Serenity

[Silver Bullet]

I have the ultimate dissertation on the Shepherd right here:

“Not Very Christian Of Me”:
The Escapist Faith of a Lost Shepherd in Joss Whedon’s Firefly

http://experience.mhgs.edu/2009/07/not-very-christian-of-me/

Go to the bottom left and click on download their paper.

It amazes my wife the things college students will write papers on, but this is a scholarly analysis of the Shepherd Book character, and it's not flattering.  I found it very interesting to see that someone saw so many aspects in the character that I never considered, accurate or not.

The lack of “priesthood” for Book could possibly be to contrast Inara’s Buddhist
presence on the ship.  We see Inara lighting candles, kneeling in prayer and burning incense. 
These moments, paired with the fact that characters frequently come to her for counsel and
advice, paint Inara in a priestly role, leaving Shepherd Book merely as a roving preacher.

[Perd Hapley]

That's one thing that turned me off of Book, also.  I'm just downright tired of Christians who think there's something un-Christian about using deadly force to defend yourself or your loved ones.  Hello, read the words of Christ people.  All of them.  He told his disciples to buy swords!

Must be hard to be a Christian police officer in some churches. 

[Mabs2]

That's one thing that turned me off of Book, also.  I'm just downright tired of Christians who think there's something un-Christian about using deadly force to defend yourself or your loved ones.  Hello, read the words of Christ people.  All of them.  He told his disciples to buy swords!

Must be hard to be a Christian police officer in some churches. 

Agreed, that's my main beef with Book.
Heck, half or more of the people in the Bible were soldiers.

[Perd Hapley]

Soldiers?   

[sanglant]

That's one thing that turned me off of Book, also.  I'm just downright tired of Christians who think there's something un-Christian about using deadly force to defend yourself or your loved ones.  Hello, read the words of Christ people.  All of them.  He told his disciples to buy swords!

Must be hard to be a Christian police officer in some churches. 

as bad as i have been garbling such things lately i'll just go with the quote.

Luke.22
[35] And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.
[36] Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.
[37] For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.
[38] And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.

point being of coarse, if you have to deal with them in real life. buy them a Bible. oh and maybe highlight some things before you give it to them. i would suggest something like this. you can get them in most translations.

[Scout26]

I gotta agree with Revdisk.  I think Book had far more going on then what was on the surface.  It was obvious that he wasn't all that comfortable with being a preacher, but that something in his past life had caused him to chuck it all in and go in another direction.  He was the same and the opposite of Mal all at the same time.

I didn't think his acting was that bad.  He never once called Mal, Barney.....

[mellestad]

Killed me Mal, killed me with a sword...how weird is that?

Or, naturally, when River kicks butt.


I liked the movie, but not as much as the series.  I'll always have some nerd rage for Firefly not getting a second season. 



Take me out, to the black, tell them I ain't comin' back....

[Silver Bullet]

And I gotta give Book credit for this line from War Stories:

A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned.

[mellestad]

Kaylee looked better in Firefly too.

[Silver Bullet]

She did.  Whedon made her put on 20 lb for Firefly, and she looked better for it.

In fact, I think pound-for-pound, women generally look better over weight than under weight.  That is, they look better 20 lb over than 20 lb under.

[just Warren]

Book wasn't a Shepard.

Jubal Early knew who he was, and knew to take him out, well, early.

He was deep UC for some reason or another, probably River related. Remember what River "saw" when she was in that fugue state with Book nastily saying "I don't give half a hump if you are innocent. So where does that leave you?" So it points to Book being on River's trail. When Whedon wrote the movie and tied up River's mystery Book became redundant and thus could be killed off for dramatic effect. Also in the movie, Book and the Op* never meet. This meant that all manner of plot and backstory awkwardness could be avoided.

Book's little hideaway had an AA gun, everybody treats this as routine. Yet nowhere in the series did we see any non-gov entities with heavy weapons. Serenity is unarmed, that magna-grapple pirate station didn't have guns, Rance Burgess had exactly one machine gun, Early's ship was unarmed, Niska's men did not have crew-served weapons or even grenades and his station was not obviously armed, and when Patience set out to bushwhack Mal and Zoe her and her crew have shoulder arms and hand guns, nothing bigger. And her knowing Mal I would think she would bring the big stuff just to be extra sure. Finally that moon that the Reavers attacked in Serenity obviously had no air defense of any kind.

So how and why did Book have a cannon and what strings was he pulling to keep it? Do you think the Alliance would be OK with a non-core planet having such firepower? They would have been all about taking it away, yet they didn't. A mere Shepard would not have been able to avoid that. 

Now you could say that the Alliance were lax about guns in general. I would agree if we were only talking about should arms and handguns. They could not care less about your personal armaments when the real power lay in shipboard artillery, air supremacy, armor, and masses of ground troops. Cannons, though, would cause them a bit of concern. Enough to not want them in the hands of those they consider politically suspect.










*One's a librarian, one's a spy, together they fight communists! Coming to ABC in 1982!

[Perd Hapley]

Warren,

If Book was undercover, tracking River, why did they need to broadcast a subliminal message in the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial just to find her?

Why set up the trap with Inara, if they could just have Book ask them to stop by Haven? 

Why blow up Haven, and Book along with it? 

Why did Early take Book out, if they wanted the same thing? 

Why did Dobson bash in Book's head? 

[just Warren]

Different factions wanted different things. It's a mistake to think of the alliance as a monolithic entity where every individual wants the same outcome. In fact Book may not have been really working for the Alliance at all. He had an Ident card that passed an Alliance scanner but that does not prove he was actually Alliance. He may have been at one point or he may still have been. No way to tell.

The Operative and Book might have known of each other but have been working to different purposes. Therefore the Op would care nothing about blowing up Haven. In fact it might have just been a bonus for his employers.

The same goes for Early. If Book got his thing, then Early would not get his and vice-versa.

Dobson was a mundane Fed Cop, Book was...something else. Dobson probably was not in any sort of loop where folks like Book and the Op were discussed.