O.I.S.--the gun River "finds."
POSTED BY: Malicious
UPDATED: Thursday, February 10, 2005 20:15
VIEWED: 6926
PAGE 3 of 3
Hey guys, brand new brown coat here....
While we are on the subject of River's gun can anybody help me with a theory as to why she sees the gun as a branch. On the Whedon commentary he passes it off as a a piece of extistentialist trickery but I have always thought it had more meaning.
I always thought that River so a branch because she was supposed to see a branch. As in she has programmed by the academy to view weapons as normal objects and fights and battles as games.
Everyone I say this too just laughs though...
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Thoughts:
There IS a weapons' locker in the cargo bay. It's where Book, Simon, and Kaylee get the guns in "War Stories." They're standing in front of it loading the guns as Zoe and Wash come down the stairs. There's no dialog to tell us whether the guns in that cabinet belong to anyone specifically; I imagine some of them are general purpose. :)
Whether the gun River uses in "War Stories" and the one she ends up with in "Objects in Space" look like/are the same gun or not, I think they were intended to be. Blame the propmaster if they're not. I think River is trying to come to terms with herself - both the training she received at the Academy and the acts it has made her capable of. "It's just an object; it doesn't mean what you think" could be her consoling herself. "Just because you've done this doesn't mean you're a ruthless killer." Jubal's proximity could have been what prompted her ruminations - a comparison between herself and him. (Frankly, I've wondered if Jubal wasn't a graduate of the Academy - River's "Don't belong. Dangerous, like you" line makes me think... not to mention, "I'm very close to him; he doesn't even see it," though that one can be explained by her being on his ship). But also, I can hear one of her teachers in her training giving her that line, "It's just an object; it doesn't mean what you think" as part of her training in detachment of herself from her actions.
I also don't think she physically raided the weapons' locker. Not that I don't think she could, but "It was in my hand." I think she was as surprised as they were to find herself weilding that gun. I think it was telekinesis, and I think it was completely unintentional, spurred by her imagination and her trying to come to grips with the fact that she's killed three people without batting an eye - and the fact that Kaylee is now afraid of her.
Large thoughts. Profound episode.
...still a little whimsical in the brain pan...
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