His job is to protect the USA from threats that cannot be explained or dealt with by normal means, he finally finds something that fits this exact description and he is in all rights to do what needs to be done to eliminate a potential threat.
AND THE IRON GIANT IS A POTENTIAL THREAT.
The thing is a literal extraterrestrial pre-colonization weapon with enough firepower to annihilate cities and can withstand everything short of an atomic bomb (WHICH IT FUCKING SURVIVES), for all they know the thing could be a scout unit transmitting it's position to whatever Empire or Civilization that will soon send another 90 of these things that will actually do the job, if anything the AYYS that sent it will be even more alerted by the fact that this scout was taken down.
Mansleys only flaw was that he was desperate to actually do something and was a fucking idiot retard, and not even by a wide margin. I guarantee any of you would've fucked up 10x more than he did if placed in the same exact situation.
Had the Soviets detected a nuclear launch coming from the US it would've meant mutually assured destruction
Connor Foster
He launched a nuke without authorization despite the military realizing the Giant wasn't a threat because "BIG THING SCARY".
Anthony Diaz
Ok why did he drug that kid
Juan Watson
Plus the 50's were the height of the Cold War
Daniel Kelly
He forgot to check where the Giant was before ordering the launch of the bomb. Even he knew he'd done wrong.
Jackson Nguyen
This and he threatened to take him away from his mom.
Jayden Campbell
having a job doesn't make your job morally correct.
Kevin Cooper
WHERE'S THE MAN GIANTSLY!?
Nolan Hill
I can't enjoy The Iron Giant. Cartoon Network doing 24-hour marathons of the movie has absolutely soiled it for me.
Nicholas Howard
I am glad he protected me by launching the missile now. And then tried to run away because his life was more precious to him than his country.
Nathan Cox
He had no authority to approve of that launch, and demanded a nuke dropped on US soil in a civilian area.
MANSLEY IS FUCKED
Oliver Brown
A nuclear launch wouldn't warrant a response if the launch was aimed nowhere near the USSR and even less so if it was tracked to be heading to the US from it's own coast. At worst the USSR would be in a state of readiness but jumping straight to attacking the US for them using nukes in their own territory is stupid.
THE GENERAL IS GETTING THIS INFORMATION FROM SOME RANDOM GUY, All he knows is the thing isn't fucking shooting anymore and is carrying a child, for ALL he knows it is a fucking trick, and this is after it destroyed an entire tank platoon and almost annihilated an entire battleship group with a weapon that's arguably as destructive as a nuclear weapon, Mansley's a fucking idiot but anyone in that situation would be paranoid, other than a battle hardened WW2 vet general, his only mistake being that he launched it on his own position like a fucking retard.
Benjamin Baker
Lol imagine using a limited perspective to justify ones actions.
>Nobody was wrong ever
Way to free our minds from the trap of righteousness
Cooper Powell
If we're looking at this with hindsight and a total overview of the events and what we know, Mansley was in the right, his ONLY mistake was calling a nuke on everyone to take out the thing that almost killed everyone anyway. All the submarine and naval group know is that something is causing havoc and the giant FUCKOFF alien explosion off the coast, what would you do?
It's one thing to have a linear perspective on who is right and wrong and it's another to realize that a giant walking dreadnought is destroying everything and you only have one reasonable weapon to even damage it. He's not perfect but if you were in his shoes are you really gonna start questioning if the robot that almost killed you 12 fucking times in the span of 20 minutes is friendly? His only downfall is that he's fucking retard but that doesn't make him a villain.
Caleb Butler
Is it okay to threaten a child and tell him you will take his mom away from him forever?
Nice argument, faget.
Camden Carter
>THIS MAN DID NOT DO A SINGLE DAMN THING WRONG.
Including die.
Eli Powell
>This man did nothing wrong his only flaw was all the shit he did wrong!
Lied because he was scared of the giant robot causing the military to attack the robot and causing the robot to violently defend itsself
Jumped the chain of command to launch a Nuclear Missile at the robot's location which also happens to be a very populated town.
Carter Lewis
If a kid was hiding the equivalent to a nuclear bomb somewhere in the woods near a populated area and he wasn't telling you anything because he thought it was cool, literally what the fuck would you do to get the information out of him?
What he did was the least harmful option he could've chose.
those were grand times. I miss those Thanksgivings
Aaron Hill
So it's okay to hurt a child for the greater good. Slippery slope is a logical fallacy for a reason: it does not automatically happen. HOWEVER, when you willingly hurt the innocent to get to the right solution, it clearly shows you don't want to protect people, you just want to please your superiors with a job well done. You clearly care more for your career than the lives of individual citizens.
Nice anime girl post though.
Blake Collins
>Job is to stop any unexplainable threat no matter the cost >Find giant fuck off robot that even without it's arsenal is capable of destroying towns by itself >The only one who knows where it is the entire movie is some kid >Your superior officer is wasting time not destroying the metal monster wandering around >Lie to get him to do his damn job >Is not aware that it was doing any of the shit it did out of self defense >For all you know it was just preparing or was already in attack mode
It's fucking stupid to assume the dude is evil for trying to get military to take down something that is objectively dangerous, even if everything went perfectly well, ans the military realizes it's just retarded and won't willingly kill anyone it is still a walking super weapon, do you think they would just allow that especially an EXTRATERRESTRIAL one?
>So it's okay to hurt a child for the greater good.
>Implying that he would've actually had him taken away from his mom >Implying that taking him away from his mom is worse, or equivalent to letting a walking genocide machine do whatever it wants
Let me derail this a little by saying that Christopher McDonald as Kent Mansly is one of the best things, if not the best thing, of the movie, and I wish he would get more recognition for it.
Benjamin Williams
The monster didn't do anything until they shot at it. he didn't know it was dangerous and he didn't care. he just wanted to be the hero. Also love how you conveniently left out the part about the nuke, literally the most wrong thing he could have done
Aaron Ramirez
Someone clearly slept through history class
William Lopez
Do you know what scares me? What makes me paranoid? You. The fact that you seem to genuinely think that this absolute moron so ruled by fear that he almost killed a town full of innocent people and military personnel was in any way correct or valid in his thinking scares me because I can only assume you are the same way. Being reminded that people like that actually exist and can have an actual effect on the world around them is terrifying and then the possibility that you don't actually believe what your saying and instead are being intentionally contradictory is scary for the exact same reason. The man was not evil but he was wrong, watch the movie again, maybe discuss it with some people off the internet. Also if you are just being contradictory please stop and think about the effect that can have on the world around you.
Brayden Wood
I mentioned multiple TIMES THAT JUMPING COMMAND AND LAUGHING A NUKE WAS THE ONLY WRONG THING HE DID, and if we're gonna look at this in greater perspective as the audience, this fucking thing is a scout, sent by a species that has an army of these things meant for war, so it definitely has a tracker or some shit on it. The thing was built to cause damage as a precursor for more of them to show up, and then pave the way for an invasion.
It is literally built for planetary genocide, it is fucking dangerous and the only reason it didn't fucking step on Hogarth when he found it was because did the goku and bumped his head. And this is also during the early cold war era where every government official is paranoid of Soviet spies and nuclear war, so imagine being an agent and seeing a giant metal machine that for you know for sure most definitely isn't American, and probably is Soviet made, and on American soil, LET ALONE EXTRATERRESTRIAL.
Another zoomed in face. If wonder if you people are okay.
Hunter Watson
Mansley Calls the order but doesn't have authority to do so
Whoever actually hit the button is FUCKED
Chase Green
WHERES THE GIANT, MANSELY?
Owen Powell
He was totally inappropriate with that Liddell girl!
Easton Reed
Oh god you made me remember. Why did they ever pull that shit? wasnt it like 2006?
Ian Young
Launching a nuke and saying screw the innocent people and screw dying for his country like all those people are going to do is a big fucking wrong thing to do
Cooper Torres
The Iron Giant is one of the greatest threats to the existence of the USA, nay, the entire world.
Hudson Watson
Never once did I defend his action of sending a fucking nuke to murder a town, but i am defending his actions in trying to stop what we all know is a giant machine that if events were different would've done the same in a matter of minutes.
He fucks up towards the end because he's a scared human being who just watched something almost kill everyone, if that thing didn't calm down because of hogarth and it walked back that same path with it's weapons drawn on all of you after ACTUALLY killing Hogarth and then destroying an entire battleship fleet and pointing that same particle cannon that is arguably as devastating as a nuke itself at all of you, and you were him, you wouldn't be desperate enough to destroy it right then and there?
Brandon Harris
And he helped nothing by attempting to blow up the only people who have interacted with it and lose any possible info on it, he’s a coward and an idiot
Lincoln Russell
Actually button guy is innocent because he did his job. On the secure line he was told to fire
Nathan Lopez
Things are getting heated in The Iron Giant community
Noah Hill
You say a lot of this shit in this thread with an ends justify the means mentality but keep in mind that every action this man has done is at its core a way for self gratification and preservation even at at the cost of everyone else. He cared not for doing the right thing for its own sake and if he did he’d have been more logical and reasonable with a capability of empathizing that probably would have resulted in a completely different story all together. Everything he did was not only an inconvenience that tried to tear people apart but basically would have led to everyone dying if certain people didn’t intervene.
