Where did Mal get the money for Serenity?

POSTED BY: ncbrowncoat
UPDATED: Friday, January 20, 2017 21:40
VIEWED: 24769
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NCBROWNCOAT

Friday, September 22, 2006 1:10 AM

I've got a question that's been bothering me for a while now. I was talking with a friend whose brother is starting up a new business and about how hard it is to forego a paycheck for 90-120 days while laying the groundwork for the new business and paying all the expenses of a start up at the same time.

How did Mal get the money to purchase Serenity and get her running? I know it isn't mentioned anywhere in canon but we can speculate.

Most likely he wouldn't have gone to a bank and borrowed the money becuase that would have really tied him tightly to the Alliance-collateral, liens, credit scores and payments and all those other pesky banker details that I'm very familiar with.

My personal opinion is that he got some sort of mustering out pay or some sort of compensation for the ranch on Shadow becuase it would have taken him a long time to save the money necessary doing any sort of job after the war. If he could find one that would hire a Browncoat.

That type of money could have paid for the old rusty Firefly and a little of the start up costs, but he have to get her going fast in order to start any sort of cash flow.

It would also be the reason he rented out the shuttle to Inara at her 25 % discount for a little fast coin. More than likely she was the first one to inquire and there wasn't a surveyor and his wife waiting but it wouldn't explain how Mal had enough money for a mechanic and a pilot unless they were on shares from the start.

PENGUIN

Friday, September 22, 2006 1:22 AM

Great question!

Maybe the Allied Planets gave the Independence soldiers a stipend to help them get settled somewhere...

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GRAYFURY

Friday, September 22, 2006 1:52 AM

He worked on his mothers ranch before the war, maybe she passed and he sold it (Before Shadow became uninhabitable) Or maybe the Government made a settlement with the people displaced by the event that undid the Terraforming on Shadow. I like this idea better because I dont think he would have sold his mothers ranch ( I like to think that it was called the double R ranch.... maybe her first name was Raylene or something.)

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BELUGASMOM

Friday, September 22, 2006 2:50 AM

This is a puzzlement that has bothered me also. Thanks for the ideas. Must ponder now.

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HUGHFF

Friday, September 22, 2006 2:55 AM

No way the Alliance gave browncoats money; no way they compensated landholders on a planet they fried. He knicked it.

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TERRI

Friday, September 22, 2006 3:22 AM

I can see that he stole it, maybe ran a few jobs for some other captain in the meantime. I think that maybe he saved it up from the war, whose to say the Independents didn't recieve a stipend. I feel like Serenity is something that happened to Mal not by accident, but she was waiting for him. His whole life he's been wanting to get to the sky. His life on the ranch was lovely, but he most certainly looked to the sky. And so maybe he was saving his money. He probably didn't know for what, and if you think about it, there was really not that much he was buying. When he saw Serenity he finally knew what it was he was working for, and he found his home.

SHINY

Friday, September 22, 2006 4:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Terri:
I think that maybe he saved it up from the war, whose to say the Independents didn't recieve a stipend.

Maybe the independent army had a bunch of money but only paid it out to those who survived the war...

---

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REGINAROADIE

Friday, September 22, 2006 5:24 AM

I always thought that was how he was able to afford Serenity. After the Independents lost, they relieved their military personnell, and gave them a compensation package. Sort of like what happened in FORREST GUMP. After the Army relieved Forrest of military duty, he took the money that the gov't gave him and bought an old shrimp boat.

And I imagine a used transport ship that's older than Hell would be the equivalent of an old shrimp boat in the future. Thus Mal would have been able to afford Serenity with the comp package from the Independents. If he had bought Serenity brand new, THEN he would have faced a problem affording it.

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BROWNCOAT1

Friday, September 22, 2006 11:33 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Terri:
I feel like Serenity is something that happened to Mal not by accident, but she was waiting for him. His whole life he's been wanting to get to the sky. His life on the ranch was lovely, but he most certainly looked to the sky.

Not so sure I agree with this theory. Living on a rim planet on a ranch would accord a man a good bit of freedom. As we saw in the series the Alliance presence on rim planets is nearly non-existant. Odds are there was not even a garrison on Shadow.

Freedom is what Mal wants, freedom from the Alliance and the ability to choose his own course. He took to the black to put himself beyond the reach of the Alliance, trying to stay free of them and their oppression. He couldn't do that planetside.

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PHOENIXROSE

Friday, September 22, 2006 11:45 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by GrayFury:
He worked on his mothers ranch before the war, maybe she passed and he sold it (Before Shadow became uninhabitable) Or maybe the Government made a settlement with the people displaced by the event that undid the Terraforming on Shadow.

According to the Serenity Visual Companion, his homeworld of Shadow was 'destroyed'. Destroyed. That doesn't say to me that there was a freak event that undid the terraforming, it says that the whole world was fried in the war. Mal had nowhere to go home to, and his family and ranch were gone.
Also, it doesn't say anything about a stipend. In fact it says that the Browncoats of Serenity Valley were held for a short time as war criminals because they held the Valley after they'd been ordered to lay down arms. (Odd that the pilot didn't really indicate that, even in cut scenes, and the movie indicated it, but only in a scene that was cut, but it's there in the Companion and Joss wrote the brief history of the 'verse) The Alliance released them fairly quickly in a symbolic gesture of some sort, but wouldn't be likely to pay them anything.
My bet would be that, losing side or not, released war criminal or not, Mal still got a sargeant's pay and was able to buy an old, immoble, rusting junk freighter with that money, as well as being able to offer a mechanic a little bit of up-front pay (enough to cover parts for the boat, at least) until they got off the ground. Possibly offered Wash a bit of pay up front too, though I doubt he had much to spare at that point.

Speaking of mechanics, has anyone ever wondered how Bester was able to get Serenity running again when he didn't seem to know that much about the engine? That just popped into my head from wherever it's been hiding since the last time I watched Out of Gas.

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