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* I was spoiled for the part of ''Serenity'' when {{spoiler|Wash}} dies. Then I listened to the commentary, and Joss pointing out that he wanted to make it ''absolutely clear'' to the audience that the heroes might die. Not to mention it's consistent with the highly cynical universe. Not only was it subverting {{spoiler|[[Contractual Immortality]]}}, but it was ''also'' subverting {{spoiler|a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].}}
** I didn't actually get ''all'' of the signifigance of the final scene between {{spoiler|Mal}} and River at the end of the movie until a few years after seeing it. Specifically, as {{spoiler|Mal}} is telling River about love, she is curling up in the copilot's chair, wrapping her arms around her knees, in a [[Fetal Position Rebirth]] - ''exactly'' like she had been shown in the very first scene she appeared in in the pilot, except in this case, she's awake, clothed, sitting up, and calmly smiling, while in the pilot she'd been u exactly unconscious, naked, lying down, and awoke screaming. The contrast and the symbolism - that River's struggles in the series and movie have led her to take a hand in her own destiny instead of being a helpless, gibbering wreck, was beautiful and so very subtle.
** Whoa. That's brilliant. You just blew my mind.
** And, for another commentary-inflicted moment: why does River "want to hear" Mal say his piece? Because hearing is [[I Just Want to Be Normal|what normal people do]], instead of reading minds; plus, she's overjoyed to be able to understand without her crazy getting in the way.
*** For a long time, I didn't quite get why River learning of what happend on Miranda sent her crazy. After reading a post Serenity drwho/firefly crossover where River is pretty much sane however, I finally understood: River didn't just learn of what happend, she ''felt'' what happen to every person and it shows how strong River really is that it didn't kill her.
*** River would have only been seven when Miranda happened, and while she might have had some kind of power even before she went to the Academy, I doubt she'd have felt it strong enough to kill her, if she felt it at all.
**** I'm pretty sure the above troper is talking about when she feels the echoes of the disaster after they land, not when it actually happened.
***** It may actually be both. Remember that in the series, Simon's exam establishes that River has no emotional filters. Essentially, her problem is the exact opposite of a sociopath's: she has *too much* empathy. If she were to unwittingly pluck the Miranda secret from a high ranking official's mind -- not just hear about it on the news, but be exposed to it, unwillingly, in its totality -- it's not hard to imagine that it could overwhelm her mentally and emotionally, especially when you consider the torturous situation she lived in at the time.
** On my third viewing of ''Serenity'', I realized that not only does the Alliance avert the typical SciFi [[Card-Carrying Villain|Card Carrying Villainy]], but they're actually a much greater threat because of it. Anyone with half a brain can see that people like [[Star Wars|Emperor Palpatine or Grand Moff Tarkin]] are incredible assholes and should be resisted. And even if they do manage to cow the populace into staying in line, the populace will be exactly that, cowed into staying in line and not deviating from their predefined role when really, in order for a society to prosper, people need to be free to change and evolve. But with a set up like The Alliance, people won't really realize what's going on until after they are affected by it; who cares if some little girl gets her brain cut up as long as its for "The Greater Good" (provided, of course, that it's not their sister getting her brain cut up -- but by the time that happens, it'll be too late).
*** This! For the whole series, the incentive is to say "Yes, the Alliance was mean to River, and their officers are a little humorless, but their goal is for everyone to live in a shiny democratic utopia free from want, and the Mal's goal is effectively for everyone to live on mudballs ruled by petty dictators and thugs. Then the Big Damn Movie happens, and Miranda strikes everyone as completely in character for the Alliance, and puts things in perspective.
*** In the end, it's not so much about Good vs Evil as it Law vs Chaos.
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** A solo River taking down an entire army of Reavers (who don't even have the disadvantage of fear, or of hesitance at attacking a little girl) seemed a little unrealistic ([[Rule of Cool|if awesome]]) [[Waif Fu|even for her]]. Then the Alliance arrives direct through the wall and makes the backdrop even more campy. It took me a few viewings to realize the connection: River won partially because the Reavers who hadn't gotten in the room yet were suddenly attacked from behind by the approaching Alliance troops, splitting their attention.
*** Bear in mind that River was probably designed for such a purpose.
**** The Reavers are a result of {{spoiler|an Alliance experiment to create a perfect world gone horribly wrong}}; River is the result of {{spoiler|an Alliance experiment to create a perfect soldier to fight the Reavers gone horribly wrong}}. The Alliance just will not learn their lesson, will they?
**** Aren't both of these examples of their projects [[Gone Horribly Right]]? They wanted a world perfectly at peace? They got one. They wanted a psychic commando? They got one of those, too. Even the Reavers can be seen as 'without sin'. There are no criminals among them, no coercion, even. Every last one of them is a perfect manifestation of their inherent nature, as innocent as a scorpion. They are not evil, which was exactly what the Alliance was hoping for. The twist is that they are _also_ simply too dangerous to be allowed to exist.
** All of this ultimately validates Mal's warning: "...sure as I know anything, I know this: they will try again." The experiments on River as well as Miranda are proof that they will continue to try to make people better. They will not stop.
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{{quote|'''The Operative''': "A lot of innocent people are being killed in the air right now."
'''Mal''': "You have no idea how true that is." }}
*** In other words, the Reavers themselves are innocents, victims of {{spoiler|the Alliance's experiments who can't help what they became}}. If that line is any indication, Mal is not placing any blame on them for what they're doing even though {{spoiler|Wash was killed barely half-an-hour ago, if that}}. The only people to blame for the events of the movie - events which include a chain that seems to be leading to {{spoiler|their inevitable ''destruction''}} are [[Hoist by His Own Petard|the Alliance themselves]].
* First viewing: Wait - Simon knew all along that River was designed to be a mind-reading assassin? But he played dumb during the series, even when the crew's life might depend on it. What an outrageous retcon! Also, it's completely out of character for Mal to abandon Simon and River. Second viewing: Oh, so ''that's'' what was eating Mal about the Tams....
** In fact, this is an important bone of contention later on after River rips apart the bar. Mal gets ''pissed'' at Simon because he wasn't telling them everything he knew about River's conditioning, and it ''really'' comes out when he confronts Simon after the brawl.
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*** Determinator. She picked up being a Determinator from Mal. See River go from a gibbering wreck at the end of the movie when the reavers attack, to, well... One Waif Army. Pudding, proof, enjoy.
*** And from Simon. The entire crew's made up of determinators but the only one as big at is as Mal, is Simon.
* Another one here. Remember after River was triggered by his programming and created a brawl before stopping, and then Mal and Zoe are trying to decide what to do with her after that, knowing she's dangerous? Well, right after that, River has a conversation with Simon (sort of) where she says "They're afraid of me. Well, I'll show them. Oh, God." Newsflash - she is ''not'' referring to the crew of ''Serenity'' alone - she's also referring to {{spoiler|the Alliance, who are becoming desperate to capture of eliminate her before she reveals their secrets}}. Talk about powerful dialogue with multiple meanings. I mean, damn, [[Joss Whedon|Joss]] - just, ''damn''!
* I've come to the theory that the entire war between the Alliance and the Browncoats wasn't about simply becoming a 'monopoly' in the 'Verse. (After all, with better medicines alone, the Alliance could have launched a 'hearts and minds' offensive with their better technology). What, then? Miranda had become a launching point for an entire fleet of Reavers. From at least one instance, there's reason to suspect that it might "catch" (ie, the Stockholm Syndrome making that one guy 'join'). If they left the Independent worlds be, they'd stay free but also disorganized- and either die piecemeal or actually provide 'reinforcements' for their push on to the Core Worlds. Someone in command simply found a pretext to take action. (Probably not out of loving concern for the outer worlds, but out of a sense of self-preservation).
* You would think that after all a self-confessed [[Complete Monster]] like The Operative has done to Mal and his crew, he would have earned himself the mother of all gruesome deaths, like being fed feet-first to the Reavers or something. At first, I had merely thought of Mal sparing The Operative's life as just another of Whedon's many subverted tropes, namely in this how case the good guy always has to kill the bad guy. Okay, Mal showed him the truth about the Alliance, but was that really worse than killing him, really? And then it hit me: a complete loss of faith really was the ''worst'' thing Mal could think to inflict on someone. Because he would know, ''he suffered the exact same thing at Serenity Valley!'' Bravo, Mister Whedon. Bravo.
** There's a deleted scene that makes this more explicit, where the Operative asks Mal how he was able to keep going after Serenity.
* When the Operative asks Mal what his sin is, Mal replies "Hell, I'm a fan of all seven. But right now, I'm gonna have to go with ''wrath''." This seems like a snarky [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner]] -Which is probably what Mal intended it to be- but if you think about it, wrath really is Mal's sin. Most of his actions in the movie were motivated by anger, first at Book's death and then at the knowledge that the Alliance had wiped out an entire planet and created the Reavers attempting to make people "better". Even in the series, while Mal has mostly resigned himself to the Browncoat's defeat, he still hates the Alliance (and depending on your [[Alternate Character Interpretation|interpretation]] of his faith, God) for the war. Had Mal not cut him off, "wrath" is what the Operative would have told him.
* [[Fridge Horror]]
** {{spoiler|When the tape is broadcast at the end, it goes to every single receiver in the galaxy. Think how many young kids must've been innocently watching tv and suddenly they see a woman being horribly raped to death instead.}}
** {{spoiler|Think of all the terrorists, criminals and militants that just saw the broadcast and figured out an awesome new way to spike a planet's drinking water.}}
*** Fortunately, without absurd amounts of funding and a nigh impossible secrecy status (pretty much the sort of thing that only a planetary government [[The Conspiracy|or far greater]] could institute), it's impossible to use {{spoiler|the Pax}} in such a way that it could get past the point of no return by the time it was discovered and stopped.
* Some subtle references: not for nothing is the name Miranda used. Some of the bulkheads on the Alliance ship are more explicit: [[Forbidden Planet|C-57D]]. And what are the reavers, but monsters from the id? O brave new world, that hath such people in it... - cjlr
* The operator goes on about the fact that Mal is “not the plucky hero, the Alliance is not an evil empire, etc.” He promptly gets royally pwned because he forgot that Inara is not the damsel in distress. -Leahweird
** [[Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner|"And that's not incense."]] That move with the flash-bang probably greatly ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|incensed]]'' the Operative.
* Here's some possible [[Fridge Horror]]: Along with Haven, the Operative also ordered everywhere that had sheltered Serenity or had a connection to the ship destroyed. Depending on how extensive that order was (and, let's face it, The Operative was going all out with his mission so it was probably far-reaching), it may have included killing off all or most of the crew's allies from back in the series. Friendly old Warwick Harrow? That loveable [[Space Jew]] from "The Message"? The whorehouse with the baby from "Heart of Gold", bearing in mind that The Operative freely admits he sometimes murders children? No reason to think they may not all be somewhere on the video feed...
** The Operative says he's leaving them "no ground to go to" and Zoe tells Wash to alert anyone who's sheltered them after a heist. It's much more likely the Operative simply wiped out the people who're known to have given Serenity shelter until the heat's off; none of the three you mentioned did that. Plus, bit of a difference between him attacking known hives of scum and villainy and attacking ranking, high class members of the aristocracy and a public institution like the post office.
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* [[Fridge Horror]]: As ''Serenity'' makes its way through Reaver territory, Mal tells Wash to turn off the intercom to spare the crew from hearing the agonized screams of the Reaver victims. One crewmember, however, cannot only still hear the screaming, but can feel the reasons they're screaming.
** Also, River/Reaver.
* Spoilers for the movie. A few items of fridge with the Pax and the reavers.
** First, why would a drug designed to make people peaceful instead turn them into the reavers? For the same reason addicts have to be careful when they quit. Alcohol, for example, is a depressant that stops the brain from functioning. The brain of an alcoholic has to spend its time in overdrive just to stay functional. Remove the alcohol and it takes some time before the brain steps down to normal; the result is hallucinations, delirium, fevers, seizures, convulsions, sometimes death<ref>Not necessarily all at the same time</ref>. A percentage of the population of Miranda developed a tolerance to the Pax<ref>and probably experienced an Apocalyptic nightmare as, for no reason, everyone around them started laying down and dying.</ref>, then went into insane overdrive only after the Pax was removed.
** Every brain reacts differently. For example I get wide awake from sleeping pills and tranquilizers induce an aggressive panic.
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