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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.

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.
• 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 TV series is available on Hulu, if you're interested (which you should be).

---

This show provides examples of:

• Absent Aliens
• Accidental Hero ("Jaynestown")
• Accidental Marriage ("Our Mrs. Reynolds")
• 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.)
• Anyone Can Die (in The Movie, Book and Wash)
• Apocalyptic Log (given by the scientist on Miranda in The Movie)
• Arc Words ("Two by two, hands of blue..." Also, the Blue Sun corporation crops up a lot.)
• Atop A Mountain Of Corpses
• 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.)
• Automatically Violent (the Reavers)
• 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, assuming that wasn't Psychic Powers at work. In The Movie she learns to fly Serenity the same way.)
• 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 Bookworm (Simon, when River is threatened)
  • Badass Normal (practically the entire crew)
  • Badass Longcoat (Mal)
  • Crouching Moron Hidden Badass (River and Simon; River doesn't spend much time crouching in the Big Damn Movie however.)
  • Retired Badass (Shepherd Book)
  • Took A Level In Badass (River)
  • Badass Preacher (Book)
• Badass Boast
• Bad Boss (Adelai Niska)
• 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".)
• 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.
• 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 [1])
• 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.)
• Bi The Way (Inara)
• 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.
• Big Damn Heroes (the Trope Namer!)
• Blah Blah Blah ("Jabber, jabber, jabber.")
• Blessed With Suck (River)
• Blind Idiot Translation (A lot of the Chinese lines are basically common English phrases computer translated into Chinese and are therefore completely nonsensical.)
  • 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. Not to mention that most of the characters already mangle proper English with their dialects anyway....
• Boisterous Bruiser (Jayne Cobb)
• Boom Headshot (Goodbye, Dobson.)
• Bounty Hunter (Jubal Early from "Objects in Space")
• Break The Cutie (In this case, comes conveniently pre-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".)
• Cannibal Clan (the Reavers are based on the legendary Sawney Bean clan)
• The Captain (Mal)
• Car Fu (the Mule)
• The Cast Showoff (In case you didn't know beforehand, "Safe" shows you that Summer Glau is 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?"
  • Jayne Cobb: "I'll be in my bunk."
  • 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."
• Chivalrous Pervert: it grates to use "chivalrous" and his name in the same sentence but... Jayne Cobb.
• The Chains Of Commanding ("Just....tell me when we get there.")
  • Not to be cofused with the ruttin' chain of command.
• 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.
• Coming In Hot: Serenity crash-landing in The Movie after being disabled by an EMP weapon.
• Companion Cube: "I call it Vera."
• Complete Monster: The Reavers.
  • And arguably Jubal Early. The operative wasn't a complete complete monster, though, as 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 Starship: Serenity is one of the "rustbucket" variety. The gigantic flying wrecks of the Reaver ships are also ...quite a sight to behold.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Blue Sun is hinted at being behind the Academy.
• Covert Pervert: both Kaylee and River like to watch.
• 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" has an Old West feel to it. Gorramit.
• The Cutie: Kaylee and River
• A Date With Rosie Palms (referred to repeatedly)
  • I'll be in my bunk.
• Dead Man Writing (Played with in "The Message".)
• Dead Person Impersonation (Shepherd Book)
• Death Glare: Zoe to Jayne, in The Movie: "You want to leave this room."
• Death Ray: The Hands of Blue's bleeding 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)
• 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?
• 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)
• 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)
• 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 (surprisingly large amounts of it, too....)
• Faux Death (River and Simon in "Ariel", Tracy in "The Message")
• Fetal Position Rebirth (River)
• Fetish Fuel Station Attendant (between them, the entire female cast)
• Finagles Law (Count on it every time.)
• First Blood ("Out of Gas")
• Floating Continents (the estates on Bellerophon)
• 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.)
• Fun T Shirt (Jayne has loads of them)
• Geeky Turn On (Kaylee in "Shindig", managing to woo several gentlemen with her tech savvy)
  • Not to mention Zoe, at the end of the pilot episode, after Wash loses the Reavers: "Captain, I would like you to take the helm. I need this man to tear all my clothes off."
• Gender Blender Name (Because "The Hero of Canton, the man they call Fred" just wouldn't have the same zing.)
• 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)
• 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 (Shepherd Book)
• 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 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)
• Hooker With A Heart Of Gold (Inara, to name one)
• Hot Amazon ("Have you ever ''been' with a warrior woman?")
• Honor Before Reason (the show practically runs on this)
• How We Got Here ("Out of Gas")
• Human Shield (bluntly subverted by Mal)
• 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 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.)
• Indy Ploy
• In Medias Res (The pilot was shown last)
• I Never Said It Was Poison
• Intrepid Merchant (Mal and his crew have elements of this, though profit seems hard to come by...)
• Jittercam (Including CGI scenes.)
• 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)
• Kavorka Man (Jayne)
• Kick The Dog: Everyone who harms or seriously threatens Kaylee dies. Which is as it should be.
• 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.
• 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 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 and, sort of, River— a Crazy Waif of War)
• Lampshade Hanging (Double subverted in "Objects in Space".)
• 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 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 Jayne.)
• Manchurian Agent (River)
• Manipulative Bastard (Jubal Early, and, according to some fan theories, Jayne)
• Master Of Delusion ("Our Mrs. Reynolds" — "I knew you let her kiss you.")
• Mercy Kill (for anyone taken by the Reavers)
• 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".
• The 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)
• 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")
• 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!")
• 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)
• Pressure Points (Used by the Operative in Serenity.)
• Psychic Powers (River)
• 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
• The Red Sonja (Saffron briefly pretends to be one of these in "Our Mrs Reynolds" — it doesn't work)
• 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.)
• 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")
• 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'.)
• Shoot The Rope (Mal does this in 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)
• 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
• 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.

• Tired Of Running
• There Are No Therapists (not that there's any out there that could help much in River's case...)
• This Is Something Hes Got To Do Himself (subverted hilariously)
• This Is SPARTA ("WHERE! IS MY! SPACESHIP!")
• 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 (Jaybe 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)
• 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.
• 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)
• The Woobie (both River and Simon)
• World Of Cardboard Speech (both Mal and River get one of these)
• 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.")

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And notably avoided:

• Space Is Noisy (instead, it is Mickey Moused)
• Infinite Supplies
• Faster Than Light Travel (according to the manual)
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions (Buddhism and Christianity are still dominant religions)
• Stealth In Space
• Evil Army (Alliance officers are genuinely trying to protect people)

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