Now you can luxuriate in a nice jail cell, but if your hand touches metal, I swear by my pretty flowered bonnet, I will end you.

Mal ,'Our Mrs. Reynolds'


Firefly 4: Also, we can kill you with our brains  

Discussion of the Mutant Enemy series, Firefly, the ensuing movie Serenity, and other projects in that universe. Like the other show threads, anything broadcast in the US is fine; spoilers are verboten and will be deleted if found.


Topic!Cindy - Sep 30, 2005 11:34:19 am PDT #5300 of 10001
What is even happening?

You're in a really safe space (relatively speaking) when Wash buys it.
That's what I remember reading the most about, when people saw the first round of sneak previews. I think Kate P. might have been one of the people who felt sort of abused by it.

This is a prime example of why I spoil (when I do, I don't always, and hardly ever have for a film--this might be the first). I brace, better. I know that's why Joss et al hate spoilers, but some things are just too hard to take.


Nutty - Sep 30, 2005 11:34:21 am PDT #5301 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."

It had very little impact on me. Now, I was spoiled, so the HSQ of it would necessarily be muted, but I was spoiled for I See Dead People too, and that HSQ worked.

In part because the 6th Sense HSQ was an HSQ to the character, and the axis on which his perspective turned. Even if I wasn't surprised, I was moved for the character, and could follow his personal HSQ. Whereas, with Wash, it was like, Holy Shit! okay, and now, on with the plot.

I know it was meant to have longer-term impact, but most of the impact felt very meta. Other, distracting things took over in my mind, and the Holy Shit lost its resonant power.

I think this is not helped by ow much I disliked the siege choreography at the end; but as deaths go, only the death of Mr. Universe got the shrift I thought it deserved.


Topic!Cindy - Sep 30, 2005 11:36:24 am PDT #5302 of 10001
What is even happening?

BTW, thefandom.com radio show is probably what the Allyson/Kristen show would be without the snark but with more kiss assery.
But then that wouldn't be the Kristen and Allyson Show, at all.


Kalshane - Sep 30, 2005 11:38:53 am PDT #5303 of 10001
GS: If you had to choose between kicking evil in the head or the behind, which would you choose, and why? Minsc: I'm not sure I understand the question. I have two feet, do I not? You do not take a small plate when the feast of evil welcomes seconds.

See, for me, Book's death hurt and I was sad but the movie gave me time to recover. And then Serenity got torn up and before I could catch my breath Wash was dead and then as each crew member got injured or seemed to be about to die, it was just like getting struck repeatedly in a place I was already injured and I just went into shock.

I don't feel silly about caring about Serenity because Firefly made me in fall in love with the ship. Maybe not to the degree of Mal or Kaylee, but I still cared about it in way no ship named Enterprise never invoked. Yes, Wash and Book's death hurt more, but it didn't mean potentially losing Serenity didn't.


Steph L. - Sep 30, 2005 11:39:31 am PDT #5304 of 10001
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

For me, the question was whether she'd value her own life enough -- but the lives of the crew were just as safe as they'd have been with Wash alive. Because she's a pro.

Exactly. It's so much who she is, there's never a doubt that she'll be 100%, even though she just watched her husband get skewered, like, 2 minutes previously.

But the silly sappy button is with the unlikely fighter, the hobbit, the child, the brain-damaged ballerina. Those make me unreasoned.

Oh, me too. Which is why I said it I loved it -- it got me emotionally, no questions asked.


Matt the Bruins fan - Sep 30, 2005 11:40:51 am PDT #5305 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

Honestly, I kind of wished it had been Zoe and not River that was standing alone there in the room full of diced Reavers at the end. I realize Joss set things up for River to both have the skills and the story arc to be his Buffy surrogate there, but emotionally it felt like that should have been Zoe's victory instead of River's.


§ ita § - Sep 30, 2005 11:41:04 am PDT #5306 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I feel silly about Serenity, because it can be rebuilt, and I was reacting to it, proportionally, like a character death. Then I realised how much more I liked Wash.

I felt only technical sadness at Book's death. Mostly meta. I wonder how the uninitiated will feel...maybe they won't even realise that he was being glossed over. Mr. Universe's death was sadder.


§ ita § - Sep 30, 2005 11:42:55 am PDT #5307 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

emotionally it felt like that should have been Zoe's victory instead of River's

I think Zoe's victory was the dress. Which is trite and shallow, but I think her victory was not to be found in combat. It was to be found in a more quiet moment, of deciding to live, not having to fight.


Kalshane - Sep 30, 2005 11:43:25 am PDT #5308 of 10001
GS: If you had to choose between kicking evil in the head or the behind, which would you choose, and why? Minsc: I'm not sure I understand the question. I have two feet, do I not? You do not take a small plate when the feast of evil welcomes seconds.

Exactly. It's so much who she is, there's never a doubt that she'll be 100%, even though she just watched her husband get skewered, like, 2 minutes previously.

Well, except for the part where she left the defensive line to charge a group of Reavers and nearly got herself killed. That wasn't professional. That was revenge. I don't fault her for it, but the professional thing would have been to stay behind the line and not risk it being breached like that.


Topic!Cindy - Sep 30, 2005 11:50:34 am PDT #5309 of 10001
What is even happening?

I felt only technical sadness at Book's death. Mostly meta.
I suspect I'll have them. I had a wee crush on RG when I was a kid.