MovieChat Forums > Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) Discussion > Why Does Sador Bother?

Why Does Sador Bother?

posted 13 years ago by WyldeGoose
8 replies | jump to latest

Okay, so he goes to Akir, described as a rock with a patch of green on it, presumably where the people live. When we see these people, they don't seem to have any sign of industry. What do they produce? Food? Drugs? Weed? What? So they're pacifists that produce nothing, living in one spot on a world.

They're hippies.

Does Sador want them for their bodies? I mean, he seems to like grafting other people's parts onto him, but it seems an awful lot of effort to go pick on a bunch of people that he could just as easily send down a few of his mutants to kidnap a bunch of them.

Conversely, why bother defending this world? Instead of mercenaries, Shad should've looked for another world so the hippies could live on, and they could conceive a plan to move without Sador even knowing about it until they were long gone.

[–] savagesteve13 13 years ago

Because Sador was evil, and enjoyed destroying the weak. His main interest was in enslaving the population and taking the women for breeding.

[–] WyldeGoose 13 years ago

Enslaving the population and taking the women for breeding. Okay, but why wasn't that spelled out? At some point he could've said that to someone.

See, the thing is that doing this kind of thing to a small world that makes nothing at all is ludicrous because it's a waste of time and resources when there are better, riper worlds to conquer. I can see if he wanted slaves, but then, why didn't he bother taking them then? Why wait until he returns? Seems like his entire ship could've handled the entire population of Akir? Or, let's say he only wants a small percentage; say a few women a year? Fine. Take them the very instant after you make your threats and shoot a few Akirans.

One thing you have to understand about conquerors is that they don't really do things because they're mean. They do things because there are prizes to be won.

In Seven Samurai, for instance (which is what BBtS is), the village had food that the bandits ultimately wanted. Sure, they probably would've loved to rape the girls of the village, but food is what they were primarily after. Armies march on their Stomachs, according to Napoleon, and for good reason: Armies don't produce anything on their own. Going to war is expensive on so many levels, but the prizes can often be worth the risk.

But there was no prize here in BBtS. Nothing that would compel Sador even to go there in the first place beyond his own self-gratification. It would be one thing if there was something Akir made, something like fuel or food or weapons or something. But they produce nothing. Nothing even remotely in any quantity that would satisfy his forces for any significant length of time. They don't even have money!

If Akir were a strategic location, again that would be a good reason for Sador to conquer them.

[–] matwsussx 13 years ago

I agree with pretty much all your points. As for his motivation, well, as Ming The Merciless replied in Flash Gordon when he was asked why he was attacking Earth......"Why not?"

[–] WyldeGoose 13 years ago

Ming's motivation in Flash Gordon was based squarely on amusement. He already had everything he could want. If he wanted to conquer Earth, he would've done so, with an entire Mongo Imperial military machine at his disposal for the Ruler of the Universe, Emperor of the Galaxy (or, is that reversed, I forget).

But Sador is not Ming. He might seem very powerful, but then, if you listen to others describe what Sador has, you begin to realize he's kind of a minor warlord. He's got the big ship, with a stellar converter (very cool device, by the way), and he's got only 30 little fighters to protect him (which, do not hit a darn thing in this entire film - they're worse than Stormtroopers).

If I only had 30 fighters, I'd be very careful with them. I'm sure they cost money and time for me to replace them. Not to mention training new crews.

It could be very true that Sador was being very careful, picking on poor Akir that has virtually no defenses at all. Did he plan on using that world for raw material? Did he plan on putting automated factories and refineries on this world, to build the foundations of his empire?

My point in all this was by fleshing out Sador a bit more this would've been a far better film.

[–] graham-167 13 years ago

Um, he says it right upfront when he first goes there - he's there for their harvest.

It's not overly dwelled on in the film, but it's pretty obvious if you look around that the Galaxy is in ruins. Every place Shad visits in abandoned, decaying, dead. Since these places were alive and bustling within living memory, there has been some great disaster - most likely a war.

Whilst one can only really speculate, I'd say that the war left a ruined galaxy where food sources were uncommon. Sador and his band are probably survivors from one of the sides in the war, who now go around scavenging off the survivors.

[–] mamaprib 9 years ago

Wow. That's deeper into the plot than I've ever gone..

[–] fmvd2000 8 years ago

This was a rehash of the Seven Samurai and in that the bandits said there were coming back to the village for the rice harvest so manly for food but would also take what loot and women they can get but still leave the village able to grow more rice

Sador said the same thing he was coming back for the harvest what ever the crop was even in space you need to eat Akir seemed to have a small but very productive fertile area and i thought they were sort of like the Jewish kibbutz farmers experts on growing in a arid environment

[–] MrRazorz 8 years ago

When I was a kid watching this film, Sador seemed like a powerful warlord conquering a vast galactic empire. Re-watching as an adult, he comes across as little more than a space pirate. But he doesn't need to be much more than that, since he's operating in a "third-rate galaxy" which seems to be made up mostly of isolated planets and abandoned and decaying civilizations. A few aimless wanderers and outcasts are lucky enough to have ships, and shuffle around between planets working as space truckers or slavers or mercenaries, but that's about it.

So if you're a megalomaniac like Sador, with the only proper warship in space and an army of halfwit mutants, what are you going to do? Roam around the place picking on defenceless planets, demanding tributes and blowing up anyone who doesn't play ball, that's what. He's not a great conqueror or a military strategist, he's just a bully with a really cool ship. Why wouldn't he attack Akir? He's not going to find better pickings anywhere else.