LIMINALOSITY'S BLOG

liminalosity

The Operative !!SPOILERS LURK WITHIN!!
Wednesday, October 12, 2005

SPOILERS! REGULAR SPOILERS AND LURKING VIRAL SPOILERS
Please read no further unless that's what you're looking for
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So, the Operative. I think he is one of Joss' more convoluted and
subtle monsters. He seems to me to share quite a few character traits with Jubal Early, without seeming as bare wires crazy as Early. His zeal is on a par with Early, but it seems the Operative functions within something more like a self-created religious ethic, built of elements gleaned from military theory and Christianity.
I have a theory, surprise, surprise. In the scene in the training house between the Operative, Inara and Mal, the Operative tells Mal he can't make him angry, and I think that's a sham. He presents himself as though he is as completely calm and in control of his emotions as he is of his physicality (as well as implying that he among all others is without sin). I saw him as very emotional and arrogant from his delivery of a couple of lines in his first scene:
1. the tone he uses when he asks the doctor 'do you know what your sin is?' seems very much like a disappointed and condesending parent to me, and
2. in his delivery of the last line in that sequence 'where are you hiding, little girl' the words 'little girl' fairly drip with venom.
I think he's acting like a guy who's trying to be something he's not.
Also take a look a his face when the guys on his ship tell him they are reading 7 signatures (from the 7 crybabies the crew launch as they leave orbit - and by the way, why wasn't it 8 signatures?)
I don't think his rage and pride are ramping up throughout the film so much as they are being brought closer and closer to the surface until the moment when he shoots Mal in the back. That's the act of a complete coward, but it was pretty clear to me that he had totally lost any remaining shred of control over his emotions when the Reavers showed up and he yelled 'summary fire!'

BTW, what do you think his sin was? I'm voting for Grumpy, I mean Pride.

COMMENTS

Saturday, October 15, 2005 9:38 PM

SOUPCATCHER


I enjoyed reading your thoughts on the Operative. I too thought that he came across as arrogant at times. Very judgemental.

The novelization of the movie, written by Keith DeCandido, does go into more detail on what the Operative is thinking during certain scenes (I really enjoyed reading the novelization for Serenity as it delved a lot more into character motivation and how they interpreted events - a great example is what is going through River's mind right before she punches Simon in the throat).

To go off on a tangent... I wanted to thank you for your kind note. Congrats on deciding to delurk. I spent quite a bit of time just ghosting the site as well before I started contributing and I still read way more than I post (unless there's a question that I happen to know the answer to - navigating the tremendous wealth of information in the archives here can be a bit daunting so we try to make that as painless as possible). As you can hopefully tell, we're a pretty friendly bunch and you'll fit right in. One of the things I appreciate the most is the calmness, as you put it, of the community (usually, there are occasions when things get a bit out of control but they're few and far between - unless you head over to the Real World Events Discussion section but that's mostly politics, so what can you expect).

Glad you enjoyed the little piece about the early days of fireflyfans. It still amazes me that this entire community started out as the work of one very dedicated fan, Haken. And that he's been running this site, unobtrusively, for almost four years out of his own pocket. One of my motivations in writing the log was to try and give credit where credit was due.

But I've rambled long enough... Welcome aboard!


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