Super SPOILER FILLED Serenity thread

[Dagger75]

Nah. Nehi Grape. Warm.

(A virtual cookie to anyone who gets the reference)

Isn't that what Radar drank.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

At best, I would peg the Operative as Lawful Neutral. He acknowledge he did evil, but he was doing it because he believed in a higher purpose.

It doesn't matter a jot that the Operative believes he is doing what is right and necessary to make a better world - the man orders the slaughter of innocents to provoke his quarry out of hiding. He's Evil, through and through.

Motivation doesn't matter in D&D. The Operative is utterly unapologetic, presumably because he is honest enough to know that he wouldn't mean it if he did express remorse. He knows he is a monster - but that knowledge doesn't affect his fanatical resolve.

Only by showing him the possible consequences of his dreams can his confidence be shattered - and without perfect faith that what he is doing is necessary, he can't do what he does.

I think it's interesting, because it's clear that the Operative isn't broken by appeals to morality. He murders children - as horrific as they are, Reavers themselves can only repulse him because their slaughter is without purpose. It's the Lawful side of the Operative that is undermined by the Pax video; he is rendered incapable of believing that his society's ordered, controlling way of doing things inevitably leads to a better world, because he is confronted with the evidence that it does not.

The Operative's weakness is his limited thinking - throughout the film he is shown to be outsmarted by unorthodox confrontations and maneuvering. He didn't expect Mal to bring the beacon to Inara's place, he didn't anticipate the flash bomb Inara set off, he never dreamed that Mal would lead a fleet of Reaver ships to Mr. Universe's planet and reverse the Alliance ambush, and he clearly never considered that perhaps the Alliance's grand plan for making a better world could possibly be fallible.

In some ways he reminds me of Khan in Star Trek II - he is defeated by opponents who think in more dimensions than he's ever contemplated (and when it comes to Khan, "dimensions" is literal). He relies on predicting his opponents' behaviour - but he lacks the imagination to do so. He's so fixated on his vision of the future that he fails to see the full depth of the present.

 

[Jeremy]

This reminds me of my one, one minor annoyance with the film. There was not a wiff, jot or tiddle of the Blue Sun corporation in the film. After making such a big deal of them through out the series and then to have them be completely absent bugged me. Hopefully that would be the fodder for a second film.

I believe when the Operative is viewing the feed of River's escape, you get a brief flash of two company men monitoring the situation. One checks the screen with their usual expression while another one rolls his chair into frame to see what is going on.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I believe when the Operative is viewing the feed of River's escape, you get a brief flash of two company men monitoring the situation. One checks the screen with their usual expression while another one rolls his chair into frame to see what is going on.

I saw that, too, but they didn't have the characteeristic blue gloves, so I'm not sure who they were supposed to be.

 

[Umbran]

I saw that, too, but they didn't have the characteeristic blue gloves, so I'm not sure who they were supposed to be.

I don't think we are ever told anywhere that Blue Sun = blue gloves.

 

[Jeremy]

Yeah. Those are the scary Blue Sun cleaners. They take care of messes. Kinda like the Operative does for the Interplanetary Parliament.

They don't make guys like that sit watching feeds all day.

'You sending the Wolf?'
'Oh you feel better now #$*%(#($%@&*?'
'%&#*, *$&#$ that's all you had to say.'

Edit - Hmm.. Kinda loses it's relavence with grandma filter. Ah well.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I thought there were a few small Blue Sun logos in places. I'll try and pay attention for them this weekend when I see it again.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Do you mean he dissolved the company? Because as near as I can tell, not only is it still a viable production company, but it's the company that is going to be producing Wonder Woman.

I think a lot of the people who worked with ME have moved on to other things (understandably) but this is the first I've heard of ME being defunct.

There was a news item/thread on it earlier this year (I will see if I can find it) but it may have been just the television side of the company.

 

[Hijinks]

I also found it odd that Zoe was the one to break ranks in the final fight with the Reavers. While she did undergo a deep and immediate trauma, she was also the only hardened military veteran of the Unification War on the line. I would have expected one of the less disciplined members of the crew to break a defensive position first

I agree with what's been said about this, but also I think this was a feint. Joss Whedon wanted us to think that she was going kamikaze and was surrendering to death by Reaver. Then she takes a hit and crawls back to the humans. I know I, for one, was sitting there thinking "well, there goes Zoe *sadness*"

 

[ThirdWizard]

I agree with what's been said about this, but also I think this was a feint. Joss Whedon wanted us to think that she was going kamikaze and was surrendering to death by Reaver. Then she takes a hit and crawls back to the humans. I know I, for one, was sitting there thinking "well, there goes Zoe *sadness*"

My thought was that she wanted to die, but after being hit, instinct kicked in and she went back to safety.

But, yeah, total fake out. Zoe's going to die! Kaylee's going to die! Simon's going to die! River's going to die! Jayne is going to live.