#firefly discussion

[wateronagreasefire]

I’ve been trying to send more asks about Firefly bc I am nosy and want to know everyone's opinions on everything about this show but I have ended up only sending them to folks who specifically solicit them?? Because apparently I function on vampire logic with ask boxes. Does anyone else want my very rudimentary prompt asks about your thoughts on this show.

[tamsiblings]

do we think the crew has allotted vacation time? i know zoe and wash arguing about asking mal but is it like, in general they don’t and it’s a big ask, or do they have like two weeks they can use up? also WHERE are they going on vacation lmao

[wateronagreasefire]

in the interest of sending more asks — what’s your favorite quote from each crew member?

— xoxo gossipgirl

oh...👀hello. I love an ask.

So: these are not the funniest nor the most emotionally impactful lines that you can put on merch or whatever. I went with my favorite moments and so that includes facial expressions/sound design/circumstance so I'm adding pictures for emphasis!

Mal: "You did it to me, Jayne, and that's a fact" (Ariel)

I mean...the rage. The tension. The soundtrack horns. Ooooh yes yes yes. I think the music might be carrying this line but I don't care!! This is one of my favorite moments in the whole show. Sure, it's not especially funny nor is it a particularly pithy Mal line, but it hits really well and feels like the culmination of plenty of "Jayne is legitimately scared of Mal" moments.

Zoe: "I'm sorry, you were going to make me choose, right? You wanna finish?" (War Stories)

Yanked the satisfaction right out from under him! Also wild that she keeps that flat negotiation tone when you know she's losing her mind (that's her best friend and the man she went through hell with on the torture rack and her heavily injured husband is barely holding on!!!!). She's stone cold and level headed like no one else. Basically, Zoe Washburne would survive any horror movie and would get James Bond films done and dusted in the first act.

Wash: "Little River just gets more colorful by the moment. What will she do next?...I hope she does the soup thing. It's always a hoot and we don't all die from it." (Objects in Space)

A dynamic I am partial to is Wash Washburne and River Tam the weird niece he never asked for but adores anyway. Also: he copes with humor and while I like a lot of Wash jokes I am a huge fan of how sometimes his humor just does not land lmao. Sometimes other characters are visibly pissed off about it!

Jayne: "Well, what you plan and what takes place ain't ever exactly been similar." (Serenity, 2005)

Sometimes Jayne is right and this is one of those times.

Kaylee: "Just do it, that's all!" (Out of Gas)

Ain't nothing to it but to do it babeyyy!! Kaywinnet Lee Frye is an actual literal genius savant when it comes to machines and I don't think everyone on the crew knows that!! I don't even know if she knows it! She just sees the problem and she fixes it. That's it.

Inara: "I just wish you had killed that old bastard." (War Stories)

Me too, bestie! Aside from this being something everyone else was thinking and also a wink to seeing Niska in the hypothetical season two finale where he definitely would have died messily, I think this is like...Rim values creeping into her a little bit. She's spent so much time with the crew that now she exists in the in-between--she will never be like them but she will also never fit in on the Core again.

Simon: "I'm sorry if she tipped anyone off to your cunningly concealed herd of cows." (Safe)

Simon Tam is a grade A hater tiny yapping dog hissing feral cat antagonizing men half a foot taller than him and he doesn't care. He'll square up. What about it. He will end up on the floor but he'll talk smack first. I particularly love this line because there's no need for him to start a fight whatsoever. Mal even gives him a weird look about it and then basically tells him to get a hobby.

River: "Jayne is a girl's name." (Trash)

Ooooooh she knew it would bother him. She knew! Her little flat smile when she says it like she's a mother talking to her toddler son...Jayne, she doesn't give a fuck about you aside from the entertainment she can get by tormenting you.

Book: "What are we up to, Sweetheart?" (Jaynestown)

Something about this line being so sweetly benign before RIver reveals she's being absolutely completely chaotic hits me. He really thought they'd be hanging out chilling on the ship making biscuits while everyone else had a somewhat interesting day but instead River decided to be feral tearing his bible apart and hiding in crawlspaces.

Bonus: Petaline saying "say goodbye to your daddy, Jonah" (Heart of Gold). Get his ass, Petaline.

[wateronagreasefire]

I compared my height to the rest of the crew, and I'm shorter than everyone else

Cool!! Loooove a good height chart.

Seeing as Jayne already calls Wash "little man" and Kaylee "little Kaylee" he would 700% call you a million nicknames about being short I'm so sorry.

I don't know if you made this with the Gina Torres podcast episode in mind but in case you didn't (or for other folks who didn't listen) they talk about heights a little on that; about how Gina was so excited to be acting with a tall leading man (Nathan Fillion) because she was sick of men complaining about having to be on apple boxes when they shot scenes with her. Alan Tudyk also mentioned how he and Gina are the same height but Wash was always slouching so Zoe looked taller.

I'll nitpick bc this is partially a Simon obsession blog; I think he's a smidge taller than that. Google says 5'10 (?) but he does definitely sometimes look nearly the same height as River. Who knows. But he is for sure the little fella on the ship who talks shit like he's 6'4.

[wateronagreasefire]

I feel like Kaylee would make sand castles and sand sculptures. Jayne is over there being Johnny Bravo lmao. Shepherd is just floating in the water meditating. I can see Inara collecting tropical flowers, idk why, but I feel like she has a collection of pressed flowers. Mal is that meme of Eustace Bagge saying "nope. No sir. Not getting out of this chair". I'm at work so I can't really say much else. Kaylee and River collect sea shells, and River just infodumps about their findings like Spock

Very charmed by the idea of Kaylee and River collecting shells and Kaylee being genuinely fascinated by River's science facts. Mal would bitch about them bringing all their findings onto the ship but eventually he'd cave...as usual.

Adding "Inara has a collection of pressed flowers" to my own personal library of headcanons. I love it. Feels right.