!!For the original series
* AccidentalAesop: The Core Worlds are [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas peaceful and prosperous]], but [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the government can do damn near anything they want]] to their citizens as long as they can [[IDidWhatIHadToDo justify it]] -- such as [[PlayingWithSyringes cut up little girls' brains]] or [[spoiler:dose [[GovernmentDrugEnforcement entire planets with mind control drugs]]]]. The Rim Worlds are [[CrapsackWorld anarchic and destitute]], but [[ItsUpToYou you can always look your accuser in the eye and settle it one way or another]] -- or even [[TrainingThePeacefulVillagers round up a posse of fellow victims and exact some frontier justice]]. The argument seems to be that ''[[OrderVersusChaos a healthy civilization needs both]]'' and any attempt to [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans "rid the world of sin"]] will do [[GoneHorriblyWrong nothing but harm]] in [[GoneHorriblyRight the long run]].
* ActorShipping: Simon and Kaylee are so cute together that some shippers want Creator/SeanMaher and Creator/JewelStaite to get together. That he's gay and she's married doesn't apparently enter into it.
* {{Adorkable}}:
** The first time we see Wash, he's playing with plastic dinosaurs. He lounges around in Hawaiian shirts, punctures moments of high drama with prosaic questions, and spends his whole time under police interrogation describing his wife enthusiastically.
** Kaylee is not a glamor girl, warrior woman, or 'broken bird': she's meant to be friendly, appealing, and prone to a goofy focus on her favorite subject: machinery.
** Simon, mostly when he's around Kaylee, and helped along by his {{Fish Out of Water}} status -- notable in that it's quite a change from the calm, collected demeanor he assumed when he first came on board ''Serenity''.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** Is Jayne a [[PsychoForHire barely-restrained murderous idiot,]] or is this a [[ObfuscatingStupidity facade]] created to ensure he has [[{{Dismotivation}} minimal responsibilities]] and [[AlmightyJanitor maximum opportunities]] to [[BloodKnight hurt people he dislikes?]] Mal often relies on Jayne to accomplish impressive tasks with no supervision and little foreknowledge -- and he always does, LovableTraitor tendencies notwithstanding.
** River:
*** How exactly River's psychic abilities work is up to interpretation. The two most common theories are that either she's precognitive and can sense things before they happen, or that she possesses exceptional telepathic awareness of her surroundings which, coupled with her extreme intellect, lets her ''predict'' what's going to happen through analysis. Or maybe both at the same time.
*** River herself. Some interpretations, especially post-Miranda, have her as a generally stable person who is coping with her trauma and abilities. Others assert that she is completely insane and needs constant supervision with brief bouts of lucidity, while some would argue that she's just a girl who is struggling to cope with her own trauma and brain damage and wavers wildly between madness and lucidity.
** Saffron goes through this both in- and out-of-universe. The crew is uncertain as to whether or not she's an absolute sociopath, or if she's got [[BrokenBird some redeeming qualities]]. Mal, at least, seems to be convinced that at least part of her breakdown in "[[Recap/FireflyE11Trash Trash]]" was genuine.
** Was Mr. Universe just an eccentric who married his own SexBot? Or was he ProperlyParanoid, knowing the kind of enemies his line of work would bring? [[spoiler: And considering his fate in TheMovie, it could be argued that having a SexBot wife proved to be the right move.]]
* AntiClimaxBoss: In the post-''Serenity'' comic ''ComicBook/SerenityLeavesOnTheWind'', Jubal Early is revealed to have survived his initial encounter with the crew and marks his reintroduction by effortlessly beating up the soldiers guarding the Alliance Operatives he's meeting with and then [[spoiler:slaughtering Bea's entire crew and blowing up their ship. He once again infiltrates ''Serenity'' and manages to subdue the crew one-by-one... then he gets blindsided by Kaylee and knocked out in one hit. He's then dumped out of the ship with the rest of the trash.]]
* BetterOnDVD: Because you can watch the episodes in the right order, and without them being preempted by baseball games, and see three episodes that were never even aired in the first place.
%%* CargoShip: Jayne and his gun [[ICallItVera Vera]].
* CompleteMonster:
** The Blue Gloves/"Hands of Blue" are a duo of [[MysteriousMercenaryPursuer independent contractors]] hired by [[Characters/FireflyAlliance the Alliance]] to capture the Tam siblings. The Blue Gloves hunt the ''Serenity'' across the 'Verse, killing anyone in their way as they go, and employ a variety of schemes to capture the two, notably allying with Dobson in an attempt to kill the entire crew. The most evil aspect of them, however, is their use of a [[BrownNote sonic device that painfully kills their targets by rupturing their insides until they melt]], which they use to [[Recap/FireflyE09Ariel kill an entire Alliance building]], systematically checking all of the bodies and murdering any who still cling to life to ensure none survive the massacre, just because a couple of the guards had interacted with the Tams, and the Blue Gloves seek to keep all information possible to themselves.
** [[FauxAffablyEvil Adelai Niska]] is a SoftSpokenSadist proud of his [[TheDreaded feared reputation amongst the criminal community]], and is obsessed with ensuring the horror stories surrounding him are all true. When he first meets the crew of Serenity in "[[Recap/FireflyE02TheTrainJob The Train Job]]", Niska shows off the mutilated corpse of his wife's nephew to solidify his reputation in their eyes and to show them what price they'll pay should [[YouHaveFailedMe they fail him]] in stealing a shipment of medicine intended for sick settlers. In his next appearance, in "[[Recap/FireflyE10WarStories War Stories]]," Niska carves up another failed employee, before getting his hands on Mal and Wash, whom he proceeds to [[ColdBloodedTorture torture]] for hours. Eventually Zoe, Mal's first mate and Wash's wife, offers to buy Niska's captives off of him, but Niska tells her that with the money she has, she can only afford one of them and tries to force her into a SadisticChoice. When Zoe ruins his fun by immediately picking her husband, he responds by saying there is enough money for some of Captain Reynolds. He then cuts off Mal's ear and gives it to her. Niska then starts torturing Mal to death, only to use advanced technology to bring him back to life so Niska can have the pleasure of torturing Mal to death for days.
** Jubal Early debuts in "[[Recap/FireflyE14ObjectsInSpace Objects in Space]]" as an aloof yet sadistic BountyHunter seeking to turn in the Tam siblings for the reward on their heads. Incapacitating the crew of the ''Serenity'' and threatening to {{rape|Is A Special Kind Of Evil}} and torture Kaylee to keep some in line, Early is seemingly beaten after he is revealed to be a PsychoForHire who only has his job because he enjoys hurting others. Returning in the comic book ''ComicBook/SerenityLeavesOnTheWind'', Early kills an entire staff of security guards just for prohibiting him entry to a meeting, and later bombs a smuggler ship in another attempt to capture the crew of the ''Serenity'', killing a dozen innocent people in the process. Despite his claims that he follows a code and is only doing his job for the money, Early is actually nothing but a cruel bully who views killing people as a "passion".
%%* CreepyAwesome: River.
* CrossesTheLineTwice:
** The whole "pretending Kaylee's dead to screw with Simon" from "[[Recap/FireflyE01Serenity Serenity]]", which Simon sums up best:
--->'''Simon''': That man's psychotic.\\
''(IronicEchoCut to Wash, Zoe, and Mal [[Funny/{{Firefly}} laughing their asses off]])''\\
'''Wash:''' You are ''psychotic!''
** "[[Recap/FireflyE02TheTrainJob The Train Job]]":
*** Niska is an awful person through and through, but you can't help chuckling when he grumbles resignedly about how he's going to get an earful from his wife at dinner for killing her nephew--i.e. the upside-down corpse he just showed Mal as a warning not to screw with him.
*** The scene where Crow is introduced to ''Serenity's'' engine intake is likely to have this effect. A hero killing an unarmed, defeated villain for refusing an offer (and [[OffingTheMouth a little bit of mouthing off]]), can be shocking. Following that up by taking the next mook, planting him in the exact same spot, and starting to give him the same offer delivered in exactly the same tone, with said mook rushing to agree with the hero before he's even finished a sentence is pretty hilarious.
** From a scene in "[[Recap/FireflyE04Shindig Shindig]]" where Malcolm wins a duel with a truly obnoxious and stuck-up opponent that had it coming:
--->'''Malcolm''': Sure. It would be humiliating. Having to lie there while the better man refuses to spill your blood. Mercy is the mark of a great man. ''(lightly stabs him with sword)'' Guess I'm just a good man. ''(stabs him again)'' Well, I guess I'm all right...
* CultClassic: The fact that it was a SpaceWestern that was developed by nerd icon Creator/JossWhedon that got massively ScrewedByTheNetwork and [[TooGoodToLast canceled after just one season]] all but ensured this fate for the series.
* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Jubal Early shows signs of schizophrenia: some of his stranger points of conversation could be interpreted as talking back to voices that only he can hear.
--> '''Early:''' I don't ''think'' of myself as a lion. You might as well, though; I have a mighty roar.
* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** River, who went from being a secondary character -- who still had quite a bit of focus on in the main series -- to being one of the two leads in TheMovie.
** [[BountyHunter Jubal]] [[EvilIsCool Early.]] Only appeared in the final episode, and yet he's probably the single most iconic character in the whole series who's not one of the leads.
** The Reavers. Newcomers to the series might be shocked to learn that they only appear in ''two'' episodes before the movie, because they're one of the most iconic features of the entire franchise.
** Saffron is popular for two reasons: because she's one of the few recurring antagonists in this very short-lived series, making her an individual ArchEnemy, and because she's a hot, buxom redhead played by Creator/ChristinaHendricks.
* EvilIsCool: The Operative plays this trope straight. He is [[AffablyEvil impeccably polite]], handsome, [[ManOfWealthAndTaste well-dressed]], [[WickedCultured philosophical]], [[TheStoic unflappable]], [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic]], extremely good at what he does, and he knows it.
* FanPreferredCutContent: The deleted scene from the pilot where Zoe tells Simon about the Battle of Serenity Valley is considered to be a good character moment that fleshes out some aspects of the characters which are never said out loud. While it was deleted due to its tie-in with the original (also deleted) opening, many feel it would have worked fine as a follow-up to the revised opening.
* GeniusBonus: The opening line of the song is ''"Take my love / Take my land"'' and goes on to say that the singer doesn't mind because he's still free. Machiavelli's ''Literature/ThePrince'' says the two things you can't take from people without inciting revolt are their women (love) and land.
* HarsherInHindsight:
** From "[[Recap/FireflyE04Shindig Shindig]]", when Zoe and Wash are TalkingInBed about what to do if Jayne decides to take over the ship. Just try laughing at Wash joking about how to properly eulogize Zoe [[spoiler:after watching her at his funeral in the BigDamnMovie.]]
--->'''Wash''': I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
** Wash's fantasy about being rich in the "Better Days" comics that take place in-between the show and the BigDamnMovie. In it, he's piloting a luxury cruiser big enough to "land a '''planet''' on" and takes a break to play with his child. [[spoiler:Thanks to his death in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', only a small part of that comes to pass in later comics: The one-shot comic "Float Out" (which, ironically, was collected in the same volume as "Better Days") reveals that [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy Zoe became pregnant before his death]], and during the events of "Leaves on the Wind", she gives birth to their daughter, Emma.]]
** A lot of the more [[BlackComedy sadistic jokes]] like the gory and [[SurprisinglySuddenDeath sudden]] demise of characters, take on an uncomfortable light in the wake of Creator/JossWhedon being exposed for [[PrimadonnaDirector abusive behaviour]], even turning one instance of having made a crewmember cry into an anegdote, making these scenes feel like he was [[AuthorAppeal indulging himself.]]
* HilariousInHindsight:
** After seeing the "Aliens Live Among Us" exhibit
--->'''Inara:''' So, do aliens live among us?\\
'''Kaylee:''' Yeah. One of them's [[Series/DoctorWho a doctor]].
* HoYay:
** According to Creator/AdamBaldwin, there would have been deliberate HomoeroticSubtext between Simon and Jayne if the series had not been canceled. Creator/SeanMaher also stated in a convention interview that he believed Simon had a crush on Jayne, something that would likely have been used in a future storyline.
** Mal also refers to Simon's ''mouth'' as "pretty" at least once in the show and once in the movie.
** Between Kaylee and Inara and Kaylee and River, with the former especially noticeable in "[[Recap/FireflyE10WarStories War Stories]]", the latter in "[[Recap/FireflyE01Serenity Serenity]]" and "[[Recap/FireflyE14ObjectsInSpace Objects In Space]]". Inara is canonically bisexual and is close friends with Kaylee, a TomboyWithAGirlyStreak who is often curious about Inara's business as a [[HighClassCallGirl Companion]], and there's a rather intimate, though platonic, scene of Inara brushing Kaylee's hair in "[[Recap/FireflyE02TheTrainJob The Train Job]]" with her Companion {{leitmotif}} playing over it.
* HypeBacklash: Some people find the series' continuing popularity overblown.
* IAmNotShazam:
** Firefly is the name of the ''class'' of ship, not the ship itself. ''Serenity'' is the name of the ship, the first([[ExecutiveMeddling ish]]) episode and TheMovie. And as Inara points out, it's not ''The Serenity'', it's just ''Serenity''.
** One page on Website/ThisVeryWiki briefly called the preacher ''"Sheppard"'' Book. [[FandomEnragingMisconception That's not even the right spelling]], let alone his first name -- "Shepherd" is his title, much like "Pastor" or "Father" would be for figures in a similar role. [[note]] Pastor means Shepherd. [[/note]]
* IronWoobie: Mal Reynolds and the full weight of TheChainsOfCommanding. He lost his entire homeworld to war, lost most of the people he ever cared for, then lost the war. After that he embarked down a life of crime that chafes at his principles, and alternates between RageAgainstTheHeavens and looking after his crew, often at the expense of his health.
* JerkassWoobie: Jayne, at least in the moments where he shows a softer side, which almost always only happens when something terrible has happened to him.
* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: In "[[Recap/FireflyE01Serenity Serenity]]", everything is set up to make the audience think [[spoiler:Kaylee has died]], up to and including a main character outright stating it. Even those familiar with Joss Whedon's AnyoneCanDie SignatureStyle probably didn't really think he'd kill off a top billed character in the first episode. [[spoiler:Nope: her "death" was actually just her going back to sleep after surgery, and Mal was just messing with Simon for laughs when he told him she died.]]
* MemeticBadass: [[WebComic/{{XKCD}} RIVER TAM BEATS UP EVERYONE]]
* MemeticMutation:
** Many of the lines wound up becoming memes. Some examples include: "I'll be in my bunk.", "Also? [[PsychicPowers I can kill you with my brain.]]", "[[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!]]", "Mine is an EvilLaugh!", "This food is problematic", "BigDamnHeroes, sir!" Etc., etc.
** [[http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0c2l0k7Kf1r8rauqo1_1280.png Jew-bal Early]]
** [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19750_the-5-most-impossible-sniper-shots-ever-made.html A Cracked.com article]] on RealLife people with ImprobableAimingSkills elicited the comment that "they killed them with math". Some poor, deprived soul didn't get the joke and it had to be explained to him.
* {{Moe}}: ''Kaylee''. Creator/JossWhedon himself has said that [[LampshadeHanging everything becomes happy and shiny when she smiles]].
* MoralEventHorizon:
** [[spoiler:Jayne]] comes ''very'' close to crossing it in "[[Recap/FireflyE09Ariel Ariel]]" when he tries to [[spoiler:sell Simon and River to the Feds]]. He comes within seconds of getting ThrownOutTheAirlock, but his regret and shame afterwards show that he is not ''completely'' irredeemable.
** Niska crosses it in "[[Recap/FireflyE10WarStories War Stories]]" when he kidnaps [[spoiler: Mal and Wash]] and starts torturing them to death. Bad move.
*** Alternately, the point where Zoe jumps the gun on his SadisticChoice and he responds by giving her "small refund".
*** Hell Niska pretty much [[InvokedTrope invokes]] this within five minutes of him first appearing onscreen, showing Mal and Zoe a guy he's got chained up in a meat locker being tortured, just to prove that his reputation of a man you do ''not'' want angry with you is more than just "people talking."
--->'''Niska''' Now my reputation for you is ''fact'', is ''solid''.
** "[[Recap/FireflyE13HeartOfGold Heart of Gold]]". Rance. [[spoiler:Willing to take out the entire brothel just to get to his kid, and is willing to be sexually serviced in public, because he thinks that's what women are for. Rather telling for someone who doesn't even survive the episode]].
* NoYay:
** An extremely creepy one-way version of this between [[PsychoForHire Jubal Early]] and [[TheWoobie River]] in "[[Recap/FireflyE14ObjectsInSpace Objects in Space]]". Pretty much ''all'' of his lines regarding her can easily be interpreted as sexual in nature, and that's ''before'' you factor in the rape threats he made to Kaylee. Not to mention River's line, "You crawl inside me uninvited," which does NOT help things.
*** A decent case can be made for River and ''anyone'' on the show. She's 17-years-old, traumatized and brain damaged, and the extent to which she improved after the events of the movie is unclear.
** Jubal/Kaylee also gets the same reaction, in no small part because the sexual/rape subtext in his conversations with River crosses the line from subtext to text with Kaylee, due to him coldly threatening to rape her, something he says he neither desires nor undesires, just a thing that he will do if she doesn't cooperate.
** Hilariously, this is how the entire crew reacts to the prospect of Mal/Zoe. Even the shockingly crude, meat head mercenary Jayne. ("Now, somethin' 'bout that is just downright unsettlin'.") ''Even Mal and Zoe themselves react this way.''
* OneSceneWonder:
** Murphy in "[[Recap/FireflyE04Shindig Shindig]]". Could also qualify from his snarky lines as a CoolOldGuy.
--->'''Murphy''': Forgive me. I cannot abide useless people.
** Monty, Mal's old war buddy, fellow smuggler, and fellow victim of Saffron.
--->'''Monty''': ''I shaved my beard for you, devil-woman!!''
* RetroactiveRecognition: Four years before ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' made him a star, Creator/ZacEfron played a younger Simon Tam in a flashback in the episode "Safe".
* TheShipsMotor: River/Jayne shippers often use the idea that Jayne's thoughts are "clear" or "simple" as part of the reasons River might be attracted to him.
* SlidingScaleOfSocialSatisfaction: Categorized as "Revolution is the Key". The show's tone is very anti-authoritarian, critically pointing out how despite the Alliance might think UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, they are only restricting people's freedom, justifying genocides by biological weapons, and overall don't know what's best for the people. Previous revolutions have only tightened the Alliance's grip on society. However, it's proved that the smaller rebellions hold meaning still -- one can go against the current on a scale as small as a ship's crew and defy everything the totalitarians stand for. It might not impact the world but it shows a revolution's spark is very difficult to completely extinguish.
* SpiritualSuccessor:
** WebVideo/BennettTheSage points out various similarities between ''Firefly'' and ''Anime/OutlawStar'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd6r6gIyirQ&lc=Ugh14g3d_wmpNXgCoAEC here]].
** ''Film/AlienResurrection'', as pointed out by Michael Marano in the essay ''River Tam and the Weaponized Women of the Whedonverse''. ''Firefly'' and ''Resurrection'' share many character archetypes and plot elements (notably the "Weaponized Woman" in the form of Clone Ripley and River Tam). It's evident that Joss Whedon had his work on ''Resurrection'' in the back of his mind while he was working on this series.
* StoicWoobie: Simon has to deal with pretty much everything his sister is going through, and received little to no support from either of his parents when he made his move to get her out of the Academy. This is also Zoe after the movie, and depending on how badly the war affected her, possibly before and during the series as well.
* TooGoodToLast: Probably ''the'' most infamous example in television history, as it had a rabid fan following and critical acclaim, yet it couldn't accrue the viewership Fox expected. Whether or not those expectations were actually reasonable, of course, is another matter.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: People seem to want to read politics into ''Firefly'' everywhere, with critics interpreting it as everything from an anti-Big-Government libertarian parable, to a racist, pro-Confederate perspective on the Wild West. The show is, in fact, fairly apolitical; with the exception of the feminist overtones which are one of Creator/JossWhedon's {{Creator Thumbprint}}s, ''Firefly'' does not seem to have one specific political "message" as much as people would like to believe. Whedon even qualifies that, if anti-government messages '''do''' sneak in, that is because the story is essentially Mal's story, and it all comes from his perspective as a bitter ex-soldier who fought against a government that he personally considered evil.
* TheWoobie: River. Between her madness, the fear the others show around her, and her traumatic backstory (plus Creator/SummerGlau's excellent acting) she gets tremendous sympathy from the fandom. Kaylee also gets similar treatment thanks to the fact that every villain seems to be laser-guided to target and hurt the sweetest person on the whole ship. Wash has some SadClown tendencies. Book doesn't really know where he belongs in life, and what with an abusive childhood never really had a family. [[spoiler: Inara may also qualify, given her secret.]]

!!For the ComicBook/AllNewFirefly comics
* FanficFuel: How did the people of Canton react [[spoiler: to Jayne’s death in? Might’ve taken it pretty hard depending on if they still looked up to him any after “Jaynestown”]].
----