What do you think ever happened to the Military leaders of the Independents?

POSTED BY: Vorpal
UPDATED: Friday, November 25, 2005 08:25
VIEWED: 15334
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VORPAL

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 4:43 AM

What do you think ever happened to the Military leaders of the Independents?I don't know if this was posted on any previous threads,if it was I apologize for missing it...
Mal seems to have some smuggler friends who were buddies in the war,but mostly he deals with criminals.I realize there weren't many survivors of the Battle of Serenity Valley,and he seemed to be one of the few leaders who survived,even though a Sergeant.Were there war crime trials,executions,life sentences on Penal worlds or did the victorious Alliance magnanimously forgive them in order to make Unification easier?
Are Mal & Zoe bitter about being abandoned by their own Commanders? Are there organizations of Browncoats such as Daughters of the Independents,or Veterans of Wars with the Alliance?

MAL-Arrived just in the nick of time,what does that make us?
ZOE-Big Damn Heroes,Sir.

GREYRAVEN37

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 5:17 AM

I've always wondered this myself. Certainly the members of the High Command of the Independents couldn't just become part of Alliance Society without being marked somehow. It'd probably be pretty hard to make a living on an Alliance controlled planet when you're a leader of a rebellion that has cost millions of lives, left several planets in ruins, and probably cost the established government hundreds of billions to fight off.

"As sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave."

VORPAL

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 5:51 PM

I can't help but compare the situation to the Reconstruction after the US Civil War,since Firefly is kind of based on "Stagecoach". The Southern military leaders were still local powers in their areas.So I would think that there would be Independent Worlds where most of the population would be ex-Independent military,albeit those worlds would have heavy Alliance garrisons,and probably Alliance carpetbaggers running businesses.Mal only once mentions his own homeworld Shadow.What was that world like post-war? Obviously he stays away from it.After the Federal garrisons were pulled out of the American South,things kind of reverted politically.Will this be the case in the Verse?

VORPAL

Jayne-"That's why I don't kiss them on the lips..."

LIMINALOSITY

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 8:57 PM

In the bit where the Operative is watching the security feed from the Maidenhead and clicks on Mal's image to get his ident, the information comes up that Mal was awarded the Medal of Valor for the Battle of Serenity Valley. (I think it was MoV anyway). I was amazed that there was anyone left after Serenity Valley to award anyone anything. Given that there were medals awarded, I doubt the leaders were all imprisoned as war criminals.

Economic and ideological strangulation, that's what I think happened to all of the survivors.

Anyone who started with a plantation (you know, money and property) might have been legally allowed to keep what they had (as long as they were quiet enough), but I'll bet the Alliance used a variety of techniques of economic and social shunning to ruin them and drown any possibility that the Independents could rise again.

Those few who tried to stay loyal to their beliefs would float around on the raggedy edge like Mal and Monty.

Others of lower rank would have either abandoned their beliefs in an effort to fit in, or they would be living (either loudly or quietly) apart, retaining their beliefs within a society they abhor.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Thanks for the opportunity to share them.

"Half of writing history is hiding the truth"

INEVITABLEBETRAYAL

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 9:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by GreyRaven37:
...a leader of a rebellion...

It wasn't a rebellion. The central planets formed the Alliance, then tried to unite all the planets under their rule. These (formerly) free planets banded together to form the Independents with the notion of fighting off Alliance aggression and maintaining freedom of government on their own worlds. They didn't rebel from within the Alliance. They were trying keep the Alliance from taking control of the Independent planets.

_______________________________________________
I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

VORPAL

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 9:17 PM

I'm sure the Alliance considers them rebels.I would imagine that those who colonized the Independent Worlds came from the Alliance Worlds,just as European settled the American Colonies.I know that the US colonies were flag colonies of European powers,whereas that may not have been the case in the Verse,but I'm sure the Alliance looked at them as little backwaters that couldn't possibly survive on their own.So they might not be rebels in a political sense,but culturally and in a mercantile system,financially,the Alliance would see them as such.Besides,History is written by the Victors.

VORPAL

INEVITABLEBETRAYAL

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 9:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Vorpal:
I'm sure the Alliance considers them rebels.I would imagine that those who colonized the Independent Worlds came from the Alliance Worlds,just as European settled the American Colonies.I know that the US colonies were flag colonies of European powers,whereas that may not have been the case in the Verse,but I'm sure the Alliance looked at them as little backwaters that couldn't possibly survive on their own.So they might not be rebels in a political sense,but culturally and in a mercantile system,financially,the Alliance would see them as such.Besides,History is written by the Victors.

VORPAL

That's all well and good.

The American colonists threw off the "yoke of oppression" to gain a freedom they didn't formerly have. The were rebels--revolutionaries, fighting to become free of a currently existing government.

The original teaser intro when Firefly aired painted a somewhat different picture: "Here's how it is: the earth got used up. So we moved out, and terraformed a whole new galaxy of earths; some rich, and flush with the new technologies--some, not so much. The central planets--them as formed the Alliance--fought a war to bring all the planets under their rule. A few idiots fought 'em, among 'em: myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds..." etcetera. In rough chronology: 1) earth used up; 2) move out and terraform; 3) Alliance formed by central planets; 4) war fought. This very clearly shows that the Independents were not rebels, nor insurgents, but were in fact defending their homes from an aggressor. They lost. Oh, shit. But no matter how you spin it, they weren't rebels. I don't give a f

k what the Alliance calls 'em. Only care what they were.

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Editted just for RocketJock.

_______________________________________________
I wish I had a magical wish-granting plank.

VORPAL

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:26 PM

I'm not going to argue over semantics,like the Shepherd message board I looked at last night that went on forever with everyone arguing about the word "called".
InevitableBetrayal is right.They aren't rebels.
I had assumed,and I could be wrong,that the Core planets were vastly technologically superior with large populations.You could compare them with the industrial strength and population of the Union versus the agricultural Confederacy.
I would go further and assume that the Alliance would have taken out any Independent planets with heavy industry,or substantial populations during the war.This still begs the question of what happened to the military leaders of the Independents.
Again,these are assumptions on my part.The Independent planets may have been just as advanced as the Alliance ones,and progressed the same rate technologically.

VORPAL
"We've done the impossible,and that makes us mighty."

CASIVONA

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 10:27 PM

Quote:
Mal only once mentions his own homeworld Shadow. What was that world like post-war? Obviously he stays away from it.

According to the Serenity roll-playing book, the planet Shadow was left uninhabitable by an orbital bombardment from Alliance capital ships during the war. I'm assuming any of his family (mother) and friends (ranch hands) were killed in that incident. I probably wouldn't be headed back there if I were him.

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ROCKETJOCK

Wednesday, October 19, 2005 1:32 AM

Quote:
According to the Serenity roll-playing book, the planet Shadow was left uninhabitable by an orbital bombardment from Alliance capital ships during the war. I'm assuming any of his family (mother) and friends (ranch hands) were killed in that incident. I probably wouldn't be headed back there if I were him.

So, in other words, they burned the land, and boiled the sea.

Always thought that was more than just another lyric.

Makes me wonder about the "take my love" part, too.

"She's tore up plenty. But she'll fly true." -- Zoë Washburn

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