the real shepard book

POSTED BY: tudyksgagreel
UPDATED: Wednesday, October 27, 2004 16:11
VIEWED: 24687
PAGE 7 of 9

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NEXT PAGE

THEZOOMZOOMKID

Monday, June 28, 2004 4:22 AM

I personaly belive that Book was a pretty high up alliance General who, after the war, realised what he has done and wants to make amends. He first becomes a precher, then tries to help out one of the people he hurt the most by winning the war, Mal.

FEMALEJAYNE

Monday, July 5, 2004 3:12 PM

I don't think Mal wants to be alone. I think he enjoys taking care of his crew, but he may feel that he is all they have. Maybe he is trying to make up for the loss of his troops... Anyway I think being free of everyone would create a prison for Mal.

With Hope because love is nothing without hope.

BOOKSWORD

Tuesday, July 6, 2004 8:29 PM

I have a feeling that he really is a Shepard.
( Either that or Ron Glass has blinded me with his remarkable acting chops)
Early said that Book was no Shepard he sounded kind of snide so my theory is that he was sneering at Books attempt to be one. Meaning I suppose that he knew what he was before.
Speaking of which what do we know

1- Is an intellectual
Which speaks of either higher education on par or supressing Simon or Intelligence
2- He is formidable combatant on par with Zoe at least which could indicate a military past
3- He is a people person, he talks quite a bit with Jayne who either tolerates him or likes him and besides Mal who for obvious reasons doesnt like him via religous connections. Most of the crew either trust or respect him to some degree.
4- He knows the inner running of the criminal world and has indepth knowledge of firefly craft as well as other ' talents'
So heres my thorey.

I think he is the Delann character of Firefly.

I think there was a council of war in the early begining of the Alliance\Independents war when they where discussing actions and proberly some Independent moderate with a clear head offered to hold some peace talks.
There was proberly votes and it was a tie and it was up to him.
But the man that he was was an arrogant man. Intelligent , high bred and going places, ambitous he saw the war as a stepping stone.
Proberly trained while young to be strong, faster, smarter and better he thought the independents as rabble who didnt know their place.
So he voted for war.
He was proberly a brilliant tactician maybe even a personal advisor to Yu Kwan maybe even an counter intelligence co-ordinator.
Maybe his intelligence helped win a key battle in the unification war - maybe the Serenity battle itself which helped turn the tide.
So picture this he goes to the valley and then he sees the real price of his actions, the wounded and the dead, and then he breaks down and has an epipheny at his own worth.
Perhaps there where fireflys being used to helped the wounded and in a numb state he removes his uniform to help the wounded and just walks away from his command and position.
Ferrying a ride with the wounded to another place and he just wandered from place to place numb by guilt till he got to the abbey.
High command cant say hes awol so hes ID is still Valid. Also they proberly teach some of his tactics at Achdemy or something.
Also as head of Counter intelligence he has instant access to all types of knowledge including the underworld.
But while he tries to make himself a new man part of him is still the cold, ruthless, tactician that River saw in Objects in space.
Maybe thats why Book says that he is no Shepard. Maybe hes not a Shepard yet.
But thats why he went into space. It was easy for him to think he changed in the Abbey, he had to see how much of that cold man was left. So he went out into the universe he helped create.

CLOVIS

Wednesday, July 7, 2004 8:18 PM

As people have said above, I think Book was an Alliance officer and that he was the officer that won the battle of Serenity Valley. It's possible that he's on some sort of sabbatical leave, or that, at least, he left the Alliance in their good books (hence the medical help, which I doubt he would have got if he were AWOL from his Alliance post). In any case, he left because he learnt about the Blue Sun experiments and couldn't stomach them. Perhaps he had a part in setting them up, then became disillusioned and revolted, hence the quest for some sort of spiritual renewal. I think he really is a shepherd now and Early was only seeing Book's past.

Or. His distress in Inara's cabin at having got on the 'wrong ship', may have come from a conflict between his desire for peace and him still being linked somehow (perhaps in an undercover role) to the Alliance and Blue Sun. If that was the case, he'd know all about River and Simon. But then, if he is undercover and doesn't tell the Alliance about River and Simon and the Alliance discover he's been on the same ship as them all this time - it looks bad for Book. He's either a spy who's keeping tabs on them, or he genuinely is a shepherd, having left the Alliance legitimately.

Book's distress in Inara's cabin, which, by the way, I always find utterly heart wrenching, also sort of upholds the idea of him being the officer that won Serenity. His distress could come from guilt, and Inara's comment 'perhaps you're exactly where you ought to be', could have more meaning than just, 'these people need a shepherd'. Book's time on Serenity could be a form of atonement for him.

JAYNESADDICTION

Thursday, July 22, 2004 9:12 PM

I agree book is alliance, however I wonder how stable the alliance is. The Blus Sun Corporation (the ones who most likely screwed up river) play a major role in the Alliance so My thought is that Book is alliance millitary (possibly even a hero of the battle of Serenity) and that he may be working a deep cover op trying to expose the Blue Sun Corp. The Simon/River incident is a perfect way to expose the Blue Sun's evils. I know I'm ignoring the logic that Book came on the ship first, however with his abilities to read people maybe he figured that Serenity was Simon's only way off Persephone.

RATNUT12

Tuesday, July 27, 2004 2:22 AM

Just noticed something after watching the Serenity pilot for the umpteenth time that hasn't been directly mentioned in this thread. When Book is talking to Kaylee before deciding to board Serenity he mentioned that he used to fly in a Firefly class ship some time ago. Given that the alliance looks down at fireflies and some believe they are the favorite vehicle of choice for smugglers, it's quite possible that Book was a smuggler type sometime in his past. It would answer alot of the previous posts' questions in regard to how he learned to fight, why he knows about other criminals and why he seems as smart as Mal when it comes to figuring out who or what the scam is. Now perhaps he later went on to join the alliance brass or perhaps he was a freelance smuggler who came across Independents war plans and passed them on to the Alliance(for a price, of course) and that could explain his good graces with the Alliance and could also explain his later guilt and religious conversion.
Now that's alot to chew from just one line in the pilot, but the pilot is all about exposition and backstory.

PURPLEBELLY

Tuesday, July 27, 2004 7:00 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by jaynesaddiction:
I know I'm ignoring the logic that Book came on the ship first

I agree with your analysis. My take is that Book was directed by his True Alliance cell to Serenity who knew that Simon was shipping out of Persephone on her. We don't know the mechanism or exact timing, but don't need to.

SUPERFLY

Wednesday, July 28, 2004 4:49 AM

Well, this thread’s pretty long, but I’ll throw my hat into the ring.

I think Book is exactly what he says he is. He’s a Shepard. There are too many pieces of
evidence throughout the series to mention here, but some are 1. His encounter with River and the
Bible not only seemed honest, but there was no reason for it not to be. 2. He warned Mal about
going to the special hell if he took sexual advantage of “Saffron.” 3. He was taken aback and uncomfortable when first faced with Inara’s profession. Etc etc.

But, I think it’s safe to say that he has not always been a Shepard. Again, too many pieces of
evidence to mention. ... just a few.. 1. Can make the caliber and model of a gun by seeing the
bullet wound. 2. Is obviously highly trained and experienced in martial arts. 3. River saw some
things in Objects in space that happened in the past.... In Book’s past, we see he had no mercy for
the innocent. Etc. Etc.

So, my conclusion is that Book was an Alliance assassin... Black Ops, if you will, trusted with and given clearance for the highest priority missions where secrecy, stealth, and murder were needed. And he probably fit the bill too. Highly skilled, cold-blooded, willing and able. At some point in his career, something had an impact on him. He found religion, left the profession, and sequestered himself away in an Abby. I don’t think he has a lot of active guilt. I think he has, in Christian terms, been born again, all of his sins washed away.

Of course, even if I’m right, I just wanna know what arrow was so thin it actually hit whatever
conscience he had. Was it a job, a mark he walked away from? Why? Who? Did they let him go willingly? Or did he have to flee or fight his way out?

So, um... that’s what I think.

EDIT: awwwww stupid word processing program with its invaluable spellcheck. Sorry for the format.

CF

Friday, August 6, 2004 8:52 AM

Hi all!
Just got through watching the fantastic DVD set (OK watching for the third time! )
Thought I'd jump in on this thread.
Thing that I noticed in Objects in Space that caught my eye.
When the crew are all sitting round the table discussing River, and Mal says (something like) "I think its more than intuition, I think she's a reader. Am I alone in this?"
Book immediately (and quite solemly says "No".
The rest especially Wash dismiss it as "sci-fi" (love that bit).
Only Book seems to take this seriously.

BRUISERSMOM

Tuesday, August 10, 2004 5:39 PM

The special room in hell may not be part of the Bible but may be from other literature and has seeped out into American culture because I've heard people use that phrase before it was used in Firefly. I don't know the exact work of literature from which it springs but other works of literature have created multiple hells. One of these works is Dante'e Inferno, which has seven layers to hell, each layer progressively worse than previous one and the worse spot in hell being reserved for Judas who spends eternity in the devil's mouth. Also, if you watch Buffy and Angel, there are many hells and demon dimensions made up there.

Something a lot of people haven't mentioned is in the Message Book knew that the cop was out of his jurisdiction and was able to fight this cop's attempts at bullying the Serenity crew into handing over Mal and Zoe's old comrade by pointing out that he was way out of his jurisdiction and didn't alert the local federal police post, so the cop was not on official Alliance business. Brook would have to know something of police work to know these things and no one else on Serenity thought of it.

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 NEXT PAGE