More Serenity thoughts
Oct. 1st, 2005 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alixtiiMy first set of Serenity musings made ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
the_cortex, which pleasantly surpises me but also confuses me, since my thoughts were listed under "Reviews" while ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wisdomeagle's were under "Misc." What did I do that she didn't?
ETA: And the "Misc." section seems to be under a cut, which makes even less sense, because come on, everyone knowswisdomeagle is brilliant and her thoughts should be broadcast to the world. [/eta]
Anyway, more thoughts:
-- The young actress who played older!young!River (that is, older than the precocious but fun-loving young!River we saw in the series' flashbacks) did an outright eery job of matching the speech patterns and voice cadences Summer Glau uses for River. Excellent job, little girl. If I closed my eyes I could have sworn it was Summer speaking. (Obviously they could have made that happen artificially, but I'm sure they didn't.) (ETA: Except apparently they did.)
-- River's dream sequences/flashbacks. What were these? Random moments in the story make her think of elementary school and Reavers at the same time? Not that I can't see the two going together--"high school is hell" and all of that. But I couldn't figure out what it was, exactly, that was triggering these dreams, or why. Of course, not understanding River's subconscious is one of the rules of the road, I suppose, and one of my points of contention is that River wasn't insane enough in the movie.
-- In "Serenity" you (Joss, I guess) could have made me believe River was a 17-year-old girl (it worked for Buffy, after all). But now, in Serenity, it's too late for me suspend that type of disbelief, as the conception of River as in her twenties is firmly entrenched in my mind. Not to mention, if River is 17, how old is Simon? Basing it on the flashbacks from Firefly, he can't be that much older than her. Gives Kaylee's "kinda young to be a doctor" comment in "Serenity" a whole new significance.
-- If the Alliance goes after Mal, as the Operative suggested they might, then my question as to what Mal's rôle will be in the the New Browncoat War might be moot--he'll be forced to use Serenity to hide and protect his crew, and won't be able to have any rôle to speak of in the war itself. But it doesn't seem in character for the Alliance in general to care about vengeance (; they've always seem much more interested in keeping order and strengthening their control. And now the Alliance has a war on their hands, so I suppose they're going to have better things to worry about. Although the Operative put it in terms of individual M.P.'s rather than the government as a whole, which does seem plausible. Humans are fallible and liable to the thirst for vengeance.
-- Why does going into assassin mode as triggered by the "Hello Kitty"-type message make River remember Miranda? Why couldn't she remember it before? This all seemed pretty convenient.
-- I know Joss promised a cool space battle, and he certainly delivered. I had wondered how Serenity--a transport ship with no guns--was going to get involved in a space battle, yet alone survive it. Tricking the Reavers into fighting the alliance fleet was an idea of pure brilliance.
-- The gender balance on Serenity has shifted. If Inara stays on the ship, the male/female ratio will be 3 to 4 (down from 5 to 4 in the series); if Inara leaves, it'll be exactly 50/50.
-- I really thought Mal was going to offer the Operative a place on his crew. Don't ask me why, but I did.
-- There wasn't nearly enough Crazy Space Incest subtext in the movie.
-- Lastly: They're going to let an insane teenager fly the ship? Jayne consented to this?
the_cortex, which pleasantly surpises me but also confuses me, since my thoughts were listed under "Reviews" while wisdomeagle's were under "Misc." What did I do that she didn't?ETA: And the "Misc." section seems to be under a cut, which makes even less sense, because come on, everyone knows
wisdomeagle is brilliant and her thoughts should be broadcast to the world. [/eta]Anyway, more thoughts:
-- The young actress who played older!young!River (that is, older than the precocious but fun-loving young!River we saw in the series' flashbacks) did an outright eery job of matching the speech patterns and voice cadences Summer Glau uses for River. Excellent job, little girl. If I closed my eyes I could have sworn it was Summer speaking. (Obviously they could have made that happen artificially, but I'm sure they didn't.) (ETA: Except apparently they did.)
-- River's dream sequences/flashbacks. What were these? Random moments in the story make her think of elementary school and Reavers at the same time? Not that I can't see the two going together--"high school is hell" and all of that. But I couldn't figure out what it was, exactly, that was triggering these dreams, or why. Of course, not understanding River's subconscious is one of the rules of the road, I suppose, and one of my points of contention is that River wasn't insane enough in the movie.
-- In "Serenity" you (Joss, I guess) could have made me believe River was a 17-year-old girl (it worked for Buffy, after all). But now, in Serenity, it's too late for me suspend that type of disbelief, as the conception of River as in her twenties is firmly entrenched in my mind. Not to mention, if River is 17, how old is Simon? Basing it on the flashbacks from Firefly, he can't be that much older than her. Gives Kaylee's "kinda young to be a doctor" comment in "Serenity" a whole new significance.
-- If the Alliance goes after Mal, as the Operative suggested they might, then my question as to what Mal's rôle will be in the the New Browncoat War might be moot--he'll be forced to use Serenity to hide and protect his crew, and won't be able to have any rôle to speak of in the war itself. But it doesn't seem in character for the Alliance in general to care about vengeance (; they've always seem much more interested in keeping order and strengthening their control. And now the Alliance has a war on their hands, so I suppose they're going to have better things to worry about. Although the Operative put it in terms of individual M.P.'s rather than the government as a whole, which does seem plausible. Humans are fallible and liable to the thirst for vengeance.
-- Why does going into assassin mode as triggered by the "Hello Kitty"-type message make River remember Miranda? Why couldn't she remember it before? This all seemed pretty convenient.
-- I know Joss promised a cool space battle, and he certainly delivered. I had wondered how Serenity--a transport ship with no guns--was going to get involved in a space battle, yet alone survive it. Tricking the Reavers into fighting the alliance fleet was an idea of pure brilliance.
-- The gender balance on Serenity has shifted. If Inara stays on the ship, the male/female ratio will be 3 to 4 (down from 5 to 4 in the series); if Inara leaves, it'll be exactly 50/50.
-- I really thought Mal was going to offer the Operative a place on his crew. Don't ask me why, but I did.
-- There wasn't nearly enough Crazy Space Incest subtext in the movie.
-- Lastly: They're going to let an insane teenager fly the ship? Jayne consented to this?
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Apathy on the Rise! No One Cares!
Date: 2005-10-01 01:56 pm (UTC)The flashback is 11 years before TV series time, and it can just about work with River being 6 and Simon 14, which would make Out of Gas his 26th birthday--perhaps an accelerated university/Medacad program from 18-22, then the eight months of his internship, then a three-year residency program.
Consulting my handy-dandy Visual (albeit not Registered) Companion, all the Operative says is "Protests, riots--cries for a recall of the entire Parliament" which falls short of a second Browncoat War, but I think Mal has the right of it: "Verse wakes up for a spell. Won't be long 'fore she rolls right over and falls back asleep."
What *I* thought Mal was going to do when he said he wasn't going to kill the Operative would be to leave him propped up, paralyzed, watching the screens of the "world without sin." Now, THAT would be dark.
Re: Apathy on the Rise! No One Cares!
Date: 2005-10-01 03:58 pm (UTC)Because of Jayne's personality or his skill set? He doesn't know how to pilot a ship, presumably, but then as far as we knew neither did Mal.
The flashback is 11 years before TV series time, and it can just about work with ....
Maybe. It requires a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief, but it's probably the best way to fanwank it. So consider it fanwanked.
Consulting my handy-dandy Visual. . .
Hmm, good point. An inevitable result of having these thoughts after only watching the movie once.
Re: Apathy on the Rise! No One Cares!
Date: 2005-10-01 04:36 pm (UTC)I can pretty much imagine the senior Tams thinking it would be a good idea to have a daughter who was seven or eight years younger than Simon so they could marry her off to someone who had a son Simon's age.
I've still only seen the movie once, so I'm probably going to do an essay over the weekend that I might have to partially recant after seeing it again on Tuesday.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 03:36 pm (UTC)Remembering Miranda was what sent her into assassin mode, not the other way around. Which seems like bad programming if they didn't WANT her to remember, but...maybe they didn't realize it would happen in that order? But in the bar scene, she definitely says "Miranda" and THEN goes nuts.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 03:55 pm (UTC)I think I read the scene as "assassin mode" taking a few seconds to set in, during which process she remembers Miranda as a result of assassin mode being activated (but not yet initiated). But neither way particularly makes a good deal of sense.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 04:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 04:39 pm (UTC)BTW it seems unfair of Mal to lock down River after that considering that he starts bar fights *for fun*. (Unless of course HIS training gets triggered every U-Day.)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 05:35 pm (UTC)I don't think Mal minded her starting the bar fight so much as her turning on him.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 06:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 08:00 pm (UTC)Agreed but... she watched him have sex!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-10-01 08:13 pm (UTC)