Wash- Serenity - Combat Experiance

POSTED BY: Booksword
UPDATED: Tuesday, February 8, 2005 16:55
VIEWED: 11188
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BOOKSWORD

Wednesday, December 29, 2004 9:54 PM

Sorry was watching Firefly Pilot - Serenity for the tenth time.

Research purpose- honest.

When the Reavers where coming after the ship near the end it just hit me how cool Wash was.

I dont mean as Fonz Cool( which he was by the by ) but how collected and focused he was.

The man was in his enviroment.

In anything else he is a jokester, sometime a little out of his depth or just going on impulse his heart on his sleeve.

But behind the wheel in a combat like situation he is cool as a cool cumber.

Giving out orders ( get Kaylee in the engine room ) thinking tactically ( get her ready to burn).

I mean Reavers passing by he is near panic. But when he has to take action he is calm as ice.

Almost like he has done this kind of thing before.

What if he has.

What if he was trained for this kind of thing. A pilot in a war. The war.

But why doesnt he tell Mal or Zoe ?

Maybe because he was an alliance fighter pilot.

Not something you wanna mention to he missus with the pinkie of death.

And when Zoe met Wash didnt she find something about him that was off.

Also if you listen carefully he doesnt sound like he was born in the outskirts. He sounds a bit like Simon, Inara and Book.

Maybe from a Core world perhaps?

I mean if this was the case it would have been interesting should it come out. We may not like the Alliance but they had brave men and women fighting in the big War too.

Skilled men and women.

Like Wash

RANDOMLING

Thursday, December 30, 2004 12:48 AM

That's a really interesting theory, Booksword. It's struck me before that Wash doesn't seem to hail from a far-out border planet like some of the others, although I'd argue against him being from a Core world. (He doesn't seem to be as educated or as used to money as, say, Simon or Book, but his home planet is highly industrialized, hence all the pollution.)

We've never heard much about Wash's political allegiances or his background. If he was an Alliance fighter pilot, you have to ask some pretty searching questions about what happened after the war: why wasn't he offered a cushy job with the Alliance, like the rest of the military seem to have been? Did he defect? Did he desert? If he was offered a job, why didn't he take it? Most importantly, if he spent years of his life fighting the Browncoats, why was he then prepared to work for one and marry another?

The most compelling argument against this I can find is that anybody in the military (even an air force) would likely be given at least some training in personal combat. Wash doesn't seem to have had that (he clearly knows how to use a gun, but not, I think, in a military way). He has a very different demeanour from Mal or Zoe, and I have a sneaking suspicion that if he was in the army, he probably didn't last long...

XENOCIDE

Thursday, December 30, 2004 5:27 PM

Sorta like Han Solo? From the books?

PURPLEBELLY

Thursday, December 30, 2004 7:13 PM

My take is that Wash doesn't have combat experience, doesn't have experience of combat vehicles. He comes from an industrial world, thick with pollution. His family is rich enough to pay for flight school and to keep him on the Transport Division of the Permanent Reserve so he does not enter combat, but does enjoy practicing unconventional vehicle-handling if only to impress the chicks. He follows a relaxed life-style of loud music and clothes, fast vehicles and women, recreational booze and drugs. At war's end, he segues into piloting transports for petty crooks to supply his drug habit and get away from the family mineral extraction business. By the time we see him, Zoe has brought some discipline into his life, but he still enjoys throwing a ship around the sky with the odd handbrake-turn or two.

Only Purplebelly believes this

HOTPOINT

Thursday, December 30, 2004 8:39 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by randomling:
That's a really interesting theory, Booksword. It's struck me before that Wash doesn't seem to hail from a far-out border planet like some of the others, although I'd argue against him being from a Core world. (He doesn't seem to be as educated or as used to money as, say, Simon or Book, but his home planet is highly industrialized, hence all the pollution.)

The war supposedly lasted some years and the armies on both sides apparently numbered in the hundreds of thousands (maybe millions given the number fighting in Serenity Valley alone) this must mean at least a few of the Independent Worlds were Industrial. If all the Independent worlds were undeveloped border planets then logically the Alliance would have crushed the Browncoats much quicker than they did (amateurs talk tactics professionals talk logistics as they say).

Theorising the Browncoat military was formed from scratch in a great hurry it might very well be that Wash was a military pilot but the training was along the lines of "You already know how to fly. Here's the fire-button for the Lasers, only shoot at the ships with an Alliance logo on them and happy hunting Independent Navy Class of 09:30 in the morning"

...................................
Hurrah, hurrah, when things are at their worst
With cries of “Death or Glory” comes the mighty Twenty-First

BOOKSWORD

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 6:38 PM

Theorising the Browncoat military was formed from scratch in a great hurry it might very well be that Wash was a military pilot but the training was along the lines of "You already know how to fly. Here's the fire-button for the Lasers, only shoot at the ships with an Alliance logo on them and happy hunting Independent Navy Class of 09:30 in the morning"

I can actually picture that.
Congratualations on your graduation, please dont let the door his you on the ass on the way out and let the other dead mea...I mean recruits in.

Still, I kind of thought he was a little too calm, smugglers keep a cool head I suppose but still he was frankly chilly under pressure.

He does sound a little like someone from the core and his past Alliance days would account his some discomfert with Mal and his all associated with the Alliance are basicly scum attitude.

In fact Wash has a real attitude regarding Authority which could explain why he is no longer with the Allince. I mean he doesnt like it when Mal pulls rank and all.

Maybe he was a bomber or something, you know. Keeping focused while flying into enemy batteries to drop a payload on Browncoats.

Also it was his professinelism that made him in high demand (out of Gas ) so maybe he earned that kind of cool under fire.

Hopefully the BDM will shed some light.

JAYNEZTOWN

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 6:50 PM

It's a question I've thought of aswell

http://fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=4&t=6616

but still, back then we didn't really come up with answers just some good theory

TRAGICSTORY

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 7:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hotpoint:
Quote:
Originally posted by randomling:
That's a really interesting theory, Booksword. It's struck me before that Wash doesn't seem to hail from a far-out border planet like some of the others, although I'd argue against him being from a Core world. (He doesn't seem to be as educated or as used to money as, say, Simon or Book, but his home planet is highly industrialized, hence all the pollution.)

The war supposedly lasted some years and the armies on both sides apparently numbered in the hundreds of thousands (maybe millions given the number fighting in Serenity Valley alone) this must mean at least a few of the Independent Worlds were Industrial. If all the Independent worlds were undeveloped border planets then logically the Alliance would have crushed the Browncoats much quicker than they did (amateurs talk tactics professionals talk logistics as they say).

Theorising the Browncoat military was formed from scratch in a great hurry it might very well be that Wash was a military pilot but the training was along the lines of "You already know how to fly. Here's the fire-button for the Lasers, only shoot at the ships with an Alliance logo on them and happy hunting Independent Navy Class of 09:30 in the morning"

...................................
Hurrah, hurrah, when things are at their worst
With cries of “Death or Glory” comes the mighty Twenty-First

You know, that is exactly what happened in the Great War. (WWI for you non buffs) To guard the channel they commandered the pleasure yachts of the rich along with the rich kids who knew how to drive them, retrofitted them to hold a torpedo and put them on patrol. That was the origin of the PT boats which Kennedy made famous.

So it could be very possible that he was "recruited" because he knew how to fly and once the war was over he was drummed out due to behavior which could be overlooked during war.

[edited to add in] Anyone notice anything between Wash and Book? If they were both Alliance in the past, maybe a recognition? (though that isn't the right word I am after. Like when 2 strangers know the other has been in the military)

-----------
"Societies are supported by human activity, therefore they are constantly threatened by the human facts of self-intrest and stupidity." --Peter Berger

CYBERSNARK

Saturday, January 8, 2005 6:35 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Booksword:
Congratualations on your graduation, please dont let the door his you on the ass on the way out and let the other dead mea...I mean recruits in.

Heh. Now I'm picturing Anya & Xander at the Browncoat recruiting desk.

"Let's go get the cannon fodder."
"We don't call them that, dear."
"Well, not to their faces!"

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

GUNRUNNER

Saturday, January 8, 2005 8:18 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TragicStory:
You know, that is exactly what happened in the Great War. (WWI for you non buffs) To guard the channel they commandered the pleasure yachts of the rich along with the rich kids who knew how to drive them, retrofitted them to hold a torpedo and put them on patrol. That was the origin of the PT boats which Kennedy made famous.

A similar thing happened in WWII along the US Atlantic Coast. Numbers of fishing boat crews volunteered to patrol the coast during Operation Paukenschlag (Drumroll/Drumbeat) in early 42. The US Navy attempted to arm them with Depth Charges but several fishing boats where sunk by them because they couldn't escape the blast area, due to slow speeds. But on a few occasions they harassed U-Boats with their presence forcing the U-Boat to leave. They became known as the “Hooligan Navy”.

Also numbers of civilian pilots volunteered to fly older combat aircraft or their own private planes on U-Boat patrol. The private planes were occasionally retrofitted with a pair of depth charges or bombs. I don’t think they scored any kills but they kept the U-Boats submerged during the day.

Additionally in WWI and latter early WWII some British fishing trawler crews were part of a reserve Mine Sweeping unit since they were the only ones with the specialized equipment, and their wooden boats were immune to magnetic influence mines.

Anyway in the commentary for “The Message” Alan said Wash was a pilot on one side of the war and on his first mission he was shot down and spent the rest of the time entertaining POWs with shadow puppets.

I always thought he Washed out of flight school because of some practical joke but due to the war he was given some lousy non-combat job far from the front lines where he learned to fly older craft to the limit.

BTW the PT Boat predates WWI by about 10 years. The Destroyer was originally the “Torpedo Boat Destroyer” but became a more generalized craft for fleet use around WWI. But it was the British that did develop the torpedo boat.

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