Question about Reavers
POSTED BY: rockxwl
UPDATED: Thursday, June 29, 2006 08:35
VIEWED: 6537
PAGE 4 of 4
Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
I read a theory about this that they were fine around each other, but "normal" pheremones drove them mad. I don't think this is true either, because the guy in Bushwacked only started "functioning" properly after commiting violence, not to mention he never got hit with the PAX.
That's the only way I can see them making more of themselves; forcing normal people to watch until they went out of their minds. I was always stunned that they would even have the mental capacity for this. Hell, I'm stunned they can fly ships.
Hmmmm. Who can say if the Bushwacked guy got exposed to PAX? Neither our BDH's nor the Alliance crew had any reason to test for PAX, or even to suspect it's existence.
And maybe it's undetectable - the crew were testing the atmo on Miranda and found nothing - so that ship might have been drenched in PAX and no-one knew. Or, as already pointed out, PAX might bio-accumulate in tissue and be passed on when that poor sod was forced to eat reaver-flesh.
And (not meaning to pick on you...much) why do you assume that insanity=stupidity? Hannibal Lector was a human-flesh-eating loonie of the first order, but clearly the smartest person any of his victims ever met. Not to mention the last person they ever met....
Cheers,
Johnboy
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Do you know what radiation does to the brain? To any tissue? It's not just that they're savagely insane, it's that they literally take such horrible care of themselves that their functions would continue deteriorating.
Being a "human-flesh-eating loonie of the first order, but clearly the smartest person any of his victims ever met" is almost mild compared to Reavers. Someone like Hannibal could function in normal society, could pretend he wasn't a killer and a cannibal, Reavers cannot. They are driven by ferocity and the need to eat people. Ok, maybe they had the capacity to know that making some poor soul watch while they raped, butchered, and devoured people would hurt him, but in a different way. I just can't see torment of the soul being as appealing to them as torment of the body obviously is.
I don't assume that insanity=stupidity, but I'm hardly going to assume that we're talking about rational, reasoning, logical, thinking creatures here.
They obviously don't maintain their ships very well, because they leave trails of smoke in atmo and trails of radiation outside it. They don't care about anything other than being able to harm people as easily as possible. They don't really care if they live or die.
How do I know the Bushwacked victim wasn't dosed with PAX? Because as you said, it is undetectable. They wouldn't know what it was that made them what they were, they wouldn't know what was causing the problem, and they wouldn't be able to find out because they couldn't detect it. Even knowing from hearing it spoken of wouldn't do them any good because they couldn't reproduce it unless they knew what was in it. And I don't think they would gas potential victims with it, either, because they like their prey to be not only alive but kicking. And it obviously doesn't work instantly because the whole crew was on Miranda, breathing the air, but left before it effected them. It probably took weeks to sink in; weeks of most people getting more mellow and more apathetic and a few people becoming more and more aggressive. And they probably didn't become Reavers, actual Reavers, until after the rest of the people were dead or more people on the planet would have shown signs of being knawed on. It might have taken them months to really go savage.
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Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
Do you know what radiation does to the brain? To any tissue?
Umm, nope, I don't. I also don't know what sort of radiation a person is exposed to when they are flying a ship without core containment. It's suicide, yep - gotta agree since Wash should know. But beyond that you're simply guessing as to it's effect on brain tissue.
Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
It's not just that they're savagely insane, it's that they literally take such horrible care of themselves that their functions would continue deteriorating.
Well, lot's of societies practice self-mutilation. Even our own. All the flesh-slicing and metal-piercing we've seen are pretty revolting, but they don't seem to prevent reavers from running, leaping, gouging or biting fit, non-reaverised people. So the impairment is not more than skin-deep.
Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
Being a "human-flesh-eating loonie of the first order, but clearly the smartest person any of his victims ever met" is almost mild compared to Reavers. Someone like Hannibal could function in normal society, could pretend he wasn't a killer and a cannibal, Reavers cannot.
Yep. Gotta agree with all that. Every time we have seen a reaver they already have their blood-lust up, and they are pretty unreasonable people when they do.
Why do you have to assume that they *always* have their blood-lust up? It is just as valid to think of them as beserkers - somewhat unsettling when they are sitting around discussing poetry, but downright frightening when they decide that a fight is brewing.
Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
They are driven by ferocity and the need to eat people. Ok, maybe they had the capacity to know that making some poor soul watch while they raped, butchered, and devoured people would hurt him, but in a different way. I just can't see torment of the soul being as appealing to them as torment of the body obviously is.
I don't assume that insanity=stupidity, but I'm hardly going to assume that we're talking about rational, reasoning, logical, thinking creatures here.
Well, see, this is where I disagree. They can fly and maintain ships, and navigate between planets. We have seen this. That requires a degree of rational, logical thought.
They have enough cunning to leave booby-traps behind them. That is not the work of mindless animals.
They can field a fleet of ships. They can coordinate those ships when attacking a colony, and even fight as a fleet against the Alliance.
They are not stupid. They are not unthinking.
They can't be, otherwise they would never have been able to leave Miranda in the first place.
Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
They obviously don't maintain their ships very well, because they leave trails of smoke in atmo and trails of radiation outside it. They don't care about anything other than being able to harm people as easily as possible. They don't really care if they live or die.
Well, they represent only one tenth of one percent of their entire population. If this were our population, and we all had to take to ships, how many sailors and shipbuilders would we be able to muster?
Most of those ships are probably manned by people who were bankers, buskers and bellhops before the PAX, so they are doing pretty good considering they had to learn it all as they go along.
As for them existing *only* to hurt and eat people, well, simply untrue. If it were true then Firefly would have lasted about half-way through the pilot episode i.e. about the time the reaver ship sailed right past Serenity without giving them a second glance.
Well, at least not until much later.
Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
How do I know the Bushwacked victim wasn't dosed with PAX? Because as you said, it is undetectable. They wouldn't know what it was that made them what they were, they wouldn't know what was causing the problem, and they wouldn't beNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME