Serenity

[fleetfootmike]

Yes, again. :)

I had a long and very interesting chat with Paul at work over lunch as to why exactly Wash had to die.

Paul's initial objection to Wash's sudden and brutal demise was basically that it appeared to serve no purpose beyond shocking us, coming as it did after the collective sigh of relief as Serenity's careering landing comes to a mostly controlled stop. His other complaint was that his death seems all too quickly brushed off, apart from Zoe going a touch unstable during the final fight, and it all seems a bit too calm and easily wrapped up with the funeral sequence afterwards.

We thrashed it about for a good half hour, and came up with a whole bunch of interesting thoughts and theories:

- Trust Joss. Now, I admit this is, or was, me being a little glib to start with, but, assuming that "Serenity" isn't The End, as far as the Firefly 'verse is concerned, I don't see that the somewhat swift glossing over of reactions to his end (to a degree constrained by the movie format) is the be-all and end-all. Zöe won't deal with it, not that easily - the cracks have been papered over, but her somewhat awkward dialogue with Mal at the very end still suggests to me that all is not 100% well, and nor should it be. I'm sure that if "Serenity" had been the last however many episodes of Firefly Season 2, that Wash's death would have come slap bang at the end of ep 2.20 (of 22) and we'd have had plenty longer to see how the rest of the crew handled it.

- Wash, in the same way as Xander is in Buffy, is both Joss and us. (Joss has pretty much admitted this, apparently). He's the ordinary, wisecracking, guy with no huge superpowers, that gets to observe, to laugh, to be brave and maybe a little crazy in the face of danger. Even more so than Xander, I feel, Wash's *presence* (OTHER than as that Common Man) doesn't generate a great deal of character-driven Plot, not now we've resolved the whole Zöe/Mal issue (except perhaps babies... wonder if Zöe's pregnant?). Note, I'm not saying he's useless, or a dead weight in the show, not at all. The fact that he IS a loved, likeable, entertaining character means Wash's *absence*, on the other hand, is a great big freaking Hole of Potential Plot. [As an aside, if Xander and Wash are Joss, the man has some serious self-loathing issues :) ]

- One of Paul's comments was that he could in a way see that Joss was making Art: that Wash's death says that life in the Firefly 'verse can be snuffed out just like that, that it's basically damn dangerous out there.

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, I thought served at least one important purpose: you could no longer count on ANY character to survive. I mean, Shepherd'd death was blindinglyl obvious to anyone who'd ever watched a Western before, but Wash's was sudden (and hit me in a way that Shepherd's didn't, for precisely the same reason as above; it WASN'T obvious that it was going to happen) and (if you'll pardon the phrase) senseless.

(We also don't know how much time there was between the death and the funeral, do we?)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Note also that it ends with Mal & River in the cockpit of new & refurbished Serenity. With all of Wash's Dinosaurs carefully propped onto the side of his/Mals's flight desk... Symbols of legacy...

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

I never spotted that! Bad me. No biscuit.

[mokatiki.livejournal.com]

the one thing i wanted to see at the end, when Zoe was fixing something in the cockpit, was for her to turn around and touch one of the dinosaurs that you could see behind her...

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I'd probably have bawled if she had.

[annathepiper]

I still believe that one of the biggest reasons Wash and Book both had to die was the sheer scale of the conflict in the plot: i.e., a plot with potentially galaxy-shattering ramifications. A plot in which an operative of the government was authorized to come after Serenity with an ENTIRE FLEET OF WARSHIPS. With that much at stake, had someone not died, it would have seemed (at least to me) almost too easy that the Good Guys won.

As to why it had to be Wash and Book... well, once Wash bit it I was genuinely uncertain whether anyone else would survive. It was extremely effective in throwing me off balance and adding tension to the climax, which made it work as more than just a "shock" tactic. So that's one thing. Another is a point that mamishka made, in that nine characters is a TV-friendly-sized cast, but that's a bit way too much for most moviegoers to keep track of--so it could make sense for that reason that Joss had to winnow out a couple of characters, to lay the groundwork for later movies.

Though yeah, there's also "trust Joss". Now that I know that he had to basically take all of what he'd planned for season 2 of Firefly and cram it into a movie, I totally buy that these characters would eventually have died anyway.

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

Re trust Joss, apparently Alan Turyk actually suggested to Joss that Wash was a character whose death would be a great story.

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

Before I forget! Can you add me to your Serenity spoilers friends group now? :)

[annathepiper]

Er, I didn't see this before! You answered your comment rather than mine, so I didn't get an email. :) And sure, you're in my Serenity filter now!

[annathepiper]

Alan Turyk was right! I totally agree with your original post's contention about how no, actually, Zoe ISN'T all right; sure, she pulled it together because the crew was in crisis mode and she's too good a soldier not to do that, and she seemed functional at the end of the movie.

But functional is NOT the same thing as "all right", and I'm sure that if we get more movies, the impact of Wash's loss will be felt more.

*snicker* One of the things I liked about the novelization of Serenity was a throwaway thought of Jayne's about whether, now that Wash is dead, Zoe might like to try on a "real man" for size. So very, VERY Jayne. It'd be really funny to see him actually try to hit on her. I'd like to see Zoe belt Jayne into next week. >:)

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

"She's a bit torn up sir, but she'll hold together."

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Exactly.
Oh, and what Anna said about the role in the story of this movie, too. I thought briefly they might've escaped the reavers with that landing, but then immediately... nope, they haven't and they might not survive, either... or certainly not all... it did make the rest of the movie a lot more uncertain. And Joss likes to give us uncertainty & surprises...

[mneme]

Oh, I -loved- the double level of that conversation; in may ways, it's what made Wash's death worthwhile artistically.

[annathepiper]

Such a good line! And as soon as she said it I had that little sinking feeling and a thought whispering a beat behind it, "... she's not talking about the ship."

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

Quote from the Serenity Official Magazine via the FireflyDVD.com forums

ALAN TUDYK wrote:
I really liked [Wash's fate]. I was a fan of it. Even when we did the show, I felt that Wash was a really good character to kill. In my head, I thought two season and then [Joss] should kill me. No one would expect it. I even mentioned it to Joss once, about Wash being a good sympathetic kill. As it works, where it is in the movie, I really like how it raises the stakes for everybody. We've lost two already and people are bleeding and shot and the captain is a mess. Wash's death helps with the feeling that all bets are off. I kind of also liked that it's not one of those deaths where I'm going, "Go on without me! I'll hold 'em off for as long as possible. You save yourselves, I love you sweetheart." Instead, it's "Whoopee, I just landed the spaceship!" Dead. Joss has a talent for sticking large wooden things through people's hearts.

GINA TORRES wrote:
It [Wash's death] affects Zoe the way it affects most people, but we all deal with grief differently. Wash was such a light for her and a great refuge from all the darkness in her life that when that light goes out, it's a struggle not to revert to who she was before he came into her life which was what Mal is.

[annathepiper]

Right on. :) Well, knowing that Alan and Joss were in sync on Wash's fate makes me approve of it more, to be sure! Excellent quotes from both Alan and Gina, too.

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Tudyk. ;)

[annathepiper]

Oops! Thanks. :)

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Alan Tudyk. ;)

[tiassa]

One of my theories is that Wash's death was supposed to show a "good" death, as opposed to what the Operative considered to be a "good" death, and/or Wash died after doing something so amazingly heroic that the gods called him home right away &c.

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

I like this idea. :)

[tiassa]

I like it a lot, myself - I actually had a huge discussion with my roommate about it after we saw the movie last time, thus proving what a huge geek I am. :)

Also, someone else remembers Radiskull and Devil Doll? Sweet!

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

LOVE THE DEVILDOLL! :)

I'm also a huge raving Firefly fan - went so far as to write and get published an episode guide book. :)

[tiassa]

Heh, okay, you win. :D

[mamishka.livejournal.com]

Joss came right out and said that someone had to die in the final battle. The only movie he ever saw that managed to keep everyone alive (and Michael Caine with lipstick on) was Zulu. He wanted it to be real, and in such a situation clearly someone was going to have to die. I concur that Wash is the logical choice. He was never someone who furthered the plot of the series or created it, he was always more of a reactive character to situations and one of the easiest to lose.

I also believe that Joss got rid of Wash and Book for another reason. Ideally (though not looking to likely now) there would be three movies. 9 characters is WAAAAAAAY too many to make any kind of satisfying story really. Everyone gets short shrift. This way, if there are any more movies, there are now only 7 main crew characters, so hopefully more character development for all.

[thisnthat.livejournal.com]

We finally were successful with the babysitter and saw this last weekend. I cried :(

I will forever and ever miss Wash, who was my favorite character far above anyone else.

Cue dinosaurs...

"'Yes...this is a fertile land, and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... this land.'
'I think we should call it your grave!'
'Ah! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!'
'Hahaha! Mine is an evil laugh!'"