Spoiler Slayer

I Don't Believe In Coincidence Or Leprechauns

The title of this page is Spoilery Speculation, which is where I come to ramble on about various thoughts that I have about the show, spoilers, and where this all might be heading. I really do enjoy speculating, and reading others speculation as well (for example, The Stakehouse is a great group for speculation. Though William the Poet can be too cryptic at times). It's definitely not an exact science. Looking at my own record, I'm probably right only about half the time. That doesn't mean that it isn't fun to do. but sometimes speculation goes down a road that surprises even me.

For example, this morning I was surprised to discover that supposedly a clue about Buffy had been dropped in Firefly. It was being discussed on several boards. At one point, Mal had made the comment "I'm not an evil Holland". Holland, of course, was presumed to be the same one that Angel had more than one run-in with in his series. Which led me to review the Tivo footage again and discovered that the actual line is...

"I'm not an evil, lecherous, hump" (verified on close-captioning as well).

That's the trick with speculation, it's often pretty easy to find connections to everything. Sometimes, what starts as a tiny in-joke or clue, can turn suddenly into a thesis on how Joss has discovered the secret to Life, The Universe, and Everything.

Take the beginning of 'Beneath You', the club music has a vocal track which is supposed to be saying "From Beneath You It Devours". Unfortunately, my German is not that great, but I did hear enough to pick up the word 'Tiefe'. Which I just happen to be familiar with, and know that it can be translated as 'the depths'. The reason I know this is because I'm a Kate Bush fan, the entire phrase in the show is very similar to a German phrase Kate uses in the song 'Hello Earth'. That phrase is...

"Tiefer, tiefer, irgendwo in der Tiefe gibt es ein Licht" which translates as "Deeper, Deeper, somewhere in the depth there is light" (note: I'm using transcripts from various KB fan-sites, I could be slightly off in spelling or translation).

Already, I'm kind of out on a limb in looking for a connection, but let's dig a bit deeper. In the same song, Kate uses a Georgian Chant for a background vocal, the same one that Werner Herzog used in the movie 'Nosferatu'. Not to stop there, the song itself is on the 'B' side of 'Hounds of Love'. Which tells the story of a young woman who drowns, and is brought back to life. Coincidence?

The point that I'm trying to make, is that it's very easy to find hidden meanings or connections when you actively try to find them. It's my feeling that with Buffy, people are often looking too deep striving to find meaning. There are a lot of valid connections that can be made, but there are also a lot that may not lead anywhere.

In the end, it's all going to come down to how you translate it.

I Was Right About The Leprechauns, Right?

Speaking of translating phrases and words in 'Firefly'.

As a fan of Mutant Enemy, I've been actively watching 'Firefly'. One of the interesting things I find in the series, is that there seems to be a lot of Chinese being spoken in Firefly. In fact, the writers have made a habit of replacing an English word with a Chinese word in the middle of a sentence. I actually first noticed it in the premiere, and there was something that Kaylee said during the train heist that made me listen to that scene several times. The phrase was...

"The captain is kind of a "unknown word" when it comes to plans"

No matter how I listened to it, it just didn't sound like an English word. In fact, it did sound like a Chinese word that I was very familiar with. But it didn't make sense, because I couldn't believe that this is what she was really saying. Then last night, when Wash is admiring a very well-planned piece of sabotage, he said the word again and this time I knew I was hearing it correctly.

The Chinese word in question is "Tiancai"

Which means 'Genius' in Chinese, and that's exactly the English word you would use in the same situation. In Chinese it's spelled with the characters

Which strangely enough, are the same exact two characters that in Japanese are used to spell

Tensai

Coincidence?