I'm posting this early as an excuse to share this weird promotional clip that people deny is a promotional clip because misdirection and confusion are so epically trendy for Serenity: http://download.ifilm.com/qt/portal/2677821_300.mov
Though it is already, like, everywhere, so you have probably seen it. And it is kind of, like, low-rent. Still.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Hmmm... ok. That was creepy.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Now I didn't see that comming. Where'd you find it?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I wrote down a few comments.
For instance, the holographic pool table seems kind of questionable. OK, the table itself is not holographic. But it seems like a set of real billiard balls would be cheaper than the virtual kind. I mean, you need sensors in the table, and in the cues, and how do the players know when they've hit anything?
I don't think they ever visit a bar that they can come back to later. Maybe the mudders' one.
Another odd thing is that there doesn't seem to be any indication, on Inara's communication screen thing, as to which profiles hold a recorded message and which a live call.
I like how Jayne laughs when Mal puts down Kaylee's dress-related wishes.
And what's this about lordhood?
Mechanic talk pulls all the boys in.
I sure like this episode.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I guess I ought to have linked to that first, but the direct one is what I originally came across.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
quote: And what's this about lordhood?
Basically, it's American trying (and failing) to understand the British honours system. Knighthood is not the same as being a peer (is lordhood even a word?). I guess it's sort of an attempt to bring in more than just the American West/Chinese cultural mix. This is all the cultures of Earth mixed up and spread around so it's not really surprising that different political systems would be in place. I have no problem with Persephone being 'Britain world'. Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Well, what I was getting at was that this is the only instance of any peerage system in the show, and I wonder about what it implies, if it implies anything. I doubt the Alliance has a King, as it were, and there isn't a royal vibe to it.
This is the sort of thing that can't be answered, really, due to Firefly's demise.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
I imagine it's just how that perticular Planet's government is set up, probably since it is controlled by the land owners who got rich and started lording it over the settlers. That dose ring true to a "Planet Britain" since most of our so called noble families are just inbred decendents of some ancient thugs who managed to get their grubby paws on a lot of real estate.
As for the confused terminology, it would stand to reason that a future society modeling itself (at least in part) on the ancient English nobility woudl get allot of the details wrong. For example, doesn't the Russian title "Tzar" stem from the Roman "Ceasar"?
Point of interest, when River went all English Rose, didn't badger say something like "nice to see someone from the old homestead"? Wouldn't that indicate that the real "English Planet" is elsewhere and that Persephone is actually "wannabe England"? Either that or us southern Engish types have been ghettoed on the far side of the planet.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Or that there are multiple planets where British culture has been influential.
I take your point about the confused terminology but you'd have thought that sort of thing would be less likely in a society with high-tech recording and data storage devices.
Posted by Mighty Blogger Snay (Member # 411) on :
quote:Point of interest, when River went all English Rose, didn't badger say something like "nice to see someone from the old homestead"? Wouldn't that indicate that the real "English Planet" is elsewhere and that Persephone is actually "wannabe England"? Either that or us southern Engish types have been ghettoed on the far side of the planet.
Or he's being sarcastic ...
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Or maybe I was too?
quote:I take your point about the confused terminology but you'd have thought that sort of thing would be less likely in a society with high-tech recording and data storage devices.
Time and history has a habit of loosing even the most best kept records, imagine how much was lost when mankind abandoned Earth. Plus not everyone bothers to look up stuff like that. Rich nobel wannabes aren't exactly the best educated in the 'verse and if they want to refer to their positions a certain way, exactly who's gonna correct them? Aside from that, one thing you should defiantly have noticed on firefly is that the common languages change quite a bit from one century to the next, in pronounciation and usage.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Valid points, but we don't really know enough about the evacuation of Earth (quick or slow, organised or frantic, etc) to really assume anything.
Also, we don't know enough (or anything!) about the way the colonies were founded to assume anything about the prominent people in the first wave who assumed power.
Although you're right that if there was a lot of chaos surrounding the establishment of the colonies in the immediate period of the Earth evacuation then any mechanism of acquiring and justifying power could and would have been used, irrespective of accuracy. The easiest was to assume power is to identify yourself with a pre-existing legitimate power, even if that system was very different to that which you replace it with (look at Stalin's appropriation of Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible).
Can't belive we got all of that out of one small error in speech (which could just have been condescention on Sir Warwick's part). Ah, the joys of geekdom...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
It doesn't have to be a matter of confusion. The Russian tsar wasn't called that because they were confused, but because Caeser had heavy connotations of power and leadership in Europe. Kaiser is the same.
River specifically says that Badger was from, uh, something Colony. Dyton Colony, according to the Firefly wiki. Of course, that could just be a place on Persephone, rather than a seperate planet.
"Nice to see someone from the old homestead."
"Not really."
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Featuring a pre-crazy River, even. Though shouldn't she be fourteen at this point?
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
There are cool... brilliant marketing IMO. Are these clips actually in the movie? Perhaps the crew finds records of River's time at the Institute? Or is this something created just as a marketing campaign?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Holy cow... that's awesome! And freaky... it seems to suggest that River could do with her mind what the Blue Hand Group did with their magic wand-thingy. (And River did say that she could kill Jayne with her brain!)
Of course the info might be suspect, but notice that the "made on" date of the first movie is dated only seven days before it was posted on the site. I kinda doubt that it was put together THAT quickly, but it's an incredibly elegant and simple idea... low-budget, quick to write up, just requiring a day from the actress and some no-name to ask a couple questions.
I'm also impressed that the clip was released under a Creative Commons license... 'course, that's what viral marketing is, but it's still damn cool.
Just a little more than a month to go! Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Some no name? You should listen closely to his voice. Or, rather, first listen to some of the commentary tracks on, say, the Firefly DVDs, and then listen closely to his voice.
Also, she didn't kill him with her mind; he pulls a pen from his throat, and her hand is all bloody at the end.
Anyway, people who have seen it already say this isn't in the movie.
Posted by Home Decor and Gardening (Member # 239) on :
I've seen it! Yeah, that's right, guys! I AM Joss Whedon!
I totally wrote Roseanne!
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
And The Bus That Wouldn't Slow Down?!
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Oh.... I get it now. The guy at the table is the interviewer from the first one. River kills him with his pen, cause she's all psycho now, then looks into the camera and says, "I can see you," to the people running the camera. Again... cause she's psycho. I thought she was looking out of a window the first time I saw it.
I guess the guys running the test didn't put too much value on the interviewer's life.
Is the interviewer Joss Whedon?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Oh, I figured that it was the same interviewer... it's just that the sound effects that I heard in the second one sounded a lot like the sick sneezing-type sounds the redshirt Feds made in "Ariel".
I did see River's bloody hand, but I figured she'd just grabbed the guy's head or something after he collapsed, or whatever. I didn't see the pen in the dim light.
And I did wonder if the interviewer was Whedon, but I wasn't sure enough to mention it. Haven't listened to any of his stuff outside the Firefly commentary tracks. Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Yes. And to make things even more viral, Universal Studios apparently claims they have nothing to do with these videos. In other words, Whedon and Glau made these on their own.
Of course, marketing is made up of lies, so it's probably a well funded, well planned commercial by the studio.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I'm not so sure about the "well funded" part.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Oh man, who's got the scoops?
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I'm hoping we find out lots a stuff about what happened to River in the Institute. It's kind of looking like she's being trained as some kind of super infiltrator/assassin chick. They're definitely interested in cranking up her mental powers and, given footage from the movie, they seem to have give trained her physically too. Or maybe she's just really good at learning stuff and picked up all the martial arts juju from watching someone.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Simon did say she'd always been very intuitive with everything she tried, including dance. It stands to reason that if she can dance (and I do mean the difficult kind, like ballet) then it stands to reason that she's physically able to do martial arts and can probably pick that up just as easy. Indeed those two activities have a great deal in common.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Oh, that third excerpt is heartbreaking... Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Session 165 Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Wow. They're really messing her up. I wonder if we'll get to see something closer to the session where she kills the guy.
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Apparently, this is the last.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Yikes. Love the jumbled plot structure of these things.
So she knew Simon was looking for her?
One thing that they never got around to on the show; who exactly was it that sprung River from the rubber glove crew and stuck her in the freezer? Methinks it's an inside job. Dr. Mathias' mission perhaps?
Posted by Wraith (Member # 779) on :
Didn't Simon say that he paid/supplied some underground group to rescue her?
Which raises some questions about the activities of other veterans of the Independants.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Yes. Some group came forward and said that if he had the cash, they could deliver her to Persephone.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Yeah, but the buring question remains, who were they, how did they know of the academy and how did they pull it off? My money is still on an inside job.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Some movie spoilers! Follow!
This may get retconned in the film. Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Huh, that would be a shame, if true...
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
**nevermind... wikipedia answered my question for me..**
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