So my girlfriend watched this with me for the first time last night and I noticed a reaction from her that I also noticed when I saw Serenity for the first time in the movie theatre.

When Sheperd Book died, she was solemn but didn't show any outward emotion but when Wash died, her eyes actually teared up and she gasped! This is exactly the same reaction I saw from 2 people who were sitting next to me in the movie theatre when I first saw the movie.


So my question is,

Why no love for Book?

Book was found after an attack, dying from wounds. To wash it was two-fold: a sudden mortal wounds... and dying in front of his love and his friends. I think it's mostly the empathy for her, losing the man she loves, that draws forth the tears.

For me, it was the suddenness combined with the fact that he was my favorite character. I started the series with the movie (I know backwards) but after watching the TV episodes I liked him even more.

I am a leaf on the wind!

S

Same here. When I watched Serenity again after I finished Firefly it was like a completely different film.

I can never forgive the director for offing wash... never...

which probably means it was a good move on their part to get that strong of an emotional reaction.

Besides, Joss Whedon knew that "Serenity" would be it for the Firefly franchise so why not take some creative risks?

If watching the movie is your first introduction to Firefly, as it was for me, then you don't really get much opportunity to know Book before he dies... for a first timer there's not much difference between Book and Mr. Universe, and their deaths elicit about the same emotional response.

Wash, on the other hand is presented as a member of the core-team and the audience gets to know him well in the movie so when his death happens it has much more impact. And, as mentioned, there is the impact on Zoe and the suddenness with which he dies. In fact, there's a dramatic pause which makes the moment more poignant: he succesfully crashlands and it looks like he pulled off the impossible but in that split second later he gets hit and you think "what? what just happened?" and in the next split second you realize that he's just received a mortal wound from the reaver spear/whatever it is.

I think it was brilliant to kill him off... his death heightens the uncertainty (for the audience) of the other characters' survival during the reaver attack.

Even after having all the episodes of Firefly, and getting to know Book much better, Wash's death still has more impact than that of Book when I watch Serenity. Perhaps its because he gets alot of the comic relief lines and his relationship with Zoe...

That said, Book gets some pretty good lines too "a special kind of hell", and the whole scene where River is terrified by his loose hair. It's clear that Whedon had a back-story on Book but due to cancellation never got a chance to flesh it out.

Agree on all your points. I think another factor may also be that Wash was young and in the prime of his life as well as his cheerful personality. Book was much older and wiser and seemed to be someone who would come to terms with his own death whenever it came due to his spirituality.

Of course, Whedon is well known for killing off characters. He seems to take a kind of glee in getting his audience to feel unsettled by binding them to characters and then cutting those bonds in the least gentle way possible.



The Jedi Master

I really want to know Book's back story. You get hints of his familiarity with the alliance and the operatives and it just wets the whistle. I love black ops stuff and this was going to be a whooper. Dangit!

S