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

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Following up my own thought, because reading some of the comments posted after is very interesting - it seems that there's (very broadly speaking) two types of FF fans, those who were into it for the overall story and themes and universe, and those who were into it for the characters. People into it for the former for the most part approve of what happened, because it does fit some of the themes and was a fairly unexpected event (I had heard some spoilers before - I knew Book and someone else was going to die - so that did color my experience; I didn't get entirely shocked, nor did I have the edge-of-my-seat wondering who else was going to bite it). I can understand this perspective, and to be honest, I wish I could share it. Because I'm coming from the other side, that one of my favorite characters was chopped down before he was ever really developed (I think he was the most underused of the cast in the TV show, though I really think had it even been allowed a whole season he would have caught up) and one of my favorite het pairings ever was shredded, and the only way I'm ever going to really be able to enjoy the show again is by simply denying that it ever happened. Not saying this is the 'right' emotional response, but hell, it's entertainment. There's enough angst in real life to deal with, I don't have to work through my emotions about fiction!

Also to be noted, I've never seen Buffy, so I'm not used to Joss's style. Now I'm not sure I really want to see it.

I also have to note that the other thing that made it feel both cliche and ticked me off, was that Book's death did get all the dramatic angsting in proper cinematic 'prod the hero into action' style. Contrasting that with Wash's death makes Wash's seem that much more like 'must kill off a random char to prove how dangerous this place really is'. To some, the lack of melodrama felt like a realistic battle situation; to me, when Kaylee still had time to humorously work out her relationship with Simon in the middle of all that stress, and no one hardly sheds a tear for Wash after it's all over - it felt like Book's death was the one that really mattered, and Wash was just a soon-forgotten casualty, hardly more significant than Mr. Universe or the little boy in Book's camp. Which maybe was the point. But it still leaves a bitter taste.

[permetaform]

Regarding Book, I thought his death was much less effective than it could have been. I was far more shaken by the image of Mal in front of the console with all the burning places right after than with Book's death itself. Kaylee acted like Kaylee, for lack of a better term; it was sort of out of tone and could have been framed better, but it was also very much *her*.

Thing is, I felt Wash's death resonated way longer than Book's death. It was in the way that Zoe went opaque and I think part of why Simon stated his regret so clearly to Kaylee and they way that entire sequence was pitched so much tenser than it could have been otherwise.

Wash's death is a loss and there's no way that it couldn't have been a loss and Serenity can never be the same ship and Firefly would never have the same dynamic, because it changed. And should there be a sequel it will keep changing...and it's sort of like a Catch-22.