okay so let’s break this down. first the sisters save furiosa by pulling nux off her:
that’s your pretty clear, straightforward life-saving courage. and it’s significant that the sisters are ready to fight like that even so early in the story.
but then furiosa goes for nux’s throat
in the sort of interaction she’s internalized after years of repetition: one of the war boys comes for her, she ends them. end of fucking story.
a moment of reflection, a moment of flinching back from immediately killing, would have doomed her in the past
she’s programmed herself to kill without mercy in order to survive. she doesn’t even consider if there’s an alternative. there never has been.
20 years and nobody’s ever stopped her. the only people who tried wanted to hurt her. but they didn’t succeed. otherwise, no matter what she did, who she hurt, nobody cared enough to stop her. they gleefully supported it or considered it her right or her obligation
murder, murder, murder, life means nothing. only weak people flinch from inflicting pain. and you know what happens to weak people. they end up dead or in cages. that’s the law of the Citadel
furiosa didn’t intellectually believe that fully, but you do something long enough and it gets inside you.
but for the first time in twenty years someone knows right from wrong and cares enough to stop her
i think angharad mostly cares for the principle of the thing. definitely condemnation is in there. but… you can read it as a very angry form of reaching out. you can read it as angharad’s response to furiosa’s lecture earlier about how “everything hurts” out here. whatever the case, furiosa is and always will be someone who kills. that’s key to how she survives and protects those she loves. but it’s possible to fight and kill without losing touch with the idea that killing doesn’t have to be the only answer. that killing is always wrong, even if it’s necessary. that you should be thinking about when it’s unnecessary to kill.
i think the sisters save furiosa’s life and nux’s life here but also are part of the journey of saving their souls in this scene
the lecture on Wasteland feminist theory nux received is more obvious, but angharad stopping furiosa is also this huge huge thing
for the first time in her adult life someone cares enough to stop her. to say: he’s just a kid. you don’t have to this time. and if you don’t have to, you shouldn’t.
