MovieChat Forums > The Colony (2009) Discussion > Dealing (badly) with newcomers

Dealing (badly) with newcomers

posted 13 years ago by nomen_meltdown
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Did it occur to anyone else that the biggest initial failure on the colonists' part in dealing with the newcomers was that they didn't immediately make clear what they'd claimed as "theirs" to use/scavenge, and then they got all offended and felt disrespected when the new people started scavenging (digging through what looked like a pile of rubble, sifting through the car, etc). Then when they confronted them about that, they basically came off as saying "we let you set up in this house, but we claim everything around here so you can't collect any resources for yourselves." That's an untenable position. They should either have said "no, you can't settle here at all" (thereby maintaining their absolute claim to everything in sight) or "you can have that house and you can hunt & gather in this predefined area." But the way they played it early on-- giving the newcomers a space but expecting them to defer any foraging rights (since they weren't told what was and what wasn't okay to take)-- was bound to lead to conflict.

I'm an island- peopled by scientists, bards, judges, soldiers, artists, scholars, & warrior-poets.

[–] Banjo_oz 13 years ago

I agree. Their confrontation with Amber & Michael seemed totally unreasonable to me, based on what they'd only just told them (that is, "you can stay in that house there..." and nothing more!).

They should have told them "no scavenging" or allowed them to... or else just said "go away" outright. But then, the S2 team were woeful at ANY sort of negotiation/confrontation, IMO.

And Jim only made things ridiculous with his "get my knives" death threats, which if I were Michael or Amber would have had me either pack up and leave that instant, or drop the guy where he stood. I seriously wouldn't have wanted to share a house with him when they invited them to move it, honestly.