announcement!

[rivendellrose]

UW folks - nekokoban, miss_arel and I are meeting up this evening at 5:30 in Red Square to go to Cheap Dinner on the Ave, to celebrate my freedom from the museum job. Anybody else free at that time?

*Eyes zinjadu, ratzeo, coramegan, etc.*

Also,

-There's an eye-chart in the background of the general store, seen just as the crew enters for the first time. I thought that was massively cool, for no real reason.

-Once you've read the shooting script, it becomes a lot easier to understand some of the throwaway lines/dialogue spoken over other dialogue. Unfortunately, you can also see right where certain cut scenes should've gone.

-The script may say that 10% of the population of Miranda became Reavers, but the movie says "a tenth of a percent." Fear my (pathetic) math skillz as I attempt to figure out how many a tenth of a percent of 30 million is. On a related note, Zoe's line about how many ships the Reavers have around Miranda and the fact that there's more every year is not actually in the movie. Kaylee's line about her daddy thinking about responding to the call for workers on Miranda is - it's just garbled under other dialogue.

-Confirmed: Jayne is wearing what appears to be a saint's pendant. Squinting at it and craning my neck will not help me figure out what's on it, no matter how much I try.

-On Miranda, Jayne is giving his little speech about how River's right that the world is messed up, and the camera cuts from him to Wash just as he says "they all died for no reason," or something of that sort. We'd theorized this was because Wash has the next line, but the cut is actually significantly before his line, and it pauses on him - the camera even does a funny cut-thing before his line. It's a foreshadow. Or, more like, a good way to make our hearts go *twiiiiiist* when we see the movie again after we already know the score.

-Absolutely nothing - not even two prior viewings to prepare me - can make the 'landing' at Mr Universe's place easier.

Comments

[scearley.livejournal.com]

well, 1% of 30,000,000 would be 300,000. so one tenth of that would be 30,000.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, thank you. Once that many zeros get involved, I apparently lose all ability to do mental math.

[scearley.livejournal.com]

you can just take it one step at a time. and use a pencil. :D

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

We need to make plans for pubbing! I was thinking the College Inn pub? They have better food and it's usually not as crowded there.

[ratzeo.livejournal.com]

I'll try to show.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, College Inn is good for me! Do you think you'll be too tired on Thursday evening, from the plane ride and all?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Wheee.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Laziness, more than anything else - I was pondering it, but not quite enough to actually get out paper or calculator. *g*

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Not at all, m'dear. Travel never leaves me tired, for some reason. :D

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I get out of class at 5:20 pretty close to there, so we could probably go straight from then. That way we've got plenty of time, and we're sure to get a good table that early on.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Sweet! Sounds good. *snugs* I'm looking forward to seeing you.

Oh, and hey! Remember those plaid pants of mine that I was always trying to swueeze into but couldn't get passed my ass? They fit now. And comfortably.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

*Snugs* I'm looking forward to it, too! It's been too damned long.

Awesome! Those are really cute pants!

[sjen.livejournal.com]

I can't make it, but I just wanted to wish you a 'happy freedom from the evil job' day! ^__^ May all your wishes come true~

[capnexposition.livejournal.com]

What's even more interesting about that number is, it's too damn low. By which I mean, there are, or have been, far more reavers than that, logically speaking. Let's assume that reports of Reaver attacks are swelled by rumor to something like 2 to 1 Bogus reports to real. Fair enough. But considering their apparent mortality rate due to lack of self-preservation instinct, as well as the likely eventuality that not all of them got off Miranda, and our theory on inter-Reaver predation, that brings back the fact that their numbers HAVE to be increasing. And fairly rapidly too, for there to be a visible annual increase, as Zoe notes. So what gives?

Dammit, Joss better spend more time explaining this. I wanna know how Reavers make more Reavers!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *g*

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

It is low, isn't it? statistically speaking... well, they've only been around for 12 years, and assuming they're really hard to kill and that most of their raids have a low mortality rate among their own people, that just seems weird for as brutal and crazy as they are.

nekokoban pointed out that they might be similar to... wild dogs or primates, in that the (presumed) females would go into estrus and then be off-limits for any sort of in-fighting or raiding activity. Or they're just not involved in the raids ever, at all. That last bit would seem to be substantiated since a) we haven't seen any noticeably female Reavers and b) it's damned hard for women to rape people to death. So... maybe we're looking at a breeding drone type of situation. I'm having very unpleasant mental images going along with that thought, I'd like to point out. Did you ever see an X-Files episode called "Home?"

It's possible that the reference to annual increase was removed because Joss noticed that it was statistically unlikely/impossible... or because it would contravene a later explanation of some sort that he's got in mind. Or it's possible it was taken out because of time, we just can't know.

Inter-Reaver predation, annual increase, potential estrus sexual cycle... *Coughs* Clearly, you can take the anthropologist out of anthropology, but you can't take the anthropology out of the anthropologist. It drives me nuts if I can't make a (fictional) culture work!

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Aaackkkk! *puts fingers in ears, then takes them out of ears and pokes eyes out* DON'T, I repeat DON'T talk about that X-files episode! You're freaking me out!!!!!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

*Pats* I hated it, too. The one episode I ever had to actually get up and walk away from.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Did you have a good celebratory dinner?
Did you see the post a couple of days ago that pandorasbox put up about Anne Rice's new book? If not, you'll want to check it out. It will totally confirm what you were thinking about her losing her mind.
And yes, that episode STILL haunts me. Freaking.....freaky. Can't think of anything else to describe it.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I did, thank you.

I saw the post, and I'd also heard about the book in advance - Terra, Fey and I all keep track of Anne Rice's craziness, out of perverse amusement. She... yeah. I'm tempted to take a peek at the book to see just how far her descent into madness has progressed. ;)

Yeah, I know exactly the feeling.

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

As far as the pendant goes, I'd go with St. Christopher. Almost every Catholic has one of those, it's supposed to protect travellers, if my memory serves me right. Used to be that everyone had one, Catholic or not. [/random factoid that you may or may not care about]

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

Fly-by icon love. SCAR!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Iiiiinteresting. I'm going to have to look up the standard pendants for St. Christopher and St. Jude (the other likely theory that's been presented to me)... and then squiiiint at both and try to figure out which is more likely. XD Thanks for the help!

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

No problem.

As a matter of fact, St. Christopher was DE-sainted recently, I remember my religious studies teacher saying.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Seems like they de-saint people almost as often as they canonize them, lately... it's really weird. What was the reasoning for this one, if you don't mind my asking?

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

No idea, sorry. I'm not Catholic or related to any Catholics - just go to a Catholic high school, so I hear some of the random trivia.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Huh. Interesting stuff... I'll have to look into it. I don't know why, but that sort of thing always fascinates me.

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

I can never keep the various saints apart, personally. The only ones I ever remember are Saint Teresa (mainly because I love the statue The Ecstacy of St. Theresa), and St. Thomas a Becket. >> Canterbury Tales, yo.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I've never tried with many of them, but it's amazing how many come up in the course of medieval studies, French history, and random other sources. I'm partial to Saint Brigid (although I'm told she's also a victim of de-canonization), and also to one of the many St Teresas... a more recent one. I can never remember her exact designation, but she was a Carmelite.

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of Brigid, what did she do?

Hee!

I've always wondered what a Carmelite is...

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

She was an Irish saint, very early, somehow held to have been the foster-mother of Christ (long way to go, from the Middle East to Ireland... but whatever). She was also known for brewing vast quantities of beer, if I recall.

I love that statue... it's just so pretty!

Specific sect (?) of nun - I visited a Discalced (er... word in Latin that means shoe-less or something of the like) Carmelite monastery, while I was in New Hampshire several years ago, and they were fabulous people. Beyond that, I'm not entirely sure what it entails...

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

Hey, they have Christ stories EVERYWHERE, it's not that big of a leap.

I know. I SAW IT IN ROME! :D :D :D It was about 10 billion times prettier in person.

Yes, it's spelled sect. And cool, now I won't just think they worship caramel! ;D

[bluerose16.livejournal.com]

>> Oh, LJ. You fail so hard at putting my comments where I say to put them.

[ratzeo.livejournal.com]

mahokiwi made it for me. I have a few from her. She does good work.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

This is true. But the idea of her being his foster mother... I can sort of picture a bunch of Irish folk sitting around going "oh, it can't be all that far away..."

Wow. That must've been... WOW.

Hehehe. I was less worried about the spelling, and more about whether that was the right word for the kind of nun someone is. "Variety" just didn't sound right. ;)