Why I now think Book was an ex-Operative

POSTED BY: asarian
UPDATED: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 04:23
VIEWED: 17761
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ASARIAN

Tuesday, January 8, 2008 2:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SchoolboysWink:

As for Book being a student of Shan Yu, I think this is one of those moments where we are well served to take a step back and observe the show from outside it, thinking of the conventions and needs of writing, rather than assuming that EVERYTHING said within the show fits perfectly and has a purpose within the show. The teachings of Shan Yu were something Joss wanted us to see about Niska's character, a window into the way he thinks, as well as the way he justifies himself. (Also sets up one of the show's shiniest lines: "You wanna meet the real me now!") Joss knows the vast majority of his audience however, bright as we Browncoats are , has never heard of Shan Yu, so he needs to have a few sentences of exposition. If Niska says these lines, it weakens him; for us to see him explaining his philosophy to his victims takes away from his cold brutality. The line "Are you familiar with the writings of Shan Yu?" seems much less sadistic if he then spends the next couple of minutes explaining them to the guy he is cutting on. So, Book, being the Point of View character for all things involving moral philosophy, describes it, bouncing off Simon, since he is the only other historically-minded character available. The audience at this point will accept Book's knowledge, since as a Shepherd we assume he probably has a decent grip on comparative religion and philosophy. Now, Joss is Boss, so could he have decided to bring this back up later with a tie-in to Book's past? Naturally. But since all we've got is what we've got, I think the evidence available supports the literary necessities of the scene moreso than Shepherd being a student of the torturous pyschopath himself.

A well thought-out, lucid and coherent expose. :) I fully concur.

Also, I think Book himself answers the question:

SIMON
Sadistic crap legitimized by florid
prose. Tell me you're not a fan.

BOOK
I'm just wondering if they were. The
people who did this to River.

(...)

BOOK
I'm just wondering if they put her
through this just to see how much she
could take. To "truly meet her", as
Shan Yu would have said.

I think Book brought up Shan Yu because he's still struggling with his own past. Not that I think he was a torturous pyschopath his own self, but being confronted with the brutality visited upon River, and having been on the 'wrong' side a good while himself, as part of dealing with that, he's genuinely wondering why people could do such a thing. It is as if he's telling himself: "There must have been a reason why I once did the things I did." He's trying to make sense of why people (including himself) do cold-hearted things like done unto River.

Now a good human being, Book is not looking to excuse himself per se -- he's too honest for that. Rather, he likes to learn causes, so he can distance himself from them. Like I once heard a German historian say about Hitler: "Wenn wir uns ihm nähern, wird es sich entfernen." Meaning: the closer we examine him, the farther we can distance ourselves from him (lit. "When we near him, he will distance from us.")

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

PIRATECAT

Tuesday, January 8, 2008 3:35 PM

Ya know in Bab 5 they had brain wipes for murderers cause they out lawed the death penalty. The Blue Sun Corp is pretty high tech maybe they messed with Book. In the begining Book is the holy rev but as time goes on hey this ain't no preacher. So he has been undercover in the abby. Or his memory is coming back. Who knows. Joss does. hmmm

"Battle of Serenity, Mal. Besides Zoe here, how many-" "I'm talkin at you! How many men in your platoon came out of their alive".

TRONS

Monday, April 26, 2010 3:00 PM

I'm a newer browncoat and haven't studied the shows nearly as much as some here, so my opinion should be taken with an ocean of salt. Having said that, I actually agree with the notion that Book is an ex-operative and some of the arguements that state he was an ex-cop or something along those lines, don't add up. I'll try to answer why I feel that way below.

Before I begin, I apologize for bringing up an old thread.

Quote:
Originally posted by SchoolboysWink:

That said, I don't think Early knew Book wasn't a Shepherd due to any prior encounter. He knew he wasn't a Shepherd for the same reason that he knew the name and habits of every other person on Serenity: Research. He clearly had done his homework before the job.

I believe that Jubal did do his homework. My take on it though, was more, "I know everything there is to know about all of you, except this guy. If he was a shepherd, his past wouldn't have been hard to hash out, since I couldn't, I know he's not a shepherd, but I'm not sure what he is."

I say that because I think that had Jubal known what Book was, he would have said. You don't have to know what a Bear is to know it's not a fish.

There have been several comments about the Alliance not letting an operative go, however that doesn't need to be the case either. In the BDM, we see an operative that has failed his task and made some tough decisions that may bring down the anger of the Alliance, that may not be the only way to leave that line of work. Book is somewhat older and it may be that he's retired, or maybe succeeded in a particularly tough operation but something that really strained him and he was seeking solitude in the monastery.

Book:
"is this what it's like, out here?"

I've read several places that this isn't something that an ex-operative would say. However if you take in to account the fact that he may have spent his career as a "domestic" operative, opposed to a foreign operative, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that he has no idea what life on the outer rim would be like.

We can also extrapolate that statement a little to something like:
"is this what it's like, out here, without the back-up of the alliance and the reputation of an operative to get things done?"

Most of the other reasons, including the ones listed above, have already been mentioned.

BYTEMITE

Monday, April 26, 2010 3:44 PM

I've never necessarily thought that being an Operative might PRECLUDE Book from being a Bad Cop. Especially if the members of Parliament represented are completely happy with extortion, bounty hunting, smuggling, confiscation and re-sale, and any number of other corrupt cop activities. Heck, they might even have encouraged it when he got assigned and he just grew into the role.

Our good Shepherd also knows his way uncanny around machetes and other swords, at least in the comic books. I think the connection between that and the Operative's favoured wakizashi is intentional.

Also, I was sniffing around, and I saw this on wikipedia:

Quote:
Whedon has stated that if a sequel [to Serenity] is made, he hopes to address the character Book's backstory and deal with Jubal Early, a bounty hunter character in Firefly.

So I think there may really be some connection between the two characters. The question is, what is it? If Early's as bad as we are told, and they were enemies or rivals, then you'd think Early would have killed Book rather than incapacitate him. Character designs for Book for the new comic coming out seem to be that of a young man, so it's hard to imagine that Early might know of Book beyond reputation.

There's also a little hint that Asarian I think brought up that Derrial Book "took his name" from a man he killed. Operatives are nameless, you know.

ZEEK

Monday, April 26, 2010 5:08 PM

Personally I think more of the evidence leans toward ex-operative. Just because Book has so many things going for him. He's got the ID. He's got knowledge of nets. He knows Niska's full name and his reputation. He knows how operatives like to operate. He knows police procedures.

He just seems to have too much detailed knowledge of too many things to be just a cop or just a fed or just a resistance member. All of those could pull off that knowledge with enough tweaking. They'd still be exceptions to the rule.

Like the ID being fake. That's cheating the audience IMO. Anyone could have a fake ID technically. It's especially underhanded when the reaction to the Operatives identification is extremely similar to the reaction to Book's ID. (*shit a brick* Do anything and everything for this person)

Also no one has mentioned the Serenity novelization. I never read it, but someone posted some conversation between Book and the operative. The operative knows who Book is and seems to hold him in high regard or he used to. From what I recall. Of course it's still totally vague and doesn't answer anything, but it doesn't seem like it would fit the dirty cop notion. Unless he was the head of some huge organized crime syndicate.

GLYWYSING

Saturday, August 14, 2010 1:37 PM

I don't like the theory that he is an ex-cop, Early's "That aint no shepherd" line suggests his past is far more sinister than simply being a cop. And why would Alliance care that some retired cop was dying so much as to immediately change their attitude and treat him with urgency?

For me, Early's aforementioned line confirms that Book was a very shady character, and an Operative seems to fit the bill perfectly.

TWO

Saturday, August 14, 2010 3:56 PM

It is nearly time for Joss Whedon to publish Book's biographical story. We might soon know if Book was an ex-cop or an Operative with the Dark Horse release of "The Shepherd's Tale" in November, 2010. "According to Scott Allie, the three-year delay was because no appropriate author could be found to write the story from Whedon's outlines, until Joss brought his brother Zack in on the project in late 2009." - http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Serenity:_The_Shepherd%27s_Tale

The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two

TOASTERPIMP

Sunday, November 21, 2010 9:28 PM

Just a side point, in case no one has raised it yet:

Book is almost certainly an alias, since "Bible" is from the greek "biblos" meaning "book."

So yeah, probably not his real name.

TOASTERPIMP

Sunday, November 21, 2010 9:34 PM

http://www.amazon.ca/Serenity-Shepherds-Tale-Zack-Whedon/dp/1595825614
#reader_1595825614

huh. So i guess i'll have to pick this one up now.

no more interesting discussion.

Although somehow i feel like firefly makes a whole lot more sense without the movie.

NVGHOSTRIDER

Monday, November 22, 2010 9:17 AM

Sticking with my initial theory:

Book is The Operative from the BDM who discovered a way to travel back in time and wishes to fulfill a vow of atonement by assisting the crew and to provide Mal with all the emotional/spiritual support he is capable of offering. Of course I am probably wrong and just need to order the gorram book already.

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