Summer Glau goes around barefoot some more?

[lunabee34]

executrix asked me: What do you think would have happened in Firefly S3?

I think that season 3 and subsequent seasons of Firefly would have explored the Hands of Blue guys in more and creepier detail. We definitively learn what was done to River and why in Serenity, but the HoB are not explained in the movie nor is the exact role the Blue Sun Corp plays in experimenting on River. It's been awhile since I saw the movie so y'all correct me, but the gov takes River, right? I've always thought a whole mess of people with competing agendas were involved in that project. I think we'd have probably eventually met other people who'd been experimented on. I also think we'd have seen a whole lot more of the Reavers and explored various lore about them leading up to the final season about Miranda.

I think that Zoe and Wash would have decided to have a baby but I think Joss probably would have chickened out and made one or the other of them unable to have kids (prob Zoe due to a war wound).

I think we would have learned something about Book's past even if it just led to more questions. IDK what I think his back story is. I think it would be interesting if he was some sort of former military but that seems too easy. I don't know what he could be beyond the obvious. I keep trying to think of possibilities but they ultimately don't make much logical sense. I like the idea of him a political figure, for example, but he can't have been anyone too high profile or he'd be recognized. I also like to think that he went into the ministry as a young adult, possibly for his own protection--the son of someone important? IDK

I know they revealed that Inara is supposed to be dying so I guess we would have learned more about that. I know that there has to be something more than meets the eye to her, a reason for a Companion to be gadding about the raggedy edge, but I don't know if I like terminal illness being the big secret. If she is sick I want her to stay sick with no magical cures although it's difficult for me to imagine what kind of illness can thumb its nose at Cortex medicine.

I think we would have seen more of the same from our remaining crew. I think the Simon/Kaylee UST would have dragged on for quite awhile without resolution. I think Mal would have changed very little; he's the most static character on the show. And I think Jayne would continue to provide comic relief and moments of surprising pathos.

What do y'all think?

Comments

Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter

[executrix]

I think that although it did kinda turn into the River Show and especially the River Movie, it was supposed to be the Mal Show, so he is not a static character but one who was given not only ample room for growth but, lord knows, a crying need for it.

Personally I think Inara ended up on the wrong end of a Sihnonese political hassle, either as the Monica Lewinski of Sihnon or someone involved in a losing coup attempt, so she had to get out of the way.

Re: Reculer Pour Mieux Sauter

[lunabee34]

I like that idea for Inara and it makes more sense to me. Or that she violated some Companion tradition for ethical reasons or something.

[likeadeuce]

There's a graphic novel about Book, which reveals his backstory -- I think it was written by one of the Whedon brothers so I assume it reflects where Joss would eventually have gone in the canon. (I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's called 'Serenity: the Shepherd's Tale'

[executrix]

I don't think of comics as canon--more like Apocrypha.

[likeadeuce]

Right, but it's a prediction of where the show probably would have gone with him that might be of interest to Lorraine because she was speculating about it. . .?

[lunabee34]

This is a good point. I wonder how much of what's in the comics would have made it into the show if it had continued. Heck, I wonder what degree of the movie would ultimately have made it into the show.

[lunabee34]

Oh please. Spoil it for me.

[likeadeuce]

Ha ha, I wasn't being coy, I just don't remember. You can probably find it on wikipedia? If I recall it was sort of a multilayered thing where he was a double agent who ended up betraying both sides without intending to.

[lunabee34]

I did! In the comic he's a double agent for the Browncoats who orchestrates a huge Alliance defeat and then bows out with Alliance blessing, his cover not blown.

I . . . do not think I like this. LOL

I think what I really want is for him to be the son of someone important who started having ideological differences with dad who is an Alliance military leader or a scientist making weapons for the Alliance or a political leader or judge or something, and he joins holy orders to escape being groomed for the same (and chooses the most hillbilly religion as an added fuck you LOL).

The Mask Becomes the Face

[executrix]

My headcanon is that being a Shepherd is only a cover identity...but the Hound of Heaven catches up with him anyway.

Re: The Mask Becomes the Face

[lunabee34]

I definitely agree with that. I think one of the major themes in a lot of Joss's work is that you can never escape your past and you can be redeemed, but it pretty much requires your death. LOL

Salvation by Works

[executrix]

True enough for Wesley, and possibly for Book depending on whether you think he needed redemption or just that war kills beloved people. But I'd say Faith is redeemed, and I'm sure that Mal would have been absent network interference. You just have to load a lot of trucks...today.

Re: Salvation by Works

[lunabee34]

I think we just missed the part where Faith has to put on the shiny jewelry and close the Hellmouth in Cleveland, but you may be right. LOL

[likeadeuce]

It works in the comic because of the storytelling structure, but I don't know how much of this they would have ultimately gone with.

I like your headcanon! Now I want fic!

I have many unpopular Firefly opinions, I think.

[havocthecat]

I'm probably the only person in the world who would have loved Mal dying to get out the signal in Serenity as his last "fuck you" from the Browncoats. I desperately, desperately wanted Zoe taking over as captain.

Don't get me wrong. I love Mal. But having the specter of Mal hanging over their heads and needing to live up to that kind of heroic sacrifice while finding their own way in the 'verse after the news broke? With Zoe as captain? That, to me, opened up the storytelling possibilities immeasurably, and also would flip the trope of the dead wife/girlfriend fridging to be the dead able-bodied white dude who was the action hero being the motivation.

Can you imagine Jayne slowly developing a conscience because Mal would've expected him to? Because I can, and Adam Baldwin would've been amazing with that arc. Wash alive or dead, preferably alive, but either way, I think Zoe should've been captain and pregnant. We could even have Mal flashbacks so that he could stay in some fashion.

I pretend that Inara isn't dying, because, seriously, giving the Companion the plot of La Boheme is just ridiculously trope-laden and we'd had no indication it would be inverted at all.

That said, I loved Firefly, though I loved Serenity a little bit less, and I loved all the characters.

Re: I have many unpopular Firefly opinions, I think.

[lunabee34]

I would have been okay with Mal dying. I love his character, but I like the narrative you've got going on here.

I would have loved Zoe to be pregnant, but I just don't see Joss doing it. I mean in all of Buffy, nobody (and nobody they know) gets pregnant? Rather than having Xander and Anya break up, I would have loved for them to have had a kid. We get a couple of pregnancies in Angel, but the way that's handled is just so weird. I like Connor and I like that season way more now than I did to begin with, but it's still just weird.

Re: I have many unpopular Firefly opinions, I think.

[havocthecat]

I don't know that Joss knows how to deal with babies in his fiction? Which would explain why they magically aged Connor to a teenager over the course of a couple of episodes, honestly. But yeah, you're right, I just don't see Joss doing any of that.

Re: I have many unpopular Firefly opinions, I think.

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

I think you're absolutely right.

But there's so much to explore with that: Zoe having decide how much she can do while she's pregnant and what's safe and Wash likely being overprotective (and Mal too I bet); what jobs do they take now and how can they justify taking a kid who has no say in the matter into some of the places they go? It could have been awesome.

And it would have been awesome with Anya and Xander. All Anya's anxiety about whether she's doing being a human right and now she's got to raise one? and can you justify staying on the Hellmouth? or is being near Buffy the safest thing? And can you justify patrolling? and do you let the baby ever go outside ever? LOL

We can really raise the beam on making marriage a Hell

[executrix]

Waaay pre-BtVS, in Stephen King's "Danse Macabre" he refers to "the kid trick" in soap operas, where in about a year the baby (...probably incestuous or illegitimate of course...) goes from birth to kindergarten, and a few years later is juvenile-delinquenting around.

Because, while if it's your baby, babies are AMAZING, from the outside they don't have much agency and don't have a lot of narrative possibilities.

Re: We can really raise the beam on making marriage a Hell

[lunabee34]

I agree to a point. I think the babies themselves are pretty freaking boring. Ask Emma. We have a running joke about how Feefers is dumber than (Electra) LOL and boring as shit. *But* I maintain that the changes that a baby brings to the adults is not boring at all; unfortunately, most TV chooses to focus either on the comic aspect of having babies: oh noes, he got pooped on! oh noes, she got spit-up on her work clothes and has no time to change! rather than focusing on what's truly difficult and transformative about becoming a parent.

[princessofgeeks]

Thank you; this is fascinating.

[lunabee34]

<3