Firefly

[vilakins]

I'm enjoying Firefly at a glacial pace--except for the bloody reavers. What's wrong with ordinary everyday evil like oppressive governments and experimentation on human subjects that they have to make me feel physically ill too? And if Mal knew what would happen to that guy in 'Bushwhacked', why didn't he shoot him or space him? It would have saved a lot of trouble and a few lives; admittedly people he regards as enemy though. :-) I did like them hiding Simon and River outside, and that River enjoyed it.

Is there a good Firefly site anyone can recommend?

[Edit] Have now found two sites: a cool Wiki one thanks to spacefall, and a fan site about which I can see what communicator means--the design's a bit dense and headache-inducing.

And hey, I like this new update style too, with everything I want to change in one screen. Change is Good, as long as it's for the better.

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I think 'the' firefly fannish site is http://www.fireflyfans.net/ though I find the interface a bit hard to negotiate (perhaps because I'm an old fogey)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'll check it out. It does look very busy. I rather like the Wiki one (http://www.average-bear.com/firefly/) I just found via spacefall.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I don't like the reavers either.
It's really entertaining though, is't it? Once you get over the whole "it's a western in space"...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I found that a hurdle too, not liking westerns.

[trixieleitz]

Do you have the R1 disks? If you do, can you tell me what the subtitles say for when they are speaking in Chinese? R2 says [speaks Galactic language] or some such, which is very annoying. They aren't, and I want to know what they are saying!

I've just posted a list of FF resource sites here.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I have R1 discs, but unfortunately I think they say the same as yours. At least they did when I put the subtitles on during the pilot. I don't think they've spoken much Chinese since then.

BTW isn't it odd that Chinese is so well-known everyone knows it, yet they don't have a single Chinese person in the crew?

[trixieleitz]

... they don't have a single Chinese person in the crew?

Now that you mention it...

I'm trying to remember if there are any Chinese-looking faces in any episodes. I don't think any of the speaking parts were given to Chinese-looking actors.

Maybe the blending of American and Chinese culture in the show's history left the Chinese in positions where they didn't have to smuggle or thieve or live on scummy border planets :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

True. Or the Americans all live at the unfashionable end of the galaxy.

[trixieleitz]

While looking for something else, I found some Chinese-looking extras in Safe. So they are there, just not very prominent. I wonder if that reflects the pool of talent the casting team had to choose from?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I shouldn't think that Asian (in the NZ and UK senses) actors in America are exactly inundated with roles, going by what I've seen on TV.

I have to say I find the Chinese spoken in the series annoying as I don't know what it means. Thanks for that site with the translations though--I now know what 'shuai' means. :-)

[trixieleitz]

The characters on my Inara icon say 'Serenity'. I got them from that site, too.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I always admire that icon. It's very beautiful. Did you draw it?

[trixieleitz]

Thank you :)

It's all GIMP wizardry - I followed this tutorial for the basic sketch effect.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Cool! Thanks for that. I don't have the GIMP but I think I can do that with PSE2.

[trixieleitz]

Good luck!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Freehand I mean.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I had a theory that they were all Chinese, but they were just being portrayed by American actors by the same sort of convention as that which allows non-English speakers to speak English. That doesn't really make sense, though, because if they were really Chinese they wouldn't speak Chinese, if you see what I mean.

[trixieleitz]

...because if they were really Chinese they wouldn't speak Chinese...

Yeah, they'd always be speaking the same language. By a miracle of modern televisual technology, it sounds like English to us.

Maybe they speak high-falutin' posh dialect most of the time, and lapse into uncouth country dialect when excited.