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Originally posted by Mavourneen:
To me, the question isn't whether River could have taken the soldiers...

Who opened the door revealing River "triumphant"?

(Kaylee rigged the door so it couldn't be opened by the Reavers from the outside...and our BDH were laying on the floor all kinds of hurt.)

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Originally posted by LittleAlbatross29:
When River is done killing the Reavers,and the Alliance comes,do you thnk she could have taken on and beaten those Alliance soldiers ?
I say yes & my husband says no way.
So Browncoats, what do you say ?

Bryce
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I swallowed a bug.

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Originally posted by embers:
I think she would have taken them and have gotten mowed down in a hail of bullets...

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Originally posted by mycroftxxx:
Couple thoughts here:

1) River is a reader. As proven earlier in the movie, walls or other physical impediments don't faze her (she "felt" the reavers in the heist scene). This means she already read every purplebelly's intentions and what their reaction to a kill order would be.

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2) The fact that they were asking for a Kill order in the first place may have been an order implanted by River into the platoon sargeant's mind. It was obvious that the rules of engagement in the preceding battle scenes were very clear. "Somebody shoot something!"

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3) Killing the purple bellies may not have been her plan had they received the order to shoot. A quick sideways flip and she's out the "reaver door" to the left of the troops.

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4) The comment about her so much as twitching would have resulted in a hail of bullets, well she did twitch when she tightened her hand on the axe. As much as we want to hate the purplebellies they are still well trained infantry and would have held fire unless River made a move towards them.

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Originally posted by codemonkey:
Okay, I'd like to point out that they had completely surrounded her, thus all shots fired would either hit her or hit a comrade (just pointing out the poor tactical planning shown by the Alliance). Taking just that into account, River would have been mowed down and quickly (as would probably half of the purple bellies to boot).

However, had she made the right move and fast enough she could have gained more of an advantage (e.g. getting in between one alliance soldier and the rest, using him as a shield and perhaps disarming him). From there it would be possible for River to survive (though unlikely) and the Alliance troopers would have taken more casualities for certain.

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Originally posted by Mavourneen:
To me, the question isn't whether River could have taken the soldiers...

Who opened the door revealing River "triumphant"?

The Alliance soldiers. They had rigged the grapples to pull down the wall earlier in the River-Reaver fight, and were waiting for the sapper to tell them that the door overrides were in place before pulling the wall down.

After all, not much point pulling down the wall if you're then faced with a closed blast door.

Cheers,
Johnboy

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Originally posted by Johnboy:
Personally, I think it all depended on wether she could get in among them before they could get off a clean shot. You SAW the length of those gun barrels, right? In a melee those guns would have been useless, because they could not have swung those long barrels around quickly enough to draw a bead before head parted company from shoulder.

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River gets my vote. She fancied her chances too, if you care to notice - she looked towards Mal, she was clearly asking wether he wanted her to take 'em out.

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She KNEW. Deep down, you all really know the answer too, don't you...

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Originally posted by codemonkey:
I'm pretty sure that they fanned out after enter the wall breach, at least making the semblance of a crescent.

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Originally posted by AgentRouka:



And the chances of her getting in there fast enough are... how high? Unlike the Reavers or the people in the bar, these are highly trained soldiers who know exactly what River is capable of, more likely than they don't, considering they worked for the Operative, who is also fully aware of it.

I don't know why everyone is so determined to consider all Alliance soldiers incompetent fools. Highly trained soldiers. Why would they fail at shooting her?

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Originally posted by theonetruebix:
Of course she would have won. Wtch her eyes when she turns around to look at them. She's doing the math.

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Originally posted by Siri:

And they didn't want her dead - they wanted her alive - not really sure they really wanted Simon alive - but River, yes, they would have avoided killing her if at all possible. Maybe used "the words" or shot her up with a stun gun or something to try to knock her out.

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Originally posted by AgentRouka:

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Originally posted by theonetruebix:
Of course she would have won. Wtch her eyes when she turns around to look at them. She's doing the math.

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Maybe the math in her head also told her that she wouldn't have stood a chance and attacking them was akin to going out in a blaze of glory?

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Originally posted by Cybersnark:

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Originally posted by AgentRouka:

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Originally posted by theonetruebix:
Of course she would have won. Wtch her eyes when she turns around to look at them. She's doing the math.

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Maybe the math in her head also told her that she wouldn't have stood a chance and attacking them was akin to going out in a blaze of glory?

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And note how she turned to look at Mal, getting his order. She knew it was hopeless, but she was preparing to attack them anyway if that was what Mal wanted her to do.

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