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vilnius2008-02-13 10:42 pm
heartbeats) wrote in vilnius2008-02-13 10:42 pm
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you are my soul soul.
River Tam: the director's commentary. I guess stickied, though I'm mostly doing this so that I don't reuse material.
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This is me thinking I'm clever. The Ballerina refers to Summer Glau, the actress who plays River and whose training is in classical dance, I think. D and C are a nod to D-list and C-list celebrities, which is how I would classify the cast of Firefly.
Multiplication. Convergence. That's what they're hoping for. The golden ratio. Something that was zero is one, and from then one, two, three, five eight thirteen twenty-one thirty-four. Rabbits.
This whole paragraph is my nerdy shout-out to the Fibonacci numbers, where after two starting values, each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. So, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, etc. The numbers are apparently related to the "golden ratio", which is supposed to be this like aesthetically pleasing ratio with a number of interesting properties (wiki). The sequence was studied by Fibonacci, who used it to consider the growth of an idealized rabbit population. This is a mention of Babylon's leadership's desperate desire for repopulation and breeding (wiki).
There's no Sun here.
Obviously, a domed sky means an artificial sun, but that's not what River is referring to; the capitalization is because it's part of a proper noun; the Blue Sun corporation, which is a large corporation in the Firefly-verse that almost certainly sponsored the work done on River at the Academy (wiki).
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sǐ bùyàoliǎn (simplified Chinese: 死不要脸; traditional Chinese: 死不要臉) = shameless (lit.: "[you] died without shame"). A reference to his killing Tara and his terrible, terrible death - pretty much without feeling remorse.
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Valentine's images. Saint Valentine was a martyr who was eventually beheaded for his work; the story goes that while he was in jail awaiting execution he restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter. He is often represented by a bishop with a rooster. One of the traditional practices on valentine's was for young girls to pin bay leaves to their pillows on Valentine's in order to dream of the one they'd eventually marry - of course, in Babylon the bay leaves, if there are any, are probably sub-par. Many farmers also thought that Valentines was when birds chose their mates.
River is inundated with bird imagery lately, in part because of the lack of sky/inability to fly in Serenity, etc., but also because of the amount of time she's been spending around the stormriders.
The walls are biodegradable. Getting thinner every day. More and more dangerous. People hide behind smiles and don't dance around words, see things that other people don't know about. Fake weddings, fake lovers, fake promises. They make diagrams and point with arrows and one of them covers it in plastic and each have someone else in their hearts. Picked at random.
Hiding behind smiles and not dancing around words is actually a reference to Mukuro's recent release, and refers largely to Raito and Mukuro as characters. Mostly she's talking about Mukuro, from what she's heard other people thinking of him, but hiding behind a smile is a reference to Raito's good-cop exterior.
Seeing things that other people don't know about has two meanings as well - first, it's a reference to Cordelia's top secret visions, and second a reference Mello and Near (and probably L and Raito, though I obviously haven't confirmed this with Roni and Alison) watching closely over the cameras and security feeds. Things that the residents of Babylon think are secret aren't; it isn't only River who is privy to people's secrets, but also both psychics (Matt Parkman, Rachel Grey) and normal people (L, M, N, Raito).
The bit about fake weddings, fake lovers, etc, is talking mostly about the project, but also to a degree about the manipulation of both the government (the picnic, the balls, the roommates) and the people (I know I had something else in mind when I wrote this, but right now all I can think of is Raito and Misa's engagement). Diagrams and arrows and the plastic presentation cover refers specifically to the project, and how most of the kids doing it are interested in someone else (either back home or here).
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Duh, Valentine's.
I like the card. Extreme height differentials, upward strokes.
lkasjdk Uh okay, this is just me being funny-to-me, but extreme height differentials and upward strokes are supposedly two of the characteristics often found in the handwritings of sociopaths and serial murderers.
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The sky is poisonous due to radiation, but so are people's thoughts in Babylon. The closed quarters of the dome makes it that much harder for River to filter out other people's thoughts, and with the upcoming holiday it's only gotten worse. River disapproves of people being assigned to each other, both in the apartments and in the school project, and it's mostly because of her natural aversion to things like love and personality and emotion being treated as a science fair project. For, uh, obvious reasons.
Her match can be read three ways - her brother ("Two by two. Everyone has a match, a mate, a doppler. I love you."), Serenity ("I'm not on the ship. I'm in the ship. I am the ship. ..River's gone. You're talking to Serenity. And Early, Serenity is very unhappy."), and her ability to even have a normal relationship. I think she's probably taking the third, though, in light of her response to Spitfire ("Your brother?" "My amygdala.").
In retrospect it wasn't that bad. Not like snapping bones. Simon took some of my ice cream.
A response to what Spitfire thinks about sometimes - the way that Kilik injured him, and his denial of ice cream to Kogarasumaru on the training tape he left behind.
The opposite of combustion.
A reference to Spitfire's ability to generate flame, which is, uh, a form of combustion.
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In Confucius' "Expectations of Poetry", Confucius says "It is only after the white background is prepared that any painting is possible." in order to talk about the importance of reading between the lines and interpretation in understanding poetry. A reference to River's prior (natural) skills of observation; she's trying to tell him that she was something of a natural at it. Classical Chinese education focused heavily on responses to Confucius and writing couplets well.
Some things get broken and they can't be fixed. Not a vase, can't be glued.
River and Neil (from Charlie's thoughts and memories).
I'm all images anyway. Everyone is.
Back to the idea of hiding behind a smile and whatever. River has this frail, crazy-girl exterior, but the truth is that in spite of how helpless and confused she seems, she is often the most aware of how things work in a room. Also, killing machine.
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Really River just enjoys engaging Vilma in conversation. In a lot of ways they're sort of kindred spirits, I think? I mean, Vilma's not crazy, but she's a badass psychic warrior lady, which is really enough to endear her to River. She's also got a very calm, organized mind, and River actually thinks that the things she says carry a lot of weight.
Cs refers to whether she is using 'crusader' as a proper noun; as in, is Vilma saying that her husband was a literal historical Holy-Land-style Crusader, or did he just have a cause that he championed and fought for? As River says, she's never met the former, but she's met the latter in spades. She's got mixed feelings on them; on some levels Mal is kind of one, and she likes him and his people - on the other hand, you've the people from the Alliance who're coming after the crew of Serenity.
It's hard to explain. Don't think linearly anymore. All circles and ellipses. Common center, different radii.
Blah, blah, concentric circles. There's a point that she's trying to reach, but someone else's thoughts are trapped within her own and she goes round and round without a beginning or an end, no intersections. In short, River can't explain herself in a way that makes sense and I don't feel like it's been a real River exchange without some sort of geometry reference.
They're more. They're symbols and images. One stroke and the meaning changes. Mine're broken. Can't put them together like I used to.
Chinese characters. The meaning is different depending on the different strokes. Power of words, blah blah blah.
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Buffy: Bugs you, doesn't it. You have all this pain, and all these feelings and nobody's really paying attention.
Jonathan: You think I just want attention?
Buffy: No. I think you're up in the clock tower with a high-powered rifle because you wanna blend in. Believe it or not, Jonathan, I understand about the pain.
Jonathan: Oh, right. 'Cause the burden of being beautiful and athletic, that's a crippler.
Buffy: You know what? I was wrong. You are an idiot. My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone. If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's deafening.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
3.18; Earshot
OH MAN I AM SO GOOD SOMEONE PRAISE ME I BROKE THE FOURTH WALL AND COMPLAINED ABOUT JONATHAN'S BIG BLOCK OF PRIVATE-TEXT THOUGHTS. Rule forty-two might be kind of awkwardly silent to the troika right now, but River can hear them all thinking furiously from like a mile away.
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When Lelouch Geasses someone, a red bird appears first in his own eye, then in the eye of the person he has geassed. An obvious reference to the geassed rioters. Black and blue birds with white chests are swallows - this is a reference to Simca, AT, and the sky that she has given River and Mal. Little yellow birds that bite are a reference to Hibird, Hibari's constant companion (and in the biting comment, Hibari himself). There are a number of possible meanings for "phoenixes", which will be touched upon later.
The line about dirt deals with how things aren't as safe as River thought here; there's evil in the government here, too, but it's insidious and hidden. Like asbestos in the ceiling. No one knows it's there, but it's poisoning the system. "Cut the pages with a pen, let the ink bleed through" refers to Raito and the Death Note, and how writing names in the note had very real, very fatal results. It feeling all cloudy now has to do with those who were geassed can't remember what they did or why they did it. Two by two and the chemical reaction thing deals with all the pairing up that's about to take place as a result of the aphrodisiacs in the food and water. The comment about them all dressing the same is my shoutout to the upcoming school uniforms plot.
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Hi, Titanic references. The RMS Titanic was subdivided into 16 watertight compartments by 15 transverse bulkheads. It was also designed to be a 'four compartment ship', which meant that it could stay afloat with four compartments open to the sea. In the case of emergency the captain could close the watertight doors in the bulkhead from the bridge by moving an electrical switch; this safety feature was one of the major reasons that the Titanic was thought to be "unsinkable". Of course, when the time came, the Titanic could stay afloat with four compartments open; five filled. It sank.
Lost the eyes but soon it'll
Sup, shinigami eyes. Misa doesn't have them right now (I think), but River knows Raito will find way around that.
Watching.
They're under surveillance. Of course.
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Obviously, this comment is about both the bird and the owner.
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The "dirt" mentioned before is the baggage and the past that everyone brings with them. Everyone in Babylon has a past, and some of them aren't really things to be proud of. So much of Matt's baggage has to do with his father, but without that baggage he wouldn't have even been born. River is pointing out - sometimes it's impossible to separate oneself from the parts one might not like, because they ultimately make you into who you are.
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Phoenix count: one person who draws on the Phoenix Force (Rachel Gray), two people who fly in the air and create fire (Kazu and Spitfire), two members of the order of the phoenix (Harry and Ginny). Now that you know it's pretty anti-climatic, huh.