More Serenity thoughts

[alixtii]

My first set of Serenity musings made 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?

Comments

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I agree with alixtii--"broadcast a trigger all over the 'verse and then find out where River went batshit and busted the place up" is not a very good way of finding her, since one way or another she'd be likely not to be there anymore by the time the report came in.

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.)

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

It's not a great plan for finding River, but it isn't a terrible one, either. I mostly have a problem with the way it just happens to remind her about Miranda at the same time. That's an awfully lucky coincidence for our heroes.

I don't think Mal minded her starting the bar fight so much as her turning on him.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

He probably had a good snark later when she kicked Simon in the throat.