AURAPTOR'S BLOG

AURaptor

Joss just can't help himself, can he ?
Friday, January 15, 2010

It's been often pointed out, that Joss LOVES to off beloved characters. So, I was thinking about that very topic today, and it hit me....he REALLY loves doing that.

And it's not just a particular style or way of telling a story, but truly something which seems to be in his very fiber. W/ out going over the entire library of Joss's offings, just look at the movie.

There's Book & Wash, obviously. Kaylee and Simon both get shot. Mal gets run though w/ a sword. A SWORD! And just for good measure, the SHIP gets it! Did I leave anyone out ?

After everything I saw from Buffy and Angel, and then the movie, I'm sort of glad we didn't see our beloved crew members get knocked off, one by one, until only ....what, the new Mule was left ?

Also, per the whole gut wound thing. I had a big problem w/ the movie. Now, back when Kaylee got shot by Dobson, she needed IMMEDIATE medical help. And later on, in SAFE, Book was in much the same boat. But Captain gets run clean though w/ a sword - about the same place he got shot in OoG, as I recall, and he not only continues to fight the Operative, WINS, but has enough to walk on up and see what's up w/ the rest of the crew.

Come again ? Did I miss the director's note, where they specifically commented on that minor detail ? Because I know they edited part of the fight scene out, to make the injury less obvious and graphic... Was that because it stretched the bounds of credibility , even for the movie, or what ?

Details like that do annoy, from time to time.

COMMENTS

Sunday, January 17, 2010 2:04 PM

BYTEMITE


Also, with the Operative's sword, in the finished scene, it looks to me like maybe Mal only got his love handles trimmed a little bit. You have muscles there, so it'd be painful, but the wound didn't look deep enough to me to actually hit anything vital.

Sunday, January 17, 2010 2:02 PM

BYTEMITE


I don't know about Out of Gas, but definitely Joss foreshadowed the moved nerve cluster thing with Objects in Space. Jubal Early tried to hit Mal in about the same place, only for Mal to shake it off and Early being forced to be more creative (ladder fu) to take him out.

I think the concept that Joss is working on with this is what's known as a kidney punch. If you hit the kidneys in just the right spot, maybe it doesn't paralyze you, but you can go into medical shock, and apparently it feels kind of like getting kicked in the balls. That's why it's illegal in boxing.

Saturday, January 16, 2010 6:42 PM

AURAPTOR


As for Mal, I saw the first cut of the movie, and it showed a wider, more full view of Mal getting run through w/ the Operative's sword than what we saw in the final release. I think Joss really does live for those " oh shit, no! " moments.

( Going back to Buffy and Angel, Anya and of course Tara come to mind, as well as Wesley, Lilah.... but I digress )

We don't know what, if anything Simon might have been able to do w/ Jayne's leg, but short of surgery, it's hard to imagine him walking around any time soon. I hadn't really given that much thought, to be honest. As for Mal, the part about having his nerve cluster 'moved' after taking a bit of shrapnel from the war - meh... seems iffy. I was unaware we had such nerve clusters there, but that got me thinking, did Joss mean to imply something similar might have taken place, after Mal got shot in OoG ? If there was a bunch of missing 'stuff' in there, and the Operative was TWICE unlucky to find a 'gap' in Mal's anatomy, then hell....why not just make Mal a vampire, and be done w/ it ?

Saturday, January 16, 2010 2:26 PM

ANOTHERSKY


Knowing my anatomy, I had major issues with Jayne's leg.

In fact, Serenity was my introduction to the verse, only at a friend's behest, and I almost stopped watching right there. ONLY because the characters were so compelling at that point did I even give it the next few to get good.

Mal was not as obvious, somehow...I think at that point in the movie the audience is running on adrenaline and suspension of disbelief.

Saturday, January 16, 2010 11:21 AM

TWO


Just like the Operative's sword into Mal's belly, there are other unfortunate choices that Joss Whedon made: In the movie, Jayne Cobb gets a Reaver harpoon through the leg. Myriam, sitting next to me at the theater, said, “I don't believe it,” and she's not the kind of person that talks at the theater.

Myriam had cracked a bone at the same spot. She knows what's what. After the movie was over, she said it was a fantasy that Jayne could, 15 minutes later, be dumping trash out the airlock after only getting a little whiskey poured into the hole in his leg and a rag as a bandage.

Joss could have been more realistic: there is a way for the Reavers to grab Jayne's leg without killing him or him being super-invulnerable to pain. The computer graphic designers on the movie gave the Reavers a three-pointed grapple. It is spring loaded -- when it hits something, the grapple grabs hold. The Reavers used these 3-point grapples in Lilac, the town that got robbed, and when the Reavers attacked the Alliance ships.

A 3-point grapple would have been perfect for grabbing Jayne's leg without killin' him. Of course, it would have to be a very lucky shot to not punch a hole in him causing him bleed to death.

Friday, January 15, 2010 4:59 PM

AURAPTOR


Sure, it hovers. But for how long ?

Friday, January 15, 2010 4:37 PM

BYTEMITE


But it hovers!


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