Serenity, The Shepherd's tale

[Matthew Morris]

Anyone else read this? (Insert Standard Freehold DM Joss-rant here)

I found it, disappointing.

Spoiler:

So it's told as backwards in time, and the bits going back to the pilot are fine. It's before that it starts making no sense.

Shepherd was kicked out of the alliance military, and basically left to die, after engineering a slaughter of alliance troops. This doesn't jive with the respect he was given in the series when he was shot.

He killed an Alliance soldier in cold blooded murder and took his ID. Strangely enough, they never caught on. (no DNA testing or retinal scans in the military? Really?)

Except that he was a resistance fighter, and they were able to replace his eye with a biosynthic replacement that also doubled as a transmitter that apparently worked across the system, as he was 'transmitting' to the browncoats. (and those transmissions, and the prosthetic, were never found out by the more technologically advanced Alliance)

Except that he was a two bit hood who fell in with the Browncoats on a core world, to avoide being arrested. So he earns their trust that quickly?

And none of this explains his encyclopedic knowlege of Alliance tactics, illicit activity, above average marksmanship, etc. Or what River was reading from him in 'Objects in Space.'

All in all, I found it a let down for what was one of the more interesting characters in Firefly.

[Whited Sepulcher]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Anyone else read this? (Insert Standard Freehold DM Joss-rant here)

I found it, disappointing.

What the? You're right from what you've posted, that really doesn't make sense from the impression I got from the series too. I've always been getting the impression he was a former operative or something. What you just mentioned... wow, sheesh. I'll be sure to avoid it.

[Kthulhu]

See, I was basically expecting disappointment when I heard they were doing something that reveals his backstory. Some things are better left as a mystery.

[Matthew Morris]

Kthulhu wrote:

See, I was basically expecting disappointment when I heard they were doing something that reveals his backstory. Some things are better left as a mystery.

Or a reveal that doesn't make sense.

I could picture Book as:

Spoiler:

An Alliance judge who was known for being a 'hanging judge' or had presided over secret trials of Browncoat leaders.

As was strongly hinted, an operative or part of the training program for operatives.

A deep cover spy in the Browncoats for the Alliance, who was responsible for stopping a BC terror plot.

A freelance assassin who had a religious conversion moment.

An Alliance special forces person who, while not knowing the full origin of the Reavers, suspected enough that he retired.

An Alliance propaganda person, who had deep insights into psyche and was a good shot, but no field experience. After his first look at the results of his tactics being put to use, he resigns and joins the priesthood. He's admired because his tactics are being used to this day.

Basically, his shadowed origin would have given a chance to show the Alliance while not 'good' wasn't purely evil, and the Browncoats weren't always on the high road. y'know, like how Civil War was supposed to be, before the writers all took the 'not only is Tony wrong, let's see how much of a jerk we can make him' approach.

[Arnwyn]

Wow. Bad.

[Benicio Del Espada]

I miss Firefly. *sniff*

[Kthulhu]

I like Whedon, but I think his stories have a tendency to peak soon and then rapidly fall off. So I'm sad when a show gets canceled, but at the same time, I'm glad that we didn't get THIS made as a Firefly episode.

I think it's actually best seen in Buffy. He had a perfect end for the series...but he had to bring Buffy back to life for two TV season that were pretty miserable compared to what had come before.

Angel had a bit of a slump, but ended very well (although the comics show that he would have immediately flushed this perfect ending down the crapper). Dr. Horrible was too short for him to screw up...but I have heard he's making a sequel. I don't have high hopes.

His run on Astonishing X-Men was amazing, but it was only 25 issues.