Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hole

[The Lensman]

Re: Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hol

Just watched the entire series a month ago with my Dad (who really loved it) and I didn't care for movie as much as I did when I saw it at the theatre. It felt off. As has been pointed out, Alliance ships looked different, Simon was VERY different, didn't care for the explanation of Rivers mental state, the Reaver explanation didn't hold water (as has been pointed out), cargo bay lights were too "sci-fi movie" looking instead of the normal warmer lights.

It was like watching an alt-universe version of Firefly. It's just really noticeable watching it back to back.

 

[Ptrope]

Re: Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hol

Haven't read every word posted here, but am I the only one to posit that, if the Reavers themselves are too aggressive to maintain their own ships, might they use that same aggression to subjugate captives from the ships they raid and force them to maintain the ships? We haven't seen the inner workings of a Reaver ship, have we? Maybe they don't kill, eat and rape (order interchangeable) all of their victims - at least not at first. They could be like the Pakleds ("We look for things - things to make our ships go, and then we eat and rape them").

I would think that the biggest plothole in the movie is actually Simon's intimate involvement with River's escape, when the series seemed to establish that he only received her after she was sprung from da joint by his 'associates' ...

(And I look at the mule the same way I looked at the Klingons' foreheads in later Trek - screw ENT's 'explanation' )

 

[Lindley]

Re: Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hol

I don't know, I think that one's justifiable. In the pilot the crew had just found out he wasn't who he said he was. Simon doesn't know much about them, doesn't know how much he can trust them. So he tells them a story which is close to the truth without giving them the impression he might be in any way dangerous.

Not that he *is* particularly dangerous, mind. But he probably thought of himself as dangerous after that rescue stunt!

 

[Gaith]

Re: Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hol

Haven't read every word posted here, but am I the only one to posit that, if the Reavers themselves are too aggressive to maintain their own ships, might they use that same aggression to subjugate captives from the ships they raid and force them to maintain the ships? We haven't seen the inner workings of a Reaver ship, have we? Maybe they don't kill, eat and rape (order interchangeable) all of their victims - at least not at first. They could be like the Pakleds ("We look for things - things to make our ships go, and then we eat and rape them").

It all boils down to whether you can buy that an atmospheric gas made Reavers psychopathic towards normal humans, but not each other. I don't buy it, for reasons stated above, and I for one have said my peace on the matter.

 

[Harvey]

Re: Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hol

I don't know, I think that one's justifiable. In the pilot the crew had just found out he wasn't who he said he was. Simon doesn't know much about them, doesn't know how much he can trust them. So he tells them a story which is close to the truth without giving them the impression he might be in any way dangerous.

Not that he *is* particularly dangerous, mind. But he probably thought of himself as dangerous after that rescue stunt!

I'd buy that if his characterization in the rest of the series didn't match his story so well. Simon is never the man of action the beginning (as well as the rest) of Serenity suggests.

 

[Lindley]

Re: Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hol

He did okay in Ariel. I think he's willing to go a lot further for River than he would for the generic heist-of-the-week.

 

[Ptrope]

Re: Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hol

It all boils down to whether you can buy that an atmospheric gas made Reavers psychopathic towards normal humans, but not each other. I don't buy it, for reasons stated above, and I for one have said my peace on the matter.

Well, it wasn't so much an "atmospheric gas" - it was a psychotropic drug distributed through the planet's atmospheric systems. Best guess is that they didn't know all of its side-effects, obviously - what if it also adjusts the body's production of, and sensitivity to, pheromones? Perhaps as part of the pacification, intended or not, the body produced specific pheromones that would promote peacefulness amongst the group, but in the Reavers' case, it created a 'pack scent,' so they can recognize one another and cooperate, but are excited to aggression by the pheromones of the 'sheep,' or at least by the lack of a pack scent?

 

[formerentboy]

Re: Second time for "Serenity"... and ran right into the huge plot hol

Well, it wasn't so much an "atmospheric gas" - it was a psychotropic drug distributed through the planet's atmospheric systems. Best guess is that they didn't know all of its side-effects, obviously - what if it also adjusts the body's production of, and sensitivity to, pheromones? Perhaps as part of the pacification, intended or not, the body produced specific pheromones that would promote peacefulness amongst the group, but in the Reavers' case, it created a 'pack scent,' so they can recognize one another and cooperate, but are excited to aggression by the pheromones of the 'sheep,' or at least by the lack of a pack scent?

Well, the Pax seems to actually make Bushwhacked make more sense to me at any rate. I never bought the explanation that the survivor went crazy and started acting like a Reaver because of the horrors he saw and always figured that there must be a bit more to it. Given that it's Joss Whedon and the Reavers were Firefly's horror movie monsters, I can accept it in that context and don't require any more explanation than I did for how someone becomes a vampire by drinking a vampire's blood.