Firefly

The Fireflyverse is considered to be part of the Jossverse, named after its creator Joss Whedon. Firefly was a short lived (one season before being pulled by Fox for 'low ratings') television programme centred on a group of misfits flying around the galaxy in a beaten-up Firefly-class spaceship known as Serenity.

In this version of the future, Earth has been abandoned in favour of a new solar system with dozens of terraformed planets. The Alliance, a Sino-American amalgamated superpower, dominates the politics of this system and governs all of the Central Planets, and, technically, the outer planets too. A recent civil war was fought between the Alliance and the 'Browncoats', who were anti-Unification, the name given to the amalgamation of the government of all the planets of the system.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds
The captain of the ship Serenity is one Malcolm Reynolds (Mal), who was a sergeant in the Unification War. Little of his past is revealed before his role in the war save that he grew up on a ranch on the planet Shadow, with his mother and an unspecified number of ranch-hands. No father is mentioned. Mal strongly opposed and continues to oppose Unification and the Alliance. He believes in people governing themselves, rather than an impersonal galactic government that steamrollers the little people. He is ferociously loyal but can be conniving and underhand in his dealings to see that he and his get their fair share or more. His attitude to the law is flexible, and he frequently steals and lies, and to a lesser extent kills, without too much bother from his conscience. His main love is his ship, Serenity, which is his home, despite her general unkempt air and lack of maintenance.

Zoe Washburn
Zoe was a soldier who served under Mal in the Unification War, and when the war was over she followed Mal to Serenity and a life as a smuggler/transporter of goods. She also found a husband thanks to Mal; marrying Hoban 'Wash' Washburn, a pilot hired by Mal. Zoe is by turns taciturn and loving, a stoic warrior-type, loyal to both her captain and her husband (illustrated best in the episode 'War Stories') Zoe is Mal's second-in-command on board Serenity, and a crack-shot with her mares-leg style sawnoff shotgun.

Hoban 'Wash' Washburn
Wash is the pilot of Serenity, hired by Mal against Zoe's wishes (in flashbacks she is seen to warn Mal that 'there's just something off about him'). Nevertheless, he and Zoe fall deeply in love and get married. He is an extremely fine pilot, and also a joker and all-round comic relief. He keeps little plastic dinosaur models on his pilot's console (no relation to an Agent's console although there are a few Agents known to keep plastic dinosaurs there) and plays with them in his off-time. He once suffers concussion at the hands of a villian whom he refuses to be seduced by, instead waffling on of his love for Zoe until the frustrated con-woman is forced to kick him in the head.

Kaylee Frye
Kaylee is the young genuis mechanic, hired by Mal when she fixed Serenity's engine after having noticed the problem while flat on her back banging his previous mechanic in the engine room. Said previous mechanic was fired and Kaylee hired, as soon as she'd done her dress up and run off to ask her parents. Kaylee is young, chirpy and quite girly; while delighting in practicalness, engines, grease etc she still adores pretty clothes and the attention of young men; specifically Simon Tam. Kaylee seems to have almost a brother-sister relationship with Jayne Cobb, and be almost a daughter to Mal.

Jayne Cobb
Jayne is a mercenary, not well educated (although he can read after a fashion), and determined to do whatever it takes to get the best profit from a situation; an attitude that occcasionally puts him at loggerheads with Mal, especially when a reward is offered for the capture of Simon and River Tam. He loves weaponry; his favourite being a large gun named 'Vera'. Jayne joined the crew when his former gang were attempting to rob Zoe and Mal. Mal asked him how much he would get from the takings, and offered him a better deal, whereupon Jayne shot his former boss in the foot and changed sides.

Inara Serra
Inara is a Companion, a sort of prostitute, but being a Companion is a highly regarded and much-honoured profession. She is calm and composed, very well trained at reading body language, speaking several languages, playing the dulcimer and many other civilised arts. She rents one of Serenity's two shuttles from Mal, and her presence on the ship gives them a veneer of credibility when they visit core planets. There is a tremendous amount of UST between her and Mal. Despite being respectable, and not being a member of the crew, Inara does on occasion save the day.

Shepherd Book
A Shepherd is essentially a priest, and Shepherd Book, after leaving his monastery, decides to take passage on a ahip and spread the Good Word amongst the peoples of the galaxy. Unfortunately he chooses Serenity, where Mal is hostile to his God and gets them involved in crimes almost every day. However, Book rises to this challenge admirably, displaying a worryingly thorough knowledge of criminal procedures, government procedures, weaponry and tactics. Sadly, we never find out his background, and he remains one of the mysteries that could have been solved if only Fox hadn't been stupid and pulled the series.

Dr. Simon Tam
Simon is a first-rate doctor, trained on the core planets, and coming from a rich family. He is extremely smart and very well educated. He has seldom had to do manual labour in his life, and cannot fire a gun or really be useful in combat, which are the main reasons that Jayne and he have a vendetta; Simon's view of Jayne is 'you're like a trained ape! Without the training!'. Simon's main goal is to protect his sister, River, whom he sprung from a secret governmental institute where they were experimenting on her brain, to an unknown end. He and his sister are fugitives from the law. He has strong feelings for Kaylee but is unable to express them, as she seems to render him tongue-tied and only capable of spouting extremely bad-taste jokes that eventually offend her.

River Tam
River is Simon's younger sister. She is a certified genius, and appears also to be psychic, and possibly schizophrenic after her ordeal in the secret government facility that Simon rescued her from. She and Kaylee are close friends, but she is erratic and prone to violent behaviour, weird comments ('also, I can kill you with my brain') etc and sometimes worries people deeply because of this. Simon is attempting to cure her. Her strange abilities have, on several occasions, served to extricate the crew from a tricky spot, however.

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