History Series / Firefly

** Slightly subverted in one episode, where some scavengers are discussing Serenity. One observes that it is just a hunk of junk, and the other observes that put together, all that junk makes a Firefly, which will keep flying practically forever with even a halfway competent mechanic to keep it going.

* FasterThanLightTravel: Averted, Joss Whedon mentioned there is no faster than light travel in the Firefly-verse and supplemental materials indicate ships in the verse only get up to about 1/3 of light speed through inertial screening and gravity manipulation. This is matter of [[FridgeLogic debate]] when you consider Serenity's maximum range is 400 AU's, 4 times the radius of Earth's solar system, and the amount of time depicted in the series that it takes to travel anywhere.

* FasterThanLightTravel: Averted, Joss Whedon mentioned there is no faster than light travel in the Firefly-verse, though this is matter of [[FridgeLogic debate]] when you consider Serenity's maximum range is 400 AU's, 4 times the width of Earth's solar system, waves can be sent across the 'Verse in real time, and that the 'Verse is comprised of 4 suns that orbit around the primary 5th.

** To be fair, Serenity can actually get up to about a third of light speed using an inertia screening technology and gravity manipulation. In the series, it pretty consistently is shown to take a few hours to go between planets or from a planet to its moon, but it takes about a week to go between the major quadrants (like Blue Sun to Red Sun) and two weeks to cross the entire 400 AU. The main hiccup here is that light takes more like 80 weeks to reach the edge of our solar system (100 AU).

* AccidentalMarriage: "Our Mrs. Reynolds." After a successful mission, Mal celebrates a little too much and does not realise his part in a bizarre wedding ritual. HilarityEnsues.

* CulturEChopSuey: Due to its backstory of America and China being the two first superpowers to colonize space, the Verse is a mishmash of Western and Eastern cultures.

** Invoked in the Pilot when Mal rips the authorisation code off a fallen comrade and then tells one of his squaddies "''You're Lieutenant Baker''" so they can order air support.

* DespairEventHorizon: Mal crosses this at the battle of Serenity Valley, not even blinking when his comrade is blown away beside him when he realises that the Independents have lost. River's dialogue indicates that she crossed it at some point during her time at the Academy. [[spoiler:The Operative crosses when he learns the Alliance made the Reavers.]]

* KickTheDog: Jayne delivers a truly epic one to Simon after finding out he's scared of getting into spacesuits. He claims that Mal needs him to go over to the derelict ship, so he nervously suits up and does so... and then finds [[CrowningMomentOfFunny they already had life support working]]. But what makes it a truly KickTheDog moment is that as the laughter dies down, Kaylee realises Simon had the suit on wrong... meaning that if Jayne had been serious, Simon would have died.

** Initially looks like it's averted in "Jaynestown" when Mal finds Simon and Kaylee fast asleep in a [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming compromising position]]. Simon insists to Mal that nothing untoward happened between them, much to Kaylee's annoyance. However, at the end of the episode, it would appear his memory of events is more shaky than he was letting on: Kaylee starts talking about them making love that night resulting in a startled "When we what...?!" exclamation from him... and then he realises Kaylee's teasing him.

* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Used throughout the series, most often on the actual ship but also in other locations--for example, Badger's den on Persephone, and any of the border planets at night.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The Alliance wears primarily blue and grey to match all their shiny tech. A slur for them is "purple-belly," which refers to the purple tinged armor seen on the footsoldiers. The Browncoats wear, um, brown, red, yellow, and orange, which goes with the Wild West setting. [[RedOniBlueOni This symbolizes the Alliance's cold modernism versus the Browncoats' heart]].

** Best explified in "The Train Job"

* ConvenientlyCoherentThoughts: Played with in "Objects In Space." When River is shown reading the minds of the rest of the crew, their thoughts come in the form of clear sentences. However, in most cases they are non-sequiters or irrelevant to the current situation or conversation. Except for the thoughts River gets when [[DirtyMindReading Zoe and Wash are making out]]; those actually come in the form of crashing ocean waves and other ''sensations'' that cause River to sway and stumble.

* CulturalChopSuey: Due to its backstory of America and China being the two first superpowers to colonize space, the Verse is a mishmash of Western and Eastern cultures.

* DarkReprise: "Jaynestown" ends with a [[CrowningMusicofAwesome very good]] redux of 'the ballad of Jayne Cobb'.

** Invoked in the Pilot when Mal rips the authorisation code off a fallen comrade and then tells one of his squaddies "''You're Lieutenant Baker''" so they can order air-support.

* DespairEventHorizon: Mal crosses this at the battle of Serenity Valley, not even blinking when his comrade is blown away beside him when he realises that the Independent's lost. River's dialogue indicates that she crossed it at some point during her time at the Academy. [[spoiler:The Operative crosses when he learns the Alliance made the Reavers.]]

* EloquentInMyNativeTongue: Although (according to the DVD) a translator worked hard to get Chinese slang correct, and the actors studied tape recorders, it was still mangled in the pronunciation.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Wash's toy's which he is seen playing with in the pilot.
* EroticEating: Kaylee with the strawberries. Particularly in the unaired-pilot version.

* ExtremeMeleeRevenge: Episode 10, "War Stories." Mal is captured by the elderly and sadistic Niska, is brutally tortured via electric schock, has his ear cut off, and is then [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel killed painfully only to be resuscitated for further torture]]. When Mal's crew stages a rescue, Mal overcomes the guard and gives Niska a huge beatdown.

* FasterThanLightTravel: Averted, Joss Whedon mentioned there is no faster than light travel in the Firefly-verse, though this is matter of [[FridgeLogic debate]] when you consider Serenity's maximum range is 400 AU's, 4 times the width of Earth's solar system, Waves can be sent across the 'Verse in real time, and that said 'Verse is comprised of 4 Suns that orbit around the Primary 5th.

** Another episode features a local Baron hiring Inara to "make his son a man."

* BalladOfX: "The Ballad of Jayne Cobb," "The Ballad of Serenity"

* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: One of the Reavers' most sadistic tricks. Sometimes, when they take a ship, they leave one person alive and ''make them watch''. The one time we saw this in-series it resulted in the unfortunate victim trying to become a pseudo-Reaver himself as a coping mechanism.

** Do not do anything to put River in danger, or Simon [[LetsGetDangerous will kick your ass]]. [[BewareTheNiceOnes Hard]].
** Do not threaten any of Mal's crew. Even if you happen to be a member of said crew.

** From the pilot, do ''not'' imply you believe that Mal will work for the Alliance. He will punch you to the ground, Simon.

** [[spoiler: Wash]] in the episode War Stories, for a bit.

* TheChampion: Simon to River.

* ChuckYeager: Wash is a completely different character when flying the ship: normally he is loud and panicky, but at the helm, he is completely calm and collected, no matter what imminent doom might be following him. Well, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness it started out this way]], he got a bit more excitable while flying later on in the series. On the DVD commentary Joss states it was due to the influence of playing a PlayStation another cast-member gave him.

** In "Ariel," Mal says that Book is probably contemplating a rock garden while visiting an abbey. Rock gardens are more characteristic of Eastern religions, especially Zen Buddhism. Mal may have simply been making a joke, but this suggests that the Christianity Book follows has incorporated some elements of Buddhism as well.
** The [[spoiler: funeral]] at the end of Heart of Gold suggests a Christian/Buddhist fusion, including both a cross and eastern-style incense bowls.

* CorralledCosmos: Enforced by reaver territory.

* ReactionlessDrive: The Trace Compression Block engine aboard the Firefly class does not appear to produce any exhaust. From the scant-to-nonexistent mention of their need to take on fuel -- not to mention the apparent lack of fuel storage space seen onboard -- we can probably assume that the main engine generates thrust without the need to throw stuff out the back. (The jet turbines they use in atmosphere are another matter.)

* TropeMobile: The good ship ''Serenity''.

** ** Every person on Serenity to Mal. They each represent some emotional aspect or part of his life he's become dissociated from.

** When listening to how JossWhedon envisaged this show, Mal is also this for River, especially in the film. This does creep out in the episode "Safe". River and Simon have been kidnapped and the crew has abandoned them. The episode is full of flashbacks that their father warned Simon he would never come to Simon's rescue if he got into trouble over River highlighting River's calm belief that their father will be coming to rescue them. At the end of the episode, Mal leads the team in a [[BigDamnHeroes rescue]] of them leaving the viewer to wonder if the 'father' she was referring to was actually Mal.
*** Not really "wonder", she says very specifically, "Daddy's coming" when ''Serenity'''s lights appear.

* FireForgedFriends: In the Pilot Mal and Simon start off as rivals because of the clash of their respective PapaWolf instincts. At the end of the Pilot they learn to respect each other; Mal can think of many unkind things to say about Simon, but he recognizes "you ain't weak."

--->'''Mal:''' "I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you."

--> '''Jayne:''' ''Now we're finishing this deal, and then maybe, maybe we'll come back for those morons... got themselves caught... and you can't change that by getting all... bendy.''

-->'''Mal''': "You wanna run this ship?!"
-->'''Jayne''': "Yes!"
-->'''Mal''': ''[flustered]'' "Well... you can't!"

--> '''Wash''': Psychic though? That sounds like something out of science-fiction.
--> '''Zoe''': You live in a spaceship, dear.
--> '''Wash''': So?

* {{Badass}}: The entire cast. Even Kaylee has her moments.

** [[BadassLongcoat Badass]] [[strike:[[BadassLongcoat Longcoat]]]] [[BadassLongcoat Browncoat]]: Mal and Zoe.

** [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Crouching Crazy Hidden Badass]]: River, who may ''also'' qualify as BadassAdorable.

-->'''Jayne''': You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with 'til ya understand who's in ruttin' command here.

* [=~Chekhov's Gun~=]: Literally in "Our Mrs. Reynolds." [[ICallItVera He calls it Vera]], and in case you do not remember [[spoiler:he uses it to disable Saffron's friends' net]].

-->'''Wash:''' ''All what?''
-->'''Jayne:''' ''You got the light... from the console to keep you... lifting you up... they shine like... <starts grabbing at the air> little angels...''
-->''*THUD*''
-->'''Wash:''' ''Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?''

--> ''Early'': You know, with the exception of one deadly and unpredictable midget, this girl is the smallest cargo I've ever had to transport, yet by far the most troublesome.
--> ''Simon'': What did he do?
--> ''Early'': Who?
--> ''Simon'': The midget.
--> ''Early'': Arson. Little man loved fire.

* [=~This! Is! SPARTA!~=]: "WHERE! IS MY! SPACESHIP!"

* TurbineBlender

* WaifProphet: River.

* [[strike:WalkingTheEarth]] [[WalkingTheEarth Flying The Space]] ... "It's enough."

* Ron Glass as [[TheAtoner Shepherd Derrial Book]], a [[BadassPreacher preacher]] with a {{mysterious past}}.

* BigDamnHeroes (though the name of the BigDamnMovie {{trope}} was apparently coincidence)

* EarthThatUsedToBeBetter (indirectly)

** Also, the elderly gentleman who rescued Kaylee from TheLibby in "Shindig".

** One rescues Kaylee from TheLibby in "Shindig."

* ActorAllusion: The "ICallItVera" scene. AdamBaldwin appeared in ''FullMetalJacket'', in which a character names his rifle "Charlene" and eventually goes crazy.

* PeekABoo: Several episodes show examples of this to cover up nudity including the pilot episode, although none are quite so dramatic or funny as the start and end of the episode "Trash". See trope page for detail.