Serenity and rage and desecration and High Drama

[permetaform]

My roommate and I were chatting about Serenity and she brought up the rage that people in the fan forums she found (non-LJ) were feeling over the treatment of Wash's death in the latter half of the movie. For a while I was at a loss because his death seemed to be treated consistently within the world of Firefly.

But....then again, it wasn't treated consistently with normal cinematic codes.

To explain, lets all flash back to Firefly, episode 1; specifically, Kaylee's Death Scene, or rather, Simon Finding Out About Kaylee's Death. When there was all dramatic music? Slow-mo? Blurry faces of extreme sentiment and woe?

That, I think, was as much Joss' poking fun at the conventions as he was doing a comedic turn; and Wash's death seen in light of this makes more and more sense. Of *course* time can't stop for Wash, they're in what amounts to be a war, there's no time for music, no time for sluggish movement, no time for your eyes to go blurry.

But...God. Wash, pinned to the eye of Serenity. Like the bodies Mal pinned to the outside of Serenity. Like a Reaver's ship.

Joss "desecrated our home", with Wash's death. And those parallels make such an awesome amount of sense to me, 'cause it explains some of the feelings around Wash's death relative to the movie. The body of Wash as desecrating the body of Serenity the movie.

And damn, that's guts, to trust in his movie enough that he knew that the impact of Wash's death would be felt even if he left out the codes of High Drama. He trusted that Wash made enough of an impact that he wouldn't *need* to manipulate the audience into feeling the tragedy.

Which, dude, bravo!

Comments

[klia.livejournal.com]

Those aren't my issues, either. Mine are: 1) killing Wash, full stop (I understood the other deaths in the Jossverse, but this one? Not at all); 2) taking out half of what was probably the coolest married couple *ever*; 3) killing Wash to make way for MarySue!River, and seeing her flying Serenity, with his dinosaurs and stuff still sitting there; 4) Simon, who brought all that shit down on everyone, finds happiness with Kaylee, while Wash dies and Zoe suffers? Fuuuuuuck that!

Sorry, it's been 4 days, and I'm still traumatized. I thought it was a good movie, but I doubt I'll ever see it a second time, or even watch the show DVDs again. I feel like I saw an old friend die in a senseless car crash, and I emphasize the word senseless. I'm gutted, and right now I really, *really* hate Joss.

[permetaform]

And this reaction makes sense to me. It's like Joss took Wash's body to string across "Serenity", like a Reaver's ship. It's a desecration of a fannish home.

I feel an aching grief that Wash died because his character was awesome but I think that perhaps I initially loved Firefly-as-a-unit (rather than through the characters) that I don't have the strength of your reaction.

I'm not sure how to respond to your reactions with River and Simon; it sounds like they're the drunk drivers of "the car crash"?

[klia.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how to respond to your reactions with River and Simon; it sounds like they're the drunk drivers of "the car crash"?

Sort of. Or, maybe they were the ones who threw the party, served way too much alcohol, then handed over the car keys. Or something. :P

Sorry, I'm still too discombobulated to make any sense.

[permetaform]

::nods and hugs::