SPOILER ALERT - UNPOPUL

POSTED BY: Knibblet
UPDATED: Monday, June 27, 2005 11:05
VIEWED: 6050
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KNIBBLET

Friday, June 24, 2005 4:54 PM

Deus ex Machina or God from Machine.

An unbelievable or supernatural way of progressing a plot. A cheap plot device.

Sorry folks, but "Mr Universe" is a cheap plot device - why this Deus ex Machina was written into Serenity (by one of the best writers of our time) makes no sense at all.

Mr. Universe and his gigantic broadcasting station in space appear to be there simply to entertain some schmuck who can't get a real girl to sleep with him -- and to provide Serenity a reason to bring the Reavers to the Alliance.

Miranda was plug-and-play. It had power and infrastrucure. As the crew moved around, power and lights came on. They could have gone to an Alliance broadcasting station and sent out the video and it is there that the Reavers attacked. However, this would have deprived us of the Reaver Alliance superbowl in space and Mal & the Operative having their fisticuffs in the station's basement. ** kick ass scenes but NOT necessary without the Deus ex Machina **

I don't get it? What could have been a solid, perfect story is now hinged upon people accepting that the Alliance (a totalitarian government) would put up with some guy who intercepts EVERY broadcast from EVERYWHERE and has the ability to send ANYTHING to ANYBODY at ANY TIME.

Governments are tetchy to begin with. They get super tetchy with folks who can beat them at their own game. Mr. Universe served no function other than to provide Serenity's crew with a cortex connect. His communications station would have been smashed long before the buffy bot faked her first orgasm.

Just my opinion. Doesn't mean I'm not going to see Serenity 11 or 12 times and then buy the DVD.

"I'm gonna rip you a new puppet hole, bitch!"

MANWITHPEZ

Friday, June 24, 2005 5:03 PM

The Government of Firefly, as shown in the series seems to be pretty tolerant of a lot of things...most notably, known criminals such as Patience or Badger, holding some kind of social prominence...okay, not Badger, but Patience, definitely. It kinda plays into the bigger message of the film about control. This is the same govt that lets the Reavers roam free to rape and pillage as they see fit, but had a long, drawn out war with a group that only wanted to have a little more independence? This is the same govt that allows a girl that has obivously been tampered with in a scientific sense get kidnapped and then can't seem to locate her? I can see where you would say that it is highly implausible that they would let Mr. Universe alone to do what he does...But, they apparently also let Niska, a man with his own Skyplex over Georgia deal clandestinely (though not enough to keep down a reputation) in large criminal dealings. How do you explain that? Its not like they don't know where he is, and what he's up to...Same with Mr. Universe.

At least, that's the way I saw it...

Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."

CARDIE

Friday, June 24, 2005 5:10 PM

The device is called a "deus ex machina."

"Deus" is "god" in Latin.

"Deux" is "two" in French.

There's an epidemic of this confusion on the internet. People apparently slide the "x" from "ex" over to the end of the word preceding it and obliterate the "s" from "deus." It's one of my pet peeves.

Cardie

KNIBBLET

Friday, June 24, 2005 5:15 PM

Correction taken. I'll go back and edit: However, but my wacky fun brain is telling me that somewhere in the Gregg's Reference Manual, I was told that both are exceptable.

We all know ...
... "shows that have 'X' in the title get higher ratings."

"I'm gonna rip you a new puppet hole, bitch!"

BROWNCOAT1

Friday, June 24, 2005 5:16 PM

I didn't care much for the character of "Mr Universe" either. Was he necessary? Maybe to a small extent, but not in the way he was presented in the BDM.

__________________________________________

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Richmond, VA & surrounding area Firefly Fans:

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/richmondbrowncoats/

WHOISRIVER

Friday, June 24, 2005 7:16 PM

Mr Universe was a plot device. Yep.

That's all.

TheInside.org - Firefly Producers NEW TV series

EMBERS

Friday, June 24, 2005 7:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
I didn't care much for the character of "Mr Universe" either. Was he necessary?

Personally I loved Mr. Universe,
I thought he was a comment/spoof on the bloggers of today who give themselves over-the-top names (Hercules?!)
and pass on information all over the web,
but of course the 'web' of 500 years from now is more impressive...
so IMO he served a number of purposes
1. homage to bloggers who helped 'Firefly' as well as a bit of a laugh about them too
2. comic relief with the Buffybot character (and she is named Lenore, very Edgar Allen Poe, I thought)
3. plot devise for getting the information out while still getting the space battle in...

It all worked for me.

BIKISDAD

Friday, June 24, 2005 9:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by embers:
Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
I didn't care much for the character of "Mr Universe" either. Was he necessary?

Personally I loved Mr. Universe,
I thought he was a comment/spoof on the bloggers of today who give themselves over-the-top names (Hercules?!)
and pass on information all over the web,
but of course the 'web' of 500 years from now is more impressive...
so IMO he served a number of purposes
1. homage to bloggers who helped 'Firefly' as well as a bit of a laugh about them too
2. comic relief with the Buffybot character (and she is named Lenore, very Edgar Allen Poe, I thought)
3. plot devise for getting the information out while still getting the space battle in...

It all worked for me.

Yep, I'm with you on all three points.

Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.

BASSGRAVI

Friday, June 24, 2005 9:23 PM

As for the alliance putting up with him the thing is that as far as I can tell, the alliance didn't really care. To use an analogy from a book where bug spray doesn't exist...
To the alliance, Mr.Universe was like one of many flies in a room. Do you kill every single fly you see in a room. Nope...you just ignore them...until they bite
then you swat them.
Mr. Universe wasn't actually interfering with the Alliance's plans until he agreed to help out that one last time. He was about to bite them, so they got him.
Not arguing with the he's just there for the plot thing, though.

SIMONWHO

Saturday, June 25, 2005 12:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Knibblet:
However, but my wacky fun brain is telling me that somewhere in the Gregg's Reference Manual, I was told that both are exceptable.

Acceptable - something that is allowed, appropriate.
Exceptable - not a word.

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