The debate that got me thinking about Firefly again

My buddy claimed the show was just Western in space and never had more to say, but I argued the whole point was how the Alliance crushed individuality and that the canceled second season would have explored the Reavers' origin more - what side are you on, was it deeper or just a fun ride that ended too soon?

2 comments

2 Comments

linda_murphy13d ago

Yeah, @logan632, I get what you're saying but I've always been on the other side of that fence. The hints in the show felt more deliberate than just space madness to me, like that whole scene with the Reaver ship in "Bushwhacked" where Mal says they're scary because they used to be people like them. To me, that was setting up a bigger reveal about what happens when you push people too far, maybe not a secret experiment but something the Alliance had a hand in. The movie kind of confirmed my gut feeling with Miranda and that Pax drug, messy as it was. I just think the show was building toward a point about how government overreach can break people in ways that look like monsters, same way you see corporations crush folks in real life. It's easier to call it random isolation, but that feels like letting a system off the hook for its own mess.

logan63213d ago

Honestly, you're right that it had more to say, but I gotta push back on the Reavers thing a little. The show was already hinting pretty hard that the Reavers were people who went too far into the black and basically lost their minds from isolation and the stress of deep space, not something the Alliance created. Like, that episode with the derelict ship where they find the logs, the guy's journal literally shows him cracking up over time. I think Joss Whedon would've gone more into what happens when you run out of civilization's safety net, not some secret government experiment. Still, your main point stands - the Alliance crushing individuality was the core theme, and the whole Miranda drug thing in the movie was a messy retcon anyway.