Reavers scare the hell out of me.

[Masaki-kun]

So I finally BOUGHT the Firefly DVDs (thanks Hulu for sucking), and I want to know just WHY Reavers are so gorram pants-ruiningly, giving me actual nightmares where horror movies just don't give me nightmares, new and fun decorative uses for dismembered body parts TERRIFYING.

Like, I'm sure any of you who look at my recent posts know I started playing Warhammer 40k, and we got a faction called the Dark Eldar. They run around in crazy-ass ships with spikes on them, killing, raping and torturing people all the time. In fact, a lot of their tech runs on torture. And yet they don't make me sweat a damn drop (I mean, there was this one time I lost pretty bad to them, but that's not the same kinda fear!)

I mean, when Reavers run around in crazy-ass ships with spikes on them, killing, raping and torturing people all the time, it just freaks me the hell out and, in that one nightmare I had, it made me lose it WAY harder than anything ever does.

And there's Chaos, with the whole kill, maim, burn, ectera. Not as scary as Reavers.
My girlfriend likes horror movies. I don't, I just prefer action or comedy, cause I can get all pumped. But since she's her, she's got me watching the Ring, and Silent Hill, and Dawn of the Dead (Zombie movies ARE pretty cool). And the Ring didn't scare me. Pyramid Head's a bit frightening. Zombies are a little scary. But they're more "put up your guard and walk real quiet scary, not DEAR GOD SWALLOW A .45 IT'S ALL OVER scary.
I just don't get it.

[Kerensky287]

Dark Eldar and Chaos would probably be nightmare-inducing if you saw them in any live-action capacity.

As for Reavers, there's that one scene with all the bodies like... sown into the ceiling. And the one guy who was driven so insane from SEEING the Reavers that he became psychotic.

Most horror movies are just cheap scares so they don't count. Ooh! She's coming out of the TV! How terrifying. Too bad she's pretty much incapable of actually doing anything. Reavers, on the other hand, inflict as much pain as possible for as long as possible, both physically and mentally. They don't need subtle horror because there's no subtlety about them. If you see one up close, you're probably already dead.

[Green Spanner]

Like, I'm sure any of you who look at my recent posts know I started playing Warhammer 40k, and we got a faction called the Dark Eldar. They run around in crazy-ass ships with spikes on them, killing, raping and torturing people all the time. In fact, a lot of their tech runs on torture. And yet they don't make me sweat a damn drop (I mean, there was this one time I lost pretty bad to them, but that's not the same kinda fear!)

I mean, when Reavers run around in crazy-ass ships with spikes on them, killing, raping and torturing people all the time, it just freaks me the hell out and, in that one nightmare I had, it made me lose it WAY harder than anything ever does.

Maybe it's the whole 'used to be human' thing. Like, it becomes a terrifying glimpse into man's inner psyche.

But I dunno, just throwing out half-formed thoughts here...

[01d55]

Dark Eldar and Chaos Space Marines don't happen to people. They happen to Orks, Space Marines, Tau, ect. who are all basically psychos themselves.

Horror movies don't happen to people. They happen to supernaturally stupid things that look like people.

Reavers happen to people.

[Amake]

At first glance, reavers seem like feral humans. But they're not simply void of higher brain functions, morality and stuff; they actively try to hurt, demoralize and dehumanize people as deeply as possible. They're in so much pain that the only way to cope with it is to spread it, like a breach in nature and humanity itself bleeding over all.

We see that whenever people lay eyes on a reaver, it's a life-changing experience that makes you doubt yourself and everything you think you know about the world. You might gain something from that, some understanding, some resolve. (Witness the stiff-lipped, know-it-all Alliance bossman destroying the ship at the end of that episode.) Or you might break.

In short they're like Kefka, except with less conversation.

And still they're so close to human. Mal in his darker moments seems about one lecture from Book away from becoming one. Why wouldn't they be scary?

[synkr0nized]

You don't know Mal if you can make that statement.


Also, they didn't lie down.

[G.I.R.]

Also, they didn't lie down.

Sooo... Reavers sleep standing up? Like Horses?

[Amake]

It's a new invention. I call it (dramatic pause) hyperbole.

I was thinking about how Book manipulates Mal by pointing out his unchristian behavior is similar to the reavers', a few times.

Not that I suppose anyone knows Mal very well. . .

[Corel]

Like the Vampires(lol) from I am Legend and Xenomorphs from the Alien series(Somewhat), I think Reavers were much more terrifying before they were actually shown on screen for prolonged period of times and were not being used for just cannon fodder. Kind of the whole unknowing part of fear.

[Masaki-kun]

Like the Vampires(lol) from I am Legend and Xenomorphs from the Alien series(Somewhat), I think Reavers were much more terrifying before they were actually shown on screen for prolonged period of times and were not being used for just cannon fodder. Kind of the whole unknowing part of fear.
Nope, they're just terrifying to anyone not named River Tam.
Ya know what, it might be that they used to be human, or it might be that they have no purpose. I mean, your average psycho has some kinda excuse, some kinda delusion, some kinda goal. Something you could empathise with. Even knowing how Reavers, knowing what reavers, doesn't tell you why. I know about Miranda and how things go wrong and I still can't look at those dudes showing up ruining the hell out of a settlement and not shiver.

[Wigmund]

Reavers are basically zombies that can use guns, fly spaceships, and chase your ass down in a mad max car. Also, the Reaver's ships that have spikes tend to have the latest acquistions still living on them, at least until the Reaver ship exits the atmosphere...they're the lucky ones.

What terrified me the most about the Reavers was the huge fucking fleet of them just floating above Miranda. Just floating there, torturing people they've captured or screaming incoherently into their radios - never figured out which is actually going on there, maybe it's both, until a couple of them get nudged out of the fleet and go rampaging through the systems until they are killed or return home with more toys.

[Osterbaum]

Where do the reavers keep coming from? I mean, shouldn't all of them die eventually. There isn't anyway they could multiply, is there?

[Corel]

Where do the reavers keep coming from? I mean, shouldn't all of them die eventually. There isn't anyway they could multiply, is there?

Now that's just mighty unsettling to think about.

[Osterbaum]

Even if they did multiply like humans normally do, their "condition" was caused by a gas which induced chemical changes in their brain. That isn't something that passes on to your offspring.

[Corel]

One must wonder what a child would grow up to be like if living in Reaver environment.

They don't really strike me as the nurturing type, anyway. The film rating kind of saved us from child Reavers (Or that the time gone by since Miranda allowed them to grow up).

But hey, they must work together to actually get anywhere or anything done, so perhaps having Children could be possible.

Edit:Also, did it ever state how many people lived on the planet? If it was billions and 10% of the population was infected, that's still quite a few.

[synkr0nized]

Plus as happens anyone they leave as a surviving witness basically becomes one.

[BitVyper]

I didn't like how the Reavers were done in the movie. It was too much... standard horror monster. There were too many of them to really do justice to the original concept. They became more of a faceless mob of guys who just kinda dressed funny. Honestly, you could have replaced them with LotR orks, and I probably wouldn't have noticed. In the TV series we only even SAW a Reaver once - he was terrifying, and he wasn't even the real deal.

Half the people didn't even BELIEVE in Reavers. They were bedtime stories - things that lurked in the dark corners of space and would get you if you went too far into the black. Kicking the movie off by bringing them directly into the light and having them raid a town kinda sucked.

Basically the movie took them from being the unknown "what could DO this" men to "oh look, it's the Reaver armada" without ever following any of the steps in between or spending enough time to make them live up to the hype.

Edit: Not that I'm blaming Whedon for it. There really wasn't enough time with the movie format to do that.

[Osterbaum]

Synk: That's not the same. They just go crazy, whereas the original reavers' brain functions were actually altered chemically.

[synkr0nized]

I thought that was obvious. And why I used "basically".

[Bob The Mercenary]

Like, I'm sure any of you who look at my recent posts know I started playing Warhammer 40k, and we got a faction called the Dark Eldar. They run around in crazy-ass ships with spikes on them, killing, raping and torturing people all the time. In fact, a lot of their tech runs on torture. And yet they don't make me sweat a damn drop (I mean, there was this one time I lost pretty bad to them, but that's not the same kinda fear!)

They also have a unit that is just a cauldron of blood sitting somewhere on the map with no movement ability. It just sits there, but I'm pretty sure the special rules were that anyone within three inches of it had to take a terror test.

I am still yet to see any Firefly or the Serenity movie. Would the movie be worth buying since I know none of the back story?

[Osterbaum]

So I suppose all of the Reavers should die out eventually.

Would the movie be worth buying since I know none of the back story?
It would, but you get more out of it if you've seen the series.

[synkr0nized]

I sadly saw the movie before ever getting a chance to see the show. I enjoyed it a lot and thought it was great, but it retroactively got better as soon as I got a hold of the episodes.

[Seil]

and Silent Hill,

Well, it was... a... hmmm. (http://http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/24/)

[Amake]

Where do the reavers keep coming from? I mean, shouldn't all of them die eventually. There isn't anyway they could multiply, is there? I always assumed they may spread the "pax" to people around them, if the people survive long enough. And if they're in the 0.03% or whatsit that go nuts from it.

Of course I saw the movie before I saw the show, so I went in armed with scientific knowledge when I first heard the myths people made up about how reavers were made. Which was kind of unromantic by the way.

[Nique]

I have a feeling that the reavers ships use the same chemical in their air systems on their ships, which makes sense that they would use the same air as the planet they were from. Also it increases the chance that the captives would be incredibly helpless or go insane and became actual reavers themselves.

I like to think that if we had gotten an actual season 2, and maybe even 3, how reavers actually operate might have been explained in a simlar vein.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I always figured it was just a case, of "there's hundreds of thousands of them, and nobody's yet taken out many/any of their ships, so there's still hundreds of thousands of them".

I mean even most of the Alliance capital ship commanders didn't believe they existed, so that's pretty much proof that they've never engaged them in battle, and seeing how well/badly they did when their fleets finally did come into conflict, you'd probably NEED a capital cruiser to fight off Reaver raids.

Not many ships outside the Alliance really running around with guns mounted on their hulls in the Firefly verse.

[Osterbaum]

I always assumed they may spread the "pax" to people around them
But it's a chemical substance that altered their brain functions. They shouldn't be able to "spread" it any way besides having containers of the stuff

I have a feeling that the reavers ships use the same chemical in their air systems on their ships
Still they need to get it from somewhere.

[BitVyper]

And even then, it only works that way on like a fraction of a percent of the people it's administered to. I think it's mostly just that the movie had to jump into an answer too fast, when everything behind the Reavers was clearly intended to be drawn out.

[Nique]

You guys are gonna make the Whedon fans (me) cry.

[Fifthfiend]

You guys are gonna make the Whedon fans (me) cry.

It's not that we don't like Whedon, it's just that we don't like-like him.

[TheDarkChocobo]

Hannibol Lector could whip all their asses, or talk them into killing or maiming themselves... a true bad ass is an intelligent one.

[Amake]

But it's a chemical substance that altered their brain functions. They shouldn't be able to "spread" it any way besides having containers of the stuff What's to say the chemical isn't stored in their bodies, reacts with human body chemistry to generate more of itself, and gets released with the host's exhalation? It's even entirely possible what they call a chemical is actually a virus designed to spread through the 'verse. Whedon certainly is vague enough about how it works.

[Osterbaum]

True enough. Just seems a bit farfetched, but yeah.

[Truce]

What's to say the chemical isn't stored in their bodies, reacts with human body chemistry to generate more of itself, and gets released with the host's exhalation? It's even entirely possible what they call a chemical is actually a virus designed to spread through the 'verse. Whedon certainly is vague enough about how it works.

I'm calling it now.

Farts of doom.

[BitVyper]

talk them into killing or maiming themselves

Er... have you watched Firefly? One of the first things a Reaver does is start "cuttin on his own flesh."

[TheDarkChocobo]

remember when hannibol talked that one dude in the wheelchair into cutting of his face and feeding it to the dogs? then there was that one dude that had a cell next to lector and lector talked him into killing himself for throwing that... baby batter on agent starling... dr. lector is the best there is and ever will be.

[Preturbed]

True enough. Just seems a bit farfetched, but yeah.

Ok, so we're talking about a show wherein a motley band of space cowboys bands together to have zany adventures while running from the cops and protecting a psychic 12-year-old who is badass enough to wreck anyone's day. During their adventures they find out that the bogeymen from bedtime stories are real, and they were created by the government.

So what was the part where you drew the line?

[Osterbaum]

I drew the line between you and me when you decided to steal my old avatar's idea!!!!!?

[Magic_Marker]

Here's a question I've had for a while: Why don't the Reavers kill eachother? They are a group of people full of hate and evil and I've always found it strange that the orgainize rather than just kill each other.

[PCD]

I always assumed that they did; when they're floating through the belt of ships in Miranda, I thought the screams we were hearing were them attacking one another. Also remember that we saw them pulling each other's ships apart.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Pretty sure the ships they pulled apart were some poor innocent saps that they'd captured. I guess they just instinctively recognise others like them and leave them be, knowing that the more of them there are, the better their chances of survival. I suppose it's some sort of primitive survival instinct, the same way any animal doesn't usually go about mindlessly slaughtering the rest of its species.

It's for this reason that they were able to desguise Serenity to pass through the fleet on the way to Miranda, by looking like just another Reaver hulk.

[neoadept]

I think it's less that they know they'll survive better together than they know on some level that there's nothing they could possibly do to each other that would cause them physical or mental pain, which seems to be what drives them.

Whatever Reavers may be, they are not mindless animals. They are clever, capable, and organized. The fact that they can pilot and maintain ships proves that on it's own, but they go so far as to set traps on the ships they pillage.

I think that's what sets them apart from zombies and their ilk. They aren't just ravening monsters in a human shape, they're all the cruelty hate and rage a human can muster, distilled and stripped of all restraint. They don't do what they do because of some base need for violence, they do it out of a conscious desire to inflict as much misery upon the universe as they can. I wouldn't be all that surprised if the Miranda fleet was planning something really big towards that goal and the raids were just just to keep them entertained in the mean time.

[Masaki-kun]

But that intellect is still suborned to the killing rage. Easiest way to tell a reaver ship from a ordinary vessel is, before you see the spikes, weapons and dead people strapped on, is the smoke pouring out their radioactive halfassed engines going on full burn*. They can keep the thing moving but apart from that they don't care about their own lives if it means more suffering to spread.

(*If I recall correctly, spaceships in the 'Verse use a pulse drive- they have a primary engine that provides "real" momentum and a gravity pulse drive that bends space, forcing the ship forward at a greater rate. Since it's not so much making the ship go faster as moving it without speeding it up, there's much less inertia. It goes much faster than conventional drives but when deactivated slows the hell down quick. So when they talk about doing a "burn", they activate the conventional engines to make the ship accelerate.)