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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I felt only technical sadness at Book's death. Mostly meta.

thefandom.com radio show is probably what the Allyson/Kristen show would be without the snark but with more kiss assery.

So it'd be two people with vaginas, then. We have a lot in common.

Really? More than Fight Club? Or I See Dead People? Or the Crying Game?

Not more than Fight Club, but more than the other two. I'd figured out Dead People long before I ever saw it, and Crying Game was sort of "Is that the big twist???" for me.

I think the other thing that HSQed Wash's death out of the park for me (I was utterly unspoiled) was not only that we were in a relatively safe space at the time, but that I'd been lulled into a false sense of security by Book's death. He bought it and I was sad and upset, but I was able to go "Okay, there's our character death for the movie."

Wash bought it immediately after being the Uber-Wash and making me love him all over again.

Also, for me it was the choice of characters. I wasn't happy about anybody dying, but killing Wash was like killing Xander or something to me.

Also, STEPH!!!! When did you get converted???

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.

Okay, that got me all choked up just thinking about that there.