Question for Firefly/Serenity fans

[T Roosevelt]

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Why did they kill off Book and Wash? Did the actors want to make sure they weren't needed if the series was revived?

And I never got the reasoning behind what had been done to River. Did I miss something, or was that left hanging?

[Deja Q]

1. Answers - contains spoilers too

1. I asked that to a friend. But my guess is they wanted out of the series for good, though that may not have been the case as Wash is a hit at conventions...

"Serenity" the movie had River as an experiment; a 'human weapon' created by the Alliance to keep people in check - that had failed.

[eyesroll]

2. Hm.

I'm pretty sure they killed off Book because the actor was older, didn't necessarily want to come back (for a sequel or whatever), and this was a good way to do it.

They killed Wash because "death of the innocents" is a big Whedon theme -- and Wash was about as innocent a character as there was (next to Kaylee, anyhow). Wash is also the character Whedon based on himself, and he's horrible to those characters. (Witness: Xander.)


And as for River, they were training her to be a weapon. To what end -- I don't know.

[T Roosevelt]

3. Thanks

Makes sense. Didn't know that Wash was based on Whedon.

[ZombieNixon]

4. They killed off Wash to piss off my friend.

I am sure of this.

[Magrittes Pipe]

5. That's not too far off.

One of Whedon's cardinal rules is never let your audience be comfortable.