9/11

10 years since Firefly began huh? A documentary about the series is coming out along with some social media boosted advertising. Then I started re-watching the series and I remembered why I love it so much. As SF goes, its representation of how space works is more accurate than stuff like Battlestar Galatica. As a western, I like the politics and the setting. As characters go, I really like how there is a focus on family.

I also really like how none of them die.

Which is why I’m not a fan of the film Serenity, which goes out of its way to kill some of the main cast. Whedon states in the interview in the special features that major characters would have died off if the series had not be cancelled. But why? Why do characters have to die? Nothing kills my interest in a show faster than killing of the people I found myself wanting to watch. This same reason is why my response to the Game of Thrones television series is so on the fence, some POV characters I enjoy watching and others just sit on screen and waste my time. And then some of them die.

I don’t see any reason a SF show like Firefly can’t focus on its characters without killing them. But I can’t exactly point to any examples where it has been done well because for some reason SF shows = fantasy drama. And drama on TV is killing people.

Oh wait, I just thought of any example. The Ur-example. The Lord of the Rings. Which main characters die in LotR? Gandalf, but he gets better. Gollum does but right at the end of the story and his death is meaningful. Boromir? He isn’t even a POV character. LotR gets through 3 books/films teaching you about major characters without killing any of them off just to motivate more character drama in the survivors. Possibly writers haven’t learned from this, but death does not need to be the only force for drama.

Grand Theft Auto V has had some information released. There are now 3 protagonists. None of them are female. Chance of purchasing the game: basically zero.

Despite seeing it at Armageddon, episode 57 of YugiohTAS is finally live on youtube.

Edit: And I even got the date wrong.