Serenity: A Question

[butterfly]

Okay, how is the Operative like Jubal Early? I do not get it. To me, they seemed like completely, utterly different characters.

Jubal was a bounty hunter who was clearly nuts and who liked causing pain and threatening people, the Operative was an assassin who was very rational and straight-forward. And Jubal didn't Believe in much of anything (is it still River's room if River isn't in it?), much less a better world. And the Operative was exceedingly polite and open-minded, even while killing people (Young miss?). I can't picture the Operative threatening to rape Kaylee. And Jubal tried to deny to himself that he was a monster, tried to claim that it was just his job, whereas the Operative was just doing his job and was aware that that choice did make him a monster.

Seriously, I just really want someone to explain to me how they're alike.

Comments

[cofax7]

Or, both black antagonists who are after River and who are very good at their jobs and rather unique in their approaches. Also both have somewhat odd moral codes and self-images.

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

Right, but to me what is interesting is exactly the differences between the ways they were good and the approaches they took, and I think that the people who are arguing that The Operative was just Jubal replaced for the purposes of the movie (a comment I have seen a great deal this week) are completely reducing and simplifying things, and not really impressing me in the process. What I love is the contrast between them: that Jubal was like a plague that entered the ship and had to be expelled, while the Operative was this all-encompassing outside force that was able to get to everything but the ship. And so on. (I should disclaim here that I haven't seen the film since spring, so I'm just presuming they haven't radically altered The Operative in editing.)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's such a great way of explaining one of the main differences. Jubal as an infection is just brilliant image (and no, they haven't radically changed the Operative -- he never goes into Serenity).

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I really do wonder if they'd be compared so often if one of them had been white. And I seriously dislike wondering that. I just... don't normally see people make comparisons that I so completely don't see.

Because they didn't have at all the same interactions with the crew -- maybe the difference that stands out the most with me is the Inara reaction. Jubal does such a compete dismissal of the... femaleness of Inara, and the Operative comes across as more... enlightened than that. Not entirely the word that I'm searching for, but it'll do for the moment.

And, of course, Jubal wouldn't have been swayed by the message getting sent out, because he took things personally in a way that the Operative didn't seem to. And the Operative was working for A Better Tomorrow, while Jubal was just working for his bounty.

Also, the Operative was really hot. Seriously, is that part just me?