Coping with Serenity's Ending

POSTED BY: stonearch
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 13:15
VIEWED: 6065
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STONEARCH

Sunday, March 11, 2007 8:34 PM

Thanks to those who have posted!

It is indeed some comfort to hear that, should there be a second movie (my personal hope!), that Book and Wash will make some appearance. Even if it is just flashbacks and memory-sequences - they are a poor substitute to living characters, but infinitely better than nothing...INFINITELY!

And thanks to those who pointed me towards the theories on how he may have survived (specifically PASTORBADGE's - what a fascinating and massively long thread!) - being a rather pessimistic and scientifically minded person, I am not sure yet if I can truly swallow it (Joss didn't leave a ton of openings for us to really make it work), but that's the beauty (and curse) of the human mind, we believe what we want/need to believe, contrary to all evidence otherwise, LOL, so it is indeed a comfort to at least be able to mull over this theory. :)

I feel your pain, Book fans, at seeing his death sort of shrugged off in comparison to Wash's. But as David said, I think it is in part because Book was older/unmarried, and because we got to see a little pre-death speech, etc to help us through it. But ultimately, I think it was the shocking end for Wash that pretty much drove out all though of Book, for me at least. If the thing with Wash hadn't happened, or if things had been done in a different order or whatever, we might all be sitting around lamenting Book more.

Regarding Causal's post - I hear ya. I have long been a fan of Hong Kong cinema where the stars almost ALWAYS die, and its just part of life, folks accept that the heroes often die. I very rarely resent a storyteller killing off a character. The first 24 hours after I saw Serenity, I was terribly sad and crushed, but I didn't necessarily think that Joss shouldn't have done things the way he did - as you said, its his story, death is inevitable, etc. etc. etc. All good, logical thoughts.

But after that first 24 hours, I've been increasingly unhappy with that twist of the plot, and have gotten a case of the "I Wish..." It certainly WAS a good bit of story telling, he did it in just such a way that obviously had a HUGE impact on all of us, because we are all sitting around talking about it. LOL If he had more of a wrap-up, post death speech, etc he could have lessened the impact, but he chose to do it the way he did, which is what made it such a shock to the fans. That's his choice, but I don't think it's fair to try and say that fans don't have the right to "wish" it were otherwise, or find alternate theories to feed their own imaginations. That's the beauty of imagination and story telling - he's told us a GREAT story, but wither he likes it or not, once we've got it in our own minds, we can take the story wherever we like...he can try to make it nearly impossible for us to take the characters some places (such as by killing them), but hey, if a fan really wants to use their imagination and take the story in a different direction, there ain't much that can be done to stop us, and I'm not sure its fair of anyone to tell us we can't. The example that comes to mind is the Harry Potter series, where the author has hinted heavily that she will give a definite ending to the story so that no one else can carry on the story after her. I understand that its HER story, so she can end it how she pleases, but it feels just a tad selfish to have her say "glad you enjoyed my fine story, but you aren't permitted to carry it on in your own imagination, its MINE ALL MINE!"

I whole-heartedly agree that these stories are BEST told by the original storytellers, and I vastly prefer to hear their own versions over anyone else's (including my own imagination's), but if they put in a twist that I just can't abide by, I reserve the right to, at the very least, be upset and unhappy about it. :) I'm not about to scold the storyteller or try to tell them they shouldn't have done it - its their story, then can tell it as they like, but I can at least be unhappy about it. And, as a good storyteller, I'm sure Joss expected that kind of reaction,

COPILOT

Sunday, March 11, 2007 8:39 PM

I missed so much my first time in the theater because I was crying so hard! I understand the depression. But denial does work.

An I carried such a torch

STONEARCH

Sunday, March 11, 2007 8:39 PM

Oh, and I saw a comment from someone on one of the old threads that was something like "We cry when Joss cries, but Joss laughs when we cry. Is that fair, I ask you?" That seems terribly, terribly true, doesn't it? LOL

BROWNCOAT1

Monday, March 12, 2007 11:25 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by stonearch:
Were any of you as crushed with Wash dying?

I most definitely was when I saw the prescreening in June of '05.

It is odd, seeing as how I have never really considered Wash to be one of my favorite characters, but his death on screen impacted me more than I would have thought possible. I remember saying softly over and over (to myself of course so as not to disturb others) "I can't believe it. Not Wash."

It took me a while to come to grips with it and I think this is the exact reaction that Joss was looking for when he wrote it. It impressed upon me just how much each character means to the whole story.

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ALLIETHORN7

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 1:15 PM

For me?
Lots and lots and lots and lots and lotsa and lots and lorra lots of music. Flogging Molly, Thrice, the stuff what cheers me up. Whenever I watch the BDM, I make sure to have my CD player prepped for some major usage. Oh, and I surf around this here shiny burg and bitch about it. It's fun.

-Danny

Our Idols lay in Ruins,
We'd have saved them if we Could,
But we still chose to Worship,
The Places where our Idols STOOD!!!
THRICE RULES!!!!!!!!!

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