Serenity: Brief Notes

[butterfly]

Brief notes, hopefully to be expanded later:

The Operative is Mal in The Train Job. Doesn't want to know the truth of what his employers are hiring him for, because as a moral man, knowing the truth makes it impossible for him to do the job.

Belief and love, as previously mentioned, are big notes in the movie. Also heavily hit on is the importance of knowledge and how it informs choice. Knowledge changes perspective, makes sense out of what was previously just nuts. Knowing the truth about Miranda gave River a calmness.

Reavers. Oh, the Reavers. Ties back into the Jasmine arc on Angel -- you can't make a better world by taking away free will. Atheist that Joss is, he makes the best argument for why a true God would be hands-off in a disaster -- it's all about that pesky free will. Free will is a gift, and God doesn't take those back.

Book's death as conventional movie death, with long good-bye, makes Wash's death all the more nakedly sudden. No good-byes. Book's death puts blood on Mal's skin, Wash's death leaves its biggest mark on the inside of Zoe. Big damn heroes get people killed. All of Mal's friends, dead on viewscreens while a zealot tries to convince him that all this death can create a better world.

Twice in the movie, Mal rushes headlong into a trap, knowing full-well that it is a trap. Again, something taken from the tv show -- Mal knows that Patience is planning on killing him because she didn't haggle. In these cases, Inara didn't fight with him. And Mal already knew that the Operative was seeking out and killing everyone that'd helped him in the past, so he had reason to be mighty suspicious in that talk with Mr. Universe.

Adored River's relationship with Mal in this movie. So sweet, with the 'little one' and the 'darling' and the way he was taking great care in looking after her when she was in his charge. They have an understanding, those two. They get each other (I'm reminded, too, of Safe and how River's ramble about the cows only being cows when they're back on land makes sense to Mal, ranch-raised boy). Just... aw.