More on Reavers: why is there this Reaver asteroid belt where they all hang out-- way too closely to one another, but anyway-- waiting to entrap some luckless, what, space tourists? (As I understand it, we were seeing and hearing the entrapment of other ships as Serenity passed through.) It'd be like coming across a web with thirty spiders in it. ETA: I mean, why would any ship come near there, ever?

It reminded me of the scene in Galaxy Quest where Sigourney Weaver and Tim Allen are running through a needlessly treacherous part of the ship:

Gwen DeMarco: What is this thing? I mean, it serves no useful purpose for there to be a bunch of chompy, crushy things in the middle of a hallway. No, I mean we shouldn't have to do this, it makes no logical sense, why is it here?

Yes. Good Lord that is a pretty, pretty boy.

Ron Glass is prettiest. He's the Legolas of the 'verse.

bon bon, I thought of that exact scene when Mal looks down below Mr. Universe's generator at the giant...spinny thing. Hee.

I did too, Una.

The generator was very much a thing with only dramatic purpose. The Reavers having a home near where they were created, but far enough from other humans that they won't be exterminated, and can lurk and raid? Well, they gotta live somewhere. Doesn't stretch my brain at all.

One, I don't think we have cause to believe that the Reavers feared being exterminated, so there's no reason for them to hide or lurk from anything. I mean, they scared the shit out of a massive Alliance battalion. Two, the Reavers apparently have one goal, which is rampaging-- not resting. Three, we could see and hear ships being captured, so it's not out of the way.

Some extraordinarily pretty pictures of the men of Firefly.

There *is* a Flying Spaghetti monster. Incontrovertible proof.

Reavers don't turn on eachother because they prey upon the weak. This also jibes with the "If we run, they have to chase us. It's their way." line in that running shows weakness while staying your course suggests a certain strength of character. My understanding is that Pax causes the 'weak' to give up and enhances the 'strong'. Fight or flight taken to the extremes, a black and white society of the living and the eaten with no grey between. Also Proto-Reaver in Bushwhacked, "They were all weak."

Now the big belt of Reavers takes a bit more wankage from this fan, but if we can accept all the closeness as a cinemagraphic device (How close was the Reaver ship's accidental fly-by in Pilot!Serenity?) and then apply that as well to the fleet of Alliance ships waiting for Serenity's return from Miranda it all starts to work out a bit better.

We know Reavers have their own sector of space that people tend to stay away from (They push out farther every year.) so it's not that hard to accept the idea of having to fly through Reaver Central to get where the crew needed to go. And with the above allowance of artistic license in bringing it to the screen, I think I can handwave the rest of the smaller issues and make it work enough to not bother me.

Like the horror and lightshow of Galadriel when offered the ring, we realize that that isn't the way it actually looks and accept it as the director's vision of the emotions projected and/or evoked by the sight of a High Elf getting uppity in the extreme.

As much as I'd love to see the art direction make a point of the juxtaposition between the cramped super-confined quarters aboard ship and the millions of miles of nothing that is space, it'd probably hurt the heads of most movie-goers and the majority of the rest wouldn't get it anyway.

YMMV

there's no reason for them to hide or lurk from anything

So you're saying they're nomadic by definition? I can see them as nomadic, I can see them as having a home base. Neither stretches my credibility.

I don't remember a ship being captured. I remember one being torn apart, but I don't recall seeing it get there under its own steam.

I can't call up a cite, but haven't they been described as hanging out on the fringes, more than once?