The true Book...
POSTED BY: Honorbound
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 30, 2003 00:10
VIEWED: 4777
PAGE 2 of 2
I was thinking about this earlier and came to the same sort of conclusion that Kathryn did. I think Book does have connections with the Alliance (or some "wholly owned subsidiary" thereof) but maybe just a family connection. Like, perhaps he's the youngest brother of some high-up alliance hotshots (a lot of second and third children have gone into religious ministry, historically speaking). He would have had all the same education and training as his older siblings (guns, technology, politics, etc) but not much of any opportunity to use it. Kind of like Inara's swordfighting education.
At any rate, I don't think Book can be sinister or have any sort of evil/ulterior motive because of that one scene between him and Inara in "Serenity" where Book just about breaks down. Glass's good acting aside, there's no reason to have that scene if he turns out to be mal-intentioned towards the crew. Whatever his past (would have) turns(ed) out to be, I think he's as lost as the rest of them.
-maguinan
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I'm with the idea of Book as former Alliance. It's the medical treatment thing: it struck me as very VA Hospital, you know? Automatic treatment for vets and all of that. I don't particularly think he's high-up and still sinister, I just think he probably fought for the Alliance during the war and then had an epiphany and went to the abby.
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If Book really did have some kind of high position or pull, why didn't it come up in "Bushwhacked?" He was questioned by the Alliance, and wouldn't they have checked his ID then? True, Early didn't seem to think he was a shepherd, but this was the man who described himself as "having a mighty roar;" in other words, Early misses a few things. Clearly there's plenty to suggest there's a lot to Book, but few conclusions to be had.
I would be disappointed if Book were not a shepherd. I would be surprised if he was not something else as well.
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IMO, I did not see the Alliance questioning as an attempt to gain information, but more an attempt to railroad someone (eventually Mal) into taking the blame for the Reaver attack.
Personally, I think Book was Alliance. Probably an assassin. Someone who would have good connections, yet be able to walk away when no longer needed. (Of course I love Kenshin so that is probably where I got the idea)
"Societies are supported by human activity, therefore they are constantly threatened by the human facts of self-intrest and stupidity." --Peter Berger
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You know what I was thinking? (I hope not)
In Bushwhacked Book was of course asked to identify himself so maybe he showed them papers from the Abby that confirmed that he was Shepard Book-- but in Safe, when he was shot, he gave them his ident card (I bet like a drivers license and birth certificate smushed together) that said his full name (maybe real name) and all that good special Alliance stuff that got him into surgery. That’s why his Alliance connections didn’t come up in Bushwhacked.
--I still don’t think Book was an Alliance spy or General. That kind of past was just too heavily hinted at. If that’s what they want us to think, then it’s a pretty obvious that it’s not going to be that way.
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It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
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