Operative
From The Firefly and Serenity Database
| |
| The Operative | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Gender |
Male |
| Occupation(s) |
Operative |
| Title(s) |
Operative |
| Statistics | |
| Weapon(s) |
Sword |
| Affiliation | |
- "I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin."
- ―The Operative[src]
The Operative is an agent of the Alliance government. Similar to a black ops agent, the Operative's work was not acknowledged by the government. He technically didn't exist; he gave up his name upon becoming an operative, and he did not hold an official rank in the Alliance. However, his status as an operative could get him access to most Alliance facilities as well as respect from those who knew what an operative was. He had been highly trained in close armed and unarmed combat. Until he had his faith broken, he was unswervingly devoted to his cause.
Contents |
[edit] Hunting River Tam
Working directly for the Parliament of the Alliance, the Operative single-mindedly hunted down River Tam because he believed that his actions "make the world a better place". He was shown to have little problem with killing as part of his job, ruthlessly murdering several people using his sword, and also ordering the attacks that were responsible for the death of, among others, Derrial Book. While the Operative may have found the killing of an innocent girl wrong, he believed that he was serving a greater good by killing her. He dreamt of "a world without sin", and the only way to attain that world was by doing whatever the Alliance asked him to do.
The Operative's weapon of choice is a sword. He sees it as being more of a civilized and classic method of killing, and prefers to use it as opposed to guns. He often tries to paralyze his targets by taking out a nerve cluster near their waist, and then stabs them; on some occasions, he has his enemies fall forward on to his sword, much like disgraced Roman generals used to do. He will use firearms when he has to, but they tend to be a last resort. In addition to his weapon and hand-to-hand training, the Operative is dangerous due to his resolve. He truly believes that what he is doing is right, and yet he has no delusions about the evils of it. He admits to Malcolm Reynolds that he is a monster and he can never live in the world he is helping to create.
The Operative is courteous and soft-spoken in manner and has an ethical code of sorts. He has a strong sense of justice and only seeks to do things in order to create a better world for people to live in. He usually tries to negotiate with people rather than resorting to force, and when necessary, he tries to give his opponents an honorable, shameless death. After he realized that the Alliance wasn't what he envisioned it to be, he followed his own heart rather than the Alliance, and helped the crew of Serenity.
Eventually, the Operative discovers that the secret River Tam possesses, and he is trying to protect, has been passed to Mal. In an attempt to finally end the problem, the Operative fights Mal atop a large suspended computer terminal, only to be defeated when his traditional nerve cluster strike fails due to an old war wound having resulted in the cluster being moved. Mal manages to give the Operative doubts about his mission by forcing him to watch a report by another Alliance officer, revealing that it was the Alliance itself that had been responsible for accidentally creating the Reavers during their attempt to calm the population of the planet Miranda. When Mal broadcasts the secret to the universe, the Operative admits defeat and decides to leave the Alliance, helping arrange for repairs for the damaged Serenity before departing.
[edit] Skills and abilities
The Operative was highly skilled in martial arts; he is a proficient swordsman, an expert at hand-to-hand fighting, and demonstrated some proficiency with firearms. The Operative easily defeated two armed guards in a secure alliance facility before murdering Dr. Mathias. Through deception and surprise, he was able to rapidly disable Mal on their first encounter; Captain Reynolds only survived due to prescient intervention by Inara. On their second encounter, a recently-stunned Captain Reynolds proved to be a faster draw, shooting the Operative's sidearm from his hand. Fast reflexes and bullet-resistant body armor saved the Operative's life, and he maintained the upper hand in hand-to-hand and armed fighting with the combat-hardened captain. Reynold's life was only spared by the fortunate coincidence of a war injury having nullified the Operative's attempt to paralyze him, allowing the Captain to temporarily incapacitate him.
An intelligent and meticulous investigator, the Operative used his unrestricted access to Alliance records to identify Mal and trace his connections to Inara, Haven, Mr. Universe, and many of the Captain's other underworld associates. This Operative also appeared to have unrestricted command access to the Alliance fleet.
[edit] Behind the scenes
The Operative was portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor.
[edit] Appearances
- Serenity: Those Left Behind (First appearance)
- Serenity
