River; Psychic or just Telepathic? by PsychicRiver

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River; Psychic or just Telepathic?

POSTED BY: PSYCHICRIVER
UPDATED: Friday, November 26, 2004 16:46
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Thursday, November 25, 2004 10:52 PM

Many sites I have been on and looked at character profiles have claimed that River has rather different powers. Some claim that she is just telepathic, but I think that she is psychic. Look at the way she instinctively knows where to go to get away from the blue sun guys in the hospital and find the way out of the hospital.

PsychicRiver

"Two by two, hands of blue."

"We can take care of each other. I'll knit!"

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Friday, November 26, 2004 12:24 AM

RELFEXIVE

Technically, I fail to see the distinction, but I see what you mean.

She does appear to possess a certain degree of precognition, as she seems to react to some things before they happen.

It *could* just be a combination of her "taking everything in" and her remarkable brain "doing the maths" to extrapolate what is most likely to happen, though. Intuition powered by her extra senses.

That being said, she can definitely read minds.

Mal: "We're not gonna die. We can't die, Bendis. You know why? Because we are so... very... pretty. We are just too pretty for God to let us die."

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Friday, November 26, 2004 3:40 AM

TRASK43

I agree its seems like its a combinationof things but Id mainly describe her 'powers' as being psychic.

www.summer-glau.com

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Friday, November 26, 2004 8:52 AM

ZOID

I prefer to think of it as MAGICK!

She magically reads three pages ahead in the script, and so, knows what's going to happen next...

Teasingly,

zoid

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Friday, November 26, 2004 3:03 PM

MINIME

I wonder if some of that has to do with her just being freaky-smart and having memorised (for example) the layout of every core hospital (which are all the same, right?)
clearly there is also a psychic/telepathic/extremely good at reading people thing happening too.

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Friday, November 26, 2004 4:30 PM

SERGEANTX

Quote:
Originally posted by minime:
I wonder if some of that has to do with her just being freaky-smart and having memorised (for example) the layout of every core hospital (which are all the same, right?)
clearly there is also a psychic/telepathic/extremely good at reading people thing happening too.

I think they've deliberately blurred the lines to keep us guessing - also to keep us grounded in the more naturalistic sci-fi world that Firefly depends on. Joss has already done 'supernatural'. Pretty much everything River has done can be explained with very high levels of ordinary perception, although some of those explanations may stretch the bounds of reason a bit.

Personally, I find the more intriguing aspect of her character to be the alienation that her unique perspective forces her to experience. It's something we all go through, even though we'd like to pretend otherwise. I think that's what Joss was getting into in OIS with all the allusions to existentialism, although I confess to be more than a little perplexed by existentialism overall.

What tears at me is the way River so accurately represents your typical gifted child. She see's the world in a fundamentally different way than everyone else, and while that gives her special 'abilities', it also sets her apart - alone and lonely, trying to figure out how to communicate. The character is not unlike ST:NG's "Data" in that sense.

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

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Friday, November 26, 2004 4:33 PM

NIKNAK

I don't think she really knew where she was going in the hospital - she just went in the opposite direction to the screams. It was reasonable to assume there would be another exit somewhere in that direction. Most buildings have fire exits or employee entrances.

We don't know the extent of her senses and we're not supposed to know. I think she is at minimum slightly telepathic. The movie will probably explain a lot and give us more questions.

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Friday, November 26, 2004 4:46 PM

MINIME

Totally agree, especially this bit (hope I've managed to quote ok)

Quote:
Originally posted by SergeantX:

Personally, I find the more intriguing aspect of her character to be the alienation that her unique perspective forces her to experience. It's something we all go through, even though we'd like to pretend otherwise. I think that's what Joss was getting into in OIS with all the allusions to existentialism, although I confess to be more than a little perplexed by existentialism overall.

The other thing I find fascinating about River is the way that other people respond to her. Eg: Book tries to reason with her like he would anyone else (Jaynestown), Badger warms to her (Shindig), and Jayne, for some unknown reason, seems to be able to understand the more cryptic allusions in her speech (Ariel... or maybe that was largely his guilty conscience??)
Comparison to Data interests me; often thought that he brings up the question: What does it mean to be human? and in lots of ways, River does that too. They are like opposites, Data trying to figure out how to feel anything at all, and River trying to figure out how to not feel abslutely everything.
the other thing about River (again!) is that she has insight into her own condition; she knows when she is slipping from 'normal girl' into the blackness.

my mouth is talking - i'm going to stop now.

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