Bushwacked weapon? by Crowley

FIREFLY EPISODE DISCUSSIONS

Bushwacked weapon?

POSTED BY: CROWLEY
UPDATED: Thursday, July 29, 2004 12:41
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Friday, July 23, 2004 8:30 PM

I haven't seen this being discussed anywhere. What exactly is that gun the Alliance ship uses at the end to destroy the derelict? I'd put my money on some kind of plasma weapon. The first shot goes right through without delivering much kinetic impact, and I think you can see the edges of the hole it leaves glowing hot. It would also explaing why those projectiles are so gorram big: you heat something way up to plasma, it expands a lot. Then again you could ask how it keeps the glob of plasma the same size once it's reached the size we see. The only thing I find strange is the green color, but then again I'm not a physics major and there are green stars, right?

Of course I realize that fancy high-tech isn't a very important point in Firefly, but I like debating about such things.

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Friday, July 23, 2004 8:32 PM

BEATLE

I like to watch my popcorn in the microwave.

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Tuesday, July 27, 2004 6:56 PM

SUPERFLY

I have no idea what kind of weapon it was. Maybe the creators of the show don't either. I think it was just a really cool-big-green-powerful-Alliance-destroyee-thingy. Kinda proved how powerful they were though.

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Tuesday, July 27, 2004 7:11 PM

NOOCYTE

My immediate thought when I saw the episode was that they were missiles. I saw the first one go clean through, and just figured it was a dud (but still packing a big kinetic punch...though I would have liked to see the ship buck a bit as it went through).

Still, "really cool-big-green-powerful-Alliance-destroyee-thingy" works for me just about as well.

Looked Pretty Kool, yah?

Department of Redundancy Department

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Tuesday, July 27, 2004 8:55 PM

TENTHCREWMEMBER

Could you please just make it stranger? Stranger. Odder. Could be weirder. More bizarre. How about uncanny?

Well, I would tend to think it was *some* kind of missile-like projectile for two reasons.

1) The show tends to be heavy in that regards (everyone totes pistols and such as well as the battle scenes between Browncoats and the Alliance were all projectile/bomb/grenade weapons)

2) There "appears to be" a self-correcting trajectory, like a missile (i.e. it is not exactly a straight line shot[refer to murphy's law]) and it leaves an "exhaust" which plasma, in theory, wouldn't.

All the same, I am for the
"reall-cool-big-green-powerful-Alliance-destroyee-thingy"
conclusion. Really, who *needs* to know how it works, so long as it looks cool on T.V.?

"Likely crash and kill us all."

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004 2:35 AM

CAPTAINHARBATKIN

Okay, cool, but what ABOUT Beatle's popcorn?

Just what kind of popcorn does he prefer and why? Did Joss specify which microwave to use? Does it have an automatic popcorn setting, and how well does it work? Does Serenity have a microwave? Or does serenity use some sort of "really-cool-big-green-powerful-Firefly-popcorn-thingy"? Huh? Is there a brand of caramel coated popcorn called Browncoat? If not, why NOT?

Heck, do they still eat popcorn? Do those with combat experience eat popcorn differently, as they do apples? When Kaylee eats popcorn, is it as downright sensual as Kaylee eating a big strawberry?

Come on, guys, don't ignore important questions of this nature.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their
clothing - and if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004 4:33 AM

TENTHCREWMEMBER

Could you please just make it stranger? Stranger. Odder. Could be weirder. More bizarre. How about uncanny?

Carmel coated...Browncoat...I think you are on to something there...best get with the Marketing Dept. quick!

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004 5:02 AM

SOUTHERNMERC

I believe it's safe to say that no one alive knows what plasma weapon fire looks like. So what it was could be anyone's guess. Plasma is not a bad guess. I'd go with some sort of kinetic missle, possibly. Have you ever seen the hole left by a hyper-kinetic penetrator? I've seen pictures of tests done by the US military. The channel looks like it was melted into the metal. As for the green color, possibly an accelerant that uses some element other than oxygen for its base?

Jayne: "You got yourself lookin' mighty hideous!"

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004 6:13 AM

KOZURE

My guesses:

Type of weapon: Missile / kinetic projectile.

Why green exhaust trail? 'Cause it looks different and futurey.

I'll wager that the Alliance uses a mix of kinetic, missile and energy weapons, depending on the application.

Against unarmoured, no defensive measure ships or at close range - lasers / particle beam projectors

Against military targets - missiles.

Game Designer's Workshop (GDW) had a very real-feeling board game called "Star Cruiser" by Frank Chadwick - which always felt a lot more real than most other space-based combat games.

It had decoys, missiles, various types of beam weapons and the defenses that could be used against them - a very "hard science" approach to the genre.

My hope would be that the Big Damn Movie uses a similarly lucid approach to their space scenes.

Kozure the Kamikaze Highlander

Proud Citizen of Canada-That-Was

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Wednesday, July 28, 2004 7:44 AM

STATIC

Quote:
Originally posted by CaptainHarbatkin:
Okay, cool, but what ABOUT Beatle's popcorn?

Just what kind of popcorn does he prefer and why? Did Joss specify which microwave to use? Does it have an automatic popcorn setting, and how well does it work? Does Serenity have a microwave? Or does serenity use some sort of "really-cool-big-green-powerful-Firefly-popcorn-thingy"? Huh? Is there a brand of caramel coated popcorn called Browncoat? If not, why NOT?

Heck, do they still eat popcorn? Do those with combat experience eat popcorn differently, as they do apples? When Kaylee eats popcorn, is it as downright sensual as Kaylee eating a big strawberry?

Come on, guys, don't ignore important questions of this nature.

Okay. . .seriously.

Get a girlfriend or boyfriend or something. You have too much time to focus on this stuff.

==================================================
"Wash. . .we got some local color happening. A grand entrance would not go amiss."

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Thursday, July 29, 2004 4:29 AM

BROWNCOAT1

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

My first impression was a rail gun. I do not claim to be a science whiz or weapons expert, but the trail it left reminded me of those seen in movies like "Eraser" when Arnold used the rail gun weapons. Theoretically rail guns leave a trail from the heat of the projectile travelling at extremely high speeds.

Here is a website done up by Auburn University on rail guns:

http://www.eng.auburn.edu/department/ece/railgun/

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

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Thursday, July 29, 2004 12:41 PM

HOBBES

They wouldn't leave that trail in space though.
Yeah, a railgun in the atmosphere would probably look like an old school death ray or something.

Although is the second (third?) time this has come up I would say that that weapon is a plasma weapon with the trail coming from whatever they use to keep the plasma together gradually as it disentagrates. (Projected magnetic bottle?)

However it could a missile on slow with some exotic drive that glows green.

-------------------------------------------------
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May you be in heaven an hour before
The Devil knows you’re dead.

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