is turned off. DJs are not allowed to put up any physical resistance to protect the master switch. Judges in tune to the music of a DJ observe that DJ's minions and can disqualify them if they are out of rhythm or excessively violent.