Book Is A Monastic Warrior

POSTED BY: BrowncoatMonk
UPDATED: Saturday, January 25, 2003 21:09
VIEWED: 8482
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BROWNCOATMONK

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 6:59 PM

What is Book?

Here's what we know:
He has never had sex. Ever.
--evidence: 'I'm not a grandpa, I've never married' implying he doesn't have sex outside of marriage and so he has never had the opportunity to have sex.
He is definitely a religious person.
He is a bad ass fighter.
He is a smart negotiator.
There is a very powerful organized (Christian)religion in the Firefly universe.
--evidence: think of all the references to the Church and the universal feeling of not wanting to go against the church. Jayne prayed in Serenity, every town/settlement/colonized world has a local Shepherd, Mal wanted a divorce but 'it's very rare' and permission was needed from the local religious authority (sounds like historical/medevial Catholism) and so forth.
He is a member of the Church.
--evidence: he had the power to intercede in the divorce matter above.
He is considered very important by the Alliance.
He is not acting the way normal Shepherds are expected to act
--evidence: they expected him to be preaching and condemning of crime and Companions, pacifistic, and Jubal said 'that's no Shepherd'.
His story about being a member of a monastic order seems pretty tight, including references in various episodes, and the hair kept a certain length is significant.
He is very well learned.
He knows things that no normal person would know, eg Adalai Niska's name and reputation.
He takes oaths, and he takes them very seriously, as when he swore to protect that officer in Serenity. He has the skills and will to follow any oath that he takes--this is very very rare in the real world (at least to the degree he has already shown).

So my feeling is that the order he belongs to is akin to the Franciscan order, specifically as it was in late Medevial to Victorian times. Where is was, to put it crudely, the intelligence gathering branch of the Church. He's capable, trustworthy, knows how to avoid trouble and how to deal with trouble. I also think that he was sent out to find out just what is really going on in the outer reaches of the Alliance. Obviously the Church is very powerful and whatever order he's in is very important (bodyguards to nobility maybe, which they have, eg the Lord in Shindig--maybe there are kings and or an emperor--that's a possibility since that who knights people) above normal Shepherds.
I also think that Book has sworn to protect the Captain, which is why he bore arms readily to protect him.

Browncoated Monk

QUEENTIYE

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 7:57 PM

I like this idea!

I sure do wish we were going to see more of him!

QueenTiye, Companion Academy drop-out!

Shamelessly gushing over Mal...

BROWNCOAT1

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 8:32 PM

Though I see your point and can agree on several points, I still think that Book's past is tied into the Alliance and that he was either some sort of high ranking officer, or some sort of Special Forces operative for the Alliance.

Take for example how when wounded, all the Alliance officer needed was one look at the paper in Book's pocket before he had men scrambling to get him aboard the Alliance ship and treat him. They returned him without any undue treatment of the crew and did not disclose who he was or what his connection to them was. Seems kind of shady to me.

BROWNCOATMONK

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 10:25 PM

1)When Book says that he's been out of the world for a long time, he's talking about 20+ years(probably more like 30+), think about what he says to Kayleigh in Serenity, not the 6 years ago that the war was.
2)Also, he has been following this chaste/celebate life since he was a teenager--think about the likelihood of somebody in the military completely controlling one's sexual urges since for as long as that would take to get to that high ranking status, or to even get married as most militaries have an unspoken rule to get to high rank of being/appearing respectible (i.e. not a potential embarrassment) which includes being married.
3)His combat skills were way too sharp to have been left over from 20+ years prior, including hand-to-hand, and hip shooting a rifle and accurate hitting knees--that would take an exceptional marksman in constant practice. As a side note he chose a target/hunting rifle even though it was an inclose battle. Not an automatic or a pistol which is what normally be used for that sort of combat.
4)The church is clearly very powerful in the Verse and has been powerful since the early days of colonization, hence the high presence of Church ideals and people in the settled worlds. Powerful entities (good and bad) need intelligence about their domain/sphere of control.
5)Monastical orders are things that have and need long histories to be useful (for whatever purpose that might be, also the ones in Western Europe have evolved since their foundings). I forgot another aspect earlier is that as the language of the Verse is influenced and permeated by the language of China, why not by some of the monastical traditions (even the rare ones) of the Eastern world. To put it in media terms combine the Franciscans of Dumas (modeled after the ones of his day versus that of the Sun King's time) and the Shaolin monks of Kung Fu the tv series. An order that's been around a long time (probably 200-300 years+) and is an important part to a powerful Church would command a lot of respect (maybe by imperial edict) hence the concern/fear of the Alliance officers.

Browncoat Monk

SELNYC

Wednesday, January 15, 2003 11:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BrowncoatMonk:
He has never had sex. Ever.
--evidence: 'I'm not a grandpa, I've never married' implying he doesn't have sex outside of marriage and so he has never had the opportunity to have sex.

The other evidence here being his conversation with Jayne about how, despite never having had sex, he's "for the most part" still all there.

I hadn't considered that when I made my own theory thread titled "The Deal with Book".

Hmmm.

Our guy Book is quite the paradox, isn't he?

Maybe he was a...part of the problem is that we've been given so little (relatively speaking) information about the distinctions between worlds in Firefly. That's why it was supposed to run 6 or 7 years...

BROWNCOATMONK

Thursday, January 16, 2003 4:26 PM

I think that is the most important piece of info that has been ignored in all of the other threads about Book. Yet it is significant.

Oh well, maybe Joss/ME will do a book series.

Browncoat Monk

LOSTANGEL

Thursday, January 16, 2003 5:34 PM

I think you are jumping to conclusions. When he said he never got married...he never got married. Also, we don't know how long he was in the monastery. Just because he was in a stricter sect where they are celibate, that doesn't mean that he was a holy man from childhood.

There were not enough scenes devoted to fleshing out Book. I still think that given time we would have seen that a Shepard was just his last occupation, and only a small part of who he is.

______________________
Lost Angel

WASH: Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science fiction.
ZOE: We live in a space ship, dear.
WASH: So?

BROWNCOATMONK

Thursday, January 16, 2003 6:23 PM

He may have been injured (nerve damage etcetera) so he can't have sex. Maybe in combat or the like, but definitely a long time ago. But he does make it very clear that there is NO chance that he is a grandpa.

Browncoat Monk

ILOVEJAYNE

Thursday, January 16, 2003 7:13 PM

Interesting theory. I had kinda thought he was talking about circumcision.

I like the whole warrior-priest concept. It would explain why a Shepherd knows so much about crime.

BROWNCOATMONK

Thursday, January 16, 2003 8:23 PM

Another thing I want to mention about Book's knowledge about crime and the such. He has very current information about that subject. It takes a lot of military/police type 'intelligence' research to stay current in the world of crime. In real life drug kingpins (and the like) get killed by police or other rivals, get arrested, get pushed out to smaller and smaller domains ('turf'), etc. Think of his (implied) knowledge of Niska. Also he mentions in 1x03 (Mrs. Reynolds), speaking about 'Carrion Houses', that (not exact sorry) 'the new ones just stun the ...'. This is not something he would know from a long time ago (i.e. before going in to the monastic life), clearly since he's refering to current states. So he had some sort of recent intelligence about the state of the frontier. My theory is that he got it from the church.

Browncoat Monk

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