QotD

[avevale_intelligencer]

"The film is about the right to be wrong. You can't impose your way of thinking even if your way of thinking is more enlightened and better than theirs. It's just simply not how human beings are."
--Joss Whedon, on the Serenity commentary.

EDIT: apologies are apparently due for Mr Whedon's lack of clarity in phrasing. It seems obvious to me at least that he was not saying that it is not *possible* to try to impose one way of thinking on another, nor that there was anything to *preclude* such an attempt. He seems (again, to me at least) to be saying that such an act (a) *never works*, in the sense of the imposed way of thinking being whole-heartedly adopted, and (b) is *morally indefensible* according to his view of what is right and what is wrong. I can only assume that he was tired when he recorded the commentary, otherwise he would doubtless have expressed himself with more clarity and precision.

I would also infer (and this is again a personal opinion) that the "nubile...killing machine" in question is not imposing a way of thinking so much as engaging in combat against a direct and personal threat to the lives of others, as she sees it. Whether she is right or wrong to do so is regrettably beyond the scope of this post, or at the moment of my brain, which is hurting.

*sigh*

Comments

[pink-sweater-uk.livejournal.com]

In all fairness, I was being somewhat flippant when I made that comment. Maybe I should re-phrase a little: she's still ending lives of various individuals, against their will. It's sort of reminiscent of the old Star Wars argument: every Imperial Stormtrooper that gets zapped is still a life. Right or wrong is something that I couldn't really say, either, with 100% certainty: maybe my real issue is with the character's "deus ex machina" role, which is a different argument entirely.

Anyway. Running in circles a bit here. Will leave it at that for now.