Forward/YMMV

""Home," she said, and she started crying into his neck, her body shivering with sobs. "I want to go home, Jayne." "Me too," he hissed, and started out the door with the featherweight of little crazy person on his back. Pistol leading, Jayne Cobb stepped out of that hell-chamber, and started their escape. He was gonna get her out of here, safe and sound, even if the whole gorram Alliance stood in his way."
 * Complete Monster: Niska becomes an even more extreme one when he
 * Lt. Womack, already a corrupt scumbag in the series, turns plain vicious in Silver, where he
 * And at the end of the arc,  Fun guy.
 * A possible example is Inducer One-One-Nine, aka  who killed nearly a thousand people with her psychic abilities, using them as shields or minions or, in one vicious case, as distractions against her pursuers, and uses Mind Rape quite liberally, up to an including  . There is quite a bit of disagreement among the readers as to whether One-One-Nine is a monstrous figure or a tragic figure, considering   when she escaped and was mentally unstable to the point of sociopathy by her stay at the Academy.
 * The "Mongol" of the Six Rifles is strongly implied to be one. He tortures a man he's been sent to kill with a bit of Dissonant Serenity, and at least one other member of the Six contemplates having to kill him eventually if he goes out of control.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: One of the most potent scenes toward the end of "Business":


 * Later, River confronting  Partway through she realizes she can't kill him because she simply can't bring herself to hate him, then she has another bout of emotional madness, and he ends up comforting her. The entire confrontation ends with her forgiving him.
 * Moral Event Horizon: When  was outed as , many of the readers were initially sympathetic to her. Then, one chapter later,  , at which point the general opinion shifted to "  needs to die.
 * Nightmare Fuel: More than one reviewer has said that the "Inducer" psychics are outright terrifying. And it's justified:  Very powerful, and very scary.
 * One of the reviewers even said the concept quite literally gave them nightmares.
 * Shipping: All of the canon ships are present, including Wash/Zoe, Simon/Kaylee, and Mal and Inara's UST. The author has confirmed that there will be a pairing involving River, though with whom is up in the air.
 * There are strong hints that it may be with
 * That last bit has been confirmed by the "Second Interlude."
 * Tear Jerker: Left and right, mostly relating to River. The poor girl goes through a lot in this story.
 * The Woobie: River. Yes, she's already a Woobie, but this story just amplifies it up to eleven. Aside from suffering multiple mental breakdowns, she is also  Then she   Then she
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:  claims to be one of these, saying that   has been killing people because of what they did to   Of couse, considering some of the things   done, this may just be self-justification.
 * Stoic Woobie: Mal most definitely qualifies as this by the end of "Mosaic." Zoe becomes one as well at the end of "Hunt."