River connected to Mal?

POSTED BY: Gavida
UPDATED: Monday, August 15, 2005 05:28
VIEWED: 8759
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GAVIDA

Thursday, August 11, 2005 4:13 PM

Sorry, if this has been brought up before, but I just realized something when watching "Safe" again.

Could it be that River is somehow "connected" or "empathically linked" to Mal?

This thought occured to me during the following scene:

River is dancing to the celtic music in town.
There is a shootout at Serenity's landing place and Book gets hit.

But she still dances with a happy face, enjoying it.
Only when Mal steps up to the wounded Book and sees the gunshot wound she seems to be very shocked, she stumbles and appears to be disorientated for a moment.

If she was somehow linked to all from the crew, shouldn't this have happened the moment Book was hit?
Why did it only happen after Mal realizing what happened?

To me it looks like she has some bond with Mal.

Looking forward to your ideas and responses

Gavida

RABIT

Thursday, August 11, 2005 4:34 PM

Personally, I always assumed that it was done for the sake of the drama - it's much more dramatic to have River stop after we've seen Book is down, as we didn't know until then. Another option I thought of was that those two sequences, while apparently occuring at the same time, may have been off a little in timing. Or River's reading takes time to reach her, so she didn't feel Book's pain until a few moments later - about the time that Mal saw Book.

There's just so many ways that could be interpretted.

I do think River sees Mal as a father figure - she as much as said so in one episode. (I don't remember which, but she cryptically mentioned something about "father" that I thought was clearly a reference to Mal. Was that in Safe?) I don't, however, think she has a special connection with him.

Just my opinion, though!

Rabit

STARRBABY

Thursday, August 11, 2005 5:21 PM

I think the link that they have is through Serenity. In OIS, River "becomes" Serenity and that shows her connection to the ship. Mal, obviously, has an attachment to Serenity.

If they have a paranormal connection, in my opinion, that is what causes/creates it.

SHINY4004

Thursday, August 11, 2005 6:36 PM

I always thought that River stopped dancing cause she saw Simon getting kidnapped...but that's just me. I do think they did it that way for dramatic purposes though.

"Oh I'm going to the special hell."-Mal

GAVIDA

Thursday, August 11, 2005 8:34 PM

Just checked the scene once more.

Mal sees Book.
River stumbles with a shocked look on her face.
Simon sees it an looks worried.
*Woosh* he is "sacked"

I am not sure if Serenity is the link between the two. I mean.... River uses the comsystem to pretend she is Serenity. But I thought it was more of making fun of Jubal and teasing him.

Maybe she has a link to Mal because it was his brainpattern she picked up as the first thing when he woke her from the Cryo-Box...

Ah well, still not sure what to make of it.

Gavida

ALEX21

Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:02 PM

Or, maybe the two scenes aren't happening at exactly the same time and they just had the music over the gunfight because it sounded cool.

I love you sci-fi fans, but sometimes I think you read into things a tinnnyyyy bit too far.

PIE!

TRALALAH

Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:21 PM

I always thought she stopped dancing because she was sensing what was about to happen to Simon. I do think she has a special relationship with Mal. She doesn't freak him out at all.

A swhat?

AURAPTOR

Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:23 PM

Might be a cop out explanation, but River senses all those things... Book getting shot, Mal's emotions as he sees Book is wounded, and the preminition that Simon is getting 'sacked', all at once. Something that was done to her brain, after Simon examined her on Ariel. He said that she can't help but feel, that she feels everything. That certain events coincided made it hard for her to read them and make sense of it all....so she stumbled.

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

STARRBABY

Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:30 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by alex21:

I love you sci-fi fans, but sometimes I think you read into things a tinnnyyyy bit too far.

I think it's more of a Joss fan thing. He's trained us to be that way.

ZEEK

Thursday, August 11, 2005 9:30 PM

I always took it that she has a read on the whole crew. It's just that the shot took Book out so suddenly that there wasn't a big wave of emotion to draw her attention. Mal on the other hand is so protective of his crew that seeing Book in that situation is such an intense emotion that it even makes River scream.

Just like she does when Simon gets shot in OiS.

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