Book's past... same as Niska's?? by pizmobeach

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Book's past... same as Niska's??

POSTED BY: PIZMOBEACH
UPDATED: Friday, January 27, 2006 03:55
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Thursday, January 26, 2006 9:54 AM

... fully loaded, safety off...

My best guess: Book was employed by the Alliance but not as an Operative, rather as an Interrogator, the kind of specialist that Operatives might take prisoners/criminals to who they needed information from whatever way possible. These people were as sophisticated and determined and disciplined (and manic) in practicing their profession as Operatives were. You know, Niska.

My guess starts with that intro to War Stories, “ever heard of Shan Yu?” It may just be a writer’s clever way of connecting 2 separate scenes, but what if it was also a clue? What if Niska and Book weren’t so different and even had done the same thing in their pasts, had the same "job," during the war? Maybe reading Shan Yu was something like a core philosophy and guidebook for their position as Alliance Interrogators?

If Book’s profession caused him to use the same sadistic brutality as Niska had it may explain a lot about why he's chosen his current path - extreme guilt making him explore the opposite side of humanity, spreading the word, doing good. On the one hand Niska's just plain sick no matter how many layers you peel back, but at his core Book was a decent man and was only able to continue by rationalizing his behavior, by telling himself that he was being a good soldier. And then the war ended and he was left with the full weight of what he had done and without the justifications.

It may explain River's channeling of Book's past, "I don't care half a hump if you're innocent or not..."

It might explain Book’s knowledge of Niska from before his time with Firefly. In The Train Job he mentions Niska and Niska not being someone you want to mess with.

It would explain why he knows so much about crime.

It might explains Early knowing *what* Book was, and almost saying, “That ain’t no Preacher,” with a bit of distaste, like even he was put-off by what Book did.

It would explain Book not wanting to tell Mal about his past, "I'm like Niska.. I tortured many a fine man... some Independent soldiers even..." just not something you’d ever want to tell someone, or feel the need to, especially Mal.

Niska being Book's teacher? Make one hell of a twist...

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Thursday, January 26, 2006 10:30 AM

THEPISTONENGINE

Book being Niska's teacher, more likely. But I seriously doubt it.

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Thursday, January 26, 2006 10:34 AM

CHRISPV

Actually, I was playing around with something very similar to this in my head. Although I hadn't made the Niska/Shan Yu connection. Good grab!

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal, Fox!

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Thursday, January 26, 2006 3:58 PM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Part of my guess comes from having recently watched all 5 seasons of Angel and watching the 180 degree flips almost all of the characters made in that show at one time:

Angel - Angeleus
Good Wesley - Malbaro Wesley
Superficial Cordy - Big Bad Cordellia
Street Gunn - Lawyer Gunn
Meek Fred - All powerful Ilyria

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Thursday, January 26, 2006 4:06 PM

MCALLEN

Funny timing--I actually was thinking along these lines last night. I was watching "War Stories" again, and the whole Shan Yu coincidence seemed a bit too contrived not to mean something. Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten about Book's apparent knowledge of Niska earlier on--that makes the connection seem even stronger to me. You might be on to something! Hope we get to find out one day.

MAL: We're still flying.
SIMON: That's not much.
MAL: It's enough.

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Thursday, January 26, 2006 5:27 PM

FOLLOWMAL

This sounds very plausible to me. I hope we get to find out someday. Great way to bring back Book in flashbacks...have a Niska as villain ep or movie.

" You hold. Hold til I get back." Mal

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Thursday, January 26, 2006 6:00 PM

MYTHFIT

You'd think with a history like that our resident psychic would have known something like that. . .

I've thought about Book's past quite a bit and I keep coming back to it must not have been all that bad or River would have avoided him. (And not just for the hair!)

I even wondered if maybe he was part of the underground movement that helped Simon get River out and was on Serenity to keep tabs of River and track her progress or even that he was one of the people directly involved in what was done to her.

If only the pilot had been long enough to show how Simon met with Wash. (Assuming they met someplace since Wash brings River aboard when she is in cold storage before we see him on the ship). It would have been very interesting to see if Book was someplace in the background. . .

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Thursday, January 26, 2006 9:33 PM

FORGOTN

Very intresting, but those facts also support the Book being a high ranking alliance officer theory. I guess yours is acctually just an offshoot of that theory seeing as an interrigator would be a high ranking alliance officers. But I'm sticking with Book being a Captin/Admiral in the alliance. He could just have easily gotten that informationfrom having to deal with Niska in the past, like maybe being Captured and tortured by Niska himself once. I agree that the Shon Yu line implies a relationship between Book and Niska but the whole master/teacher thing is way to starwars, and Joss was try to make a departure from normal Sci-fi stereotypes with FireFly. More then likely Books relationship with Niska was more along the lines of Interrigator/Victim, Hero/Villian, or, if you want real twist, Maybe Book was a deep-cover operative (Spy as opposed to our nameless/rankless ex-nemesis) and had taken a job as Niska's Muscle, like Crow, and after living among the Independents for so long found himself loseing his faith in the Alliance and tried to find it elsewere, hence the abby. This would also explain his intrict knowledge of the criminal underworld. And if he was a deep cover operative then the alliance wouldn't be to worried about not getting much info from him as long as they knew he was alive and still undercover, especially after the war, and would never have deactivated his security clearence, which in turn explains the reaction that the Alliance ship had when the swiped his ident card in Safe. They had to save his life and they couldn't blow his cover or upset what ever operation he was working on on Serenity. Which is the one hole in your theory, Why would a defunked Alliance Interrigator (or plain old high ranking officer for that matter) still have the security clearence for that kind of reception.

Side Note: The DeepCover Agent theory also works with my semi-Whimsical Book Clone theory. Were, in the BDM, Book had security clearence to know that a ship was coming to destroy Haven so he switched with one of his many clones in Order to escape and the clone had enough of a warning to mount a counter attack with the mounted gun, which it seems non of the other places The Opperative hit were able to do.

OK Browncoat- Spearding the signal in the vast empty nothingness

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Thursday, January 26, 2006 10:46 PM

AERIN

I liked this theory when I saw you post it the last time.

It's not that different from the "Book was an Operative" theory, except now he does torture instead of assassinations. These are my two favorite theories. I think Book was initially something "worse" than just a military or government officer, and I think River could have sensed that he'd had a change of heart. The Ident card could be a fake, or Book could be still employed, undercover, retired, or on sabatical (hah!). Lots of ideas to play with.

Jayne: I once hit a guy in the neck from 500 yards with a bent scope. Don't that count upstairs?
Book: Oh, it'll be taken into consideration.
Jayne: You made that sound kind of ominous.

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Friday, January 27, 2006 3:55 AM

PIZMOBEACH

... fully loaded, safety off...

Quote:
Originally posted by Aerin:
I liked this theory when I saw you post it the last time.

Guilty! I accuse my parents... not enough love when I was growing up... we had to make toys out of empty cigarette boxes and spent shell casings... first time I heard laughter was when I was 12, by then it was so strange it freightened me... pity me...

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