Firefly Wars , battle of Serenity - What Period is it like ?

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UPDATED: Sunday, August 2, 2026 02:45
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FARSCAPEPKWARS

Wednesday, January 12, 2005 5:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DirtyBrowncoat:
Quote:
- one faction seeking independence, the other an oppressive government not willing to let go of the citizens who want to be free.

Just want to mention, that watching all but the final three episodes on the DVD, I've gathered that the Alliance wasn't in power until they won the war. The Independence, as it was called, wasn't a faction of people who wanted to break free of the Alliance, it was the Alliance that was moving in on the Independence, trying to bring all the central planets under one rule.

Just how I interpreted it.

Simon: You...you came for us.
Mal: You're on my crew.
Simon: Right. I guess I just didn't...you don't even like me.
Mal: You're on my crew. Why we still talking about this?
-Safe

Indeed, it hard to compare it with a period of time from Earth or earth-that-was

inspiration from the USA's civil war and the battle of independence against British rule plays a part. The battle with Confederate southern states and the forming of a coallition, we see it is clearly and obviously modeled after this time and the USA's rebelion against the British Empire.
But as clearly stated by others there may be other key insprations such as other periods and wars around the world, Totalitarian rulerships, dicator regimes, the Korean War, the British Empire or Vietnam, and perhaps WW2 and the Soveits. On this ocassion the Rebels were crushed so it may remind us of a period of Russian rulership like when Soviet tanks went into Hungary in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising, 2,500 Russian tanks put down the locals who were trying to get away from the USSR, many executions followed. There are perhaps two periods in the wars of Serenity, the first battles and initals war which remind us of the US civil war or the USA's
battle against the Empire and then the later effects which might remind us of people who ruled in totalitarian regimes, other Empires or the soviet Alliance or perhaps other rulers and dictators around the globe in our history.

OLDFAN45

Sunday, January 16, 2005 9:48 PM

The Killer Angels is an inspiration, not a straitjacket...and Serenity Valley doesn't seem to me like Gettysburg but instead the Battle of the Wilderness. The whole Soviet Empire/Hungary comparo falls well on my ears. Any idea how far removed we are from Earth-that-was when that battle happens? I can't recall ever wonedring that before now. Embarrassing.

JAYNEZTOWN

Thursday, January 20, 2005 6:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by oldfan45:
The Killer Angels is an inspiration, not a straitjacket...and Serenity Valley doesn't seem to me like Gettysburg but instead the Battle of the Wilderness. The whole Soviet Empire/Hungary comparo falls well on my ears. Any idea how far removed we are from Earth-that-was when that battle happens? I can't recall ever wonedring that before now. Embarrassing.

good point there, when did Earth that was happen ?

OLDFAN45

Thursday, January 20, 2005 9:25 PM

Okay, I never went and looked for the info before, and I should have. We're only 500 years in the future, which I now have firmly committed to memory.

YT

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 7:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BrownCoat1:
Quote:
Originally posted by DirtyBrowncoat:
Just want to mention, that watching all but the final three episodes on the DVD, I've gathered that the Alliance wasn't in power until they won the war. The Independence, as it was called, wasn't a faction of people who wanted to break free of the Alliance, it was the Alliance that was moving in on the Independence, trying to bring all the central planets under one rule.

Just how I interpreted it.

Odd. That is not the impression I got at all.

From what we have seen and read, the Alliance seems to have originated on Earth that was and that same government was behind the exodus to the stars when Earth became all but uninhabitable. Of course when they set up the Core worlds the Alliance is firmly in control.

What I surmised from the series is that the worlds out on the Rim got tired of paying taxes to a government back in the Core that did very little to improve their lot in life or the quality of said life. They opted for self rule and a break from the Alliance (sounds a bit like the Colonies break w/ England, no?). When the Alliance caught wind of this movement for independence, they were quick to send in troops, hence the war.

These may both be correct. Just gimme a sec:

Before the war, I think the Alliance had very little impact on the outer planets, beyond say a permanent recruiting drive for the high-risk job of tax collector. Still it seems not unreasonable that the situation may be analogous to that of the United States in the mid-nineteenth century AD, or Europe @the turn of the millenium:
A bunch of bureaucrats & professional politicians in Washington DC, or Paris & Bruxelles, think they're in charge of every state under their purview and all the people therein,
while many (if not most) of those people believe themselves citizens of separate sovereign states who have ageed to abide by the rules of a federation, to secure to themselves (& perhaps their posterity) the fruits of their labour, safe & convenient travel, more profitable trade, etc and will continue to do so as long as the government of their sovereign state agrees it is to their net benefit.

To make a short story short (eliminating the long preamble, above), I think the Independents saw it DirtyBrowncoat's way, whereas the Alliance view was a more flattering to them (20th century US gov't re 19th century US Federal) version of BrownCoat1's.

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: String Cheese Incident, "Rollover", from "Outside Inside"

YT

Thursday, February 10, 2005 10:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Tiger:
The war in the Firefly verse is definitely most similar to the American civil war, with two important differences:

1. It doesn't appear that slavery is unique to one side or the other in the conflict,

This is not a difference; there was slavery in the Union throughout the war. The slaves in the North were freed later than those in the South.

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: Allman Bro's, "Bougaivillea" & "Revival", from "Dreams"

BROWNCOAT1

Friday, February 11, 2005 3:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by YT:
This is not a difference; there was slavery in the Union throughout the war. The slaves in the North were freed later than those in the South.

Very true YT, and a little known fact since it is conspicuously absent from history books in schools today.

__________________________________________

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Richmond, VA & surrounding area Firefly Meet Up:
http://firefly.meetup.com/9/boards/

THIEFJEHAT

Friday, February 11, 2005 5:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Tiger:

My comparison with the war in Firelfy was meant to demonstrate that as far as we know, slavery exists in the verse, but there's no indication that it had any part to play in the war.

Evidence suggests that slavery, while not being a central issue in the war of unification, played a small role nonetheless. We know that slavers pick up folk on rim worlds and drop them in terraforming crews. Also terraforming crews have a "prodigious death rate" per the conversation with the slaver during the pool game.

Joss is a big fan of certain storytelling devices, one being the juxtaposition. During the Civil War, slavery was one of many many issues leading to agression, with the condederate states supporting it and the Union opposing. During the war for the unification of the Anglo-Signo Alliance I found it interesting that it's plausible that the roles were reversed with the Independance(condeferates) fighting for personal freedoms and the Alliance(Union) fighting to impose it's will on the rim worlds. Honestly, if I was a slaver in this future I'd snatch folk from rim worlds. Thievery of humanity in the core would surely not go unpunished. I also heard a rumor that the line "Take my love" at the start of the theme is Mal lamenting the slavery imposed on a teenage wife/lover who was taken prior to the war during Mal's youth and someone he never saw again. This is, of course, only a speculation.

I don't believe the unification was was fought over slavery. I believe it was fought over oppression, of which slavery was a variable.

REAVERMADNESS

Friday, February 11, 2005 5:24 PM

It has to be the War of Northern Aggression given the state of the parallels in the show.

1) People say "folks" and a lot of American western and southern slang and accents.

2) The "western feel" of the show corrosponds to the period after the War of Northern Aggression. This includes the majority of the weapons used and the town settings.

3) The attitude of the purple bellies are the same as that of the yankess after the war.

My two cents are up.

THIEFJEHAT

Friday, February 11, 2005 6:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by ReaverMadness:
It has to be the War of Northern Aggression

Reavermadness, you must be south of the mason-dixon. Here in Indiana folks call it the civil war but when I visit friends in Virgina they always correct me.

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