How to build a Reaver-killing reader
I have been in a funk lately, and in an attempt to get out of it, I've been re-watching Firefly in hopes that it will make my brain happy and humming along again. It has definitely got me thinking about the 'verse again. There are so many unexplained loose ends and gaps, and I'd like to speculate about them again!
Burning Question #1: What did the Alliance do to River's brain?
We know a few things for sure:
- They opened her skull and cut into healthy brain tissue "again and again," according to Simon's analysis of River's brain scans
- During one of these sessions, they stripped her amygdala, rendering her unable to suppress her emotional responses
- They also "programmed" her with trigger words to a) get her to fight, apparently with anyone (if not ordered to attack specific targets?) and b) to go to sleep (as a failsafe in case something goes wrong with her)
- They stuck what looks like a big hypodermic needle into her forehead during her last day at in the Academy labs (in the movie)
We also know a few ways she's changed since her pre-Academy days:
- She often seems to speak and/or understand in metaphors - she's like apple bits in reverse, "The sun comes out... / darkness is come again," "They took Christmas away... nothing but coal," Book's hair as too much snow on a roof, etc.
- She might actually see things differently, eg, the gun that is a branch of cherry blossoms
- She can read minds (she might have been able to do so before, but we have no evidence of this - she certainly displays this ability more than she did before, anyway)
- She's still capable of understanding things the way others do sometimes, and remembers everything that happens whether she appears to understand at the time or not (eg, she knows what Simon has given up for her and can express this); these lucid periods come and go, and might depend on the time of day (well, the time since she's woken up anyway), if her being lucid in the morning and falling apart later in the day in "War Stories" is not just coincidence
- She really, really doesn't like Blue Sun Corporation
So.... what did they do, exactly? And why?
I mean, I can't really see the point of stripping her amygdala if they really are preparing her for some sort of defense work, whether that's fighting Reavers or spying and assassinating in the Core. (More on this in a minute.) How useful can a fighter or spy be if she can't control her emotions? Did they somehow program her to have no emotions at all while in "active" mode? She seems to fight Reavers fine with no fear. Even if I knew I could handle them, I'd be a little nervous, and she doesn't seem nervous. Or anything except focused.
Maybe the Alliance planned to insert an implant that would make her feel whatever emotion they wanted at the moment, but never got around to it. That doesn't seem like a good idea either, though. It's not like they can follow exactly what's going on around her at all times and push the appropriate button when she's out in the field.
As for the other cuts, my only guess is that they were trying to activate her (latent?) psychic talents, possibly by forcing her brain to repair itself in a certain pattern that would be more conducive to mind-reading. No, I don't know how that would work either, but I don't know what else they could be doing. Maybe some of the cuts that made her more sensitive to "hearing" people's thoughts were in regions of the brain associated with language and metaphor, resulting in her unusual thought processes.
So, okay, assume they intended to make her psychic, or more psychic, and succeeded. And they almost certainly trained her to fight and shoot. Once they got her stable and controlled, what did they plan to do with her?
We know she kills Reavers efficiently. No one else seems to be able to manage this. The Alliance hasn't sent any of their navy to hunt Reaver ships, at least not that anyone has ever seen. So maybe they wanted River to clean up their Reaver problem, and being psychic gave the the fighting edge she needed. But it's hard to imagine a single agent could take care of that problem. Even if they got another three or four to help her, there are a lot of Reavers. But maybe River was supposed to lead a fast fighting ship to blast Reavers out of the sky, using her psychic abilities to locate them, and only resorting to shoot-outs and hand-to-hand combat in a pinch. This way, there's no risk of large ship crews seeing Miranda and guessing what happened.
On the other hand, the Reavers are flying with unshielded reactor cores, there isn't any more Pax being spread about, and they aren't "recruiting" people like the guy in Bushwacked very quickly. The people in the Core don't even believe Reavers exist. The Alliance might plan to just letting the Reavers die out over the next few years. If that's the case, then what's River for?
We know she can mimic accents and probably body language (like she did with Badger), and her mind-reading would give her the edge in most interactions. Maybe she was supposed to be a spy, blending into old Independent groups or criminal organizations and then taking them down from within (leading them into Alliance traps, assassinating leaders, turning them against each other - whatever) or just reporting on them to the Alliance. She'd need combat skills just to blend in, and they couldn't hurt in case she got in trouble. This would help the Alliance get control over the outer planets - albeit slowly at first, but you have to start somewhere - in fact as well as name. Or, given Blue Sun's involvement somehow or other (the food labels she tears up, Jayne's shirt, the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial), maybe they want her to crack down on all the black market activity. Often related to former-Independent activity.
The problem with this, of course, is that River would have to pass for a normal, functioning member of society (more or less), and doing things like stripping her amygdala would be counter-productive.
But I'm sure those aren't the only possibilities. I'd like more ideas!
Burning Question #1: What did the Alliance do to River's brain?
We know a few things for sure:
- They opened her skull and cut into healthy brain tissue "again and again," according to Simon's analysis of River's brain scans
- During one of these sessions, they stripped her amygdala, rendering her unable to suppress her emotional responses
- They also "programmed" her with trigger words to a) get her to fight, apparently with anyone (if not ordered to attack specific targets?) and b) to go to sleep (as a failsafe in case something goes wrong with her)
- They stuck what looks like a big hypodermic needle into her forehead during her last day at in the Academy labs (in the movie)
We also know a few ways she's changed since her pre-Academy days:
- She often seems to speak and/or understand in metaphors - she's like apple bits in reverse, "The sun comes out... / darkness is come again," "They took Christmas away... nothing but coal," Book's hair as too much snow on a roof, etc.
- She might actually see things differently, eg, the gun that is a branch of cherry blossoms
- She can read minds (she might have been able to do so before, but we have no evidence of this - she certainly displays this ability more than she did before, anyway)
- She's still capable of understanding things the way others do sometimes, and remembers everything that happens whether she appears to understand at the time or not (eg, she knows what Simon has given up for her and can express this); these lucid periods come and go, and might depend on the time of day (well, the time since she's woken up anyway), if her being lucid in the morning and falling apart later in the day in "War Stories" is not just coincidence
- She really, really doesn't like Blue Sun Corporation
So.... what did they do, exactly? And why?
I mean, I can't really see the point of stripping her amygdala if they really are preparing her for some sort of defense work, whether that's fighting Reavers or spying and assassinating in the Core. (More on this in a minute.) How useful can a fighter or spy be if she can't control her emotions? Did they somehow program her to have no emotions at all while in "active" mode? She seems to fight Reavers fine with no fear. Even if I knew I could handle them, I'd be a little nervous, and she doesn't seem nervous. Or anything except focused.
Maybe the Alliance planned to insert an implant that would make her feel whatever emotion they wanted at the moment, but never got around to it. That doesn't seem like a good idea either, though. It's not like they can follow exactly what's going on around her at all times and push the appropriate button when she's out in the field.
As for the other cuts, my only guess is that they were trying to activate her (latent?) psychic talents, possibly by forcing her brain to repair itself in a certain pattern that would be more conducive to mind-reading. No, I don't know how that would work either, but I don't know what else they could be doing. Maybe some of the cuts that made her more sensitive to "hearing" people's thoughts were in regions of the brain associated with language and metaphor, resulting in her unusual thought processes.
So, okay, assume they intended to make her psychic, or more psychic, and succeeded. And they almost certainly trained her to fight and shoot. Once they got her stable and controlled, what did they plan to do with her?
We know she kills Reavers efficiently. No one else seems to be able to manage this. The Alliance hasn't sent any of their navy to hunt Reaver ships, at least not that anyone has ever seen. So maybe they wanted River to clean up their Reaver problem, and being psychic gave the the fighting edge she needed. But it's hard to imagine a single agent could take care of that problem. Even if they got another three or four to help her, there are a lot of Reavers. But maybe River was supposed to lead a fast fighting ship to blast Reavers out of the sky, using her psychic abilities to locate them, and only resorting to shoot-outs and hand-to-hand combat in a pinch. This way, there's no risk of large ship crews seeing Miranda and guessing what happened.
On the other hand, the Reavers are flying with unshielded reactor cores, there isn't any more Pax being spread about, and they aren't "recruiting" people like the guy in Bushwacked very quickly. The people in the Core don't even believe Reavers exist. The Alliance might plan to just letting the Reavers die out over the next few years. If that's the case, then what's River for?
We know she can mimic accents and probably body language (like she did with Badger), and her mind-reading would give her the edge in most interactions. Maybe she was supposed to be a spy, blending into old Independent groups or criminal organizations and then taking them down from within (leading them into Alliance traps, assassinating leaders, turning them against each other - whatever) or just reporting on them to the Alliance. She'd need combat skills just to blend in, and they couldn't hurt in case she got in trouble. This would help the Alliance get control over the outer planets - albeit slowly at first, but you have to start somewhere - in fact as well as name. Or, given Blue Sun's involvement somehow or other (the food labels she tears up, Jayne's shirt, the Fruity Oaty Bar commercial), maybe they want her to crack down on all the black market activity. Often related to former-Independent activity.
The problem with this, of course, is that River would have to pass for a normal, functioning member of society (more or less), and doing things like stripping her amygdala would be counter-productive.
But I'm sure those aren't the only possibilities. I'd like more ideas!