Preacher's origin

POSTED BY: DeckardBR
UPDATED: Friday, October 28, 2005 01:14
VIEWED: 8299
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PYROFALKON

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 1:47 AM

I thought the ex-operative story made sense, but i never thought it would work. Would the alliance really just let him run around with all those secrets in his head? The preacher-with-a-past theory makes slightly more sense if it's a

An ex-con. Perhaps at one time worse and more sadistic than Adelei Niska, but who had since found religion?

b

A member of a specialized order of the apparently very influential 'church' that pervades the 'verse. An order that is akin to pre-industrial Jesuits in terms of information gathering & problem solving for the church hierarchy. This would explain the Ident Card respect as who wouldn't fall over themselves if the card said the equivalent of 'Cardinal Such-and-such, Spanish Inquistion' or 'Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (current Pope Benedict XVI's former

or simply c

A double agent for Independents who had infiltrated Alliance trust?

i dare not mention the HOBgoblins.

PURPLEYIN

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 9:28 AM

the operatives dont know any secrets, they just guard them.

N0SKILLZ

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 9:33 AM

He has a point. I think thats why the alliance isn't looking for him.

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"It's not that there HAS to be a sequel. It's just that I've got so many IDEAS..."-Joss Whedon
*Andersen AFB, Guam*

DONCOAT

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 11:58 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DeckardBR:
Quote:
Originally posted by Ursula:
Yeah, I'd say he was like the operative's operative, la creme de la creme of the merciless killing set.

One thing that has puzzles me is in "Objects in Space" River's little "read" of Book: "I don't give half a hump if you're innocent or not." Where's that comin' from?!

I took this to mean that even though she seems like an innocent girl, Book doesn't care and just as well would have her off the ship. Or at least thats how she read it.

Possible, but not certain. River may have been picking up on one of Book's memories of an earlier interrogation. That is, the phrase may not have been directed at River at all.

It may have been a clue to Book's past, without telling us anything about his feelings toward River.

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Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.

DONCOAT

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 12:03 PM

There's another possibility for Book that I haven't seen mentioned (at least not recently). Maybe Book is a former Blue Hands Guy.

One thing we learn in the comics is that

Select to view spoiler:

the Blue Hands Guys are hired guns -- private contractors employed by the Alliance to track down River.

If they are also connected to Blue Sun, which has close ties to the Alliance government, then they would have plenty of knowledge about how the Alliance thinks and acts.

Maybe Book got sick of making people's brains melt.

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Ain't about you, Jayne. It's about what they need.

ZARNYWHOOP

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 12:04 PM

I,m thinking that he was the General commanding Alliancs forces at the battle of Serinity Valley.

ZW

PYROFALKON

Thursday, October 27, 2005 1:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Zarnywhoop:
I,m thinking that he was the General commanding Alliancs forces at the battle of Serinity Valley.

ZW

That is good. I never considered that before. But I must ask. If he was a general at the battle of serenity, why has the alliance not executed him?

GIANTEVILHEAD

Thursday, October 27, 2005 2:18 AM

I doubt that Book was an Operative. The Alliance would never let an Operative leave alive. He had to have been powerful enough or had enough connections to leave alive and still be able to retain some authority within the Alliance. I think that he either trained Operatives or he created the Operative program in the first place.

"I swallowed a bug." -River Tam

VISITINGMYINTENTIONS

Thursday, October 27, 2005 2:50 AM

I don't think the general option is right. He knows damned sketchy things. Let's list what we know about our shepherd, besides that he's a shepherd.

-He never married or had children
This may not say anything about his secret, but he's very particular about it. Does that mean he's adhered to the rules of his order from a rather young age? Or that he's proud of retroactively following them? ...Not sure what I can take from this bit of info, but it's worth remembering anyway.
-He knows about Adelai Niska
He has connections with the underworld. It may be something like Mal's, or it may be for law-enforcement, but it could be something darker as well. None of these suggest "general" to me.
-He can shoot guns. He is an excellent aim.
I don't think any of us believe it's for rabbits. He was a fighter, not a corporate head or an organizer of any program.
-He is respected by the Alliance
He was either an important Alliance agent/official or someone who had good relationship with the Alliance (e.g. Blue Sun)
-Early knows he's not a shepherd
This may just be Early being crazy, but it's also possible he either knows something about Book or has sufficient intuition to tell there's something besides preacherhood going on there.
-He cares about being a good shepherd.
If he's still an agent of somebody's, that overlaps with being an actual shepherd. It's also possible that he's retired and atoning for sins.
-He doesn't give half a hump if you're innocent or not. So where does that put us?
That bit--everyone else's River-read thoughts are current. I don't think this is a distant memory. We don't know if his comment is to Jayne or River. Jayne and Simon look at River when they say thoughts about her. Inara looks at her even though her thought is addressed to Mal. So there is no need to assume he is talking about River. He could be speaking of anyone, although it would be easier if we assumed it was to one of the people in the room with him.
"Innocence"...an idea important to both law and religion.

...I don't really have a conclusion, but I would discard the possibilities of general, bureaucrat, or scientist, or of someone lying about his religiosity. He sincerely wants to be a good christian, but he also has a very ugly side. Ah, Book, my favourite enigma.

Ex-operative fits, but I think his ugly side is not just in the past, so I'm going to keep on with my speculations until I find something better.

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Early: Where'd she go?

Simon: I can't keep track of her when she's NOT incorporeally possessing a spaceship, don't look at me --

PURPLEYIN

Thursday, October 27, 2005 9:37 AM

Regarding the last point about humping, if Book left whatever order he belonged to prior to the religious one, he probably left because he found out something that disillusioned him. So he would be penitent. Constantly thinking of all the things he did retrospectively that he now feels were wrong. It would make sense that these things would always be on his mind. Things like interrogations of people that probably were innocent.

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