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{{work}}
''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4099993/1/Forward Forward]'' is a [[Doorstopper]]-length [[Original Flavor]] [[Continuation]] ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'' fanfic written by the same author behind ''[[
Notable for strong characterization, believable character development, and a wide, overarching plot arc. General consensus among the reviewers has that the story captures the ''Firefly'' essence very well, with many of the reviewers comparing the writing favorably to [[Joss Whedon]]'s own.
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Notable also for its....''[[Painting the Fourth Wall|unusual]]''....take on River's mental processes.
The story currently{{when}} consists of eight story-arc "episodes" and four brief "interludes." In order:
* ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4099993/1/Forward Unfinished Business]''
* ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4099993/13/Forward Condor]''
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Be forewarned that this page contains [[Spoilered Rotten|a ton of spoilers.]] The series has a pretty hefty amount of twists and [[Wham! Episode|whams.]]
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[Action Girl]]: Corporal Ashley Frye, one of Kaylee's older sisters, and a soldier for the Alliance.
* [[Actor Allusion]]: Wash asks if River is a [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|robot from the future]]. Don't forget Mal [[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|wielding a sledgehammer]], or Mal and Jayne going by the aliases [[Halo|Buck and Dutch]].
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* [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy]]: Si Quan, one of Ott's crewmembers. {{spoiler|River teaches him humility by shooting him in the throat.}}
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: At the end of the Fourth Interlude, River does an [[Informed Self Diagnosis]] on all of the injuries that she accrued.
{{quote|
* [[Artificial Gravity]]: Played with in "Adrift," where the gravity is cut out and the crew are forced to move and operate without any gravity systems. This is later used as a weapon when {{spoiler|Reavers board the ship. Mal lures them into entering through the floor hatch in ''Serenity's'' bay, and when they all rush from their gravity-equipped ship into the zero-G ''Serenity'', they begin flying about the bay in an uncontrolled fashion. naturally, this makes them perfect targets to shoot at.}}
* [[Ascended Extra]]: A lot of one-shot characters are brought back for individual episodes, and some of them even become recurring guest stars. These include Colonel Obrin, {{spoiler|the Operative}}, Ott and his crew, Lieutenant Womack, and {{spoiler|Jubal Early.}}
* [[Attempted Rape]]: During the "Business" story arc, {{spoiler|one of Niska's men attempts to rape River. [[Unstoppable Rage|Jayne objects]].}}
* [[The Atoner]]: {{spoiler|Colonel Rishard Dannet,}} River's former combat trainer at the Academy. His guilt over working on the project grew to the point where, as he put it, "it was either retirement or suicide." When River corners him, he is perfectly willing to let her have her revenge for his participation in what happened to her. {{spoiler|She forgives him instead, because he sees her as a person, not a tool or a weapon.}}
* [[Author Appeal]]: The author is a big fan of [[Summer Glau]]. It shows; there are several scenes where River is naked, including a prominent part of the interlude where she has her [[Fetal Position Rebirth]]. Not to mention the [[Les Yay]] in "Mosiac." As the author says himself, "She's easily my favorite character, and she's such a versitale walking plot device that I can't ''help'' but play with her."
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* [[Back-to-Back Badasses]]: River and Jayne during "Charity."
* [[Badass Boast]]: at the beginning of Mosaic
{{quote|
'''Jayne''': You. Look. I've gotten into fights with idiots ten times meaner than you two. I fought militia, mercenaries, goons just like you. Hell, I've fought Alliance marines before(...)I've even tangled with Reavers. }}
** There's also Mal's heartfelt concern for a dissatisfied customer in ''Condor'':
{{quote|
* [[Badass Crew]]: The Six Rifles.
** There's also, you know, the crew of ''Serenity'' itself, especially in this fic, although you could argue Inara is not part of this.
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** One of the Hands of Blue learns the ''hard'' way that {{spoiler|shooting Simon}} in front of River is a bad idea. She {{spoiler|chucks her blade at him from across the room, burying it into his chest, then runs up, rips it free, and stabs him in the face repeatedly in a blind fury so violent it literally leaves her soaked in blood from head to toe.}}
* [[BFG]]: At one point in "Charity," Mal is held at gunpoint by a mercenary who is ''seriously'' compensating for something.
* [[Big Bad]]: Though each "episode" has it's own villain, Adelei Niska is presented as the primary antagonist. Also, there is the {{spoiler|mysterious woman in the wheelchair who appears to be in charge of the Academy}}.
* [[Big Brother Instinct]]: Jayne appears to have developed one in regards to River, after both of them survived {{spoiler|being tortured by Niska}}.
** River even goes so far as to call Jayne a "sociopathic big brother."
** In "Hunt", {{spoiler|Katie uses her [[Psychic Powers]] to supplant one of these on River.}}
* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Considering ''Firefly'' is the [[Trope Namer]], this should come as no surprise.
** Colonel Obrin actually accuses Mal of thinking he is a "big damn hero" in "Condor."
* [[Bloodier and Gorier]]: The story is notably more violent than the series itself; all of the "episodes" tend to involve a least one large gun or melee battle against [[Mook
* [[Book Ends]]: The beginning of "Charity" opens with Zoe waking up to find Wash crying in his sleep, and comforting him from his [[Bad Dreams]]. The end of "Hunt" features Wash doing the same to Zoe after the emotional wringer she's been through.
* [[Break the Cutie]]: The first few chapters of the first story start off upbeat, with River indicating that while she's still not fully recovered, she's healing. {{spoiler|Then Niska gets his hands on her.}} The next few story arcs have her simply trying to recover from ''that'' trauma on top of all the other issues she already suffers from.
** By the time "Charity" rolls around, it looks like River has mostly recovered and is becoming happy. {{spoiler|Then Inducer One-One-Nine mindrapes her and kidnaps her,}} and the subsequent arc involves {{spoiler|being brutally mindraped multiple times by said Inducer, followed by River killing a Hand of Blue in a berserk fury in front of Simon that causes a complete shame-driven [[Freak-Out]] when she realizes he saw her rip the man's face apart}}.
* [[Breather Episode]]: The various Interludes and a number of chapters show slice-of-life moments among the crew in an attempt to break up the action.
* [[Buffy-Speak]]: Jayne in particular does this.
{{quote|
* [[Canon
* [[The Caper]]: Done with a twist in "Silver": {{spoiler|The crew originally backs down from the heist in question, until Womack forces them to go on it anyway.}}
* [[Catch Phrase]]: Used as part of [[The Reveal]] whenever the author is being deliberately obfuscating about a character's identity, said characters being {{spoiler|The Operative and Jubal Early.}}
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** The old man that Inara speaks to at the beginning of the dance in Shindig is a major player in Condor.
** Colonel Obrin, mentioned in passing in "The Message," also appears in "Condor" as a contact for Mal and Zoe, and later as {{spoiler|a villain.}}
** Ott and his crew, who were characters who appeared at the beginning of the ''Those Left Behind'' comic, are the primary villains of Mosiac.
** {{spoiler|Reavers.}}
** Early on in "Silver," there are off-hand mentions of a man named Colonel Dannet, who turns out {{spoiler|to be one of the men who worked at the Academy, and is River's target at the end of that story arc.}}
** In "Silver," there's a mention of a psychic known as Inducer One-One-Nine. {{spoiler|Inducer One-One-Nine is apparently behind ''everything'' in "Charity."}}
* [[Click. "Hello."]]: Book gets the drop on a Talon mercenary this way, after knocking out his compatriots when he wasn't looking - [[Badass Grandpa|in complete silence.]]
* [[Cliff Hanger]]: Constantly. Nearly every chapter ends with one, which the reviewers have noted makes the wait for updates painful.
* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Mal puts it best when talking about the [[Sword Fight]] he had with Atherton Wing in "Shindig":
{{quote|
** Jayne kills a {{spoiler|Hand of Blue}} using a ''[[Improvised Weapon|bedpan and scalpel.]]''
** Later on, Mal kills one of Ott's pirates by [[Eye Scream|stabbing him in the eye with a glass shard.]]
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* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: A justified instance in Condor, when Book {{spoiler|accidentally leads an Operative's men to Simon and Kaylee.}} They both happened to be in the same area, and Book was trying to hide from them before {{spoiler|Kaylee}} spotted him and called his name. Less excusable is {{spoiler|them being rescued by a squad of Alliance soldiers that happens to include Ash, Kaylee's sister. The author lampshades this in the author's notes, saying: "What a craaaazy coincidence."}}
** In "Last Man," Jayne finishes telling Sheppard Book about his encounter with the Six Rifles moments before {{spoiler|Wash informs him the last surviving member is on Glacier looking for them}}. This gets lampshaded too, it's described as being "the most disturbingly ill-timed news ever."
* [[Conveniently
* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Doctor al-Rashid.
* [[Creepy Child]]: {{spoiler|Inducer One-One-Nine}}.
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: {{spoiler|Ott}}'s crew ends up on the receiving end of one of these at the hands of ''Serenity's'' crew, especially after {{spoiler|[[Incendiary Exponent|Jayne sets himself on fire]].}}
** There's also the opening scenes of each chapter of the "Silver" arc, which depict....someone....being utterly massacred by....well, someone ''else.'' {{spoiler|At the end you learn it's Dumont's guards being slaughtered by Nemo.}}
*** ''Second Interlude'' has {{spoiler|Jubal Early}} having his ass handed to him on a platter by Echo. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|It's exactly as good as it sounds.]]
** A particularly wince-inducing one occurs in "Hunt," with a Hand of Blue facing Kaylee {{spoiler|driving a power loader.}} Needless to say, {{spoiler|the Hand loses.}}
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Most scenes from River's perspective have her mentally snarking, particularly at Mal or Jayne, when she's being more lucid.
* [[Death World]]: The planet of Silverhold is presented as one, where the [[
* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: In "Fourth Interlude," one of River's flashbacks shows the point where she finally crossed this during her imprisonment at the Academy. It is particularly potent, as this is juxtaposed with the rest of the chapter, which shows River at her most [[Determinator|determined]] and resolute.
* [[Determinator]]: What with Mal and [[Original Flavor]], this one is pretty much a given. Jayne also shows shades of it, as does Book while {{spoiler|fighting the Reavers}} in "Adrift." River also starts showing signs of it as the story progresses, with her drawing inspiration and determination from her experiences with Mal, Book, Jayne, and Zoe.
** River fully qualifies in the Fourth Interlude. ''Damn''.
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* [[Distracted by the Sexy]]: Literally. {{spoiler|In "Charity", a psychic Inducer distracts River by having her become sexually attracted to Jayne, so she won't notice another Academy escapee. Paired with the Inducer's ability to become literally unremarkable enough that no one notices, and River never realizes she's there until the climax of the arc.}}
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: There's a scene at the end of "Charity" showing River {{spoiler|lying curled up in bed next to Katie.}} Its written like a mother holding a sleeping child, which becomes increasingly disturbing when one considers that {{spoiler|Katie has essentially mindraped River into forcibly becoming a maternal/protector figure.}}
** Later on, when {{spoiler|River tries to rebel against Katie and attack her.}} The resulting scene where {{spoiler|Katie mentally crushes River's mind}} is written like a rape scene, which [[Mind Rape|is entirely appropriate.]]
* [[Doorstopper]]: Currently at fifty chapters and counting, with the average page number per chapter coming out at around fifteen pages. That comes out to over ''six hundred pages'' if this was an actual paper book.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Quite a lot of the Academy's test subjects end up killing themselves, or at least trying to. {{spoiler|River attempted to do so when she finally decided [[Despair Event Horizon|Simon was never going to come for her]], but was [[Interrupted Suicide|stopped by the Academy guards]].}}
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* [[Dynamic Entry]]: "Silver." ''' {{spoiler|SIMON PUNCH!}}''' Also, in the same chapter, {{spoiler|River ambushing Dannet via fridge.}}
* [[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo]]: Deliberately referenced by the author, who admits that "Business" is {{spoiler|essentially the premise of "War Stories" with different characters and the use of the Alliance and the Hands of Blue.}} "Adrift" is {{spoiler|essentially the premise of "Out of Gas" with Reavers, the Alliance, and Simon nearly dying.}} "Silver" is {{spoiler|essentially the premise of "Trash," only with Lieutenant Womack, the Operative, and River's combat trainer from the Academy thrown in.}}
* [[Enfante Terrible]]: Deconstructed in the form of {{spoiler|Inducer One-One-Nine}}. Since {{spoiler|One-One-Nine}} is a child, she has extremely poor impulse control, which drives her to kill any Blue Sun employees she encounters, mentally associating them with the Academy. This leads directly to {{spoiler|the Academy finding and sending the Talon mercenaries after her, and it is how both Serenity's crew and the Hands of Blue track her down later, as even when she's hiding she can't control her impulses to kill.}}
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: The members of the Six Rifles generally go by their nationalities/ethnicities, i.e. "the American," or "the Cossack." The members of the group do appear to know each others' actual names, or parts of them, and the only one whose real name is entirely unknown is the Mongol.
* [[Evil Gloating]]: When {{spoiler|Niska captures Jayne and River}}, he calls up Mal to show them off and gloats about it.
* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: In "Unfinished Business," {{spoiler|Niska's men}} against {{spoiler|the Hands of Blue}}.
** From "Hunt," {{spoiler|the Hands of Blue versus Inducer One-One-Nine, with a four-way gang war thrown in for good measure.}}
* [[Expospeak Gag]]: One of the chapters is titled [[Big Damn Heroes|"Ponderous Condemned Champions."]] Also happens frequently with River's dialogue.
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* [[Flat What]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|"Neither Jayne nor Mal spared the thought for a question mark at the end of that sentence."]]
** Simon and Zoe have this response when they learn {{spoiler|River is buying a sword.}}
* [[Foreshadowing]]:
** Early on in "Mosiac," Mal warns Jayne to not set anything on fire. {{spoiler|At the arc's climax, Jayne sets ''himself'' on fire.}}
** Early in "Charity," Zoe notes Simon has a vial of a drug that suppresses female sexuality, which Simon is keeping on hand because River is finally coming down off a long-term treatment by the Academy that suppresses her sexual impulses. {{spoiler|Inducer One-One-Nine uses River's uncontrolled sexual impulses against her later to distract her.}}
** "Charity" also has the decoding file at the top of each chapter. Paying close attention to the file as it decodes would reveal a few chapters early who {{spoiler|Inducer One-One-Nine}} was, especially if one {{spoiler|notes the only character in the story thus far with a name that has seven letters with "hry" in them.}}
** "Third Interlude" has the "Mongol" make reference to "Andy's old rifle" and a man named "Konstantin" when confronting Jayne, with implications being that the Mongol is one of the six men who came to kill Jayne. In "Last Man" the, well, last man of the six ("The Cossack") has finally tracked Jayne down.
* [[For Want of a Nail]]: Both {{spoiler|Wash and Book survive}} because of this. {{spoiler|Wash instead turned in his chair toward Zoe while speaking his [[Famous Last Words]], and thus the spear only sliced across his chest instead of impaling him.}} In {{spoiler|Book's case, [[Word of God]] is that Simon got there first instead of Mal, and just barely saved Book from death.}}
* [[Full-Frontal Assault]]: In ''Silver'', {{spoiler|naked Jayne holding a stolen machinegun and spraying fire at a bunch of enemy soldiers.}}
* [[Gambit Pileup]]: "Silver" ended up being one of these, with competing gambits from Mal, Womack, {{spoiler|River}}, and {{spoiler|the Operative}}.
** The story as a whole appears to be one of these, with conflicting background gambits between the Alliance, the Browncoats (who the {{spoiler|Operative/Nemo}} appears to be working with - maybe, we're not sure yet what their angle is), and apparently the Academy and John Garis/Echo, who may actually be doing something completely counter to them (again, no idea yet what he's planning, if anything.)
* [[Genre Savvy]]: Mal, who points out that they have a miserable history of keeping prisoners imprisoned {{spoiler|right before executing one of Niska's men.}}
** Also in Unfinished Business, where Mal gets uncomfortable because the job goes exactly as planned. {{spoiler|[[It Got Worse|Things get worse.]]}}
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** In "Silver", Zoe and Book turn the mule into a giant fragmentation grenade to blow up Womack's ship.
** In "Last Man" young Jayne turns an entire storage shed into a bomb using propane, gasoline, mining explosives, and a lighter.
* [[Incendiary Exponent]]: in "Mosaic" Jayne, armed only with a knife and a cupboard full of chemicals and an old coat, sets himself on fire to terrify Ott's crew, reasoning that nothing is scarier than a huge man charging you with a giant knife while on fire. "Last Man" implies that Jayne got the notion from {{spoiler|how he killed the Brit, who did the exact same thing to him, only involuntarily.}}
** [[Man On Fire]]
* [[Aliens Made Them Do It|Inducers Made Them Do It]]: {{spoiler|River}} and {{spoiler|Jayne}} in "Charity."
* [[Indy Ploy]]:
{{quote|
'''Mal''': ''"Oh, no, I am most definitely making this up as I go along."''
'''Zoe''': ''"That's very reassuring, sir."'' }}
** And again:
{{quote|
* [[In the Back]]: Mal has no compunctions about shooting {{spoiler|Ott}} in the back as he runs away. The guy tried to kill [[Nakama|his entire crew]], after all.
* [[Invincible Hero]]: Deliberately averted in River's case. The author has [[Word of God|outright said]] that he dislikes stories where River is used as the "solve everything" button. As a result, while River is portrayed as one of the deadliest fighters in the setting, she is still [[Glass Cannon|quite vulnerable]], and has actually been either defeated or suffered serious injuries in most of the fights she's been in.
* [[I Shall Taunt You]]:
** In "Charity," Mal deliberately snarks at a mercenary holding him at gunpoint, giving Book the opportunity to knock out his comrades and sneak up on him. Afterward, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Mal kicks him in the shins.]]
** During "Last Man" Jayne taunts the Cossack with a stream of insults relating to his mangled arm and leg to piss him off and draw him away from pursuing Wash.
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* [[Jedi Mind Trick]]: Pretty much what Inducer One-One-Nine uses to avoid detection, by making herself appear unremarkable while focusing others' attention on something else in the environment. Toward the end of "Charity", One-One-Nine uses this to {{spoiler|sneak River right past the rest of the crew while they're trying to help a critically-wounded Mal.}}
* [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot]]: an almost infuriating number of teases and clues and hints are dropped about the Academy as the series progresses, though they've been coming in faster and faster as the plot progresses.
** "Charity" had a decoding file name at the top of each chapter, [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|ostensibly as part of a file that Book was reconstructing]] that eventually named {{spoiler|Inducer One-One-Nine}}.
* [[Joker Immunity]]: Both played straight and averted. {{spoiler|Niska}} and {{spoiler|Womack}} both survive tangling with the crew of Serenity, though only because {{spoiler|Jayne was distracted from killing Niska by River}}, and {{spoiler|no one could stick around to make sure Womack stayed dead when they shot down his ship.}} On the other hand, {{spoiler|Mal bluntly executes Ott by shooting him in the back.}} Several minor villains, i.e. {{spoiler|Dumant}}, {{spoiler|Obrin}}, and {{spoiler|Bascjo}} are outright killed.
* [[Karma Houdini]]: In "Business," {{spoiler|Niska manages to escape a second time after Jayne gets loose and starts cutting off his fingers.}} Later, in "Silver," {{spoiler|Womack manages to survive the destruction of his ship through sheer ice-cold ruthlessness.}}
* [[Killed Mid-Sentence]]: {{spoiler|Gunboat captain Durant}}, who cements his [[Genre Blindness]] by even saying that [[Sedgwick Speech|"They'll never penetrate our hulls or windows with-"]] right before {{spoiler|an armor-piercing grenade punches through the window of his bridge.}}
** In "Last Man", {{spoiler|Brayko}} is killed mid-sentence by {{spoiler|Konstantin}} for protesting that their current course is suicidal.
* [[Kill Him Already]]: Good advice, which both Mal and River follow when dealing with {{spoiler|Ott and Si Quan.}}
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** In the shootout in the warehouse in "Business," River tries to [[Ramming Always Works|ram the doors]] to escape, but doesn't break through, to which Jayne complains "that always works in the vids."
** The sheer number of [[Mooks]] the crew fights at the beginning of "Business" is lampshaded with Mal commenting that "it was like someone had found a discount site on the Cortex for hired goons."
** While Simon is confronting {{spoiler|the Operative}} at the party in "Silver", he bluntly lampshades just how overwhelmingly melodramatic the man is.
** At the beginning of "Mosaic", Wash confesses to "feel like [he's] only alive because of the whims of some silly god."
** In the first chapter of "Charity" Mal lampshades the number of references and in-jokes they're using during the voice-recording scene. This goes meta ''and'' recursive a moment later when River lampshades the lampshading.
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* [[Last-Name Basis]]: The Hands of Blue are only identified by their last names.
* [[Les Yay]]: the brief scene between River and Grace in "Mosiac" is nothing ''but''.
* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: The Hands of Blue, whose blue gloves (and undersuits) are actually a strength- and speed-enhancing suit of low-profile [[Power Armor]]. They're almost blindingly-fast when they need to be, can tank gunfire (and Inara's crossbow bolts) and hit like sledgehammers.
* [[Mama Bear]]: Zoe in "Charity", particularly when the mercenaries assault the chapel.
** {{spoiler|Then it's called into question when Katie is outed as an Inducer, since she outright states that she was manipulating those feelings in Zoe because she wanted a mother. Of course, Inducers can't do anything with feelings that aren't already there, so she likely does have those tendencies; they were just being driven [[Up to Eleven]] by Katie.}}
** It also appears to have left a pretty heavy effect on Zoe after she realized what had happened.
{{quote|
* [[Manly Tears]]: In the epilogue for "Hunt," Wash has to leave the infirmary when Simon finishes reading the letter River wrote him, because he felt he shouldn't be there while the doctor cried, noting that "it was a man thing."
* [[Meaningful Background Event]]: Throughout the "Charity" arc, there a number of minor scenes involving {{[spoiler| Zoe and a young, terrified little girl from the village named Katie.}} Most of these scenes are small and mentioned in passing, and are generally forgettable. Except {{spoiler|Katie is an Inducer.}}
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** Captain Earnest Townsend, who happens to be captain of an Alliance frigate named the ''Hemmingway.''
** There's also Echo, which is likely also a reference to ''[[Dollhouse]]''.
*** And River's callsign during a training mission at the Academy was "Alpha." Very, ''very'' clear references to ''Dollhouse'' there.
** {{spoiler|River}} naming the sword [[The Ophelia|"Laertes."]]
* [[Mind Manipulation]]: The {{spoiler|"Inducer" psychics appear to control emotions and responses in people.}}
* [[Mind Rape]]: River explicitly accuses {{spoiler|Colonel Dannett}} of the "mundane torture" version when confronting him at the end of ''Silver''. {{spoiler|The "Inducer" psychics}} can do the "psychic attack" variant to people.
* [[Mind Screw]]: Quite a few of River's loopier moments, especially in the two interludes focusing on her. There's a particularly screwy moment where River hallucinates Jubal Early coming after her, which threw more than one reviewer for a loop, as {{spoiler|Early actually ''is'' alive and ''is'' hunting for her}}.
* [[Moe]]: "Chocolate. ''Now.''"
* [[Mook Horror Show]]: In "Mosaic," when River tears apart Ott's goons, the scene shows just how horrifying she is to them.
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** ''Last Man'' appears set to explain one of Jayne's canonical noodle incidents - specifically, the six men who came to kill him.
** Another [[Noodle Incident]] is mentioned in the same story - the "Boros job" that the Six Rifles went on. Precisely what happened isn't clear, but there was apparently [[Noodle Implements|a cross-dresser involved]], they got into a shootout with twenty federal marshals, and the Syrian removed shrapnel from "new and interesting places" on the Brit.
* [[Not So Different]]: River accuses Inducer One-One-Nine of being no different than the Academy's agents. This causes some consternation [[Villainous Breakdown|on One-One-Nine's part.]]
** In "Condor", Mal claims Obrin is just like the
* [[Oh Crap]]: {{spoiler|Niska}} has a truely epic one when {{spoiler|Jayne starts cutting off his fingers.}}
**** A minor one comes when {{spoiler|Niska contacts the Alliance about River's bounty:}}
{{quote|
* [[Older Than They Look]]: The author holds firmly to the "canon" dates of Mal's birth, putting him in his fifties.
* [[One-Man Army]]: {{spoiler|What appears to be Nemo}} in the opening scenes of each chapter of "Silver," which depicts him/her massacring more than two dozen armed men with guns using only a blade.
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** In "Charity," it is shown ''why'' she has this reaction. {{spoiler|Whenever she kills someone in close-combat, River is exposed to a full blast of both their emotions and their personal history, both of which are immediately cut off when they die in a manner that is apparently deeply disturbing.}}
* [[Override Command]]: Hardwired override controls are in in every Alliance ship, apparently. The codes for activating these are known only to high-ranking officials and Operatives. {{spoiler|And a certain psychic.}}
* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: "Riverthink," an...''odd''...way of showing River's confused mental processes. Most of the text in the story is left aligned, but the text during River's thoughts is centered, with a mixture of text changes, including bolds, italics, underlines, and capitalizations. Mixed in with a combination of non-sequiters, [[Cloudcuckoolander]] babbling, random thoughts, and semi-coherent perceptions, it does a ''really'' good job showing River's screwy mind.
** In the eighth chapter of "Charity" this gets turned on its head: {{spoiler|an Inducer grabs River's hand, and through tactile contact is able to control her mind. This is signified by the text suddenly becoming normal, left-aligned, with no embellishments and the prose being completely clear and lucid.}}
* [[Papa Wolf]]: Take a wild guess...
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* [[Plot Threads]]: The series ties together three concurring plots: Mal's personal war with Niska, River coming to terms with her trauma at the hands of {{spoiler|Niska}} and the Academy, and Book's explorations of the data needle pertaining to {{spoiler|the Academy's operations}}. There are several smaller threads that have developed over the series as well, including {{spoiler|Zoe's pregnancy}}, {{spoiler|Ashley looking for Kaylee}}, {{spoiler|Echo hunting for Serenity}}, and {{spoiler|whatever the hell it is that the Operative is doing.}}
* [[Powered Armor]]: {{spoiler|the Hands of Blue}}.
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: In "Last Man," the Frenchman's response to the American missing what should have been an easy shot is "Baise?" ([[Bilingual Bonus|the French word for "fuck."]]) This is pretty much [[The Unintelligible|the only actual word he's spoken in the story]].
* [[Pregnant Badass]]: {{spoiler|Zoe}}, as of the "Mosiac" arc.
* [[Private Military Contractors]]: The "Talon" mercenaries in "Charity," who are apparently part of a big interplanetary mercenary firm called "Skyhawk Intervention."
** The Six Rifles are an elite six-man mercenary team.
* [[Psychic-Assisted Suicide]]: {{spoiler|One of the villagers in the "Charity" episode was forced to commit suicide after being used as a murder weapon by an Inducer; this is one of the clues that allows Book to piece together who was really behind the events of that episode.}}
** "Hunt" opens with a particularly chilling example of this as {{spoiler|Katie}} forces a Blue Sun worker to commit suicide by pushing him past the [[Despair Event Horizon]].
* [[Psychic Powers]]: Four known "types" of psychics are revealed in the data that {{spoiler|Book recovers in "Condor"}}: Blanks, Kinetics, Inducers, and [[The Empath|Empaths]], the latter of which River is noted to be the strongest.
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* [[Put on a Bus]]: {{spoiler|Mal}} after "Charity," after {{spoiler|he gets shot and beaten, rendering him comatose}}.
* [[Ramming Always Works]]: Well, Serenity doesn't carry any guns, but the ship is a pretty damned durable, so it works in a pinch in more than one case.
* [[Reality Ensues]]:
** When the [[Arrogant Kung Fu Guy|martial arts master]] charges the girl with the revolver, guess who wins?
** When River is on the ground and being chased by pirates in a spacecraft, {{spoiler|the backwash from their thrusters hits her, picks her up, and slams her into a boulder, apparently breaking her legs and leaving her immobilized.}}
* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: Jayne {{spoiler|''sets himself on fire''}} to save the rest of the crew.
* [[Remember That You Trust Me]]: River and Zoe have this conversation in "Charity" when River becomes worried that Zoe is afraid of her instability.
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* [[Revenge by Proxy]]: the entire reason why {{spoiler|Niska}} kidnaps {{spoiler|Jayne and River}} during "Business."
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: {{spoiler|Jayne corners Niska and slices of several fingers once he gets free.}}
* [[Rule of Cool]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] by the author in one of his notes: "'' {{spoiler|River}} now has a sword that tazes people.''"
* [[Running Gag]]: ''"...the not-so-[good/fine/great] ship'' Serenity''.''"
** Mr. Quinn ''cannot'' ever finish speaking his code phrase without being interrupted.
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** It isn't helped by the fact that the author both openly ships River/Jayne and has no objections to River/Mal. The author is steadfastly neutral in the [[Ship-to-Ship Combat]] within the ''[[Firefly]]'' fandom.
** The the "Charity" arc has this in ''spades'' between River and Jayne.
{{quote|
** And then {{spoiler|brutally subverted. River and Jayne actually ''do'' start making out, but this is because Inducer One-One-Nine is apparently distracting River from noticing her by making her focus on Jayne.}}
*** Except that {{spoiler|Induced feelings don't go away. They stay. So from now on, River and Jayne are going to feel a lot of lust for one another}}.
*** And also, according to {{spoiler|Katie}}, {{spoiler|Inducers can't generate emotions that aren't already there, hey can only enhance ones that already exist.}}
*** "Hunt" has a small scene where River stops to look at Jayne, and he makes her feel, ahem, ''warm''.
* [[Shock and Awe]]: River eventually gains access to an electro-sword which is essentially a Chinese ''jian'' that channels electricity.
* [[Shoot the Dog]]: Zoe {{spoiler|killing Kathryn.}}
* [[Shout-Out]]/ [[Actor Allusion]]: Countless. The author ''loves'' these.
== Shout Outs ==
* The Biofoam. I can't remember that ever showing up in Firefly, but a dedicated ''[[Halo]]'' fan knows what Biofoam is, and the canister that sprays it fitting the exact description.
** Going by the description, its the same stuff that Simon used on Zoe's injuries in the movie. The name is, however, a shout-out to ''[[Halo]]''.
** Mal and Jayne later take on call signs based on Voice Acting roles their actors later played in Halo 3: ODST.
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** During the climax of Mosiac, one of Ott's goons cries out that [[Team Fortress 2|she punched out ALL MY BLOOD!]]
** A very, very subtle one occurs in the epilogue of the Adrift arc. Wash comments that he hopes Mal won't bake him a "Big Damn Cake," to which Zoe replies that he's probably just kidding, [[Stealth Pun|which means that the cake is]] [[Portal (series)|....]]
** Another subtle one occurs earlier in the same arc, where Mal tells Jayne to go find River, and to [[
*** Which can be [[Fridge Brilliance]], when one considers the [[Big Brother Instinct]] Jayne has developed towards River by that point.
** [[The Adventures of Dr. McNinja|They can't grab Jayne if he's on fire.]]
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*** The executive officer on the ''Hemmingway'' is named Pressly, which is the same name as the ''SSV Normandy's'' XO.
** The Bible quotes Book speaks while {{spoiler|fighting off the Reavers}} bear an awful similarity to certain lines spoken by [[Hellsing|Father Alexander Anderson]].
** [[24|"I need a hacksaw."]]
*** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by the author in the notes. "Is Mal channelling some Jack Bauer? Because I think that's Mal channelling some Jack Bauer."
** In "Mosaic", Wash flies over an area and comments [[X Wing Series|"Pretty. What do we blow up first?"]]
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*** River's sixth sense for electronics contradicts the theory of a scientist named [[Doctor Who|Gallifrey]].
** In the "Silver" arc, Jayne comes across an artifact in a museum: an "electrosword" owned by an [[Earth-That-Was]] general named [[Fallout|"Jingwei."]]
*** Also in ''Silver'' River ambushes Dannet by [[Watchmen (comics)|leaping at him out of the fridge.]]
*** In the "Silver" epilogue, River suggests a name for Wash and Zoe's child: [[Dollhouse|Caroline.]]
*** The author wrote the character Dumont with Timothy Dalton's performance as Simon Skinner in ''[[Hot Fuzz]]'' in mind, though he didn't originally intend any direct reference.
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*** The author is an admitted fan of ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. The current arc focuses heavily on Zoe and apparently themes of motherhood, and is named "[[Mama Bear|Charity]]". That ''can't'' be a coincidence.
*** Later on, Mal calls Wash "Merlin" in reference to his "aerial wizardy." Wash's response is to outright say he's "more of a Dresden" wizard.
** No mention of Book's [[Gaunt's Ghosts|Vermillion]]-[[Warhammer
** In "Charity", while sneaking past customs, Mal and Jayne go by the fake names of [[Halo|"Buck" and "Dutch."]] There's also a mention of [[Gears of War|rustlung disease.]]
** Also in "Charity", there's a group of mercenaries called [[Fallout 3|Talon Company]].
** The leader of the Talon Company mercs is Commander Bascjo, which is an anagram for Commander Jabsco, who is the leader of Talon Company in ''Fallout 3''.
* Don't forget in "Condor," with Wash's dinosaur Spartacus.
** "[[
** In Chapter Six of "Charity," River mentions they could all be killed by a [[Dead Like Me|deorbiting toilet.]] That same chapter also has a captured mercenary who is thin, blond, handsome, rather talkative and forthcoming, speaks with a vaguely Spanish accent, and whose name is [[Dragon Age|"Zev."]]
* Inara's high-tech-looking bow is referred to as a [[Gears of War|"torque bow"]].
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* River hallucinates Book telling her to [[The Dark Knight Trilogy|"Look! At! Me!"]]
* In the epilogue of Mosaic, when Mal asks River about what happened to her, River starts refering to herself in third person and says, "But she doesn't want to be there. She... I... doesn't want to go back," which is very similar to the dialogue from the I Remember Me mission in [[Mass Effect]].
* "Blanks," or people who are immune to psychics, are a possible reference to [[Warhammer
* In "Last Man," the flashback to Jayne's encounter with the Six Rifles takes place in a town with a climate that distinctly matches the Northwestern United States. The town is named [[Alan Wake|Fallbright]].
* Per [[Word of God]]: "Any perceived similarity to ''[[The Expendables]]'' is unintentional. Any perceived similarity to ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]'' is likely somewhat intentional."
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** [[Shower of Love]]: Jayne and Ashley in "Condor"
* [[Shown Their Work]]: The author goes on a short spiel about why Vera's bullets ''would'' actually work in a no-oxygen environment, and then comes up with a plausible explanation as to why Vera's bullets actually ''don't'' fire very well in a vacuum.
** The author put a bit of research into Arabic naming conventions, which shows in the "Fourth Interlude."
* [[Shrug of God]]: The final scene of "Business," where River is shown waking up, sitting down next to an unidentified male crewmember, and thanking him for bringing her home, is left open to reader interpretation as to who she is speaking to. The scene is rendered in "Riverthink" and therefore the name of whoever it is happens to be left unclear. It could be Mal, Jayne, or possibly even Book or Wash, depending on the interpretation.
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]: Quite possibly as a backswing to the [[Grimdark]] of ''[[
* [[Stalker with a Crush]]: {{spoiler|John Garis/Echo}} appears to be one of these toward {{spoiler|River.}}
* [[Stealth Hi Bye]]: River pulls these occasionally, and Inara does one as well, complete with a bit of [[Lampshade Hanging]] by Simon.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: The events of "Adrift" force the crew to choose between {{spoiler|letting Simon die from his injuries or going to the Alliance for help.}} This puts them between a rock and a hard place, which is literally the predicament Mal finds himself in for most of the first chapter.
** In "Silver" the following conversation happens:
{{quote|
Book: If not, it shall be bloody. }}
* [[Suddenly Sexuality]]: Subverted in Mosiac, where River has a brief lesbian makeout session. However, it turns out that River ''doesn't'' like girls, but she was drunk and confused, and there are hints at other, darker reasons behind the incident, relating to River's past at the Academy.
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* [[Town with a Dark Secret]]: Too early to be certain, but {{spoiler|the unnamed village in "Charity" may be one of these.}}
** Confirmed. {{spoiler|They're apparently being controlled by an Inducer-type psychic.}}
* [[Traintop Battle]]: Played with in the climax of "Charity" - mercenary troops are rappelling down onto the train, but the crew fights them by shooting at them as they come down, from the sides of the train, as the top of the train has no cover.
* [[Trauma Conga Line]]: Pick an arc. Either River ''or'' Mal will get conga'd - possibly both at the same time.
* [[The Undefeated]]: The Browncoats under {{spoiler|Obrin's}} command.
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* [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?]]: River, when confronted by {{spoiler|Si Quan}}, ''does'' just shoot him.
* [[World of Cardboard Speech]]: Simon has one when Zoe hints that his fear for his sister might get in the way of a rescue operation.
{{quote|
''So do not look at me, and tell me I cannot ''damned well'' be cold when I need to be to save someone I love.'' }}
** River's letter to Simon at the end of "Hunt" is nothing but this.
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** In the flashbacks, after River {{spoiler|tries to kill herself}}, John Garis assures her that she isn't alone.
* [[You Can Barely Stand]]: River and Jayne at the end of the "Business" arc, when they are confronted by the {{spoiler|Hands of Blue.}}
* [[You Have Failed Me...]]: {{spoiler|The Operative executing Obrin at the end of "Condor"}}
* [[You Shall Not Pass]]: In "Adrift," when {{spoiler|Book charges the Reavers to keep them from getting to River.}}
* [[Your Head Asplode]]: {{spoiler|Zoe smashing in Marietta's head with Mal's sledgehammer.}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Fanfic]]
[[Category:Firefly (franchise)/Fan Works]]
[[Category:Fan Works of the 2000s]]
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