It CAN'T be true!!! *major movie spoilers*
POSTED BY: engineangel
UPDATED: Sunday, March 26, 2006 06:58
VIEWED: 45977
PAGE 3 of 13
Quote:
Originally posted by Cybersnark:
Based on the final scene, I'd say River's gonna be the new pilot (assuming she stays as lucid as she appears). Of course, she is psychic, and Wash spent a lot of time in that cockpit. If there's likely to be a ghost, that's where she'd find it.
I can already see the scene in the sequel:
Wash is giving River flying lessons --warning her about the wobbly starbord engine (don't trust it in heavy manoeuvres, just shift thrust to port-side). River is talking back (a two-way conversation).
Camera swings away, as Mal enters, leading a client and avowing the professional skills of his expert crew. River laughs at one of Wash's jokes, the camera swings back to see River chattering and carrying on with empty air.
The client looks confused, Mal goes "huh" and quickly turns the very wealthy and respectable client around and leads him away from the crazy girl.
-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
I like your scenerio of how Wash (Alan Tudyk) might come back.
I too was stunned when Wash died, but thankfully, it happened suddenly. What got to me even more was the funeral scene. Seeing Wash's happy face on that tombstone and then watching Zoe walk between the rest of the crew - tears, many tears! Am I the only one that felt that way? I just wasn't prepared for that.
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"When I go to war, you'll know the difference."
I'm sure that's a misquote, but it'll do.
Joss was asked why the movie wasn't called Firefly. He responded saying that Serenity wasn't Firefly. It was a totally different animal, and should be regarded as such. Anyone who's seen the flick can attest to that.
Wash's death wasn't simply a device to ramp up tension in the third act. True enough, after seeing him staked by the Reavers, those darts, bullets, and blades aren't props in scenes anymore, but real dangers to the characters we've come to love.
It left us all wondering if the crew would even see the light of day again. That alone drops a dollop of squirming tension into our bellies. But I don't think the "leaf on the wind" came to rest for that alone.
It's been said that someone needed to die to make this real. To make this mission more important. But why it's more important, what Wash died for, that's been flirted around.
Firefly was about survival. A crew on the raggedy edge trying to squeek by. Everything the crew does throughout the show is led, almost entirely, if not primarily, by the guiding principle of get to tomorrow. Mal holds to nothing but his crew. No principal, no government, no association, other that those who keep him and his boat in the sky.
Serenity is not about survival. It is a different beast.
With gun drawn, Captain Tight Pants, informs his crew that any of them stand in his way, and they will be shot down. His family is forfeit to his principle, for the first time we've seen. His claim that the run at Miranda is made to get some info to "steer clear" of this is probably just a cover. He's seen what the Alliance has done, and he intends to make a stand, and nothing will stop him. He goes to the point of desecrating Serenity herself, for this quest.
Firefly was about ducking out of the way. Serenity was about sticking your face into your enemy's gun sight and sticking your tongue out at him. Serenity was about making a change, because it needed to change, and that, invariably is more risky.
Mal may have set the course, but the crew knew this just as well. Jayne didn't leave despite his gripes, neither did Zoe, or Simon, or Wash. They accepted that mission and all of it's risks, giving up on just flying another day. They went to war.
Wash didn't die because we needed to be afraid. He didn't die because people do die in real life. He died because the crew of Serenity went to war, and that means sacrifice. At the risk of employing a tired cliche that the Bush Administration enjoys butchering: "Freedom isn't free." And the crew of Serenity chose to pay the price. Wash died a death of belief, as a hero.
Wash, you made me laugh, right from "This land." Thanks.
I hope you enjoyed my overstating of the obvious.
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I mourn Wash. I respect Joss' decision to kill him.
I'm glad that Wash died in a mission to create a better 'verse (or at least stick it to the Alliance). It was easier than parting with him because of a robbery job that went south.
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My wife (more out of loyalty than as a fan, although I'm still working on her!) accompanied me to see the movie and kept asking me what I thought afterwards. But I was so stunned by the deaths (we actually started to suspect it was all in Willow's brain, especially when she had to go back in the other room alone) that I couldn't really answer. I mean it was witty and dark, but I was too busy being stunned to fully appreciate it. The characters & show remind me of a roleplaying game and it was like a couple of your friends died in the game, but here they don't get to play later. Then, like everyone else, I started trying to figure out how to get the others back in. We also immediately thought about the possibility of cloning, the ghost angle (can you imagine Book 'advising' Jayne?) or somesuch. But I think the best non(well, mostly non. Maybe kinda-sorta)-cheesy method is this:
Remember that the movie is some significant amount of time later than the series. Stuff has happened and members have split. Also, the captain's relationship with the doctor has gotten worse (not that it was ever good, but still!). So what are the odds that the sequel (there had better be a sequel! If we all see it five times and bring dates(?) would that bring in enough?) will take place in between the epic movie storyline and the semi-episodic TV storylines? It allows the deaths to be vast and tragic, yet allows us another glimpse or two at the whole cast. It's also sneaky and very comicbooky (both of which are Whedonish/Whedonesque/Whedonsomething). Can't wait for the follow-up DVD special-release with 90 minutes of previously unseen footage!
"Mercy is the mark of a great man. Guess I'm just a good man. Well, I'm all right."
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Quote:
Originally posted by engineangel:
I think it may relate kind of to what Tara's death did to Willow (in Buffy). It pushed her over the edge. But there were other ways to push Willow over the edge without killing a much beloved character.
Although this is way off-topic, I wanted to say that I really disagree with the assessment that there were other ways to drive Willow over the edge than killing off Tara. If you truly understand Willow's character and the way she viewed not only herself, but the world around her, you'd see that the death of somebody incredibly close to Willow was the only way to push her into doing what she does at the end of Season 6. It necessarily wouldn't have had to have been Tara, but outside of her, the only other character who was as close to Willow was Xander.
To pull this back on topic, while it sucks that both Book and Wash are dead, I'm of the opinion that they were not only both necessary deaths, but both serve a higher purpose than simply shaking up the status quo for the fans and for the characters. Book's death serves to make Mal's grudge against the Alliance intimately personal, and also drives him to do what he does at the end of the film after discovering the secret of Miranda. Wash's death, while not serving as grandiose a purpose, still serves a purpose because it not only sets up the idea that nobody is safe, it gives Zoe even more motivation to kick some Reaver ass. I've heard a lot of people talking about how they didn't feel that Zoe (or anybody else) grieves for either Book or Wash, but in the case of Zoe and Wash, that's completely false. Immediately after Wash is impaled, Zoe's about to abandon her 'ice-woman' demeanor and cry, but Mal calls her back to the mission at hand; since she can't express her grief through tears, Zoe channels it into anger and aggression, but without becoming reckless. She uses the battle with the Reavers as an immediate outlet for her grief, and later is able to grieve in a more traditional manner (although she'll never let anybody else realize it); she also shows that she's grieving through her dialogue with Mal in Serenity's cockpit when she says 'She's torn up, but she'll fly true'. She's talking about herself as much as she is Serenity, and is letting Mal know that he doesn't have to worry about her (which he is).
Take my love
Take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care
I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell 'em I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I've found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me
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Quote:That's the best thing I've heard about Wash's death so far.
Originally posted by Rijpe:
I mourn Wash. I respect Joss' decision to kill him.
I'm glad that Wash died in a mission to create a better 'verse (or at least stick it to the Alliance). It was easier than parting with him because of a robbery job that went south.
Thank you.
I draw...therefore I am. http://www.mnartists.org/Nora_Leverson
Live in Minnesota? Join the Group! Yahoo Group, that is...
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/MN-Firefly
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Quote:Alan Tudyk is currently starring in Spamalot on Broadway. I'm sure he'd be available if a sequel were filmed.
Originally posted by Zmann966:
Maybe the Wash's actor (Alan Tudyk) either wanted out of the series or had other things to do (doubt it).
Couldn't we just do a Dallas shower scene, pretend it was all a dream and have a do-over? It sucked on Dallas, but I'd accept anything to get Wash back.
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What gets me most is that I can no longer enjoy episodes of Firefly, knowing what I know. Every ep is now shadowed with the thought, "Wash dies in the movie......Oh, God, WASH DIES IN THE MOVIE."
Mal-licious
I'm going to add cursing and the hurling about of things to my repertoire.
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Here are some Wash wallpapers to help you through. The first is an idea from my daughter. She was so wrecked after the movie that she decided to put off a second viewing of Serenity until the second weekend. Later she hunted leaves around campus to find "the perfect one" and paired it with Sean Phillips' Serenity cover on her wall. She said it made her feel better.
http://webpages.charter.net/matsuweb/xfer/leaf_on_the_wind.htm
Variations on a theme:
http://webpages.charter.net/matsuweb/xfer/memorium.htm
If Serenity continues, I think we'll see him again in some form or another.
Edison
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Quote:
Originally posted by DigificWriter:Quote:
Originally posted by engineangel:
Wash's death ... still serves a purpose because it not only sets up the idea that nobody is safe, it gives Zoe even more motivation to kick some Reaver ass. I've heard a lot of people talking about how they didn't feel that Zoe (or anybody else) grieves for either Book or Wash, but in the case of Zoe and Wash, that's completely false. Immediately after Wash is impaled, Zoe's about to abandon her 'ice-woman' demeanor and cry, but Mal calls her back to the mission at hand; since she can't express her grief through tears, Zoe channels it into anger and aggression, but without becoming reckless. She uses the battle with the Reavers as an immediate outlet for her grief, and later is able to grieve in a more traditional manner (although she'll never let anybody else realize it); she also shows that she's grieving through her dialogue with Mal in Serenity's cockpit when she says 'She's torn up, but she'll fly true'. She's talking about herself as much as she is Serenity, and is letting Mal know that he doesn't have to worry about her (which he is).
Before the movie came out, I posted here to say that I had been spoiled by the New York Times - they let slip in an interview with Joss that "a few characters" were going to die. Once I had heard that, I couldn't stand to wait a week. I needed to know who it would be, and so I went online and intentionally spoiled myself further. I'm not sure that was a good idea. On the one hand, I had time to prepare for their deaths. If I hadn't prepared, I think Wash's death would have put such a damper on the movie that I wouldn't be able to remember enjoying the rest of it. On the other hand, being spoiled takes away the purpose everyone else has been claiming - that you fear for everyone else's lives that much more. I knew at that point that everyone else was going to be ok. (Thank God - Joss don't you dare touch another one of them!)
But I don't think that's the only reason that Wash died. Like DigificWriter said, it lets Zoe kick some Reaver ass. And it gives the Reaver-ass-kicking so much more meaning. (I have to disagree with her not being reckless though. I think she was incredibly reckless, stepping past the crates they had set up as a barrier and standing near the entrance so she can tear the Reavers to bits. Jayne called her on that - he kept asking her to get out of the way, because she was blocking his target.)
Zoe gets an entire emotional arc that she wouldn't have gotten had Wash not died. She handled her grief so eloquently, through denial and rage, and *that* is what made the movie real for me. Not that anyone can die, but the way the others deal with it.
Julia
p.s. Someone mentioned on this thread or another that Kaylee and River are breaking down during the funeral scene. I was so distracted by the Harry Potter tombstones that I missed that. I need to see this movie again, if just to catch their emotional reaction.
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