Firefly: Serenity

[Mickey_Rat15]

Shepherd Book was pretty darn interesting, the good man in a crew of criminals...

There were clues dropped that Shepherd Book was a bit more than a simple clergyman on a grand tour of the outer 'Verse in a tramp freighter. He had a unusually high clearance with the Alliance for what he was as well as respect from Alliance personnel. It would seem Book had a past life he was reluctant to discuss as a high ranking Alliance officer of some sort, perhaps even an Operative.

[Scififan]

I liked this show a lot, but one of the things that always bugged me was how...ambiguous the war was. I mean, until the movie beat us over the head with how EVIL the Alliance was, I never really got any kind of impression of what the Browncoats' cause even was supposed to be. I mean, they were fighting for independence or whatever, sure. But why exactly? Usually, independence or secession movements have casus belli and such. But the most we ever get from Zoe and Mal is some trite crap about how "the outer colonies just wanted to go there own way" or something. But what does that mean, exactly? That's not a political philosophy or a statement of principles. When the sleeper ships from Earth got there, was it every colony for itself initially, then the inner planets invaded and exerted control? Or were the outer colonies originally colonized by settlers from the inner planets (make it the sovereign government of said colonies)? And if so, why were they trying to break away? Taxes? No representation in parliament? Religious rights? I mean, we keep hearing from the two veterans (aka, people WITHOUT any objectivity on the subject) about how terrible the alliance is, but it seems like most of the places that have little to no Alliance control are pretty shitty: colonies with slavery, company towns with no workers rights, religious communes where the locals straight-up burn women as witches? Is that what they were fighting for?! WTF?

It's been quite some time since I've seen Firefly, but from what I remember (I can't recall if this was ever really established)...

Earth (with it's almost 200 different nations) got united by one monolithic government, and the new government's control is absolute. From America to China to Switzerland to North Korea, *everyone* bends their knee to the United Earth Government. From one point of view it's a utopia, but from another point of view it's a dystopia. And if you disagree with the government, tough luck, because there is only one government and you have no control over it. There are no effective checks and balances. Then Humanity expanded into space, and Earth's control over these colonies was naturally slightly weaker. From these weaker-controlled planets, people who desired something other than the United Earth Government shot off in their own space-made rockets to even more distant planets, with the explicit purpose of getting away from the United Earth Government and forming their own various independent nations. They're shitty worlds, but they're free.

The United Earth Government did not like that, as they fundamentally believe that they are the one and only government, and that all Humans exist under the umbrella of their leadership, whether they like it or not. So they brought their controlled planets back under full control, and then made moves towards taking control of the "free" outer-rim planets through force. The disconnected outer-rim planets formed up into one singular opposition force, and said "Hey, we're a distinct entity, with our own army, we don't belong to you and we won't be pushed around by you."

So the United Earth Government (the center of civilization and technology) invaded the underdog Browncoats and steamrolled them. Earth was 100% the invaders here. And from Earth's point of view, they had merely put down a treasonous rebellion, because their claim to rule extends as far as people do.

And then the movie reveals that they tried to create a drug to pacify the disobedient masses, which backfired and created the Reavers, who are an existential threat to everyone on the outer-rim, and buried the evidence of what they did because their power is absolute and they're accountable to nobody. And the movie didn't pull this out of it's butt, because just look at what they did to River with their experiments. They tried these things once, and they'll try them again, because nobody can stand against this oppressive, monolithic regime.

Right, but here's my issue with that. I am like 99% positive that was never once actually established in the show. If all that stuff is true, then it was expanded on it articles and interviews published outside of what was in the show. And viewers shouldn't have to do extra work to get a clear understanding of the universe's backstory. Purely from the context of the show (again prior to the movie), there is no more evidence that the Alliance is some kind of evil empire than there is evidence that the Browncoats were a bunch of religious zealots who were fighting for the right to establish some kind of weird space-theocracy. The only perspective we really get on the conditions that lead to the rebellion are two veterans of the same side (i.e., people who aren't likely to be objective about anything). And sure, there is all the stuff about River being hunted. But, at the same time, River is a violent, dangerous telepath (i.e., the kind of thing you might want a government to keep an eye on), and we genuinely have no firm idea on how much of that was caused by government experiments (again, prior to the movie) and how much is just her.

There is a later episode where Simon gets access to advanced medical equipment and finds out that River had brain surgery done to her that kept her from having any impulse control, she couldn't 'not do' something.

[FlynnTaggart]

Shepherd Book was pretty darn interesting, the good man in a crew of criminals...

There were clues dropped that Shepherd Book was a bit more than a simple clergyman on a grand tour of the outer 'Verse in a tramp freighter. He had a unusually high clearance with the Alliance for what he was as well as respect from Alliance personnel. It would seem Book had a past life as a high ranking Alliance officer of some sort, perhaps even an Operative.

According to I think the comics according to the wiki on Firefly he was a Browncoat who infiltrated the Alliance but was forced out and covered up because of the embarrassment, his identity was someone he garotted (clearly the original Book was a critics of the guy's numbers for a galactic army).

The explanation didn't make much sense as to why he'd still be someone important in the Alliance but either way, spy or operative or just some important guy, he was a good person when we meet him. The fact he might have a dark and spooky past makes its even more interesting, can a man who was bad but turned good stay good when surrounded by bad people?

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Firefly was one show that everyone was always hyping to me, which I didn't enjoy when I tried it, but I have no idea why. This review has not really brought me any closer to understanding why it doesn't work for me. =/

[bz316]

I thought it was explicitly the Alliance wanted to annex the Outer Colonies.

And did.

Also, we get plenty of signs of what a piece of shit government the Alliance is in every single episode. You know, up to and including the fact SLAVERY is legal.

Also, can we leave the discussion of the British Empire out of this? The Browncoats in Firefly were meant to invoke the ex-Confederates except without, well, being the horrible piles of shit they were. Basically, keeping all of the classic Western tropes without their association to the genocide and slavery apologia they were. Mind you, Firefly is actually CLOSER to the REAL Wild West since American media eliminated the massive number of Chinese and black Americans who were instrumental in its activities.

See, the thing is that I got the impression that most of the planets they visited were places that had significantly less Alliance presence or control over them. This implied to me that the presence of exploitative systems like slavery, company towns with no labor laws, and that one town where a local rich asshole tried to murder a brothel to kidnap his illegitimate son from the boy's mother was due to the fact that they were relying more local customs and control rather than direct rule from the Alliance. In those cases, it seemed like the presence of, for example, slavery was due to a LACK of Alliance influence...

[Beastro]

See, the thing is that I got the impression that most of the planets they visited were places that had significantly less Alliance presence or control over them. This implied to me that the presence of exploitative systems like slavery, company towns with no labor laws, and that one town where a local rich asshole tried to murder a brothel to kidnap his illegitimate son from the boy's mother was due to the fact that they were relying more local customs and control rather than direct rule from the Alliance. In those cases, it seemed like the presence of, for example, slavery was due to a LACK of Alliance influence...

That's the impression I got, only that sort of thing was a relatively good thing given the Orwellian vibe the Alliance gave off, where they'd most likely sanitize such worlds of who they considered trouble-makers, good and bad, if they had greater control.

The movie and the Reaper origin reveal only cements that suspicion. IMO, they overdid that bit of the Alliance and undermined they're potential better qualities through these dark programs.

Firefly was one show that everyone was always hyping to me, which I didn't enjoy when I tried it, but I have no idea why. This review has not really brought me any closer to understanding why it doesn't work for me. =/

I kinda understand what you mean. Firefly seemed to start fairly slow. It was a decent show with a good premise, but it needed time to build up to something as many episodes seemed to lack something. I think a 2nd season and beyond would have really helped it.

[Riedquat]

That's the impression I got, only that sort of thing was a relatively good thing given the Orwellian vibe the Alliance gave off, where they'd most likely sanitize such worlds of who they considered trouble-makers, good and bad, if they had greater control.

The movie and the Reaper origin reveal only cements that suspicion. IMO, they overdid that bit of the Alliance and undermined they're potential better qualities through these dark programs.

I see what you mean - the general impression we get of life in the Alliance worlds is that it's pretty good for most of the people there, but it's got a rather dark underside and an intolerance for anything that isn't it.

[CharlesPhipps]

See, the thing is that I got the impression that most of the planets they visited were places that had significantly less Alliance presence or control over them. This implied to me that the presence of exploitative systems like slavery, company towns with no labor laws, and that one town where a local rich asshole tried to murder a brothel to kidnap his illegitimate son from the boy's mother was due to the fact that they were relying more local customs and control rather than direct rule from the Alliance. In those cases, it seemed like the presence of, for example, slavery was due to a LACK of Alliance influence...

This is the take of the RPG and it's why I didn't buy it. I have to ask, is there ANY reason why the Alliance should be assumed to be benevolent instead of an oppressive corporate-run fascist state? I mean, they operate on children, they conquered Mal's homelands, every government official we meet in the series is an enormous dick, and Mal thinks their winning is enough to mean God is evil.

I am just curious why the Alliance gets so much slack in the fandom.

[GreyICE]

I am just curious why the Alliance gets so much slack in the fandom.

As a huge fan (I saw the movie five times in theaters and watched every episode from start to finish, including their randomly airing the pilot a few days before Christmas as the great sendoff - the pilot aired after Objects in Space, fucking Fox) I have no idea. It certainly wasn't a popular position among the fanbase while it was airing. They explicitly and implicitly stated that the inner worlds were all about gaining control, and that they used extensive indoctrination techniques to control their population.

Two by two, hands of blue? Two by two, hands of blue. These were not nice people, and the show picked no bones about it. They murdered hospital personnel basically... because? They were shown to have unlimited power, and frequently use that in lethal manners.

The only thing I can think of is that the brownshirts heard browncoats, and decided the show must have been meant for them. Then they naturally picked the side of the conflict that they liked.

[bz316]

See, the thing is that I got the impression that most of the planets they visited were places that had significantly less Alliance presence or control over them. This implied to me that the presence of exploitative systems like slavery, company towns with no labor laws, and that one town where a local rich asshole tried to murder a brothel to kidnap his illegitimate son from the boy's mother was due to the fact that they were relying more local customs and control rather than direct rule from the Alliance. In those cases, it seemed like the presence of, for example, slavery was due to a LACK of Alliance influence...

This is the take of the RPG and it's why I didn't buy it. I have to ask, is there ANY reason why the Alliance should be assumed to be benevolent instead of an oppressive corporate-run fascist state? I mean, they operate on children, they conquered Mal's homelands, every government official we meet in the series is an enormous dick, and Mal thinks their winning is enough to mean God is evil.

I am just curious why the Alliance gets so much slack in the fandom.

The thing is, I'm not trying to give the Alliance "slack" per se, I'm just always immediately suspicious when we're supposed to think something is bad just because the main characters are against it. Also, I'm always kind of suspicious of the whole "cosmopolitan urbanism = bad, down-to-earth frontier = good" aesthetic this kind of show plays with. And like I said before, as much as we hear about the Alliance being bad from the two characters with a major grudge against it, we don't actually see all that much of the Alliance. Most of what we see are worlds and moons where the Serenity crew feels safe to operate (ie, places that have little to no direct Alliance influence) and they generally seem pretty shitty. Company towns, places with slavery, a religious community that kidnaps Simon and River than tries to fucking burn her as a witch, etc. And sure, we encounter Alliance officials who act like dicks to the main characters. But considering the main characters are self-confessed career criminals, is it really that surprising that government officials would act like dicks to them? Again, until the movie really decides to drop the ambiguity and beat us over the head with the Alliance being evil, the only directly bad thing we know about is the shit they did to River. But, by the same token, considering how large the Alliance bureaucracy probably is, there was at least a fairly good chance that the project was done by a rogue, section-31 type agency that was not actually sanctioned by the Alliance (again, this is all pre-movie).