Operatives by Regression

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Operatives

POSTED BY: REGRESSION
UPDATED: Thursday, October 27, 2005 20:32
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Thursday, October 27, 2005 3:17 AM

I just saw Serenity again, and there was something that I picked up about Operatives.

Firstly, everyone seems to think that Operatives are all super-covert assasin-ish.
We get that when Book tells Mal about being hit close range, and that means an operative, trouble you've not seen etc... Also when Mal meets our Operative, he says: "Alliance wanted us to see reason, they shouldn't have sent an assassin"

I reckon that Operatives are actually more public knowledge, sort of like elite SAS or Green Berets, etc. Hear me out.

In the opening sequence, the doctor asks for authorisation, and the operative gives his palm scan. Now the doctor says something like:
An operative with full parlimentary authorisation... I see no listing of name nor rank...
Now why would he say that if operatives were super secret Alliance assassins?

And in the end, the Operative commands a fleet of Alliance ships, and has the authority over the Alliance hitsquad which blows up the wall behind River.
In every spy/hitman movie I have seen, there has never been an assassin who commands an army (or an elite taskforce for that matter). Now that's just stupid.

I reckon that in light of this, Operatives are in an organisation which stands above the regular military, have power over the regular military and have their own ranks, etc. (hence no listing of name or rank). Sort of like how the CIA comes along and takes over the little county operation.
Our operative just turned out to be a secret agent in the elite force.

Makes sense for me...

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Thursday, October 27, 2005 8:55 AM

CYBERSNARK

Yeah, sort of like an Imperial High Inquisitor in Star Wars. Basically like Darth Vader, only without the close personal relationship to the Emperor --there were dozens of High Inquisitors, though they tended to be fairly newsworthy (folks recognized names and such).

I think it's telling that Dr. Matthias isn't so much surprised that he's an Operative, but that he has no name/rank. This implies that most Operatives do have names and ranks ("Operative" isn't a rank, it's a job description).

Perhaps "our" Operative was more like an Emperor's Hand --a more top-secret covert agent, who is authorized to impersonate other officers in pursuit of his/her duties.

I imagine a scenario whereby our Operative meets Operative Darby and refuses to identify himself. Darby calls in to the Parliament for guidance, and they refuse to explain, but order him to grant his fellow Operative whatever assistance he requires, and stop asking stupid questions when his job is at stake. National security, you understand.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Thursday, October 27, 2005 10:12 AM

STAKETHELURK

Quote:
Cybersnark wrote:
Yeah, sort of like an Imperial High Inquisitor in Star Wars. Basically like Darth Vader, only without the close personal relationship to the Emperor --there were dozens of High Inquisitors, though they tended to be fairly newsworthy (folks recognized names and such).

I think it's telling that Dr. Matthias isn't so much surprised that he's an Operative, but that he has no name/rank. This implies that most Operatives do have names and ranks ("Operative" isn't a rank, it's a job description).

Interesting take, but I disagree. The Operative’s insistence that “Like this facility, I don’t exist” implies some level of secrecy involved. When Dr. Mathias identified him as “an operative of the Parliament,” I imagine he was using the lower-case “o.” He could’ve just as easily said “agent,” “representative,” “officer,” etc. This is especially telling, since he then asks about "name or rank." Rank implies an official job, a position--you can be "an advisor to the President," but you could be a White House staffer, a Secretary in the Cabinet, or someone with no official position. "Adviser" is a role, "Secretary of State" is a job description. I imagine Dr. Mathias was referring to the same thing; he knows this guy is connected to the Parliament (and thus should be treated with kid gloves), but he doesn't know in what capacity the man is acting. For simple continuity reasons, it's just a coincidence that the Alliance's actual term for them is "Operative;" and the way Book told it their behavior and activities are a well-kept secret. From what I could tell, the Operative simply has this license to act on behalf of the Parliament, giving him access to... everything. He doesn't need a job description if he's got the keys to the Alliance; but Dr. Mathias is surprised that anyone could get those keys without a name or position. That, to me, is what the Operatives are about--no official job description but the authority to do whatever they want.

As for the Operative commanding fleets, let’s think about this for a moment. The Operative can be seen to represent the average Alliance supporter, only taken to an extreme. In other words, most of the Alliance personnel are already used to taking orders, no questions asked, for the greater good. All they probably know is that some bigwig from the Central Planets has got them performing some special security operation. He’s got all the right clearances, but it seems that nobody’s managed to catch his name or rank… if they even bothered to ask.

So, I see the Operative not so much as an assassin but rather as one of the Parliament’s “go to guys.” He can act stealthy when he needs to, while having the authority to bring the whole force of the Alliance to bear on a problem if he has to. He probably keeps much of the motivations of his actions secret from subordinates; they just follow orders. He can kill indiscriminately. When it’s all said and done, he vanishes and the soldiers are either sworn to secrecy or don’t really comprehend who or what he was to begin with. And I imagine the same is true for any Operative; after all, Book generalizes about them when he describes them. So, I don’t feel the Operatives are exactly public knowledge. They are able to remain secret by hiding behind the blind faith in power that the Alliance engenders; nobody asks who or what they are and once they’re gone, people are left to speculate who they were. "Gotta be some Parliament member." "No, he was Intelligence." "No, he was law enforcement." "I'm sure he's a consultant for Blue Sun." And so their identity is kept safe behind a cloud of confusion and a refusal to question authority.

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Thursday, October 27, 2005 10:24 AM

CITIZEN

StakeTheLurk:
That's pretty much exactly what I thought.
Couldn't have put it better.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you Beeeer Milkshakes!
Okay, the talking ferret was a bit wierd...

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Thursday, October 27, 2005 8:27 PM

FLETCH2

He's a trouble shooter --- if someone's causing trouble then he's sent to shoot them

Seriously, he works for Parlement and has been given broad authority to do whatever it takes to identify and solve their problems. He has full access to all data at the top secret base because he might have to access or audit that data. He has full authority over the military because he may have to investigate the military or use it as part of his mission.

My guess is that Operatives are not really known about by the general public -- hence Book's comment to Mal that is is trouble like he's never known. Folks like Dr Mathias working on secret projects for the Alliance may well have come in contact with an Operative at some point in the past.

This idea that Presidents or other leaders have access to high level agents that operate under their direct authority is common in fiction. You could say that Darth Vader does that for the Emporer, Remo Williams does that in the Destroyer books, even West and Gordon have that authority in WWW.

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Thursday, October 27, 2005 8:32 PM

YORG

What I'm wondering is if Book was the Operative's father or possibly his old trainer/superior?

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