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That seems like a very plausible situation to me 8D



It was in that point of the movie when Steele was lost. He was obviously frustrated and in a panic that he was lost and obviously he didn't want others to point out the situation. He wasn't being a "bully". You'd be angry at people annoying you for something you did wrong too, especially if you were already frustrated with it. My information about the movie wasn't inaccurate. I just watched it recently xD



Who said he was "warming up" to lying? He looked guilty, like "Oh crap, are they gonna catch this lie?" after Jenna called him out on it. He wouldn't have looked at everyone else to make sure they weren't looking at him suspiciously. His lie wasn't out of spite of everyone either, you would've seen him grinning at some point while he was telling the story (not the part toward the end of the movie.). For Jenna its a POSSIBILITY, but I don't know. Even at the end of the movie when they caught him, he LOOKED guilty, aside from being all sad that all the attention he was getting was gone.



It wasn't really cuz things weren't going his way. He already knew that an entire act ago xD At this point in the movie, the cold would've gotten to his head. Not his body, obviously, cuz huskies/malamutes can physically withstand the cold. It doesn't mean they're mentally capable, especially anthropomorphic ones. (They tend to think more like people in that aspect) Balto being there didn't help the situation because he already hated him. It would more than likely go hand in hand with what HMXTaylorLee said.

And like I said before, if Steele was "all there" in that act of the movie, he more than likely would've just used Balto. He already used his marks on the trees to get home, if he was thinking straight he would've done it sooner. Then once they got home, Balto would've been treated like a mad hybrid, and Steele would've gotten the glory cuz he's the lead dog. He did that before already too, and probably on more than one occasion in their life, so it wouldn't be anything "out of character".



Wrong. Why? Two words. "Harry Potter".



I know plenty of ADULTS who get past the whole "being an orphan" thing when they're growing up. Not already-grown. Balto's a big boy, he can take care of himself. Or he can go off and sulk like he did on SEVERAL occasions in the movie. Boo-hoo he gets picked on, he doesn't do a very good job standing up for himself. "Grr" is all he did. An empty threat. He lived in a town where everyone hated him? He could've moved. If Jenna and Rosie were the only reasons he stayed, obviously they're not reason enough for him to be a little grateful for what he has xD Cuz he was always sad.



Oh sure, you disagree with ONE thing, you automatically disagree with EVERY thing. You disagree about the death penalty and you're NO LONGER A REPUBLICAN. A bit extreme, don't you think? How is it NOT a stupid concept? The humans were always more than happy to shoo Balto away to get him the heck out of their town, (because they believed he'd bite people and keep stealing from them as strays often do. Not saying Balto WOULD, but it's what they believe.) and yet he always came back.

You think that if the dogs of Nome did that to Steele, he'd just not come back? What makes the dogs' word more effective than a human's then? Also, why would the dogs care enough to keep their own private police force just to keep an "exile" out of teeny tiny little Nome? They didn't do that to Balto, and like you said everyone haaaaaaaated him. They treated him like an outcast, which is probably the worst they could do to Steele as far as any doggy "sentences" go. He's still a dog with an owner.

He was a bully in general, not necessarily at the exact moment when he was lost and frustrated. You can see it in a number of different points in the movie, like when Kaltag agrees with Steele to his face, but disagrees with him behind his back. There is no respect for Steele there, and there's a good reason for that. When Steele yells at Star, Star is scared of him. That's how Steele rolls, he uses intimidation. That's how bullies work.



Oh I think I misunderstood your use of "warming up". He was definitely hoping to not get caught in his lie there.



He looked guilty because he got caught. Not because he felt bad about lying. The only thing dogs (or people) like Steele are ever sorry for is getting caught, not doing bad things. If he really felt bad about lying, he wouldn't have... well, lied constantly. I'll say it again: he felt bad because he got caught. He didn't feel bad because he lied to everybody including Jenna.



Okay, well there's no basis for that argument. You're suggesting Steele went crazy because of the cold, and there is absolutely nothing in the movie to support that. Huskies don't go crazy in extreme cold, and this particular line of reasoning you're using is not based on anything either in reality or in the movie. It's literally coming out of nowhere.



That entire line of reasoning isn't based on anything, and it's dependent on Steele not being "all there" which as I said is not an argument that is supported by anything in the movie or reality. Steele was angry, he was humiliated, but he wasn't crazy. You're suggesting he would have taken another path of action had he been fully cognizant, but that just sounds like an excuse to shore up your argument that isn't based on anything.

I can make random assumptions too, like hey, maybe Jenna really likes cauliflower. Does she? I don't know. But making an argument based on that is silly because there's nothing to indicate that she does or doesn't like cauliflower. Did Steele go crazy? Considering he had his wits about him when Balto showed up on the mountain, during the fight, after the fight, as he scratched the trees and then later as he lied to all the dogs, I don't see any evidence to support that theory. In fact it's evidence to the contrary. The truth is, Steele is a huge jerk. He doesn't care about the lives of others, and he only cares about himself and his glory.



What? At what point in the books/movies did Harry Potter acquire a massive ego? I'm starting to think you wouldn't recognize a massive ego if you saw one. Harry Potter is not arrogant, selfish and cruel, is he? No, he isn't. But the Malfoys are, and so is Steele. Harry Potter makes mistakes, and admits that he made them. Can you seriously not see the difference? I can explain it to you in more detail if you need me to.



You completely and entirely missed the point. I mean you're not even close. Maybe you need to go look up "humility" in the dictionary, because it seems to be missing from your vocabulary. This has absolutely nothing - ZERO - to do with Balto being able to take care of himself. As I said previously, Balto stood up to Steele in every single encounter they had. This is obvious from watching the movie, and it should be obvious even to somebody like you who is intentionally ignoring things like that simply because you don't LIKE Balto.

You're so far off base with your assessment of Balto that I have to wonder if you even understand the basic, fundamental nature of the human condition and how various events affect normal people emotionally. You really do not seem to understand how anybody could be anything other than aggressive. You're also JUSTIFYING Steele picking on him, by putting the blame for it on Balto instead of Steele. In your mind Steele can do no wrong, and if he mentally and physically abuses somebody it's not Steele's fault, it's the victim's fault.

Blaming the victim is a pretty good indicator that something is not right in your head. Balto did nothing to deserve any kind of abuse - NOTHING. The only reason it happened is because Steele is an abusive, aggressive, narcissistic bully with an ego the size of all of Alaska. Steele is the problem, not Balto.



Nope, that's not what I said. You thought the concept of exile was "stupid" in the context of the movie, but you apparently don't think things like talking, intelligent dogs are stupid. Right? So explain that to me. How is exile stupid but talking dogs aren't? You said "cartoon dogs don't have that kind of power or law", but if they talk and exhibit higher intelligence that works for you? What's the difference? It's all fiction, so you're going to have to define what is stupid and what isn't a lot more clearly.

In the context of this movie there are a LOT of things that do not line up with our reality. Such as Steele saying "strap up", because apparently in the Balto universe sled dogs can hook themselves up to their sleds. So is that stupid? Or not? Also your example with Balto is pretty far off. Steele almost killed everybody in the town, and Balto saved the town. The difference seems pretty clear to me, and the people of the town have a good reason to hate Steele after what he did. And so do the dogs.

Furthermore there was an infrastructure in terms of heirarchy among the dogs, if you noticed that part. Is that stupid too? Saying Steele is exiled is the same thing as saying "Balto can make the northern lights with colored glass." This is a fictional movie in an anthropomorphic universe where our logic and rules do not apply. There is license to do things there that can be picked apart by our standards of reality. Why? Because it's fiction, and it's not real.

The reason it works as a movie is specifically because it is anthropomorphic, and the characters have been developed using human characteristics. That's how we can identify with them, even when some of the things they do don't make sense if you just look at them as dogs. That is the concession you're making when you watch the movie, it's suspension of disbelief. That's why saying a dog can be exiled makes exactly as much sense as anything else that happened in the movie.

In my opinion, I think Steele was so used to be the 'best' at everything, and he didnt wanna feel missplaced.
He was jealous of Balto because, he threated him and so ;P

*sigh* To end the whole "I'm wrong" thing, with folks being really butthurt over people actually feeling sorry for a villain, god forbid, an "overinflated" ego is a huge sign of covering up any "torture" one may have endured in one's life. It's been scientifically proven.

^ In defense of that, I normally portray Steele as having had a tramatic instence in his past involving wolves that makes him so mean towards Balto, so I can see how that could work.

Just to reverse things for a moment, what's up with insisting that Steele is somehow secretly afraid of Balto? Let's face it, some people are jerks for the sake of being jerks. I mean there are racists who've never been slighted by blacks or Native Americans or whoever, just brought up to believe that they were superior by default. Steele's position as a pedigree racing champion certainly fits that profile.

Because anger is a combination of fear, hurt, and sadness. Sometimes you only have to feel one of these things to be a completely angry person xD No one is a jerk for the sake of being a jerk, even tho it may seem that way to the victim. "Racists" have either had something bad happen to them and they take it out on the race itself, or they were raised that way by their parents, or "learned" it somehow, OR they're brainwashed by some cracked-out religion, but we won't go there. Not sticking up for racism here, I think it's stupid in itself to take one's anger out on a single race (by the way, there's no technical "race" among humans), but in Steele's case, he definitely felt threatened.

You're making my point, though. I agree, races are a social invention, and thus racism is stupid. And racists have a tendency to make fools of themselves (historical example: at the Olympics around the time of WWII, Hitler was super-confident that his "master race" would blow way the competition, until a black athlete, scarcely above an ape in his book, left them in the dust).

Now admittedly I haven't done an exhaustive study on this, but from what I do know I think the kind of racism that develops from having been wronged tends to go in the other direction (i.e. "minority" against "majority" like if African Americans developed animosity toward Caucasians). Take the Rawanda debaucle, for example, where one group of people (I forget what the different groups were called) had for some time been considered inferior and treated much as blacks were in the days of Martin Luther King Jr. Eventually they turned the tables and took power, and began to oppress those who had formerly been regarded as their superiors - even those who had not directly mistreated them. One might think of it as a "those jerks think they're so big" mindset.

What I'm saying here is, it would seem that Steele's attitude toward Balto was more consistent with the more typical category, where a group is thought to think of themselves as better than another group. Dogs were certainly considered superior in Nome. I think Steele's mindset was something like "I want a punching bag. Balto's pond scum. I'll pick on him."

I guess it's because nobody understands WHY you feel sorry for a villain because you haven't explained it as of yet, and it basically defies logic. Steele was a self centered jerk who was more than happy to let the whole town die because his priorities were centered on himself. Uh... awesome, I guess? I really don't see the attraction.

As far as an overinflated ego and "scientifically proven", read this: http://winning-teams.com/narcissism_causes.html

Here are some relevant quotes for you:



Note the cause. It's not caused by torture or abuse, it's caused by lack of discipline and excessive praise.



Sound familiar?



You see where this is going? I told you, I've spent a couple years in Steele's head, and I've done the research. He is not the way he is because he was tortured as a puppy or abused in any way. He is the way he is because he believes he is literally the greatest thing ever to walk the earth, and that is because that's what he has been told since he was born, and it was reinforced by outside sources when he started winning races. So that combined with his size and natural ability led him to his belief that:

1. He is the greatest thing ever
2. He is the best and fastest lead dog ever
3. He deserves only the best, hence his desire for Jenna - not because of love but because he wants her as arm candy
4. His way is the only way
5. He is infallible and nothing he does is wrong

Just saying, there is a solid psychological foundation behind Steele's behavior, and it has nothing to do with abuse or torture. It basically means he is a well designed character and a great antagonist for Balto, but he is not a role model, he's not "misunderstood", he wasn't abused, and he's a jerk. Just the type of character who needs to be taken down a couple pegs.

And that's what interested me in writing about him in the first place. What does somebody like Steele do when their entire world as they know it has come crashing down around their ears? For him it's not a return to a life he once knew, being alone and rejected. This is all new to him, and I thought it was worth exploring. He's never had to look for food before, or find shelter in the wild, it had always been provided for him. And then what happens when he meets a new group of dogs, especially one in particular who can see right through his façade so he can't use it to get what he wants?

Despite everything we've said here, I really enjoy writing about Steele. He is an interesting character to me, and after all of Nome turned their back on him his story got a lot more interesting IMO, specifically because he now has to work past his own ego to survive. And that makes for some interesting storytelling, I think.

^

Spending a 'couple of years' in a FICTIONAL character's head doesn't mean you know what makes him tick. ROFL. No one knows what the character's past is supposed to have been. It's all based on opinion. And just because you decided to "spend a couple of years in [a cartoon character's] head doesn't make you right.

Well then prove me wrong. You seem to be very opinionated about it, but you don't seem to have any proof supporting your case. As I said, Steele's behavior is based on real psychological principles which I have outlined for you. The character being fictional is irrelevant. If you choose to ignore that, that's your choice I guess but it doesn't make YOU right for questioning me, and nether does ROFLing at me for presenting my side of the argument.

And what, pray tell, makes him wrong? As far as I can tell, you're dismissing what we're saying without even LOOKING at the rationale, based on the conclusion we've reached. In practice, that's about the equivalent of telling a person who says 2+2=4, "Oh, you only say that because you're a mathmetician." Like Xaqtly said, you aren't actually answering anything, just ridiculing without a rational basis.

well he did try to kill balto but didn't and tried to kill all kids in Nome but was unsuccesful, but I don't know maybe

He tried to eliminate their only chance of survival. That's kind of like cutting a scuba diver's oxygen line. Sure you aren't killing them directly, but it's still murder when all's said and done.

i think he got what he deserved, it has been awhile since i have seen balto, it was an awsome cartoon!

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