Firefly (TV series)/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This character sheet is for Firefly.

The crew of Serenity

#Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds
 
Mal
#Zoe Alleyne Washburne
 
Zoe
#Hoban "Wash" Washburne
 
"Wash"
#Inara Serra
 
Inara
#Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye
 
Kaylee
#Jayne Cobb
 
Jayne
#Dr. Simon Tam
 
Simon
#River Tam
 
River

Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds

Played by Nathan Fillion

Captain Reynolds is a Browncoat--a veteran of the stellar civil war that precedes the events of the series by six years. He fought under the rank of Sergeant for the Independents, the side that lost to the Alliance. He has been left bitter by the Independents' loss; he never quite recovered from seeing his ideals crumble around him. Ever since, he has been eking out a living on the wrong side of the law, at the helm of the Firefly-class ship Serenity, defiantly named after the valley where the Alliance's victory was sealed.

Kaylee: Goin' on a year now, I ain't had nothing twixt my nethers weren't run on batteries!
Mal: Oh GOD! I can't know that!

    • On a good day, he has a bit of this towards Simon as well. Only on a good day though.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Ain't he just?
  • Broken Hero: In addition to his A Father to His Men tendencies, and considering what happened to his homeworld, he was ridiculously, recklessly cheerful during the war. It's hard to tell if he's an adrenaline junkie, genuinely considered it just a big adventure, was all an act, was a coping mechanism, or if he was completely unhinged. Or even all of the above. But despite all the stress, he somehow managed to stay pretty upbeat.
  • The Captain
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome
  • Combat Pragmatist: Mal has absolutely no problems with shooting first.
    • To quote from "Heart of Gold": "Shoot the rider, not the horse. Dead horse is great cover, live horse is a great pile o' panic."
  • Dawson Casting: Inverted, a rare example where the actor is actually younger then the character, Mal is 49 and Nathan Fillion was 32 at the time of shooting.
  • Deconstruction: Mal's character is something between exploring "what if Han Solo was The Good Captain?" and "what if The Good Captain encountered so many set-backs he became an Anti-Hero?"
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Despair Event Horizon: Serenity Valley. Also possibly within the same timeframe, the destruction of his homeworld.
  • Determinator: Enough Determinator-ness to prop up his crew when they're faltering, too.
  • Death Glare: Serenity doesn't need weapons. It has Mal's eyes!
  • Disappeared Dad: The one time Mal mentions his past ("Our Mrs. Reynolds"), he says that he was raised by his mother and "about forty hands", but makes no mention of his father.
  • Doomed Hometown: His homeworld, Shadow was orbitally bombarded by the Alliance so heavily that it was rendered completely uninhabitable afterwards.
  • Fight Magnet: Mal gets into an unnecessary fight at least once every few episodes.
    • Lampshaded by Zoe: why does he always manage to find himself in an Alliance-friendly bar come Unification Day?
  • Good Is Not Nice: Nor is Mal's wrench!
  • The Gunslinger: Type D. The Quick Draw
    • He even out draws The Operative who's already holding a gun in his hand!
  • Hidden Depths: "Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint."
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Casually shoots Dobson in the head from ten feet away in the pilot... While Dobson has a Human Shield.
  • Jade Coloured Glasses
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Displays shades of this in the flashback to his army days:

Mal: WHOO-HOO! I'M RIGHT HERE! I'M RIGHT HERE! YOU WANT SOME OF ME?! YEAH YOU DO! COME ON! COME ON!

"You're on my crew. Why are we still talking about this?"

    • Also has a tendency to inspire this. Nowhere shown more clearly than in Serenity, after his crew seems ready to mutiny at the prospect of flying through Reaver space:

"I mean to confound these bungers. Take my shot at getting to Miranda. Maybe find something I can use to get clear of this. So I hear a word out of any of you that ain't helping me out or taking your leave, I will shoot you down. Get to work!"

    • And every one of them gets to work.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Inara, of the constant-arguing kind.
    • Lampshaded and defied in "War Stories", when Wash accuses Mal and Zoe of lusting after each other, and at the end of the show we see that they can't even keep a straight face long enough to share a kiss. They really ARE life partners, but not sexually interested in each other.
  • Would Hit a Girl: At the end of "Our Mrs Reynolds", and the beginning of "Trash." Hard to feel sorry for the one receiving the fist, though.

Zoe Alleyne Washburne

Played by Gina Torres

Zoe is also a Browncoat. She was a corporal serving under Mal during the war against the Alliance. She even now accompanies him on Serenity and still calls him "sir", 15 years later. She is married to Wash; the wacky pilot of the ship.

Wash: Have you ever been with a warrior woman?

  • Just Following Orders: A non-villainous, sometimes questioning, but very pragmatic version. Especially evident in a deleted scene from the pilot. (The "He" being mentioned is Mal).

Zoe: If you get Kaylee through this, I think he'll do right by you. He won't kill unless he has no other option.
Simon: What if he tells you to kill me --
Zoe: -- I kill you.

Hoban "Wash" Washburne

Played by Alan Tudyk

Wash is the pilot of Serenity. Most of the time he is wacky, playful, excitable, and a bit on the immature side, though when he needs to be, there is no one more focused, calm, and collected on the crew. He's a whiz at the controls of a vehicle, and has saved the lives of the rest of the crew many a time.

  • Ace Pilot
  • Adult Child: Plays with dinosaur figurines on the job.
  • Anti-Hero: Type I.
  • Author Avatar
  • Badass Pilot
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer
  • Characterization Marches On: In early episodes, Wash is a calm, masterful pilot, all nerves of steel while the other characters are panicking. By "The Message" he's just as excitable as anyone else, because Alan Tudyk bought himself an Xbox and discovered he's not the naturally-calm-pilot type, which Tim Minear threw in on grounds of Rule of Funny. (And, just to confuse things, Wash shows elements of both performances in the Big Damn Movie.)
    • Taken as a whole, his level of panic seems to be inversely proportional to the actual level of danger. When there's Reavers on their tail and they're running for their lives, he's oddly calm, while if it's something more mundane, he gets more excited.

Zoe: Proximity alert. Must be coming up on something.
Wash: Oh my god. What can it be? We're all doomed! WHO'S FLYING THIS THING!? (Beat) Oh right, that would be me. Back to work!

Inara Serra

Played by Morena Baccarin

Not really a member of the crew, Inara rents a shuttle for her... services. Despite (or maybe because of) her profession, she is well-versed in the ways of the universe (and sex) and continually shows Hidden Depths--who'd expect a space whore to be good at Sword Fights? Plus, she is a High-Class Call Girl, which adds to Serenity‍'‍s reputation: a woman who can go out in public on the arm of an aristocrat (and into his bedroom) wouldn't be shipping out with Mal and his crew unless they were at least somewhat respectable. Ironically, her profession is legal, which is more than Mal can say.

  • Ambadassador: Not Badass to the degree of the rest of the crew, but she has no qualms with holding people at gunpoint and holds her own in hand-to-hand combat.
  • Band of Brothels: She's a member of the Companions Guild.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Mal. It's even a plot point in the movie.
  • Bi the Way: Takes female clients as well as male.
  • The Chick
  • Deadpan Snarker: Usually towards Mal.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Inara is shown to be very in demand for both her male and female clientele. And that's without speculating on Kaylee's admiration.
  • The Face: Officially, her role on the ship is to use her social contacts to "open doors that would otherwise be closed" to a group like Captain Mal and the crew. Being that she's the only one with a legal job she's the only one that can show their face to polite company the crew might need help from.
  • High-Class Call Girl: Very high class.
  • Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Subverted. She does have a heart of gold, but she doesn't really want to be rescued from her career.
  • Hot Chick with a Sword: She attempts to teach Mal how to fence in "Shindig".
  • Ill Girl: Word of God and Morena Baccarin confirmed a subplot involving Inara with a terminal illness, hinted at in "Serenity," "Out Of Gas," and "Heart of Gold."
  • Lady of War: Good in swordfighting and archery.
  • Mama Bear: Inara is the only one who will stand up to Mal whenever he threatens to boot Simon and River off the ship.
  • Not So Above It All: She really seems to enjoy participating in capers and double-crossing the villain of the week when she gets the chance.
  • Ms. Fanservice: The pilot has her taking a long, gratuitous spongebath. There's other scenes, too. Lots of other scenes. You'll be in your bunk.
  • The Ojou: Companions aren't actually royalty, but they're sometimes treated like it.
  • Rule of Sexy: Applies to her muchly.
  • Sex Tourism: Inverted. Inara finds clients in the area they're in.
  • Spirited Young Lady: Sometimes crosses into Silk Hiding Steel territory.
  • Tall, Dark and Bishoujo
  • Team Mom: Especially to Kaylee and River.
  • Tsundere: Type B. She is unflappably courteous and kind to everyone she meets...except Mal.

Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye

Played by Jewel Staite

Kaylee is the ship's mechanic. She's perky and cheerful more often than not, always optimistic, and innocent -- though she does enjoy the simpler pleasures in life. She's the most laid-back and friendly person on the ship at any given time (if you insult the ship itself, though...). She's probably the worst in a fight among the crew, but she's extremely adept at keeping the ship in working order, and seemingly has a spiritual link to it.

Dr. Simon Tam

Played by Sean Maher

Simon is the doctor aboard Serenity. He's an extremely gifted surgeon and a cunning planner, even though he's socially awkward and not exactly streetsmart. He cares for his sister River more than anyone or anything else in the world, and he is willing to go to extreme lengths for her well-being.

River: You gave up everything you had...
Simon: Mei-Mei, everything I have is right here.

  • Honor Before Reason: Basically his whole storyline. He gave up a lucrative job and lifelong dream to help his sister (His hunch being based on some pretty thin logic), ruining his life and turning himself into a fugitive. Later he says he will never harm Jayne or break his oath as a physician, despite Jayne betraying him and threatening him on multiple occasions. And one gets the impression He'd do it all again in a minute.
  • I Will Find You: Variation; he had already done this when the show opens (although how he does so is seen in the prologue to the Big Damn Movie). Now it is necessary to make sure they don't find her.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Don't mess with Simon's little sister.
  • The McCoy: Admit it, On at least a couple of occasions, You expected him to say "Dammit Mal, I'm a doctor, not an outlaw".
  • The Medic: The initial reason Mal lets him stay on on board.
  • My Fist Forgives You: Punches Mal in the face for endangering River's life in the movie, although he was just returning the favor.
  • Naive Newcomer
  • Nerves of Steel: Just watch him in "Ariel"! Or the opening of the Big Damn Movie, for that matter - it's the first time he's seen River in several years, she's currently strapped to a chair shrieking and whimpering, and he doesn't so much as twitch an eyebrow!
  • Noble Fugitive
  • Old School Chivalry: He is a well dressed doctor who doesn't swear or have casual sex. Needless to say he doesn't fit in with the thieves he lives with, but he says that he has to be proper because it's all he has.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: He's a brilliant doctor though River is supernaturally good at everything.
  • Princely Young Man
  • The Proud Elite: When we first see him he looks so arrogant one would swear that he considers himself a superior species above and beyond mere humanity. In fact he is not as bad as all that but is simply unused to being in a strange country. He does tend to maintain an aristocratic air about him though.
  • Promotion to Parent: And personal physician, and therapist, and bodyguard, and once even Gentleman Thief.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Simon is cooler, calmer, and more disciplined compared to his more sensitive and (for obvious reasons) erratic little sister.
  • The Smart Guy:

Simon: " 'Gifted' is the term."

River Tam

Played by Summer Glau

River is the aforementioned precious cargo, and Simon's little sister. She's stone cold crazy. With good reason, though, and she gets a bit better. She's also a prodigy par excellence, taking to difficult subjects with ease (considering university-level physics to be a "challenge" when she was fourteen, for example). She's enough of an asset to the crew at critical times that it makes up for being The Load when she's freaking out.

Simon: She makes me look like an idiot child.

River: You think we're going to run out of air. That we're going to die gasping. But we're not... We'll freeze to death first.

    • In another episode, after she's been yelling loud enough to spook the cattle in the cargo hold:

River: The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds, given adequate vacuuming systems.
Mal: See, morbid and creepifying I got no problem with, so long as she does it quiet-like.

Wash: Tell me again how Jayne got knocked out by a 98-pound girl, 'cause I don't think that's ever getting old!

Shepherd Derrial Book

Played by Ron Glass

The Verse's equivalent of a Christian priest, Book also wandered onto Serenity in the pilot, just wanting to walk the 'verse a while. Later he wonders if he's on the wrong ship, but then again, he does seem to know a lot of things that one doesn't find in The Bible.

Book: I wasn't born a shepherd, Mal.
Mal: You have to tell me about that sometime.
Book: No, I don't.

Jayne Cobb

Played by Adam Baldwin

Jayne is a thuggish, misogynistic, crude Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He's not one to leave the back turned near, as he's a bit power-hungry and greedy. What he lacks in delicacy and loyalty, though, he makes up for in strength, size, and fighting prowess.

Jayne: Out of the way, preacher.
Book: You're not going to kill this man.
Jayne: Not right away.

Jayne: "Well there ain't people like that, there's just people like me!"

Wash: How did your brain even learn speech?!

River: "Jayne is a girl's name".
Jayne: "Well, Jayne ain't a girl!"

  • Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Upon learning that Inara will be servicing a female client on board her shuttle, he has only this to say:

Jayne: I'll be in my bunk.

And the whole crew are, of course:

Notable Villains

Jubal Early (Richard Brooks)

Shows up in the final episode, "Objects In Space." When we first meet him, he proves to be more than a match for Mal and company, but it isn't long before his true colors become apparent.

Simon: So you're a bounty hunter?
Early: No, that ain't it at all.
Simon: Then what are you?
Early: I'm a bounty hunter.
Simon: That's what I said.
Early: Yeah, but you didn't say it well.

Saffron (Christina Hendricks)

One of the few recurring villains (they likely intended more, but dying off after one season does mess up plans a bit) of the show, Saffron is a con woman who specializes in seduction. Introduced in (and as) 'Our Mrs Reynolds'.

Adelai Niska (Michael Fairman)

A crime lord introduced in the second pilot, "The Train Job." Very concerned about reputations, especially his own. He is the second recurring villain of the show.

The Blue Gloves (Jeff Ricketts and Dennis Cockrum)

Mysterious duo in search of River, whom she refers to as "two by two, hands of blue."

The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor)

Primary villain in Serenity. A special agent/assassin of Parliament, sent out to keep government secrets and take care of loose ends. While he technically represents their interests, they are never seen, making him more-or-less the Dragon-in-Chief.

  • Affably Evil: For a man who's possibly the most dangerous assassin the Alliance has, he is impeccably polite, willing to negotiate, and seems genuinely saddened by the measures he's forced to take in capturing River Tam.
  • Badass: Outside of River, arguably the biggest badass in the Firefly universe.
  • Catch Phrase: "Do you know what your sin is?"
  • Combat Pragmatist:

The Operative: I am, however, wearing full body armor. I am not a moron.

  • Cool Sword: He likes swords way too much for a guy living in a sci-fi world with laser guns..
    • Lampshaded by Mr. Universe

"He killed me Mal. Killed me with a sword. A sword. How weird is that?"

Doctor Matthias (Michael Hitchcock)

The Academy technician in charge of taking care of River. He is noticeable for an odd encounter with a certain spoiled rich kid who had curious questions about his baby sister. Vaguely related to this was an investigation by a government agent who gave him lessons about the customs of "certain older, civilized cultures".

The Reavers

The Reavers are a band of roving murderous, feral thugs who terrorize everything and everyone they come across. They are infamous for being cannibals, self-mutilation enthusiasts, everyone-else-mutilation enthusiasts, and rapists of both mind and body. They are the survivors of an Alliance experiment to make a planet's population more manageable by using powerful psychotropic drugs on them. This made 99.9% of them catastrophically docile, and they just laid down and died en masse. The remaining 0.1%, however took to the drug just a bit differently and became the base savages known as Reavers.

  • Aesoptinum: Their origin -- see spoiler above.
  • Exclusively Evil
  • The Berserker: Played with. When attacking someone face-to-face, the Reavers become mad, frothing, berserk killers. Outside of face-to-face combat, however, Reavers are disturbingly thoughtful and intelligent, laying carefully-prepared traps, operating advanced spacecraft, and deliberately torturing people to break their minds to increase their numbers. They're skilled enough that they can take an entire ship by surprise without leaving any obvious trace of their presence.
  • Better to Die Than Be Killed: No one wants to be taken alive by the Reavers, and no one who can stop it will allow someone else to be, leading to several Mercy Kills.
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon:

Zoe: If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it In That Order.


and let's not forget ...

Serenity

The ship. Including the bits that fall off.

  1. ↑ Consumption or pneumonia
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