a quick note of interest to Firefly folks

[rivendellrose]

Hey, capnexposition - I stopped by the U-Bookstore on the way home from work, and just guess what they'd finally got in on reorder?

Unfortunately, as regards our earlier debate, the best I've got is more questions, rather than answers...

For anybody tuning in late, capnexposition and I had a rollicking good discussion at the office about how it could be possible that there were still Reavers, and how (or if) they multiply. 30 million people on Miranda to start out with, of which about a tenth became Reavers, so that's 3 million. That's a fuck of a lot of Reavers. But they don't seem to have much in the way of self-preservation instincts, and they're a brutal bunch, so why would there still be so many after 12 years? Here's where the dialogue from the movie comes in...

ZOE
This is us, see? And here's Miranda. All along here, this dead space in between, that's Reaver territory.

WASH
They just float out there, sending out raiding parties--

ZOE
Maybe a hundred ships. And more every year. You go through that and you're signing up to be a banquet.

I had misremembered Zoe as saying that the group around Miranda were all the Reavers in the 'verse, but she does flat out says there's more of them every year... which, as Jayne might say, is downright unsettlin', in all manner of ways. How are there that many more? Even assuming they're not exactly filling their ships to capacity (which would be suicide with as vicious and bestial as Reavers are, considering I doubt they get along well under the best circumstances), that's still a hell of a lot... and constantly growing numbers, for no reason we can discern.

The script in the Visual Companion also has a lot of stuff that didn't make it into the final cut. And damn but some of it's interesting...

Looks like the best we can hope is that Joss has a plan (I sound like a psycho Christian - "Just know that God has a plan..."), and that eventually we'll see it, one way or another.

Comments

[capnexposition.livejournal.com]

This comes back to my central beef, in that the whole element of the air-borne chemicals on Miranda futzes with my understanding of how Reavers make more Reavers (all downright unsettlin' discussions about the birds and the bees aside). Bushwacked implies Reavers are made by mental damage, which is fair enough...but what if a bite or a fluids-infected wound is all it takes to make a Reaver? Do they really eat everyone they catch, or do some of them come back, unrecognizable to friends and family after a nasty bite and a few months of chemically-driven self-mutilation?

Sorry to dredge back up your fears for Wash, Jen, but I sincerely doubt Joss intended them to be a Zombie! horde.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

That's my issue as well, as I mentioned to you - my understanding was always that it was trauma-induced, and my theory is that was what Joss originally intended, since he's stated the original intention was different than what came out in the movie. But the movie version's what we've got and what we'll be going on with, and I can't get out of my head that he's also said that Alan/Wash would be back in the sequel, were there to be one. I originally took him to mean (and continue to assume that he means) in flashbacks and the like, maybe a dream sequence or two. But if there's something else going on with how the Reavers are created...

I don't think he means for them to be zombie hordes, either, but Joss' brain works in straaaange ways, and I don't like the possibilities all of this leaves open.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Remember when I said that to you and you scoffed at me??
Now I'm not a complete goober, and I know it PROBABLY will be in flashbacks that Wash will come back. But Dude, you gotta admit, that would be pretty freaky ass scary shit if Wash was a reaver in the next movie. Eeep! NO NO NO! I will not think about it again!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

After talking it over with nekokoban, we've concluded that since the original Reaver...ism, was created by an environmental factor, it doesn't seem likely that it could be communicable. Besides, Wash looked awfully dead to me.

I still am not putting other forms of crazy shit past Joss, though. It is, after all, Joss. As long as we don't end up with Wash singing "Hey, I've died twice" like Buffy, I'm happy. ;)

[c57d.livejournal.com]

You generally don't get up after such a big hole to all those important organs.

I've been wracking my brain trying to think "WWJD!" What would Joss do... (I know, I'm full of blasphemy).

The Reavers were not wiped out with the little endeavor around Miranda and Mr. Universe's place, but lost a lot of numbers, I'd bet. The Alliance was there to clean up Mr. Universe's stuff. Bet your bottom that the Hands of Blue would know that Serenity and her crew - including the much-sought-out River - were on that rock.

My brain goes - Cloning. Possible, though the motivation MIGHT be stretching it. I can't see him returning as their pilot though. And the angst, oh the angst.

I'm a real jerkface though, and can think of some pretty messed up ways to "get to" the crew using a Wash-Clone. However, with a Captain like Mal... it's really hard to screw with the crew of the Serenity for long. He'll just shoot you.

[coralia13.livejournal.com]

For some reason, the second time I saw the movie it sounded like the woman in the holocast said that a tenth of a percent became Reavers. Did I mis-hear? It still doesn't explain why they would grow in numbers - I find it hard to imagine a pregnant Reaver, not to mention a Reaver baby surviving bith and then infancy. I don't even want to think about Reaver sex.
Clearly I must buy this book!