POLL: How many peeps here lost someone close, and how does that affect your view of 'Serenity?' (Spoilers)
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 12:28
VIEWED: 3607
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I've lost people, family, friends, comrades, people very close to me. That kind of pain stays with you, it may get better, but the memory is always there.
Did Joss killing off Book and Wash change how I view Serenity? Sure. Had they lived I don't know that it would have really driven home just how perilous the crew's position was, just how serious the Alliance was about burying their dirty little secret about Miranda. Having both characters died showed us how real the threat was and made it clear that no one is safe. In that final battle in the tunnel of Mr Universe's complex I thought we were about to lose more of the crew. It was bleak and desperate and I think that is just what Joss wanted to convey.
Seeing those deaths on the screen made the crew more real to me because death could touch them the same way it touches us all. It gave those characters grief they will carry always.
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Very nicely put, BC1.
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Very nicely put, BC1.
Thanks Chris.
__________________________________________
Holding the line since December '02!
Richmond, VA & surrounding area Firefly Fans:
http://www.richmondbrowncoats.org
X.O. / Battalion O.I.C.
http://76thbattalion.homestead.com/index.html
http://76thbattalion.proboards.com
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Deaths I have been affected by were of very old relatives, generally, which has no bearing whatsoever on my viewing of Serenity. My mother died quite suddenly after a long battle with addiction when I was 12, which also doesn't really affect my view of Serenity.
Movie deaths have to be handled really skillfully to approach the emotional seriousness of my experience of losing a loved one. Or, more specifically, portray the act of grieving. It's not the death that gets me, it's the emotional effect on other people.
Serenity doesn't really do that. Sure, we see both Mal and Zoe go apeshit with rage, but that's not grief. And we don't see either of them deal with loss again until they stoically say goodbye during the funeral, to "fly true" again right afterwards.
Now, give me the funeral scene in "My Girl" and I'm a sobbing mess.
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*sends love to Beatupplenty*
Chrisisall
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Beatupplenty,
first of all, I'm very sorry for your loss.
I didn't say that anger wasn't part of grief, at all. It's a big part. But what we saw in both cases was more a very early, initial rage, in both cases - and then nearly nothing. We see very little of the rest of their grief playing out. None, to be exact, from Mal. A funeral, a moment of rebuilding the cockpit and a remark to the effect of being mostly fine from Zoe. For all that Joss used the deaths for shock, I feel he still glossed over the real, long-term impact of it. He did a better job with the guest character deaths on the show. Both Nandi's and Tracey's deaths showed characters afterwards dealing with that loss and reflecting on it, beyond the funeral.
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Thank you for your responses. My heart goes out to all of you who have lost someone close. Sending Firefly love.
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