Jeyl said:
Could you start by explaining why exactly it has to go? Not saying it shouldn't go, but that exchange never really bothered me because.....I don't know. It just doesn't. Even when I was a kid who didn't know what celibacy was, I never asked.
I think it has to do with the fact that it doesn't really matter and never comes up again. The celibacy oath seems like something left over from when Ilia was going to be a major character on a TV series. Her having to take this oath and being in love with Decker would have made for great television. However, she doesn't live long enough in the movie for her oath to have made a difference. It's a plot point that goes nowhere.
If its cut, she goes from being a weird-talking alien in love with Decker but who is forbidden by oath to do anything about it to being a weird-talking alien in love with Decker who freaking left her on Delta IV and she's mad about it. In the end, I think the movie might be better without taking on this what would have been interesting in a full TV series, but not important to a character who dies after 15 minutes of real screentime.
But that's just me, and like I said yesterday, I have no real attachment to this movie. I just don't think it needs to be there. The more dialog that we can cut, the better.