Wash was such an accessible character for me (in the series) that I don't even care about BDMs 2 and 3, with him dead.

We are mourning Wash just like the characters are mourning Wash. Part of the reason of seeing BDM2 and BDM3 is seeing how the characters move on and deal with his loss. Just like we are. Don't you want to see this?

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We went last night with about, 10 maybe, people after Mr. H got off work. 2 others were hard core series fan, 1 who likes the series a lot and 7 who'd never seen nor heard of it. A good time was had by all.

My friend sitting next to me was a little distracted during the battle scene because I put my hands over my eyes and plugged my ears near the end. She knows I'm not squeamish about stuff, so she knew something bad was coming.

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Eddie, shooting script says Mal broke both the Big O's arms. They could fix that pretty quick, I expect.

It also explains why he couldn't get loose by just taking his belt off.

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We are mourning Wash just like the characters are mourning Wash. Part of the reason of seeing BDM2 and BDM3 is seeing how the characters move on and deal with his loss. Just like we are. Don't you want to see this?

I'm not mourning Wash. I haven't even seen the film. I just find the concept of more FF without him kind of...boring.

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Hush, now, Cindy. Psycho is telling you what you really think; the least you can do is accept it without protest.

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Oh, and there was a pretty good fannish crowd at our little theater -- a little surprising. No costumes, because none of us can ever ever admit that we are geeks in this town. But still, a good crowd, and they seemed to react appropriately throughout.

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To me, Wash's death feels like Tara's death, emotional bitchslap and all. Only Tara wasn't even about to fight for her life in a battle with terrifying psychotics, she was just getting ready for lunch with her girlfriend or whatever.

Did this conversation come up then? I wasn't around, yet. I know some people felt just as betrayed by that, though that may have been because they had decided Willow/Tara was TV's one good symbol of homosexual love or whatever, rather than feeling that Joss killed her just to be cruel.

Personally, Tara hurt me more. Wash hurt me a lot, but he was not a character I ever loved as much as many do, while Tara was my favorite. But I felt both deaths were well-executed, and, if not necessary plot points per se, at least consistent, interesting, and powerful additions to the universe.

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Eddie, shooting script says Mal broke both the Big O's arms.

Thanks, Zenkitty. I thought his back was broken because of the way Mal had ahold of him when things went crunch, plus the way The Operative just sat there gasping. It read "back broken" to me.

Edit: On reflection, if The Operative's back were broken,there would be no need to pin him with his own sword.

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A lot of people (self included) feel that the Operative's storyline was intended to give us a glimpse into Book's back story. One person mused that she wasn't sure she liked the notion of Book as a sociopath like the Operative, but that perhaps that was the whole point: that anyone, even the worst person alive, could be redeemed in the proper circumstances.

I like the symmetry of this. Especially after:

Mal: "you'll have to tell me about that one day"
Book: "No, I really don't"

We then get shown a possible backstory for Book, complete with redemptive possibilities - "I'm not their man anymore".

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To me, Wash's death feels like Tara's death, emotional bitchslap and all.

I thought Wash's death was more like Anya's death - quick, shocking, and effective. Except Wash's death got 5 seconds as supposed to Anya's 2, which was nice. But it showed that the stakes were actually high.

I hated Book's death. It was cheap, predictable, and ineffective. And now we pretty much certainly will never learn Book's secret.

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