Homage to the River

The other day, I was rewatching the movie Serenity. Became fascinated by River Tam, and thought thats a cool idea for a CoH character and would fit well as a Praetorian. However, I am torn what do I make her as...I figured a scrapper or a brute..but should I make her a MA or a DB scrapper or brute..and then as a secondary I am stuck between will power and super reflexes...So I would like to know what other fans of a TV show that died before its time, would choose if they were going to make a River Tam character (or any other character from Firefly/serenity)

My River tribute is a MA/WP scrapper. She's a lot of fun.

Id go wit Super Reflexes. I love liked that movie and it just seems that the way she was moving was more super reflex based with DB as opposed to Will Power.

Although to be honest the WP part would kick in when she was activated, but rarely did she get injured once she was activated, which would show a high level of dodge and avoidance techniques when face off against an everwhelming number of reavers.

That would be my suggestion, although please ensure her weapons don't match. Mabe a Kopesh with a fantasy sword to make it look more chaotic or like she picked it up.

Origin would be Science, Technology would be second, but Science would be the way to go with a River like toon.

Again not knocking WP, but when not activated River showed very little will power on her own, but when activated there was nothing she could not scale, beat down dodge or gracefully dismiss.

I am leaning towards DB (wish they had the rusty blade, like the katana has) for costume ideas..

Hmmmm...this got me thinking...

Malcolm Reynolds: Dual Pistols/ something and either a Blaster/Corrupter
Inara: Trick Arrow/Archery Defender
Jayne: Huntsman (it's got guns, grenades, and some toughness)
Zoe: Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster
River: I'd say either MA/SR or DB/SR. Her first fight in the movie is all MA, the second was DB.
Dr. Simon Tam: Empathy/Dual Pistols Defender, with a focus on Empathy.
Shepard Book: Martial Arts/Willpower Scrapper, with the Leadership pool.

Kaylee and Wash didn't have many combat skills, but maybe make Kaylee a Traps Defender or Corrupter, and Wash a Peacebringer, returned from the dead.

Did I forget anyone?

I hated when he died...leaf..wind..splat..*grumbles*

The movie is Mal's rogue--->hero morality mission.

Once I was fooling around with the costume creator, and I made a DB/SR scrapper that looked something like River. After watching the animation for One-thousand Cuts, I had to exit CoH and open up Netflix, to watch Serenity again.

The other River (the DP/hallucinogenic lipstick Corruptor) is cool too, but not nearly as cool as River Tam.

agrees..would love to have a pistol scrapper set for that reason or even a mix of martial art weapons and open hand attacks in a set

Honestly, I am thinking that a Night Widow would fit pretty well for River Tam. I mean, Night Widows are psychics with strong melee combat focus. They can softcap their own defenses and have good AoE capability with Spin, Eviscerate, etc. You'd have to get over the spiky claws coming out of her fists, but the concept is pretty solid.

Heck, you could even play off of the whole "escape from the Alliance" as "Escape from Arachnos", eventually culminating in becoming a rogue and moving to Paragon City. I have a hard time calling River a "hero" though, since we really don't know much about her morality, post-op. She spends 99% of the series insane, and only has a couple of lines after she gets better. Also, after slaughtering all the reavers, she seems perfectly ready to go to town on the Alliance soldiers before they were called to stand down. I'd say Rogue morality is appropriate.

I also don't think that Mal is a "hero" by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, he risked his life to spread the truth of the Alliance experiment, but I don't see this as a particularly heroic act. First of all, he was responsible for leading an entire armada of reavers onto the Alliance, a fate he himself claims is worse than death. Secondly, I personally think his motivation is less about helping people and more about weakening the Alliance via the exposure of their corruption. I mean, who did he actually help through his actions? He got a bunch of people killed, including some of his own crew, and all that he really accomplished was to create a PR issue for the government. I don't consider that particularly heroic.

Sure, the Alliance seems like a bunch of jerks throughout the series, but we have recall that we are viewing these events from the perspective of an outlaw brigand. He's basically an anarchist; he would love to bring down the Alliance, but has no real plan for setting-up a stable government afterward. This also does not seem heroic to me.

Throughout the series, Mal's greatest skills seem to be planning heists and inspiring the loyalty of his crew. He is capable with a gun, and can throw a punch when need be, but he is overshadowed in those capacities by others in the series, so I can't really see him being a scrapper or blaster. I'd say that Mal is a mastermind, probably either mercs or thugs. Definitely with the Leadership pool, and probably with some Presence powers as well. Can't really think of a secondary that fits appropriately, so let's go with traps.

Your mention of Mal risking the lives of his crew got me thinking. It seems like great leaders always make people a danger to themselves. Mal, Ender Wiggin, the Doctor, Hazel-rah...

Rory mentions this to the Doctor in The Vampires of Venice. And Davros accuses him (in Journey's End) of making his companions into weapons. If you watch the season finales, and Torchwood and SJA, you can see that Davros is right.

But he turns them into a very specific kind of weapon: a terrifying weapon, capable of destroying planets and wiping out entire species. He turns them into Little Doctors.

EDIT: Oh and I like the idea of River as a Night Widow.

I had considered a widow for River, but I wanted to start the character in Praetoria, because maybe its me but the whole..we are doing this for your own good, attitude that the Alliance seems to reek of, seems to fit in with Loyalist side. I could see Cole, or any of his comrades creating a super assassin (heck a prettier Noble Savage), and widows are sorta not allowed over there for some reason. But yes a widow would do a good job just over look the spiky hands and the dart launchers could be the times when she pulled out a pistol..