History Series / Firefly

''Firefly'''s life story is an interesting one: despite its early cancellation, it became a runaway cult hit, the DVD series spawning media including a feature film titled ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' and various comics and books. A full list of media can be found on the [[Franchise/{{Firefly}} Franchise page]].

* BittersweetEnding / DistantFinale: The short story "Take the Sky" included in the ''Firefly: Still Flying'' companion book. Set 20 years after ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', whether it leans towards bitter or sweet depends on which character you focus on. Of course, there is always the chance that [[spoiler: it [[AllJustADream all takes place in Mal's head]] in a split second before he faces the Operative for the final time]], but it is ambiguous enough to speculate on. And there might be foreshadowing.

** In the ''Firefly'' 10th anniversary special "Browncoats Unite", Alan Tudyk recalls sending the button from this episode to Joss Whedon with a note quoting his line (paraphrased): "When your miracle gets here, just push this button to call us back." It turned out that this happened while Joss was fighting for ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' to get the green light.

* FlyingCutlerySpaceship: The Reaver ships in both the series and [[Film/{{Serenity}} the film]] are covered in jagged metal spikes, looking like they were slapped together from scrap metal. The Reavers also enjoy splattering blood like paint on their hulls and stringing half-eaten corpses to their bows.

* InsaneEqualsViolent: The Reavers. River averts it, though the crew thinks this is the case when she slashes Jayne (really going after the Blue Sun logo on his T-shirt). Her sudden assassin-ness in the bar in ''[[Film/{{Serenity}} Serenity]]'' is due to her government conditioning, not her insanity.

* TheMovie: ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', the BigDamnMovie.

* TheWarJustBefore: The Unification War, which ended in an Alliance victory only six years before the series begins. The two cast members who fought for the Independent Faction, Mal and Zoe, are still bitter about it, and the movie ''Film/{{Serenity}}'' and ExpandedUniverse material such as ''ComicBook/SerenityLeavesOnTheWind'' indicate that things may be building up to a revolution.

** Jayne knocks River down when she slashes his chest in ''[[Recap/FireflyE09Ariel Ariel]]'', but since this is a clear-cut case of self-defense and he visibly doesn't use deadlier means that were available to him, no one holds it against him. [[EverybodyHasStandards He may be reluctant to do this]] in less lethal circumstances, since he tries to restrain her with a bear hug instead when she goes berserk in the Maidenhead Bar in [[Film/{{Serenity}} the movie]].

** The whole crew in "Trash". This one also counts as a XanatosGambit, since the crew would have gotten away with it whether [[IHaveManyNames YoSaffBridge]] had turned on Mal or not.

* [[spoiler:LoveInterestTraitor: An episode has Mal being (unintentionally) married to a young woman for a reward. But she turns out to be a con artist, intent on killing the crew (by leaving them to die) and selling their ship. Her appearance in a later episode reveals this to be her standard operating procedure: seduce, steal, leave 'em for dead, repeat...]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: Whedon's script for ''Film/AlienResurrection'' involved an amoral crew of mercenaries and a partially insane woman, subject of mysterious scientific experiments as part of a government weapons project, with preternatural abilities. Sound familiar?

* Jayne asking Book about masturbation when he says his celibacy vow leads him to direct his energy elsewhere.
** And from the movie...
--> '''Kaylee''': Goin' on a year now I ain't had nothin' twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!

* ShipperOnDeck: Most of the crew is gunning for Simon and Kaylee to get together. Especially Mal and Inara.