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alt title(s): Firefly The Series; Serenity 
(from left) Jayne, River, Simon, Mal, Inara, Zoe, Wash, Kaylee & Book
Simon: "You have the Alliance on you; criminals and savages. Half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded, including yourself . . . and you're harboring known fugitives."
Mal: "Well, I'm still flying."
Simon: "That's not much."
Mal: "It's enough."
Firefly was a Science Fiction Space Western that ran for four months on the Fox Network in 2002. It was canceled after 14 episodes were produced; only 11 were aired. Its quick cancellation helped give rise to The Firefly Effect. A DVD boxed set was released in December 2003 and has sold briskly ever since.
A feature-film continuation, Serenity, was released in October 2005 to critical acclaim. Unfortunately the film's box-office performance was mediocre, barely covering its costs, which probably dooms the idea of further movies.
The show was created by Joss Whedon and Tim Minear ( Mutant Enemy Productions), and combined science fictional concepts (interstellar travel, spaceships, terraforming) with a Western setting (poor agricultural colonies where people ride horses, cattle ranching, cowboy slang). The show told the story of a run-down tramp freighter, and its crew and passengers, trying to get along in the more isolated reaches of human space in the aftermath of a civil war. Firefly is unusual among spacegoing science-fiction series, in that the universe contains no non-human sentient beings (although the insane Reavers come close...), and in fact no non-Earth-based life at all.
Firefly's life story is an interesting one: it went from (canceled) television show, to runaway cult hit DVD series, to comic-book sequel, to major motion picture. Firefly is noted for being one of the few canceled television series to be spun off into a major motion picture. The Universal film was titled Serenity because Fox still owned the rights to the name Firefly. There are also a few comics, with plans for more. There are also constant rumours about a second television series, and the cult status the series has attained after its premature cancellation may have saved a later Whedon work from a similar fate. [1]
Notable for well-written scripts, a well-conceived backstory, memorable villains (including the perpetual Anti Hero, Jayne Cobb), and a talent for switching between "sweet and touching", "dark and sinister", and "downright hilarious" without missing a beat.
The cast included:
- Nathan Fillion as Malcolm Reynolds, disillusioned owner and captain of the Firefly-class transport Serenity.
- Gina Torres as Zoë Alleyne Washburne, his second-in-command. She is Happily Married to
- Alan Tudyk as Hoban "Wash" Washburne, the pilot. Somewhat of a geek.
- Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb, the mercenary. A man with less subtlety than a sledgehammer, and even fewer brains. Allegedly.
- Jewel Staite as Kaywinnet Lee "Kaylee" Frye, the mechanic. Her default mode is very happy. Famous enough to be referenced in World Of Warcraft. According to Joss Whedon, when Kaylee smiles, everything suddenly becomes shiny.
- Sean Maher as Simon Tam, a doctor turned fugitive, and
- Summer Glau as River Tam, the mentally traumatized sister he rescued from government experimentation, who's a little whimsical in the brainpan and a tiny bit dangerous.
- Ron Glass as Shepherd Derrial Book, a preacher with a Mysterious Past.
- Morena Baccarin as Inara Serra, a Companion, or high-class courtesan. Or, as Mal calls her, a space whore.
For further details, there is a character sheet here, and a recap page here.
This page also has a tool for gathering and voting on Biggest Complaints.
And, naturally, there is also a Fetish Fuel page, which should best be read in your own bunk.
The first five episodes are available on Hulu, if you're interested (which you should be).
This show provides examples of:
- Absent Aliens
- Accidental Aiming Skills: "The Train Job" - "I was aimin' for his head..."
- Made rather worrying by the fact that there were two or three people he could have hit if he'd missed by that far in any other direction.
- Accidental Hero: "Jaynestown"
- Accidental Marriage: "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
- Aesoptinum: The Pax.
- Affably Evil: The Operative, who praises his enemies, apologizes for his evil deeds, is perfectly willing to negotiate, and spares and helps the crew once he believes killing them would not serve any useful purpose.
- Afraid Of Needles: Jayne
- Air Vent Escape: Played straight with Mal in The Movie, played for laughs later with River
- Aliens And Monsters: Arguably, the Reavers — but, on the whole, this is actually avoided, as there is no non-Earth life in this universe.
- All Planets Are Earthlike: Justified, as all available planets and moons have been Terraformed.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Reavers
- Always Save The Girl
- Amazing Freaking Grace: At the end of "Heart of Gold"
- Anachronic Order: And how. The double-length pilot aired last, and while the chronological last episode did air, three episodes before it are only available on DVD, and various other quirks. It wasn't intentional, but the effect of malicious Executive Meddling.
- Anti Hero: Jayne Cobb, naturally. Most of the crew qualifies for this as well.
- Anti Villain: The Operative, though others see consider him a self-described Necessarily Evil Well Intentioned Extremist.
- Anyone Can Die: In The Movie, Book and Wash
- Apocalyptic Log: Given by the scientist on Miranda in The Movie.
- Apologetic Attacker: The Operative.
- River beats up Simon of all people to get to the bridge in the movie. Afterwards she explains that she couldn't take a chance, whereupon Simon wryly says, "you could have asked." Simon of course, always forgives his dear little sister.
- Arc Words: "Two by two, hands of blue..." Also, the Blue Sun corporation crops up a lot.
- Atop A Mountain Of Corpses: River, in The Movie.
- Author Tract: 80 percent of "Objects In Space" is Jubal Early babbling Joss Whedon's existentialist views with Simon at gunpoint. The other 20%? Summer Glau's bare feet, and Sean Maher's bare torso.
- Joss goes into even greater detail in the solo commentary which accompanies the episode.
- Automatically Violent: The Reavers.
- Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: It is a space western... with T-Shirts, corporate logo's and space geishas. Of course everyone looks awesome!
- Awesomeness By Analysis: River is so quick with math, she only needed to glance at Niska's men for a second before killing all three of them while firing only three shots with her eyes closed, assuming that wasn't Psychic Powers at work.
- Ax Crazy: River, though it turns out she has a reason for it.
- Backstory
- Badass (
half the crew everyone except Kaylee and Inara The entire cast.)
- Badass Boast
- Bad Boss: Adelai Niska.
- Bad Cop Incompetent Cop: Dobson probably bought his badge on a flea market.
- Bad Dreams
- Band Of Brothels: The Guild of Companions.
- Bar Brawl: A constant among Serenity's crew.
- Batman Gambit: River in "Objects in Space". The whole crew in "Trash".
- Being Good Sucks
- Beleaguered Childhood Friend: Nandi
- Berserk Button: A handy list of things that will make you want to leave this room:
- Don't insult Serenity in front of Kaylee. Just don't.
- Don't shoot Simon. That makes River angry.
- Oh, and don't do anything to put River in danger, or Simon will kick your ass. Hard.
- And while you're at it, don't threaten any of Mal's crew. Even if you happen to be a member of said crew.
- Also a very very bad idea to mention the battle of Serenity Valley with any negative connotation in front of Zoë or Mal.
- And in an inversion, don't cut down Mal in front of Zoe for anything related to Serenity Valley. She will go cold-eyed Death Glare on you.
- Don't do anything bad to Inara around Mal. Only he gets to insult her.
- Don't hurt Kaylee in front of Jayne. If you do, hope like hell there's a Shepherd nearby to bail you out.
- Becoming The Mask: Supposedly Joss Whedon let it slip in an interview that Derrial Book was not Shepherd's real name, but rather he had taken the identity of a man he had killed [2]
- Better On DVD
- Beware The Nice Ones: Especially when errant commercials for Fruity Oaty Bars come on.
- The Bible: Just don't try to fix it. Also, it's got some surprising Fetish Fuel... at least if you get Saffron to read it.
- Big Damn Gunship: Repeatedly
- Repeatedly subverted, that is. As Jayne points out in "The Train Job," Serenity doesn't have any guns.
- They carry Jayne. That's
close enough even better.
- Don't forget the Kzinti Lesson: Any ship with enough thrust to make orbit, let alone break orbit, can easily clear a clifftop of a few barroom brawlers and bars. And the town around those bars. Of course, there's the matter of aiming...
- Big Damn Heroes: The Trope Namer!
"Looks like we got here just in the nick of time. And what does that make us?"
"Aint we just."
- Bi The Way: Inara.
- Blah Blah Blah: "Jabber, jabber, jabber."
- Blessed With Suck: River
- Blind Idiot Translation: Although (according to the DVD,) a translator worked hard to get Chinese slang correct, and the actors studied tape recorders, apparently it was still mangled.
- Possibly justified by the fact that the characters may simply be repeating phrases they've picked up elsewhere, and the vast majority of said phrases are curses, and there's been a few centuries of Memetic Mutation. Not to mention that most of the characters already mangle proper English with their dialects anyway....
- Boisterous Bruiser: Jayne Cobb
- Boom Headshot: Goodbye, Dobson. He Got Better in the comics, though
- Bounty Hunter: Jubal Early from "Objects in Space".
- Break The Cutie: In this case, comes conveniently pre-broken.
- But there are the R. Tam Sessions, and enough flashbacks to see her being broken.
- Bring News Back: In the Big Damn Movie.
- Buffy Speak: ...well, it is a Joss Whedon show.
- Bullet Proof Vest: The Operative is not a moron. Zoe also uses one in the pilot.
- Burn The Witch: River almost has this done to her in "Safe".
- Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie: "The Message"
- Buy Them Off
- Calvinball: Tall Card, the card game played during "Shindig".
- Also the "hoop-ball" game they play at the start of "Bushwhacked."
- Cannibal Clan: The Reavers are based on the legendary Sawney Bean clan.
- Car Fu: The Mule
- The Cast Showoff: In case you didn't know beforehand, "Safe" shows you that Summer Glau is a damn good dancer. Adam Balwin also plays guitar.
- Catch Phrase: Lots of these, including:
- Mal: "You're on my crew."
- Jubal Early: "Does that seem right to you?"
- The Operative: "Do you know what your sin is?"
- River: "Two by two, hands of blue..."
- Wash: "I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
- Kaylee: "Shiny."
- Jayne: "I'll be in my bunk."
- The Chains Of Commanding: "Just... tell me when we get there."
- Not to be cofused with the ruttin' chain of command.
- That's the chain I beat you with until you follow my command, right?
- Chekhovs Gun: Literally in "Our Mrs. Reynolds." He calls it Vera, and in case you don't remember he uses it to disable Saffron's friends' net.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Mal suffers a vicious case of it.
- Color Coded For Your Convenience: The Alliance wears primarily blue and grey to match all their shiny tech. The Browncoats wear, um, brown, red, yellow, and orange, which goes with the Wild West setting. This symbolizes the Alliance's cold modernism versus the Browncoats' heart.
- The Combat Pragmatist: A number of characters — particularly Mal — are willing to fight dirty.
- And other characters, like the Operative, who are not morons.
- The only instance of anyone fighting clean on the show was Mal's duel with Atherton Wing.
- Actually... it started clean, but knowing Mal...
- Actually that was the only time fighting clean was really an option.
- Coming In Hot: Serenity crash-landing in The Movie after being disabled by an EMP weapon.
- Command Roster:
- Companion Cube: "I call it Vera."
- Complete Monster: Jubal Early. The Reavers might qualify, being Always Chaotic Evil.
- Although he characterizes himself this way, the Operative isn't truly a complete monster: he only used what he thought was the minimum necessary force to obtain his objectives, and he was genuinely remorseful about all the collateral damage. Didn't stop him from swatting the next fly with a sledgehammer, though.
- Cool Old Guy: One rescues Kaylee from The Libby in "Shindig".
"Nice dress - it must have taken a dozen slaves a month to get you into it. 'Course, your daddy tells me it takes the space of a schoolboy's wink to get you out of it..."
- Cool Starship: Serenity is one of the "rustbucket" variety. The gigantic flying wrecks of the Reaver ships are also ...quite a sight to behold.
- Nothing says hubris like the Alliance's "flying city block" design.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Blue Sun is hinted at being behind the Academy.
- Covert Pervert: Both Kaylee and River like to watch.
- Crosses The Line Twice: included in the blooper reel for the Big Damn Movie is an extra take of the shot in which Mal orders his crew to mask their ship as a Reaver's. The original scene is very nearly a Kick The Dog scene, but the moment Mal's improvised orders change from the script is the moment that he takes the line and guts it with a screwdriver.
"Put Book front and center; he's our friend, we should honor him. Kaylee, find that kid who's taking a dirt-nap with baby Jesus — we need a hood ornament. Jayne! Try not to steal too much of their shit!"
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: easily at least one per episode; the Big Damn Movie is riddled with them. Both have their own pages.
- Crowning Moment Of Funny: see above
- Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming: see above
- Cruel Mercy
- Cult Classic
- Curb Stomp Battle: River, completely, totally, utterly obliterating the Reavers by herself.
- Curse Of The Ancients: All the swearing that isn't done in "Mandarin"(-ish) has an Old West feel to it. Gorramit.
- The Cutie: Kaylee and River
- A Date With Rosie Palms: Referred to repeatedly
- Dead Man Writing: Played with in "The Message".
- Deadpan Snarker: Everyone but Kaylee. Yes, even Jayne.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Shepherd Book
- Death Glare: Zoe to Jayne, in The Movie: "You want to leave this room."
- Zoe to Mal in Shindig. Zoe to Wash... frequently. Hell, just Zoe.
- Death Ray: The Hands of Blue's creepy supersonic weapon.
- Depraved Bisexual: Saffron, or whatever the hell her name actually is. Maybe.
- Well, maybe bisexual. Certainly depraved.
- Derelict Graveyard: The Reaver ships around Miranda, as well as the ruined ships in the first comic series.
- Determinator Mal, who doesn't let little things like swords in his stomach or being tortured to death get in the way.
- Simon has more then a little of this in him. Nothing is going to keep him from taking care of his baby sister.
- Despair Event Horizon: Mal crosses this at the battle of Serenity Valley. The Operative crosses when he learns the Alliance made the Reavers.
- Deus Ex Machina: At the end of the Big Damn Movie, but a well-done type four.
- Distressed Damsel: River, constantly, as well as Kaylee. Joss Whedon was once heard to say that whenever they felt they needed to up the drama, they'd just have someone hold the cute engineer at gunpoint.
- Double Caper: "The Train Job"
- Dual Wielding: River
- Dying Alone
- Dynamic Entry: "Serenity" (pilot episode): "Anyone so much as moves-"
- Ear Worm: The title theme is the first example listed under Live Action TV on that page for a reason.
- Not to mention the Fruity Oaty Bars jingle.
- The Ballad Of Jayne Cobb. C'mon, admit it, you're singing it right now, aren't you? Well, WHY NOT?
- "The hero of Canton, the man they call Jaaaaaaaaaayne!" GORRAMMIT THIS HAS BEEN IN MY HEAD FOR WEEKS!
- Earn Your Happy Ending: It says something when this series' ending is one of the more positive ones Joss Whedon wrote.
- Earth That Was: Trope Namer
- Ensemble Darkhorse: River, who went to being one of the two leads in The Movie, and is one of the more memorable, iconic, and popular characters of the show.
- In all fairness, she can kill you with her brain. Of course she's going to be popular.
- Environmental Symbolism
- Epic Hail: The final act of Serenity is nothing but this.
- Also the Button in "Trash" probably counts.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Jayne's "cunning" hat, Jubal Early.
- Evil Is Sexy: Saffron, though she was sexy even before the audience learned she was evil.
- Evilly Affable: Jubal Early
- Evil Redhead: Saffron, again.
- Executive Meddling: Lots; see the article
- Expanded Universe: The Movie, the comics, online clips and games.
- Eyepatch Of Power: Dobson, in Those Left Behind.
- Fan Service: Unsurprisingly large amounts of it, too....
- Faux Death: River and Simon in "Ariel", Tracy in "The Message".
- Fetal Position Rebirth: River
- Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Most of the cast, male or female. Serenity is clearly a prototype spaceworthy Fetish Fuel Station, no other explanation can fit.
- Finagles Law: Count on it every time.
- Fire Forged Friends: In the Pilot Mal and Simon start off as rivals because of the clash of their respective Papa Wolf instincts. At the end of the Pilot they learn to respect each other and Mal says "you're not weak".
- First Blood: "Out of Gas"
- Floating Continents: The estates on Bellerophon.
- Fluffy The Terrible: The two most dangerous people on the boat have the gentle, unassuming names of Jayne and River.
- Foe Yay: Mal and Saffron have heaps of this, as do the Tam siblings with Jayne. Jubal Early has a subtle yet extremely squicky one-way version of this toward River.
- Food Pills: The ration bars from the "Serenity" episode.
- Foot Focus: The 11th character.
- Foreign Cuss Word: The Mangled Mandarin swearing.
- Former Teen Rebel: Book, maybe.
- Friday Night Death Slot: Friday at 8 PM was not a good idea for a show that features the hero shooting first, kicking people into engines, and flirt-bickering with a well-educated, beautiful, classy... prostitute.
- Funny Afro: Book lets his hair
down up out once. Once.
- Fun T Shirt: Jayne has loads of them.
- Geeky Turn On: Kaylee in "Shindig", managing to woo several gentlemen with her tech savvy.
- Gender Blender Name: Because "The Hero of Canton, the man they call Fred" just wouldn't have the same zing.
- Genre Savvy: Abso-gorram-lutely everyone.
- Ghost Planet: Miranda
- Ghost Ship: "Bushwhacked"
- Girl In A Box: River, in what is considered by some a Shout Out to Outlaw Star.
- Girl On Girl Is Hot: Five words: "I'll be in my bunk."
- Gone Horribly Wrong: What happened on Miranda in the Big Damn Movie
- Gone Horribly Right: Miranda in the Big Damn Movie
- Good Is Not Nice: Mal and most of the rest of the crew of Serenity are generally altruistic. That doesn't make them nice guys, however, as fellows like Crow and Rance Burgess would attest.
- Good Looking Privates: "Because we are so very pretty."
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Subverted in that every time Mal goes up against a competent enemy, he loses.
- Except the swordfight, and the second time he fights the Operative, but he wasn't using fisticuffs either time, he was using whatever he could.
- Good People Have Good Sex: Wash and Zoe
- Good Shepherd: Who will shoot you in the kneecaps and chop off your killer robots' heads with a giant curved machete.
- The Government: Alliance
- Government Conspiracy: Blue Hands — possibly a private sector conspiracy by Blue Sun, but with definite government involvement.
- Government Drug Enforcement The Paxilon-23 introduced to the atmosphere of Miranda, to keep the populace quiet and non-violent. It ended up killing most of the populace and turning the rest into Reavers. Whoops.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: The Mandarin-ish and Cantonese-oid phrases scattered through the dialogue, often as family-friendly swearwords.
- Guns Akimbo: Zoe and Jayne during "War Stories".
- Hacker Cave: Mister Universe's home.
- Hannibal Lecture: Inverted, when River gives one to Jubal Early.
- Heart Of Darkness: Miranda from the Big Damn Movie.
- Heroic BSOD: A good number, including River throughout most of the series, and Mal is arguably still recovering from the one at the end of the battle for Serenity Valley. On a lighter note, however, is the absolutely hilarious look of shock on his face right before the title sequence in Our Mrs Reynolds, after Saffron explains the situation to him.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted by River in the Big Damn Movie; see the main page for details.
- Played straight with Simon in what amounts to a lingering Heroic Sacrifice through the entire series and movie when he gives up status and fortune and lives with outlaws, so he can rescue and comfort his sister.
- Heroic Sociopath: Jayne Cobb
- Hidden Depths: Jayne Cobb, who is just about the last person on Serenity's crew that you would expect to play guitar.
- Simon you wouldn't count on being a criminal mastermind, Book you wouldn't count on being a Badass Preacher and River you wouldn't count on being a death machine.
- High Class Call Girl
- Hooker With A Heart Of Gold: Inara, to name one.
- Hell, they have an entire whorehouse named "Heart of Gold"
- Hot Amazon: "Have you ever been with a warrior woman?"
- Honor Before Reason: The show practically runs on this.
- Though Jayne often plays a Sancho Panza role, sometimes to an extreme degree.
- How We Got Here: "Out of Gas," on two levels: one showing how Mal came to be the captain of Serenity, and the other showing how the ship got, well, out of gas.
- The R. Tam sessions also.
- "Trash", or, "How Mal Got Naked".
- Ho Yay - Mal and Jayne sure made a convincing fake married couple (with Mal as the "wife", even)...
- Human Shield: Bluntly subverted by Mal.
- Humans Are Flawed
- I Am Not Shazam: Firefly is the name of the class of ship, not the ship itself. "Serenity" is the name of the ship, the first(ish) episode and The Movie.
- I Call It Vera: Trope Namer
- I Cannot Self Terminate:"Put a bullet in me! Bullet in the brainpan, squish!"
- I Did What I Had To Do: The Operative.
- I Have Many Names: YoSaffBridge
- I Just Shot Marvin In The Face: Kaylee getting shot by Dobson in the pilot.
- I Just Want To Be Normal: River
- I Know That Gun: The Alliance wield, among other things, the British L85A2 assault rifle, better known as the SA80-2; Jayne uses the distinctive LeMat revolver; the Independents use H&K G36s.
- I Know What We Can Do Cut: For team heists.
- Ill Girl: River, of course.
- Im A Humanitarian: One of the things the Reavers do to their victims.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Both played straight and subverted; mooks are both horrible shots in general and at the same time get really, really good hits in.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Did Zoe just shoot a man's gun out of his hand... from a hundred meters off... from the hip? Not to mention River's deadly accuracy with her eyes closed. Also, Jayne manages to shoot a tiny target from many hundreds of yards away while his gun is encased in a space suit. He can't even hold it properly and he still gets a bull's eye.
- Indy Ploy
- In Medias Res
- I Never Said It Was Poison
- Internet Backdraft: Gosh, it sure is weird that there aren't any obvious Asians in the lead cast or featured ro-OH SWEET MERCY THE FLAMES!
- Intrepid Merchant: Mal and his crew have elements of this, though profit seems hard to come by...
- It Was His Sled: Good luck watching the episodes unspoilered. In fact, you shouldn't even have scrolled this far down the page.
- I Will Find You (Simon finding River).
- Jittercam: Including CGI scenes.
- Jumped At The Call: Simon's rescue of River.
- Karma Houdini: Adelei Niska.
- The Kirk: Mal, who often ended up having to choose between
nearly irreconcilably different options.
- The Plot Reaper: In "Heart of Gold," Mal makes Inara jealous by having sex with Nandi, but it's ok because the very next day Nandi gets shot in the chest and dies.
- Kick The Dog: Everyone who harms or seriously threatens Kaylee dies. Which is as it should be.
- To a lesser extent, anyone who hurts her feelings or otherwise takes the smile off her face gets the antipathy of the audience, and pays for it in some measure of guilt and/or pain later in the episode.
- Killed Mid Sentence: Mal does this to Dobson, later it happens to Wash in Serenity.
- Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Handheld lasers exist but are very expensive and run out of power quickly. The sound effects used for the guns seem more appropriate for energy weapons, but there's no visible beam, and bullets are occasionally shown being loaded into guns — and taken out of people.
- Most of the guns, while looking old fashion, are actually air cannons using high pressures instead of gun powder. Hence the different sound. Mal uses one of the only gunpowder based guns (his trusty revolver). All There In The Manual, or is it Fanon?
- Kiss Of Death: Saffron's "goodnight kiss," which knocks out those on whom it is used — or those who kiss those on whom it was used.
- Knight Errant: Mal.
- Knight In Sour Armor: Also Mal.
- Knight Templar: The Operative
- Lady For A Day: "Shindig". Kaylee was doing this from the beginning, and Mal went along once he saw Inara was there.
- Lady Of War: Zoe.
- Lampshade Hanging: Double subverted in "Objects in Space".
Wash: "Psychic though? That sounds like something out of science fiction!"
Zoe: "You live in a spaceship dear."
- La Resistance: The Independents. Subverted in that they
lose get curb-stomped, the Alliance recovers, and life goes on.
- Last Stand: The Battle of Serenity Valley.
- Large Ham: Niska + scenery = nom nom nom....
- The Last Thing You Ever See: Very, very subverted. Magnificently so.
- Layman's Terms: "I need that in Captain Dummy Talk, Kaylee."
- Lens Flare: Intentionally on Whedon's part.
- Lets Get Dangerous: The Alliance had no idea what they set loose when they triggered River's implanted Waif Fu.
- Made From Real Girl Scouts: A fast food stand in the intended-pilot is selling "good dogs" — they are not pork sausages in a finger roll with optional onions and mustard.
- Madness Mantra: "Two by two, hands of blue..."
- The Mafiya: Niska
- Magical Negro: Subverted, the other characters rarely if ever listen to Book's advice.
- Mama Bear: Do not mess with Serenity's crew. Both Zoe and River take issue with it.
- Papa Wolf: The same holds true for Mal, Simon, and even Jayne when Kaylee is threatened.
- Manchurian Agent: River
- Manipulative Bastard: Jubal Early, and, according to some fan theories, Jayne.
- And according to others, Simon.
- Master Of Delusion: "Our Mrs. Reynolds" — "I knew you let her kiss you."
- Memetic Mutation: "I'll be in my bunk.", "Also? I can kill you with my brain.", "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!", "My food is problematic", "Big damn heroes, sir!" Etc., etc.
- Mercy Kill: For anyone taken by the Reavers
- Mexican Standoff: A regular feature. The pilot alone has multiple examples... including several in the same scene.
- Mind Rape: Whatever the Academy did to River, she didn't turn out very well.
- Missed Moment Of Awesome: Done deliberately, for laughs. And it works.
- Mission Control: Wash and Kaylee as well as River in "Objects in Space".
- Moe: Kaylee and River, deliberately.
- Mood Lighting: "Out of Gas" flashbacks.
- Mook Face Turn: How Jayne was recruited.
- Morality Pet: Kaylee to Mal and Jayne.
- Nice Hat: Jayne gets one for one episode, complete with the comment by Simon.
- What about the one he briefly wore in "The Train Job"? Joss and Minnear even lampshaded it in the commentary.
- "I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you."
- And Badger's "very fine hat".
- Finest part of Badger, definitely.
- Also inverted with Two-Fry in the pilot, though he does get the comment from Mal.
- Which was Jayne's cue to blow his brains out, So Yeah. Though it was a nice hat.
- The Big Damn Movie: Serenity
- Ms. Fixit: Kaylee
- Mr Vice Guy: Mal.
- Mutant Enemy: "Grr. Arg."
- Mysterious Waif: River
- Mysterious Past: Book, and to a lesser extent River.
- The Napoleon: Badger
- Nakama: Serenity's crew. Mal will protect everyone on his ship and will punish anyone on his ship for harming anyone else.
- Naked On Arrival: River, in the pilot.
- Neck Snap: Jayne does this to a Fed in "Ariel".
- Nerds Are Sexy: Both Simon and Kaylee.
- Neutral Female: Subverted in The Movie.
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: River in "Out of Gas".
- Noble Fugitive: Simon and River
- No Womans Land: "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
- No Yay: Jubal Early's...disturbing...comments regarding River.
- Offhand Backhand: River, in the comic.
- Oh Crap: "Target the Reavers! Target the Reavers! Target everyone! SOMEBODY FIRE!"
- There's another one when Inara meets the Operative. She's very good at reading and controlling body language, so the way her smile fades before he even said anything speaks volumes.
- The Ojou: Inara. While prostitutes are looked down on in our culture, in The Verse a Companion is socially high-status, to the point where her presence grants the crew some respectability. She's also the most educated, classy, graceful and well-dressed member of the crew.
- Old Friend: Mal's pal Monty in "Trash", Inara's Companion companion Nandi in "Heart Of Gold".
- One Waif Army
- One Woman Wail: A vaguely Indian version, at the beginning of "Heart of Gold".
- Only A Flesh Wound: In the movie when Mal gets stabbed, though having Alliance medical care available soon after may make it somewhat less applicable. In all other cases, averted.
- The Ophelia: River, of course. "Two by two, hands of blue..."
- The Other Marty: Rebecca Gayhart as Inara
- Our Founder: The statue of Jayne Cobb. Not quite it, but similar in spirit.
- Pass The Popcorn: In The Movie, when Mal calls Inara.
- Peek A Boo: The ending to "Trash" with Mal strutting about naked in the cargo hold, along with Inara's sponge bath and River's emergence from the cryo box in the pilot.
- The Pen Is Mightier: From the online clips; "I'll have to write it down..."
- Perpetual Poverty: Lampshaded in the second comic miniseries ("Better Days").
- Pet The Dog: Jayne has these moments, and while Mal starts off as a mean bastard in the pilot, by the end he's shown to be somewhat softer than he lets on.
- Photographic Memory: River in general but especially at the end of "War Stories".
- Pimped Out Dress: "Shindig" had plenty, including Kaylee's dress. Inara's was a more subdued fancy dress, but a lot of her outfits otherwise fit this trope.
- Pistol Whipping: Zoe seems to favor rifle-whipping.
- Playing With A Trope
- Playing With Syringes: River at the academy.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Rance Burgess is the most obvious case, although there are others that arguably have shades of this.
- The Poseidon Adventure: "Out of Gas"
- Pow Zap Wham Cam: Used when River "scans" the occupants of the trader outpost in The Movie.
- The President's Daughter: River
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "My turn."
"She always did love to dance..."
"You know what your sin is..."
"I'm a fan of all seven."
- Pressure Points: Used by the Operative in Serenity.
- Psychic Powers: River
- Psycho For Hire: Jubal Early
- Put Down Your Gun And Step Away: Awesomely subverted
- Quick Nip: Jayne in The Movie
- Quote Overdosed: It's very quotable. You can't stop with just one.
- Ragtag Bunch Of Misfits
- Ready For Lovemaking: "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
- The Red Sonja: Saffron briefly pretends to be one of these in "Our Mrs Reynolds" — it doesn't work.
- Relationship Upgrade: Simon/Kaylee, at the end of Serenity.
- The Remnant: The Dust Devils in the comic book.
- Rock Beats Laser: Though laser weapons exist, simple projectile weapons are generally preferred for practical reasons.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Subverted
- The Sadistic Choice: Awesomely subverted
- Sarcastic Devotee: Jayne
- Salvage Pirates: In the episode "Out of Gas", Serenity suffers a Phlebotinum Breakdown and is left drifting in space with no power or life support. The crew of the salvage ship that seems to arrive in the nick of time decides there's more profit in shooting Mal and stealing his ship than in trading for the one part needed to fix the ship. In a couple of other episodes, notably "Bushwhacked", the crew of Serenity is accused of trying to pull this on other ships, but the crew never actually abandons anyone and does actually try to save the only survivor they find.
- Saved by the Fans ressurected for full length movie by dedicated fanbase
- Scary Black Man - Jubal Early. (Book is scary and, of course, no less black with his hair down, but not like that.)
- Raped To Death, Had Its Flesh Eaten And Its Skin Sewn Into Clothing by the Network: And not in that order either.
- Schizo Tech: Justified, the just-settled Outer Planets have no infrastructures or industries built yet, and the Alliance apparently likes to keep it that way.
- School For Scheming: The Academy
- Science Fiction
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: River occasionally. Possibly Simon.
- Sex As Rite-Of-Passage: Explored in "Jaynestown"
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Kaylee in "Shindig". Not that she wasn't plenty nice before that. "No, especially when you're covered in engine grease."
- She Knows Too Much: The reason the Operative is sent after River in the Big Damn Movie.
- Shell Shocked Senior: Mal
- Shirtless Scene: Simon in "Objects in Space". And as said above, Mal has a shirt-pants-shoes-and-sockless scene in "Trash". Joss said he was thanked heartily by many female viewers for the former. Jayne gets shirtless at the beginning of 'Jaynestown'.
- Both Mal and Simon get this again in Serenity.
- Shoot The Rope: Mal does this in Serenity.
- Shower Scene: Inara's sponge bath in the pilot episode "Serenity".
- Shrouded In Myth: Reavers
- Shout Out: Numerous
- The Siege: "Heart of Gold"
- A Simple Plan: Mal has these a lot. And they go wrong with alarming regularity
- Sliding Scale Of Shiny Versus Gritty
- Sniff Sniff Nom: Jubal Early in Objects in Space, on Serenity.
- Something They Would Never Say: inverted in the movie: a character doesn't say something they normally would, which tips Mal off.
Mal: Did you see us fight?
Kaylee: No.
Mal: Trap.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The shootout/dancing scene in "Safe".
- Soylent Soy: The processed protein which the crew largely subsists on.
- Space Is Cold: Possibly justified, they're in the Outer Rim.
- Spaceship Girl: subverted by River in "Objects in Space".
- Space Pirates
- Space Western
- Space Cossacks : "Take me out to the black, tell 'em I ain't come'n back"
- Stealth Hi Bye: River. Simon once or twice.
- A Storm Is Coming
- Storming The Castle: The assault on Niska's skyplex in "War Stories".
- Strange Girl: River, obviously.
- Subspace Ansible: Not made explicit, but there are repeated examples of instantaneous real-time communication across long distances.
- Sure Lets Go With That: "I knew you let her kiss you!"
- Survival Mantra: "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar." Savagely subverted when Wash dies in the middle of saying it.
- Tasty Gold
- Talkative Loons: River
- Talk To The Fist: In the pilot.
- Technical Pacifist: Book
Zoe: Preacher, don't the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?
Book: Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.
- This Is Reality: The Operative.
Nothing here is what it seems. He is not the plucky hero. The Alliance is not an evil empire. This is not the grand arena.
- Tired Of Running
- There Are No Therapists: Not that there's any out there that could help much in River's case...
- Thicker Than Water
- This Is Something Hes Got To Do Himself: Subverted hilariously.
- This Is SPARTA: "WHERE! IS MY! SPACESHIP!"
- This Means War: Ask Niska about it. Oh, wait, you can't.
- Those Two Bad Guys: The Hands of Blue.
- Through His Stomach: "Wife soup!"
- Thrown Out The Airlock: Jayne almost suffers this fate in "Ariel".
- Token Evil Teammate: Jayne Cobb
- Way Too Fucking Good To Last, Especially on goddamn Fox.
- Train Job: The Trope Namer
- Tranquil Fury: River's battle against the Reavers in the Big Damn Movie.
- Trigger Happy: Jayne
- Trigger Phrase: River, and how.
- Trojan Prisoner: "The Train Job"
- Trope Mobile: The good ship Serenity.
- Trope Overdosed: This is a canceled 14-episode TV series. (Okay, and a film and comic book series, but still.) Look at the size of this page!
- The box set has a listed run time of 675 minutes, and the movie has a run time of 119 — total, 794 minutes. With 1080 wicks at last count on the Trope Overdosed page, this would make this series quite literally run at over a trope a minute.
- Trying To Catch Me Fighting Dirty (Not that you need to try very hard.)
- Tyke Bomb: River
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Or unlimited t-shirts.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Mal and Inara
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: No, it is not your imagination that whenever Mal and Inara get within a foot of each other, electricity shoots out of your screen. It's the UST trying to explode your television/computer.
- Unstoppable Rage: Jayne briefly has one in "Jaynestown" when the mudder takes a bullet for him. In The Movie, River falls into a very calm rage when Simon gets shot.
- Unusual Euphemism: Between the Mildly Mandarin swearing, the use of archaic words like "quim", and various other slang such as "gorram" and "shiny", It's hard to find examples of usual euphemisms on this show.
- Used Future: Justified
- Utopia Justifies The Means: The Operative and the Alliance's goal.
- The Vamp: Saffron
- Victorias Secret Compartment: Zoe
- Villainous Breakdown: "I haven't made you angry, have I?"
- Voice Of The Resistance
- Waif Prophet: River
- Waif Fu: River in the movie.
- Wall Of Weapons: Jayne's bunk.
-
Walking The Earth Flying The Space ..."It's enough."
- Warrior Poet: unconfirmed speculation about Shepherd Book; the comics spinoff supports this idea.
- Well Intentioned Extremist: The Alliance
- We Will Meet Again: So very subverted.
- What You Are In The Dark: Nobody but Simon would have known if he had abandoned River. Not even River herself.
- The Woobie: Both River and Simon.
- World Of Cardboard Speech: Simon gets one talking to Jayne in "Trash". River gets one in Serenity.
- Wrap It Up
- Wrench Wench: Kaylee
- You Cant Go Home Again: Mal, Simon, and River.
- You Must Be Cold: Monkeywrenched in the pilot.
- You Rebel Scum: From most Alliance officials.
- You Shall Not Pass: "My turn."
- Yum Yum: Two Words: Kaylee. Strawberries. Particularly in the unaired-pilot version.
And notably avoided:
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