The Reaver Breed
POSTED BY: christhecynic
UPDATED: Thursday, May 5, 2005 14:01
VIEWED: 9188
PAGE 2 of 4
A small part of me thinks Reavers are created by the same people who worked on River's brains. I think when they first started working on their "killer agents" they screwed up on a lot of people, they becoming ravening killers, rather than something controllable. These had to be discarded, and probably considering how cold-blooded the Alliance seems, they decided why waste these critters. Send them out in the far reaches, and keep the downtrodden trodden on. It becomes so effective they begin "manufacturing" said beings, along with continuing on their research to build the perfect, controllable assassin.
Going on that line, finding out that big secret would cause incredible destruction in the Alliance power structure. Just because you can't fight the enemy in a military way, doesn't mean you can't still bring them down. We know in three movies they can't probably develop a whole military force to bring down the Alliance, but this way Mal could finally get his revenge by setting up a cascading destruction of their powerbase.
JMHO
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Don't forget, the Reavers don't use radiation shielding on their ships. That kind of exposure to radiation is bound to start causing genetic mutations. Realistically it would be deformities and terminal sickness and the inability to reproduce, but when you apply the power of creative writing that could explain a lot. It is over 500 years in the future, who knows what they could be capable of doing.
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Quote:
Originally posted by skantman:
Don't forget, the Reavers don't use radiation shielding on their ships. That kind of exposure to radiation is bound to start causing genetic mutations. Realistically it would be deformities and terminal sickness and the inability to reproduce, but when you apply the power of creative writing that could explain a lot. It is over 500 years in the future, who knows what they could be capable of doing.
It's my understanding that if the radiation is low enough to cause only minor problems, and the population of infants per generation is large enough, and the selection is harsh enough that would actually cause accelerated evolution in real life.
Of course:
1 that’s a lot of ands
2 Accelerated evolution probably would still be very slow.
Still, selection is the oldest and most tested form of genetic engineering, and that was all it took to change a wolf into a lapdog, the same principles should work on people.
If the Reavers are as uncaring with their children as I figure they are, and reproduce as often as would seem implied, that would be one hell of a selection process.
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Y'know, it's possible the Reavers have some sort of specialized breeding caste. Some person or persons whose job it is to ensure that any offspring survive long enough to add viably to the genepool.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Lots of interesting thoughts here. But lets look at it from what we got.
1) It was said (no I don't have the qoutes) that Reavers were once (or are) men. Perhaps too long from civilization, but men. No special breed here. Those types of comments along with the fact that Joss has elected to show no "aliens" (non human) should stomp on that line of thought.
2) Some have said: "Don't forget, the Reavers don't use radiation shielding on their ships." That ship was a reaver ship the way a pirate ship is a pirate ship. Not 'cause they made it. 'cause they took it. Remember: they are running without containment... that's suicide. (again not an exact quote) THat doesn't leave room to think that it is low dose radiation... but deadly ammount. So no good (controlled) sort of mutations going on here.
That sort of behavior alsao limits the thoughts about a breeding class or any real type of family type units. They just wouldn't live long enough.
I tend to think that the reavers are sort of like pirates with a liberal ammount of headhunter thrown in. From the episode where we learn how that one person "became" a reaver may idicate this as well. That could be the very way they propagate. Through induction. some may be just your mad dog killer types but there are also someone with brains enough to plan. (the trap that attaches itself to a ship that docks with the boobie trapped ship). So at some level somebody is thinking. That is the real scary part about the reavers. Hords of mad dogs would tear themslves apart,
but someone there to "keep order"? It could be argued that it is tough-guy order. The toughest rules. 
But then you still have the folks who lay traps and plan such traps. So maybe, just maybe there is a mad-dog-hord class and a psycho/maniacal class.
Just a thought.
When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandpa. Not screaming and yelling like everyone else in the car he was driving.
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You know Eskimos (not politically correct but I have forgotten the correct term) have biology that is different from all other humans on earth.
They are men, perhaps men who’ve eaten raw meat for longer than others, but men.
Why then would you say that the fact Reavers are human means that they can not be a different breed. Judging from their interactions with the outside they probably take selection to a level not even seen on the harshest border worlds.
I know that they can be a different breed from the rest, so don’t say they can’t be, just say whether or not you think they are, and why. Them being human is not a reason to say no.
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Quote:
Originally posted by ReaverMadness:
I tend to think that the reavers are sort of like pirates with a liberal ammount of headhunter thrown in. From the episode where we learn how that one person "became" a reaver may idicate this as well. That could be the very way they propagate. Through induction. some may be just your mad dog killer types but there are also someone with brains enough to plan. (the trap that attaches itself to a ship that docks with the boobie trapped ship). So at some level somebody is thinking. That is the real scary part about the reavers. Hords of mad dogs would tear themslves apart,
Just a thought.
When I die I want to go peacefully in my sleep like my grandpa. Not screaming and yelling like everyone else in the car he was driving.
my thoughts exactly.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
MAL: This is my scrap of nowhere. You go on and find your own.
SAFFRON: You can't just leave me here, on this
lifeless piece of crap moon...
MAL: Sure I can.
SAFFRON: I'll die.
MAL: Well, as a courtesy, you might start
getting busy on that, cause all this chatter ain't doin' me any kindness.
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Quote:
Originally posted by christhecynic:
You know Eskimos (not politically correct but I have forgotten the correct term) have biology that is different from all other humans on earth.
I believe Innuit was the term you were looking for. =]
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
MAL: This is my scrap of nowhere. You go on and find your own.
SAFFRON: You can't just leave me here, on this
lifeless piece of crap moon...
MAL: Sure I can.
SAFFRON: I'll die.
MAL: Well, as a courtesy, you might start
getting busy on that, cause all this chatter ain't doin' me any kindness.
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Quote:
Originally posted by ReaverMadness:
Through induction. some may be just your mad dog killer types but there are also someone with brains enough to plan. (the trap that attaches itself to a ship that docks with the boobie trapped ship). So at some level somebody is thinking. That is the real scary part about the reavers. Hords of mad dogs would tear themslves apart,
Spoilers from the Trailer:
Select to view spoiler:
The Reavers attack settlements by repelling out of their ships much like modern Airborne troops (think 'Black Hawk Down') so even the "front line" kill, rape and eat (in any order
) Reavers are intelligent enough to utilize complex tactics and skills.EV Nova Firefly mod Message Board:
http://s4.invisionfree.com/GunRunner/index.php?act=idx
My Other Site:
http://www.utnhq.com/TLAM_Strike/index.htm
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Well I figured they were the reverse of a normal human.
A normal human is intelligence augmented with instinct, a Reaver would be instinct augmented with intelligence.
The instinct is to consume, take, attack, suppress, do that which the body rewards with a sense of pleasure, and generally do things that others might find antisocial. If being able to plan a trap, repair a space ship, or organize and assault helps that of course they would.
But the driving force would be instinct, as a result they would not reason out the potential problems with rapine.
There are advantages to not thinking too much actually, the more you think the more words you tend to create, the more words you create the more complex and confusing a language becomes, the more confusing a language is the harder it is to come up with efficient things.
I have been told that the German language has one of the smallest vocabularies of modern languages. If this is true I find it hard to believe that it is a coincidence that Germans, who show no evidence of being inherently smarter than other human beings, have been on whole the best engineers of the recent century.
While I’m not saying Reavers would be the greatest engineers of their time but a smaller language might partially compensate for their lack of emphasis on intelligence. That’s if they have a lack of emphasis on intelligence at all, the instinct for survival tends to make things do what helps that survival, if supporting intelligent members does that they would.
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