Reavers, what's their deal?

POSTED BY: athertonwing
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 06:24
VIEWED: 17272
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PALADIN

Friday, March 26, 2004 4:09 PM

I have to say that I too have been intrigued by the mystery that is Reavers. Are they crazy, just plain mad, or are they so sane that it just blows your minds? Perhaps there is an even more sinister reason than just some failed experiments, or space-crazy cannibals.

Anyone out here familiar with H.P. Lovecraft? Heard about the Necronomicon ? A book bound in human flesh and containing a depth of secrets about the true nature of the cosmos so soul-crushing that most all who read it go mad. It was said that dark and unknown cults existed in order to bring about the return of the elder races from their slumber benetah the surface of the Earth. They preformed disturbing rituals of such horrifying and blasphemous natures that I would be forever cursed to mention them aloud.

What if the Reavers are the survivors of such a cult? Driven by a darker force, different from that which any man has known. For their dark masters have awakened on the "Earth that Was," and they now aim to move others of their kind into this dimension. From the blackness of space and chaos, a plane undescribeable in its ancient and cyclopean horrors comes a fear older than time itself. The Reavers have come. And to face them is to join them, or spend eternity wishing they had killed you before skinning and wearing you.

Just a thought. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go turn on all the lights in the room.

------------
"If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special level of Hell, a level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater." -Book

CYBERSNARK

Friday, March 26, 2004 4:17 PM

The PCP analogy would also make a cool/ironic Buffyverse reference (Principal Snyder's initial "cover story" explained vampires as teens high on PCP). Maybe Jayne (or even River) could compare Reavers to vampires in a throwaway line. . .

Quote:
Originally posted by Noocyte:
More centrally, though, I'm rather taken with the idea of "men gone savage on the edge of space," since it is in keeping with Joss' overarching thesis that people go out into the Black and meet....themselves. Makes me think of Nietzsche, and the whole "look into the abyss and the abyss looks back into you" thing. Each of our characters is Out There, finding some aspect of themself, making meaning for each other.

I agree.

More, when dealing with a conspiracy, you have to wonder who benefits. Who has something to gain from wandering bands of savages out on the edge of space slaughtering everyone they meet?

The Alliance? Blue Sun? Maybe, but I don't think getting rid of the last traces of the independents (who probably would've gravitated toward the frontier just like Mal did) doesn't seem high enough a priority to waste the time and effort necessary to set up something like this.

If anything, it occurs to me that having someone like River or Early end up face-to-face with Reavers might be a very bad thing.

River would probably end up as their queen or something. . .

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

KALIMEERI

Friday, March 26, 2004 4:29 PM

Just an odd, dark thought. Supposing what originally drove the Reavers away from humanity was the same type of disillusionment that Mal has experienced... and they just kept going to the dark side. Nothing at all matters to them. Have to admit that he "understood" the mechanics of that thought pattern, from his experiences in Serenity Valley. The only thing keeping him from continuing that descent is the ship and the crew.

Jen dao mei.

BROWNCOAT1

Friday, March 26, 2004 4:40 PM

Cybersnark wrote:

Quote:
River would probably end up as their queen or something. . .

Now that is just downright creepifying.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

FIVEBYFIVE

Friday, March 26, 2004 6:07 PM

Quote:
Cybersnark wrote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
River would probably end up as their queen or something. . .
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NO! JAYNE IS THE REAVERS' GOD! And they have a song devoted to him and everything! It's like 'Hero of Canton' but just guttural growling. It's like "Rrrrr RAH Gargh Rah Ger Ger, Rrrrr J-A-Y-N-E!"
Best. Movie. Ever.

GEEZER

Friday, March 26, 2004 6:41 PM

Seems to me that Reavers are just pirates. The dictionary defines reavers as those who rob and despoil. Sounds like pirates to me. Many pirates, both current and historical, have the habits of torture and leaving no survivors behind. Most are not really expecting an old age pension, so they're not too worried about long-term health or sanitation. Also, contemporary stories about pirates usually exaggerate their ferocity and savagery, hence the flesh-eating and skinning. Many pirates recruited from their captives.

How did they originate? Same as pirates here on earth-that-will-be-was. Privateers or militia crews who kept on plundering after the war. Mutineers who took over a ship and went raiding. Crooked captains who found a like-minded crew and moved from petty theft to piracy. There's probably pirate moons out there with supplies and doxies, just like in the Carribean in the 17th/18th centurys.

Also, I have a problem with blaming Blue Sun for absolutely everything wrong in the 'verse.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

HKCAVALIER

Friday, March 26, 2004 8:16 PM

Ladies and gentlemen, the reavers eat human flesh and sew human skin into their clothing. Nobody short of Jeffrey Daumer does stuff like that. What's my point? I can't believe that just being subjected to the vacuum of space will do that to a person. And though the pirates of old weren't averse to a little torture, humans en masse tend to draw the line at cannibalism and sewing skin into clothes. I don't think they're like Mal only much more so. I don't think that "futuristic radiation poisoning" would do the trick either. Wash was surprised that they were running their ship "without containment." If reavers always did that, Mal would have said as much. However I can imagine good people being so disturbed themselves by the void that they imagine (as Mal does) that the reavers suffer from (as Ren would say) SPACE MADNESS.

I'm pretty sure Blue Sun had a hand (get it?) in their creation. The way I see it, the first round of experiments were done on ordinary soldiers and the results were absolute uncontrolable barbarism. The surgical tampering theory also accounts for the fact that they can pilot ships; they're not so much crazy as very aggressive, sadistic and utterly devoid of feeling. Oh, and if they had been very, very messed with by somebody, had their humanity stripped from them, they would be very, very angry and not a little vengeful. They would organize and plot revenge on the human race. The River phase of the experiment is about finding a strong enough mind to withstand the treatment and still be deployable.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Friday, March 26, 2004 9:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Seems to me that Reavers are just pirates. The dictionary defines reavers as those who rob and despoil. Sounds like pirates to me. Many pirates, both current and historical, have the habits of torture and leaving no survivors behind. Most are not really expecting an old age pension, so they're not too worried about long-term health or sanitation. Also, contemporary stories about pirates usually exaggerate their ferocity and savagery, hence the flesh-eating and skinning. Many pirates recruited from their captives.

I’m not fully familiar with the pirate stories of the period you are talking about, but I have studied a little about the Viking era, which I think has some similarities. It is certainly true that local stories about Vikings were often exaggerated. Just look at early Christian dogma painting Pagan’s as “devil.” Today we ignorantly blame this is on “Christian intolerance.” But the truth is that it was more probable a result of a terrified Christian Europe seeking to justify the acts of ‘inhumanly’ barbarous pagan Vikings. The Vikings were exaggerated as demons and devils, but we know that they did skin people alive. It was quite the typical Viking practice. As someone mentioned earlier in this thread, human nature is not incapable of inhuman butchery. Even today, skinning people alive is a practice that one might still encounter if one goes walking aimlessly undefended in the Hills of Afghanistan or Pakistan. There are bands of roving “reavers” no less barbarous. They are real. As far as cannibalism, not necessarily practiced by the Viking, but nonetheless, not entirely absent in the activities of barbarians, even today.

I agree with you, up to a point. We know (at least based on one event) that Reavers mutilate themselves. Tatooing and disfiguring of the human body were acts used by many barbarians, but this would not have been done in the careless manner portrayed in the show. It would have been done ritualistically, with careful precision to avoid extensive tissue damage and limit pain. This is where the Reavers of Firefly part with the barbarians of reality.

GEEZER

Friday, March 26, 2004 9:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
Ladies and gentlemen, the reavers eat human flesh and sew human skin into their clothing. Nobody short of Jeffrey Daumer does stuff like that.
HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

Many aboriginal cultures keep part of a victim as a talisman; scalps, shrunken heads, ears, etc. The Nazis bound books and made lampshades of human skin. Cannibalism isn't that rare either.

And ethics aren't that strong in parts of the Firefly 'verse, what with slavery either legal or winked at, for example.

Also recall the vendor selling tasty cuts of "Good Dogs" off the grill in "Serenity: Part 1" and Jayne's comment "If wishes were horses, we'd all be eating steak." maybe cannibalism isn't that much of a leap for desperate folk.

I still vote for pirates. Really nasty pirates, maybe, but pirates nevertheless.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

KALIMEERI

Friday, March 26, 2004 10:59 PM

I tend to agree.

Jen dao mei.

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