Blue Sun and the Alliance
POSTED BY: Melam
UPDATED: Sunday, March 5, 2006 06:17
VIEWED: 8483
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just watched that scene....that is definately a slash across the blue sun logo...not necessarily against jayne...it perfectly slashes the logo...then..."You look better in red"...as opposed to Blue...this scene was most likely just there to reference an future tie-in of the Blue Sun copr.... notice that River's attack doesn't have any real effect on the storyline of the episode(well it could be argued that it is why jayne called the feds)..but nothing else is spoke of it fater into the story
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Fans have supposed that Blue Sun were the ones that experimented on River but nobody connected to the production ever said so directly. The BDM seems to make it clear that River was in a Government compound of some kind. One poster here claimed that Joss had intended BS to be the bad guys in the BDM but that Universal forced them to change it. He wasn't able to find the reference for that quote though.
My personal belief runs like this. At the time of Firefly Joss had two series that had run in excess of 3 seasons on TV, he certainly wasn't expecting that this show was going to die so soon. I suspect that several seperate plots were being foreshadowed in the episodes we got to see those being.
1) Who are the Reavers and what is their story
2) Who took River Tam, what did they do to her and why?
3) What is going on with River and Blue Sun?
4) Who was Shepard Book and what was his story?
I put River and Blue Sun as being seperate from her abduction/training because I still think they were intended to be seperate threads. While it's possible that Joss was going to turn Blue Sun into another Wolfram and Hart given the limited resources of Serenity's crew several "smaller" villians are easy to handle than a single big conspiracy.
My thought? Blue Sun provides most of the food in the verse, what if they are putting something in it? What if as a result of being psychic River has picked up on that and so is scared of them for reasons unconnected with her initial kidnapping?
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Don't have time to read the thread (floaty tired already), but I have a possible explination. Hopefully, it hasn't already been stated.
Since Blue Sun has so many products out there, it doesn't make sense for it to /be/ the government and/or military.
But, any military/government entity will subcontract. So, I imagine that Blue Sun as well does other more... covert R&D.
----
"We're in a giant car heading into a brick wall at 100 miles/hr and everybody's arguing about where they want to sit."
-David Suzuki
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Blue Sun could easily just be a Corporation whose contacts with, and contracts for, the government have become so high-level and numerous that the dividing line between the company and the state has become a mite fuzzy.
Think the East India Company... or Halliburton perhaps
Actually as regards the latter comparison, given Joss Whedon's politics and sense of humour, a throwaway comment in some hypothetical future episode which mentions that the Deputy Prime Minister of the Alliance is the former CEO of Blue Sun wouldn't go too amiss 
I wrote a little analysis of my thoughts on the Political/Economic nature of the Alliance for my ongoing FanFic sequence which seems to fit the model pretty well (this isn't just blatant advertising I'm just too darn lazy to rewrite the whole thing)
Quote:
‘Economically the Alliance can be thought of as primarily mercantilist in nature, that is to say it is capitalist but without the notion of free trade or much in the way of state restrictions on monopolies’ Steven began. ‘In many ways it can be seen as a parallel to the situation within the gradually emerging economic situation during the 18th Century in that large companies formed to take advantage of the new colonial enterprises and whilst society was gradually industrialising in some areas agriculture still dominated the lives of many.’
The academic started pacing up and down as was his habit when teaching. ‘You can take the comparison further’ he said. ‘To give an example, during this time period on Earth-That-Was there was a private colonial concern known as the “East India Company” which was set up on the Indian Sub-Continent. Originally it was just a business but over the years it expanded its interests and eventually operated its own army both to protect these interests and expand them still further.’
‘In the end the British government and the East India Company became so entwined that it was hard to distinguish where one began and the other ended. Business turned to informal Empire and eventually outright annexation of territory.’ Steven said. ‘In a similar way the big terraforming companies and conglomerates of today were originally just private concerns but as they expanded outwards to develop new worlds the line was blurred between their perceived interests and those of the state.’
‘The Alliance bankrolled a number of these ventures through loans. It also lent troops to protect its investments. As the state became more and more involved in these private ventures the conglomerates similarly became more and more wrapped up in the state especially given the number of formally state-run sectors that were either privatised outright or contracted out such as communications.’
‘Money of course is another factor. Many politicians were either bought outright or else persuaded into voting one way or the other by well funded lobbyists with corporate backing.’
‘As the dividing line between the conglomerates and the government faded it was inevitable that it the end the needs of business would far outweigh the needs of the people, or indeed capitalism itself’. Steven paused to take a drink. ‘As they developed some of the outer planets had begun to industrialise and although such competition is actually beneficial to the economy as a whole it was bad news to the established firms in the core which fought back by persuading the government to introduce the diabolical tariff system we have to put up with now.’
‘Ironically this suppression of competition is one reason why the vastly outmatched Independent industrial base kept us going so long. Many of the core factories insulated from competition were highly inefficient and bureaucratic by comparison to the newer more dynamic enterprises on the rim. They had many times the industrial potential but nowhere near the individual productivity per worker which is one reason why all those gleaming core metropolises didn’t crush the Browncoats instantly under a tidal wave of logistics like they really should have.’
‘The other reasons were of course down to fNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Also, in the BDM, Dr. Mathias says:
"I was told that the Alliance's support for the project was unanimous."
Indicating that the Academy, where River is being held, is itself not Alliance! And who else but Blue Sun has enough clout to run a military type facility of this sort?
But the important thing in the dialogue with Simon remains the fact that it's clearly not the Allliance itself who is holding River!
--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam
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This may have already been mentioned. If so, all apologies. However . . .
It remains my belief that the futuristic "Alliance" that exists in the Firefly/Serenity 'verse is a fascist one. Not necessarily a 1930s Germany fascism (which some called Nazism) but Italy's brand from the same time period. The vast majority of people that lived within that system felt that the government would protect them (in exchange for certain rights) and they were mostly happy because "the trains ran on time". It was a very efficient society in many topical ways.
How does that apply to this particular 'verses Alliance and where does the relationship with the Blue Sun Corp. come in?
Another hallmark of Fascism (which may or may not have been a statement of Mussolini) is that you could call it Corporatism. If you have heard the simplified version of Socialism, that the government owns the corporations, then the simplified version of Fascism is that the corporations own the government. This is where I believe the ties between Blue Sun and the Alliance come in.
The Blue Sun Corp. pulls the strings at the highest level of the Alliance governmental structure. The average person in the government (the guy whos eyes bled in Ariel) do not see this connection when they come to retrieve River, but neither do they ask questions of anyone regarding the situation. They were told from their authority to turn her over to them, and authority always knows best.
Anyway, just my opinion.
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Quote:
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Originally posted by mattcoz:
I have evidence that this Academy is actually a decendant branch of the University of Illinois.
http://www.mrbluehands.com
i always knew my wife's stepfather (a u of i alum) was completley and utterly evil....now i have proof. EVIL!!!
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I feel that Blue Sun and the Alliance have mutually-beneficial relationship. Blue Sun finances many operations, provides materials, etc., and in turn also has the leverage to "suggest" policy, and has "key stakeholders", which were referred to in the BDM. The Alliance is the muscle and Blue Sun is the evil empire controlling the universe. Similar to "the Umbrella Corporation" of Resident Evil infamy.
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Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:
Also, in the BDM, Dr. Mathias says:
"I was told that the Alliance's support for the project was unanimous."
Indicating that the Academy, where River is being held, is itself not Alliance! And who else but Blue Sun has enough clout to run a military type facility of this sort?
Except that the bigger the organisation the less connected things are. just because you work for the Alliance doesnt make you the Alliance. Mathias has had an official turn up out of the blue with papers that say he can make an immediate spot review (ie Simon.) Mathias is worried about his job so he's confirming that the project still has support. In effect he's naming his paymaster (the Alliance) that doesnt imply anything more, he could have a project in a government lab, the labs of an outside contractor, even a university. I have known people working for government labs, when funding needs to be renewed they say "hope the government backs my project" not "hope we back my project."
Would an "Operative of the Parliament" be allowed complete unrestricted access to a fascillity operated by a private company even if that company does government work? Guess we don't really know enough about the 'Verse to know.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Fletch2:Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:
Also, in the BDM, Dr. Mathias says:
"I was told that the Alliance's support for the project was unanimous."
Indicating that the Academy, where River is being held, is itself not Alliance! And who else but Blue Sun has enough clout to run a military type facility of this sort?
Except that the bigger the organisation the less connected things are. just because you work for the Alliance doesnt make you the Alliance. Mathias has had an official turn up out of the blue with papers that say he can make an immediate spot review (ie Simon.) Mathias is worried about his job so he's confirming that the project still has support. In effect he's naming his paymaster (the Alliance) that doesnt imply anything more, he could have a project in a government lab, the labs of an outside contractor, even a university. I have known people working for government labs, when funding needs to be renewed they say "hope the government backs my project" not "hope we back my project."
Would an "Operative of the Parliament" be allowed complete unrestricted access to a fascillity operated by a private company even if that company does government work? Guess we don't really know enough about the 'Verse to know.
I know the Alliance is involved, of course. Maybe they contracted his lab, paid his bill, or are otherwise overseeing it. It's just interesting to see that the Alliance is not running the entire show (as in, without outside help). So, whoever they contracted, they must be pretty big, of course (trustworthiness, stable partner, and such). Blue Sun is a likely candidate. But, like you said, so is a university.
Except, of course, with so much secrecy going on at the Academy, the Alliance must really have, and be able to maintain, a large level of control. I think a university would be too 'leaky' for that. So, I'd still say Blue Sun is the most likely candidate to run the Academy.
--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam
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