Amph Still Flying: Serenity

They're too crazy to know how to manufacture more Pax. Also, it's Jayne.

 

Exactally. It's in their blood man. Nobody can be driven insane in the exact "ZOMG NOW YOU'RE A REAVER" way that would make so many new Reavers. It just does not add up at all.

And with the Kaylee thing, crazy speculation. Didn't even add up to me.

Jayne, Jane. Meh. I say it all the same.

-P!-

 

But the major effect of Pax was to make people just curl up and die - only 1% of 1% of the population went all Reaverish.

If the Pax pathogen is carried by the Reavers in their cblood or in the air and they board a ship with 15 crew - how does that work in terms of the odds of the crew turning into Reavers? By those odds, one person may have a toe nail that goes savage.

I think the damage has been done and they'll slowly just die out.

 

My take on this: Pax created the initial Reavers, as the 30,000 Mirandans who for some reason got the opposite effect of what Pax was meant to do. in their depraved state they formed a culture of madness and went on killing sprees. some that somehow survived their brutal killing could only cope by turning themselves into the monsters they had witnessed.. and then reavers realized this... that they could add to their numbers by letting a few survive as witnesses. no pax needed. it is quite likely that the reavers and the other miranda colonists aren't even aware of the pax in the air.

also, the pax might not have dissipated from miranda just because mal and company were not affected. they didn't stay on miranda very long. death by starvation takes usually at least two weeks, maybe less if one also stops drinking water. i don't think a few hours exposure would render them completely against their will if they are pumping the entire atmosphere with it. - perhaps only a prolonged exposure would have any effect.

Lost on Hoth: it's not 1% of 1% -- that would be a hundredth of one percent (0.01%). they clearly state that it's a tenth of one percent (0.1%). but i agree that most likely the reaver threat would die out after a generation, unless they did some serious "recruitment"

 

Ha. Exactly what I was trying to say.

 

Lost on Hoth: it's not 1% of 1% -- that would be a hundredth of one percent (0.01%). they clearly state that it's a tenth of one percent (0.1%).

Please excuse my mathematical idiocy.

 

My take on this: Pax created the initial Reavers, as the 30,000 Mirandans who for some reason got the opposite effect of what Pax was meant to do. in their depraved state they formed a culture of madness and went on killing sprees. some that somehow survived their brutal killing could only cope by turning themselves into the monsters they had witnessed.. and then reavers realized this... that they could add to their numbers by letting a few survive as witnesses. no pax needed. it is quite likely that the reavers and the other miranda colonists aren't even aware of the pax in the air.

Except for the part where this doesn't make any sense it's a fine theory. Why the hell would enough people join them on the grounds of: Random Guy: "Oh hey, you just raped and killed my family. I'm really pissed off now. Can I join you so I can rape and kill families?" Reaver: "Sure, that was the plan anyway!" to keep their numbers from nosediving? Nobody would join for that reason! Less than the 1 in 1,000 that would from the Pax.

After having something that tramatic happen people do not magically go crazy in just the right way to be a Reaver. Just right to where they murder and rape just like how it happend to them and their family, cut up their bodies and friggin staple themselves.

-P!-

 

The series provides some rationalization for it. Mal supposes that after seeing such horrific things, a man would try to become what he'd seen to make himself feel strong enough to combat what he saw.

The Reavers are sort of the mob mentality taken to the extreme.

But here's the thing. The Reavers have only been around for 10 years; they probably aren't dying off very fast.

The Alliance has never confirmed the existence of the Reavers (Listen very closely at the beginning of the bar scene). So there's no powerful force hunting them down; attrition due to combat losses would be small.

Finally, they have this incredible reputation. People would rather die than be taken by them. What's that going to do to morale? So crews, already poorly-armed and civillian, are going to be terrified and possibly suicidal, meaning they're not going to be mounting a very effective defense against the Reavers.

Given 30,000 people, all in spacecraft, I'd say it's easily possible that they've existed for 10 years. Every spacecraft they take is another they can add to their armada after all.

What was most intriguing to me was how the Reavers got ahold of such large ships...they seemed very familiar to the Alliance ones. Was there an Alliance fleet based on Miranda when they reached the Pax, or did the Alliance send an inspection fleet to Miranda that was overpowered?

 

Who was it that said that Reavers don't mate? Why do we assume that? It would be a logical explanation for why they haven't died out.

We also need to remember that exposure to Pax doesn't guarantee Reaverism. Remember River was given regular dosages of Pax at the Academy and she didn't turn Reaver...neither did she curl up and die.

 

I would bet that there is some minimal reproduction, but any child brought into that lifestyle most likely wouldn't survive infanthood.

 

river might have also been given other medicines to prevent her from turning all Reaver-y. and it could be that perhaps the version of Pax they gave her at the Alliance was a newer form where they had hopefully worked out the Reaver-inducing bit.

 

More Reavers are "created" by making people view the sadistic tortures that the Reavers inflict on theri victims (evidenced in Episode 3 'Bushwhacked'). The mind of the person made to watch snaps and the only way they can deal with it is to become Reavers themselves.

 

Yeah, ten years is a good chunk of time to sort out some mistakes with things.

Wasn't Pax mentioned in the episode the Train Job?

 

After seeing the movie again, I have only one question about the Reavers.

...how come none of them are blonde?

 

Blood getting in the hair tends to stain it.

 

Another reason we should all call this as bull: The Reaver creation myth the entire crew knew was horrible wrong considering Miranda. Why not the myth on how to create new fresh Reavers? Obviously the standard knowledge on the who and what of Reavers is very wrong.

Edit: And did that one black Reaver who was shown worming his way through the door look like new New Orleans beer looter to anybody else?

-P!-

 

Maybe new Reavers are created like werewolves. They get bitten or exchange blood and somehow survive to turn.

 

I agree. I know that intially you would think they would kill their kids, but as crazy as they are they seem to have a sense of survival, and offspring is a part of that. Plus as scary as it is to think of we know they rape their victims, perhaps they do the same without killing each other. Just a disturbing thought.

 

Yes. The only thing I can think to liken it to are Tusken Raiders. While, granted, they're nowhere near as vicious as Reavers, they're still considered fairly hostile and yet in Attack of the Clones it was confirmed that they raise young.

It doesn't have to be a particularly nurtering existence, quite the opposite. But it would certainly make a little Reaver.

Maybe like 1 in 1000 of their young are born normal...and they eat them. There's a twisted thought.

 

or it very well could be that while they are violent beserkers when dealing with outsiders, Reaver behavior is very different when among the confines of their own kind.
clearly they can distinguish between Reavers and non-Reavers, so they might treat their own kind rather differently. they don't seem to be ripping each other to shreds, but rather are organized enough to not fight each other (the fleet all chases Serenity, rather than turning on its own weakened member). so perhaps, a reaver among reavers is not a rabid violent killer, but abides by the rules of their society - being a part of a crew of a ship.

they require an outlet for their bloodlust, which requires them to prey on human ships and settlements.

have we seen any female reavers? what if reavers are only male, and thus reproduction is either done through Bushwhacked-tactics or rape/child abduction..

 

This makes sense, because otherwise they'd simply turn on each other first, which they don't.

 

Exactly. Doesn't mean they're sweet and cuddly with their own kind, though...They just don't eat each other.

Except for that 1 in 1000th child.

 

We also haven't seen any child reavers.


Do reavers attack other reavers? Do we know?

IF they do then it seems like they'd destroy themselves rapidly... so realistically they must not.

Which of course would mean that the lack of shown female reapers could raise questions about the prospect of some sort of reaver society.

Berserker masochistic hyper aggresive cannibals... and loving fathers?

 

while they might not be sweet and cuddly, they would certainly have concepts of group preservation as well as individual preservation. you wonder what they eat when they're not eating people?

 

Hehe

'Hi honey, I'm home."
"How was your day?"
"Oh terrible, we had tochase this ship for hours ebfore we finally caught them and then when we did we found it only a single super model aboard and she'd killed herself already. so boney and not enough skin to even make a loin cloth. Then when I was raping her mutilated corpse i got my eyelid peircing cought in her teeth and was stuck for ten mintues while everyone laughed at me."
"Oh you poor thing, let me get you a nice steaming glass of blood and a fresh carcass to molest."