stuff I didn't get about fury road
Behind a cut so as not to harsh anyone's squee, but if you'd like to try to help me understand, that's cool. I don't guarantee I WILL understand, but hey. Maybe I'm missing something simple.
( I don't get it )
( I don't get it )
First, attack from without (which I know wasn't your concern, but was my first thought). While the external works (and people) would be very vulnerable to an external attack, the Citadel itself strikes me as being pretty well guarded. You could easily haul up whatever equivalent of a drawbridge they had (apparently that winch-thing was the only way into the carved-out portions of the two stone columns) and any enemies are left outside facing sheer stone walls while inside they've got nearly unlimited water and hydroponics.
I'm guessing that the Citadel was formidable enough to be held even with a minimum of personnel. With three major and highly aggressive power centers in the area all currently on reasonably good terms, the only way they could have reached a detente is if neither of them could be easily felled by the other--and that would include scenarios where A and B are fighting and C launches a sneak attack against one or both presumably undefended home bases.
Regarding "attacks from within" from the Wretched outside and a tragedy of the commons scenario, the thing is that if the Wretched could have forced their way inside en mass, they would have already. The movie establishes that they're are all starving and will savage people in their way to get access to water, and were trying to get onto the winched platform every time it got lifted. They can only get inside if Furiosa permits it via the winch-thing, and I don't think she's that stupid. I do think they do still count as a threat, simply because having a mob of desperate people at your gates is never a good thing, but I think she'll have some time to do something to deal with them to remove them as a threat.
So there's two options, a short-term option and a long term option, and if Furiosa is smart she uses both. First, the cubs are used to do crowd control and begin to triage the people outside. Anyone still sane and physically or mentally competent gets involved in this, so it becomes self-policing. Then the cubs start bringing food and water outside, being guarded by the older boys and whoever else is capable of it. Immortan was using his water releases as a gesture, not really as a distribution system--once people realize the water is coming to them, and it won't stop, they'll calm down. It'll take a while--months, maybe--but gradually the group of people outside will start to behave more rationally with no artificially-created deficits of food and water to trigger a fight-flight response.
Second, the triage will also determine who is allowed in, presumably starting with the lowest threat-level individuals (and conveniently also the most vulnerable): sick infants and toddlers, and the extremely elderly. Then they bring in injured children, then work their way up/down the age ranges. This means they only get to the people with the greatest personal strength and highest threat level (people between 20 and 40) last. If the Wretched are only allowed in under controlled conditions, in specific but reliable numbers, and with a very firmly established power dynamic already in place to control who gets food and water so being inside doesn't mean you get something extra (and in fact, being inside might mean you MISS your assigned ration, which is being given to your campmates outside once you're released from the infirmary if you choose to stay in) then Furiosa and her crew should be able to control them.
Long term, I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't start making arrangements for them to temporarily reside in compartmented-off sections of the Citadel during sieges, and also I'd be shocked if she didn't start immediately identifying and grooming the healthiest and liveliest Wretched to take over the many many empty spots they've got in their military corps.
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