Reavers, River and the Alliance.

frigidmagi · Post by **frigidmagi** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 5:41 pm

Been reading the Serenity novelzation and an idea occurs to me. The amount of people who became reavers was 1/10th of 1% of the population of Miranda (which was 30 million for the record). This is an astonishing low part of the population which leads me to wonder what trait they could share in common before becoming reavers. I began to get an idea when I read through River's actions in the bar and against the reavers on Mr. Universe's Moon a few times. Has well as considering her assualt on Jayne (slashing him with a knife across the chest in the series).

I figure they must be potential laient psionics like River was before the Alliance got ahold of her. Now we don't know much about psionics in the Serenity universe, but we know this. They are exetremly rare, but exist and while they themselves are very rare, knowledge of them is common enough for Mal and the crew to figure out what River is when all the pieces of the puzzle are shown.

I should also point out that just cause these persons had the potential to be psionics doesn't mean they were psionics. I'm very sure there wasn't 30,000 mindreaders running around on Miranda at the time of the experiment. That doesn't stop them from having the potential or from being able to pass it down to their offspring however. In addition to this they must react differently to certain simulitions than baseline humans. For example River developed psionic abilties under the Alliance's program, your average human was likey to have just gone nuts and catatonic I think. The average human laid down and died when exposed to the Pax, ceasing any struggle against anything. The potentials however, went fucking nuts and lost all control of their aggression.

Also consider how some reaver attacks leave a survivior but others do not. Why? I suggest that Reavers only recruit potentionals such they were once. This may even help them commuicate with each other, as I assume communication would be necessary to do complex task such has run spaceships.

The Silence and I · Post by **The Silence and I** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:29 pm

Interesting hypothesis. I would only wonder about the part where you say everyone knows OF readers, since the crew's reaction to (was it Mal's?) statement to that effect was basically "what do you mean, readers don't exist!" You might get around this by saying such readers are rumours floating around, but few actually belive in them (having never seen any).

As a whole, I like it

Comrade Tortoise · Post by **Comrade Tortoise** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:22 pm

I too like the idea. It could potentially explain why reavers are what they are. having not read the novelization, I cannot say for certain, but we would have to rule out other possibilities as well. Such as a small, otherwise symptomless genetic abnormality.. but It is a fair guess.

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:55 am

I have no idea what the canon status of these are, but I saw preview trailers of Serenity that consisted of interviews of River before she went into the Alliance facility and during the time when they were changing her. In the first one, it was hinted that she had some sort of faint telepathic ability already, but not enough for it to show (unless you were looking for it...that goes not just for the person watching the trailer, but probably the Alliance as well). She mentioned that she could always guess who Simon's girlfriends were, and it really bothered him. The interviewer then went on a long spiel about how they were interested in her because of her brain, or something. In the second interview, she was clearly going into psycho-mode, AND did an obvious mind-read of the interviewer.

Very interesting hypothesis. I never would have thought of that.

Lord Stormbringer · Post by **Lord Stormbringer** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:20 pm

Mayabird wrote:I have no idea what the canon status of these are, but I saw preview trailers of Serenity that consisted of interviews of River before she went into the Alliance facility and during the time when they were changing her.

I assume you mean the River Tam Sessions? Those damn well better be canon as Joss Whedon wrote and starred in them!

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:48 pm

Lord Stormbringer wrote:
Mayabird wrote:I have no idea what the canon status of these are, but I saw preview trailers of Serenity that consisted of interviews of River before she went into the Alliance facility and during the time when they were changing her.
I assume you mean the River Tam Sessions? Those damn well better be canon as Joss Whedon wrote and starred in them!

Thems the ones! Thanks. It's been a long time since I saw them.

So that was Whedon doing the interviewing (and getting his throat ripped out)?

Comrade Tortoise · Post by **Comrade Tortoise** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 2:35 pm

Wait.. where the hell can I find those?

Lord Stormbringer · Post by **Lord Stormbringer** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:09 pm

Mayabird wrote:
Lord Stormbringer wrote:
Mayabird wrote:I have no idea what the canon status of these are, but I saw preview trailers of Serenity that consisted of interviews of River before she went into the Alliance facility and during the time when they were changing her.
I assume you mean the River Tam Sessions? Those damn well better be canon as Joss Whedon wrote and starred in them!
Thems the ones! Thanks. It's been a long time since I saw them.

So that was Whedon doing the interviewing (and getting his throat ripped out)?

Yeah, that was Joss.

Comrade Tortoise wrote:Wait.. where the hell can I find those?

Just Google "River Tam Sessions" and you should be able to find working downloads of them on a number of sites. The only problem is that by now a lot of the mirrors of the original viral marketing campaign are download and the links bad.

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