Reever Madness by MrMojoRisin

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Reever Madness

POSTED BY: MRMOJORISIN
UPDATED: Monday, January 12, 2004 22:42
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VIEWED: 6059
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Friday, January 9, 2004 6:31 AM

The reevers (sp?) were an awesome concept early on in the series, but towards the end of its short run the idea seemed to be abandoned. Often the Serenity would be flying under radar and way out in space, away from everything interesting. We were told that Reevers are sort of like beasts who live out in the middle of nowhere, uncivilized men. Perhaps we will see more of them in the movie?

Ugh there is just way too much to this show that needs exploring, so many possibilities, I badly wish it would go back on the air, anythings possible right?

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Friday, January 9, 2004 7:14 AM

SEVENPERCENT

Well, you have to remember, the Reavers were out there, on the fringe, but they cant be in every episode- If every five seconds someone would have yelled "holy crap it's the Borg" on ST:NG the show would have gotten old really, really fast- But I agree the movie should have Reavers-

He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 7:55 AM

BLINKER

Quote:
If every five seconds someone would have yelled "holy crap it's the Borg" on ST:NG the show would have gotten old really, really fast

There's a name for this phenomenon... "Voyager."

"Holy crap, we've been captured by a downed ship of surly Borg children!"

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Friday, January 9, 2004 7:57 AM

SEVENPERCENT

Yep, and it's why I stopped watching Voyager the instant they hit - drumroll please- BORGSPACE (cue scary music)

He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 8:08 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

Quote:
Originally posted by SevenPercent:
Yep, and it's why I stopped watching Voyager the instant they hit - drumroll please- BORGSPACE (cue scary music)

I quit watching Voyager for the same reason. It grew old quick.

I think the Reavers are the boogeyman of the FF universe, and they should never be overdone. I think it is cool how as of the end of the series they were still the "faceless" enemy, as anyone who had run into them did not survive to describe them.

I think there should be Reavers in the movie, or at least some sort of close call or something involving a Reaver attack.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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Friday, January 9, 2004 9:43 AM

LADYJAYNE

I would be willing to bet that Joss plans never to actually show us the Reevers up close. It would spoil the suspense you can get out of NOT seeing them. If we did see inside of one of their ships it would have to be horrifyingly gruesome and there will be a lot of viewers whose first thought would be "Well, that was anti-climactic."

I would certainly hope that they wouldn't be over played anywhere. It would get old after a while. When fans get bored with an over done villain, it's just too tempting for the writers to fall into the "Even scarier than...!" mentality in order to come up with something else.

--Kala

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Friday, January 9, 2004 10:00 AM

ANJIN

I believe Joss would have showed off the Reavers eventually. You can only have so many close calls before that gets all kinds of old.

I'm thinking "Reavers and Blue Hand guys in the movie." He did say he wants to go big with the story. And that could be brutal.

---
Raven's Prayer
http://webpages.charter.net/anjinm

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Friday, January 9, 2004 10:13 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

Reavers interested me bacause they didn't seem to have a self-perpetuating setup. Where do replacement Reavers come from? Little baby Reavers? Don't think so. So(excuse self-horn-tooting here) I developed a scenario and a poem around it.

http://www.fireflyfans.net/sunroomitem.asp?i=572

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Friday, January 9, 2004 10:32 AM

SAINT JAYNE

Quote:
Originally posted by Geezer:
Reavers interested me bacause they didn't seem to have a self-perpetuating setup.

Hee hee. They're like nuns in that respect. They must convert.

LadyJayne, are you familiar with H P Lovecraft? His works were ridiculed by other writers in his time simply because he seldom described the monsters beyond mere hints.

I agree with Lovecraft. The most terrifying thing is what you yourself conjure in your own mind, and the Reavers are all the more terrifying for it.

Think of the Borg (I'm borrowing this example from a previous poster). In ST:TNG, they were scary. Now in Voyager, the Borg practicaly go out for beers every weekend with the crew. I no longer have to change my underwear after seeing them.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 10:33 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

Anjin wrote:

Quote:
I'm thinking "Reavers and Blue Hand guys in the movie." He did say he wants to go big with the story. And that could be brutal.

I have always wondered if there was a connection between the Reavers and the Blue Hands. Could it be that the Reavers are failed Blue Hand experiments? What if they were earlier attempts at the mind tampering they did w/ River?

Maybe not, but it does make one wonder.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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Friday, January 9, 2004 11:26 AM

CAPTAINCDC

When asked a while back about what a possible firefly movie would involve, Joss answered "one word..Reavers". Now that was before he struck a deal to write the script with universal. I'm sure he plans to wrap up some loose thread storylines and expand upon others in addition to creating new ones to ensure future interest. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us. With Joss at the helm, I'm sure it will be great

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 11:58 AM

YSRITH

I think you might be right on this one. Was discussing this with some friends recently.

The Reavers seem to have no conscience, no inhibition, no fear. They are the ultimate sociopaths. In "Ariel" Simon describes River's symptoms are resulting from damage to the areas of the brain that control fear and impulse.

The scenario we came up with was that the Reavers were the frist phase of the experiment, which failed drastically.

Two other things intrigue me:
1 - the way Reaver madness seems to "spread" in the survivors - to me this suggests a transmissable agent

2 - Mal knows a lot more about them than he should - has he encountered them during the war?

I wonder if the Reavers were POWs who were experimented on by Blue Sun, and somehow managed to escape. It is plausable that the Alliance were messing with biological weapons, and they accidently created them. It would fit with why they consistently deny their existence

Ysrith

Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
Anjin wrote:

Quote:

I have always wondered if there was a connection between the Reavers and the Blue Hands. Could it be that the Reavers are failed Blue Hand experiments? What if they were earlier attempts at the mind tampering they did w/ River?

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Friday, January 9, 2004 11:58 AM

YSRITH

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Friday, January 9, 2004 12:05 PM

CAPTAINCDC

I don't know if there is a transmissable agent or not. Mal tells the alliance commander that the only way to deal with something as horrible as what the survivor witnessed is to become it.

Quote:
Originally posted by Ysrith:
I think you might be right on this one. Was discussing this with some friends recently.

The Reavers seem to have no conscience, no inhibition, no fear. They are the ultimate sociopaths. In "Ariel" Simon describes River's symptoms are resulting from damage to the areas of the brain that control fear and impulse.

The scenario we came up with was that the Reavers were the frist phase of the experiment, which failed drastically.

Two other things intrigue me:
1 - the way Reaver madness seems to "spread" in the survivors - to me this suggests a transmissable agent

2 - Mal knows a lot more about them than he should - has he encountered them during the war?

I wonder if the Reavers were POWs who were experimented on by Blue Sun, and somehow managed to escape. It is plausable that the Alliance were messing with biological weapons, and they accidently created them. It would fit with why they consistently deny their existence

Ysrith

Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
Anjin wrote:

Quote:

I have always wondered if there was a connection between the Reavers and the Blue Hands. Could it be that the Reavers are failed Blue Hand experiments? What if they were earlier attempts at the mind tampering they did w/ River?

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 12:13 PM

YSRITH

True - that was Mal's response. Though IMHO I think that's too simplistic an explanation.

The survivors would suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), but would not exhibits the exact same behavioural symptoms, especially within that timeframe.

Tied in with the knowledge about River's condition, it made me think of some sort of transmissable viral encephalopathy.

But it's probably me reading too much into, and who knows what was in Joss's mind!

I am projecting my own references on it.

Ysrith

Quote:
Originally posted by captaincdc:
I don't know if there is a transmissable agent or not. Mal tells the alliance commander that when faced with something as horrible as what the survivor witnessed there is only one way to deal with it and that is to become it.

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 12:21 PM

CAPTAINCDC

You may be right. Also, wasn't there something about the way the reavers were running their ship, like a lot of radiation inside the hull? It seems like Wash says something about it and then Mal realizes that it is the reavers. How could they withstand that much radiation or whatever Wash said it was?

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 12:29 PM

YSRITH

I got the impression they didn't care about the effects the radiation were having, which would fit in with the lack of inhibition/fear, they are exhibiting. They don't care that they could die from the radiation.

I really want to see where Joss is going with them. .

Mal versus Reavers could be very interesting

Ysrith

Quote:
Originally posted by captaincdc:
You may be right. Also, wasn't there something about the way the reavers were running their ship, like a lot of radiation inside the hull? It seems like Wash says something about it and then Mal realizes that it is the reavers. How could they withstand that much radiation or whatever Wash said it was?

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 12:34 PM

CAPTAINCDC

Me too. I just hope they make the darn thing, so that we can see what Joss had in mind!

Quote:
Originally posted by Ysrith:
I got the impression they didn't care about the effects the radiation were having, which would fit in with the lack of inhibition/fear, they are exhibiting. They don't care that they could die from the radiation.

I really want to see where Joss is going with them. .

Mal versus Reavers could be very interesting

Ysrith

Quote:
Originally posted by captaincdc:
You may be right. Also, wasn't there something about the way the reavers were running their ship, like a lot of radiation inside the hull? It seems like Wash says something about it and then Mal realizes that it is the reavers. How could they withstand that much radiation or whatever Wash said it was?

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

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Friday, January 9, 2004 11:38 PM

DRAKON

Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
I quit watching Voyager for the same reason. It grew old quick.

I quit watching when Jayneway blew their first opportunity to return to homespace, because of the Prime directive or some such nonsense. And the crew did not shove her out of an airlock.

Look, a captain's first responsibility is to their crew. (Actually its to the ship, but that is because the ship holds the crew. If you risk 100 lives to save one, you are making a very bad gamble) The crew rely on the captain to look out after the crew's best interest. And not blow a chance at going home over silly policies from that homeworld so many thousands of light years away.

"Wash, where is my damn spaceship?"

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 7:56 AM

CARDIE

There's also that River-Reaver sound-alike thing. Joss has a real ear for language, which makes me wonder if that was an intentional clue.

Cardie

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Sunday, January 11, 2004 6:19 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up

I still tend to think of the Reavers as pirates gone terribly wrong. The real pirates of the Caribbean did things almost as bad as the "Rape you, eat you, sew your skin." scenario. An article about the explosion of pirate iconography in pop culture in the Feb. Esquire mentions the "...bizarre buccaneer torture practice of slashing a prisoner's stomach, extracting one end of an intestine, nailing it to a post, and then forcing the victim to 'dance to his death' by beating his ass with a burning log." Sounds pretty Reaverish to me.

Consider that William Teach (Blackbeard)tied pieces of burning, smoking slow-match in his hair and beard during raids to appear more terrifying. Definitely Reaver material.

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Sunday, January 11, 2004 6:35 AM

FLYINFREE

Quote:
Originally posted by Ysrith:
The survivors would suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), but would not exhibits the exact same behavioural symptoms, especially within that timeframe.

The survivor was left on the derelict for some time all alone, plenty of time to completely lose his mind, not only from the trauma he endured but also from solitary confinement with all the bodies and survivor's remorse. He couldn't bare the thought of his own weakness so embraced the strongest thing he knew...Reavers. Also Reavers don't experience pain, loss, fear or remorse, all the things he wanted to escape.

"...we're still flyin'."
"That's not much."
"It's enough." Malcolm Reynolds and Simon Tam - Serenity

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Sunday, January 11, 2004 9:04 AM

TALONPEST

Joss has said that the Reavers will be in the movie, and since they were the main villains he used in the pilot I don't doubt he'd use them again. My personal prediction is that the Blue Hands will chase Serenity into Reaver territory, since that would allow them to introduce both in a relatively short amount of time.

I also think that the reason Mal knows so much about Reavers and why he doesn't like to talk about his past (mentioned in Our Mrs. Reynolds) are likely related- Reavers probably hit his home on Shadow.

And I think the survivor on the derilect was a pretty good hint as to how the Reavers replenish their ranks. They probably intended to come back to that transport and pick him up once he'd gone thoroughly mad, along with any rescue ship that triggered the boobytraped airlock.

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Monday, January 12, 2004 6:31 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

I think it will be awesome to see the Reavers in the movie. It would make for a great hook for people new to the series, and is something we Browncoats can relate to.

Wash pointed out to Mal that the ship was running without proper core containment. That is when Mal realized who it was and told Wash to hold his course and not to run.

I am not certain that the survivor in Bushwacked was left behind intentionally by the Reavers. It is possible I guess, but I had thought perhaps he hid during the attack and what he had seen and heard had made him snap. Of course the boobytrap for the rescue ship is a good point. Perhaps they planned to come back later to see what their trap had caught. Still, it does not indicate they knew about the survivor, even though that would explain how the replenish their ranks.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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Monday, January 12, 2004 4:30 PM

TALONPEST

Yes, the Reavers intended for him to survive. When Mal is telling the Alliance officer about the survivor, he says that they made him watch, and that he probably tried to look away but they wouldn't let him.

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Monday, January 12, 2004 10:16 PM

DRALIONSOLEIL

strangely enough, i hate watching bushwhacked. freaks me out. I've watched every other episode over and over, and bushwhacked about...twice.

but here's something interesting to think about: from the commentaries and such, i picked up hints that made me think Inara was going to play a major part in the movie. then y'all are saying that Reavers are going to be the big bad. then i remembered from the pilot ep. when Mal makes the announce ment of Reavers approaching, we see Inara take out a box with a syringe. in the commentary, joss says that everyone thinks it's a suicide kit, then they think it's part of the immunization kit. but really it has a bigger role to play later on, possibly in the movie. I thought he meant a story line about Inara, but it could be that Inara has some knowledge about Reavers we don't...
what d'you think?

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Monday, January 12, 2004 10:42 PM

BARNEYT

Quote:
Originally posted by DralionSoleil:
we see Inara take out a box with a syringe. in the commentary, joss says that everyone thinks it's a suicide kit, then they think it's part of the immunization kit. but really it has a bigger role to play later on, possibly in the movie. I thought he meant a story line about Inara, but it could be that Inara has some knowledge about Reavers we don't...
what d'you think?

That's definitely an interesting conclusion - and is it something all Companion's have, or something that a client gave Inara when he found out that she was heading out?

A disturbing thought has just occurred to me (sorry if its already been discussed to death elsewhere...

) - what if the syringe is nothing to do with the Reavers themselves, but it's medicine of some kind that Inara's having to take to deal with something else entirely - and what she's thinking in this scene is 'is there any point taking the medicine, if I'm about to die anyway?'

just a thought...

---
"I think the right place to start is to say, fair is fair. This is who we are. These are our numbers." Mr Willis of Ohio - The West Wing

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