I still can't believe Sean Maher and Morena Baccarin were in the theater with us watching the movie. They stayed afterwards and signed stuff; I didn't stick around but many, many people did.

Have there been reports of other cast members being at the screenings in other cities?

Edit: Thanks, Frankenbuddha!

EagainTA that my take on Wash's death shouldn't be seen as me saying it's the only way to feel about it. Just want to be sure that's clear.

AB in...Seattle I think I saw someone say.

Nathan and Ron in Austin.

I read Gina and Alan in SF, but have not had it confirmed.

No celebs in Chicago or Atlanta.

Somebody will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure.

I heard:

Joss & Summer in Vegas

Adam in Seattle

Yeah, I can't help feeling somewhat betrayed by Wash's death as well. I mean, separation of fiction and reality, blah blah blah, yes, and it's Joss's thing to do with as he pleases. But it just felt off to me. It felt wrong in a way that most other deaths in the various Jossverses haven't. And I don't feel that it served an important narrative purpose. It was a stunning scene, a beautiful sendoff, and had I believed it necessary to the story, I wouldn't have been quite as distraught. But it felt cruel to me, especially followed by the several other near-death fakeouts just afterwards. I was literally gasping during that part; I felt like I'd been punched, and I didn't know what I'd done to deserve it.

edit: Both Jen and Robin make excellent points, of course, that its very randomness and pointlessness is what makes it all the more affecting, and maybe with a little more distance, I'll come to see it that way as well. Right now, I'm just feeling the unfairness of it too keenly. We'd just gotten him (all of them) back, and then for him to die so suddenly... okay, I'm just repeating myself at this point, but it really, really hurt .

Also, Sean Maher is really quite astonishingly attractive in person! My goodness. That smile... *melts*

I think on your last point Kate, that may be the big reason it hurts/feels like a betrayal. If the series had lasted for 3-5 seasons before the movie, then it would probably be very different in effect.

But I still say that if everyone but Book had survived to the big finish, the tension of everyone getting injured or being in danger would have only had a fraction of the impact. Maybe that's too meta a reason to seem a good one. *shrugs*

I understand where all of you all coming from, but I'm feeling abused at this point. By Wash's death not by what you all are posting here. I feel like I'm being punished for liking a character. The other Jossverse deaths have hurt but they've never felt mean-spirited. This one does for some reason. And I know that's not what Joss intended but it just feels really, really brutal and makes me wish I didn't care.

And as Kate P. said, having it followed up with all the near-death fakeouts made it feel like we were having our chains yanked unneccessarily.

Actually, Frank, I think I would have been more tense had Wash survived at that point because I actually would have been worried for each of the crew as they were wounded but by the end I just felt like I was being emotionally fucked with and stopped caring at all.

Frank, I see your point. Book's death was sad but not crushing, especially since his part in the movie was fairly minimal (fully half of his screentime, I think, was spent dying), so I can somewhat agree that it might have felt cheap afterwards if nobody else had died. On the other hand, I don't think I--personally--needed Wash to die to understand that things could get very, very bad at the end there, and I honestly don't know if other people, i.e. new viewers, will need it either. Actually, I think the near-death scares for the other characters would have had more impact for me at the end there if Wash hadn't just died, because I would have been much more in-the-moment and worried for them, rather than feeling awful and heartsick already, like I'd already had my guts ripped out and scattered all over the floor. It was too much for me to take, to imagine that yet another of my beloved characters might die. edit: or, what Kalshane said.

It would have worked much better for me to have Wash die in a later movie. I'm really hoping that this movie does well enough to warrant making a second and third, and I think I would have been much more satisfied if Book had died in this movie, and Wash or someone else with more movie-screentime died in the second or third. I wonder how Joss would have changed the screenplay if he'd known for sure that there would be two more movies.

Even though I snarked about the LJ campaign, I do wonder if part of the reason for the preview screenings this far in advance was to see what the audience reactions were to OMGWTFWASH!!!! in time to re-shoot if need be. Hasn't that happened with other movies?