backbones \ hayao-miyazaki:

“No matter how many weapons you have, no matter how great your technology might be, the world cannot live without love.”

Except that’s not the real translation? I’ve always had problems with that phrase, it’s missing a totally key detail from the original. Sheeta actually says something like, despite the advanced technology and however many poor robots are controlled, human beings are not meant to live away from the earth. In essence love is true, but the point is that Laputa couldn’t go on because it was a simulation of the earth. Entirely man-made. There’s a deeper conversation here about returning to the physical and emotional land from where we came from (also re: the environment and Miyazaki brings this up a lot) with the original blurb by Sheeta. It’s a subtle difference but a big one and this ALWAYS BOTHERED ME.