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?

We're given the impression that they're relentless killing machines. As in, they don't rest, they don't lurk, they don't scurry, they don't have a homebase. (IIRC from the show, they were actually encroaching on civilization.) You can fanwank that in fact that *isn't* the case, that they have down-time where they hang out not killing or, I don't know, killing the ship they towed there (but why do that; plus, we hear screams and see revulsion from Serenity's crew. I don't know what they can see but it's not Reavers playing foosball). But that would not make them so much the relentless killing machines as the sometime killing machines who need a little non-aggressive downtime. (Still doesn't explain whatever the crew is seeing as they pass through.)

Now: explain why they can get through the Reaver belt w/o disguise, but they need it on the way back? Is it to pass through the Alliance disguised? Because it seems unlikely that the Alliance uses its visual to identify a ship.

We're given the impression that they're relentless killing machines.

I don't have that impression, actually. My impression is that they are mindless killing machines. Like zombies. They'll kill whatever they notice, but they aren't so bright or strategic. Which is why standing still was sufficient to allow them to drift through the first time -- Serenity looked like a non-working ship with no one on it. Reavers don't look that hard.

but why do that

Because they eat their prey live, and they scavenge ships.

explain why they can get through the Reaver belt w/o disguise, but they need it on the way back?

They're disguised both ways. Mal decides on Haven to go to Miranda, and disguises the ship there.

Now: explain why they can get through the Reaver belt w/o disguise, but they need it on the way back? Is it to pass through the Alliance disguised? Because it seems unlikely that the Alliance uses its visual to identify a ship.

Um, they didn't, did they? I'm pretty sure the ship was all gothed up for the inbound.

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

I wanted to take a tape recording of Sigourney Weaver yelling "Whoever wrote this episode should be shot!" and play it a second after Mal looked down at the generator.