On Firefly: The World, The War

Uploaded September 20, 2039
Part 3 coming week after next week. Extended discussion of Civil War and Lord of the rings as well as Part 3 available on Patreon.com/spacefeather
A review of Firefly, with emphasis on the Civil War setting. Follow me on Twitter @cameronbyerly
If you’ll forgive me, I am not interested in learning how the KZbin works, so I’m gonna start throwing tag words in here and hope for the best. I worked on this for more than a year so I’m gonna try everything.
Firefly, Joss Whedon, sci fi, reputation, favorite, best, Space Cowboys, recommend, cult classic, hidden gem, canceled, Nathan Fillion, Alan Wash, History
#Firefly #Fireflyreview #review #spacefeather review #screenwriting
And Mandaloregaming recommended I put this in here: 579 #579

[@EricRedbear]

Dear algorithm, thank you for bringing this man into my life! After watching both Firefly videos and the Max Headroom video I realize I need to watch each of them four more times to digest the dense complexity. Of course, a man being 20 years in the future has more time to analyze each of these topics than I have. Shut Up And Take My Money!

[@nickdeathpool9529]

Touche good sir.

[@TheSunshineVault]

The final Jubal Early joke is mayb the best thing you’ve ever done.

[@hhairball9]

Something about each of the main characters...I just fell in love with them! By the end of the pilot episode, they felt like family. Even Jayne. ( and yes, I own a Jayne hat. I also named my rusty, 1972 Chevelle, Serenity. "I aim to misbehave " is embroidered on my backpack. My t shirt says, " you are beginning to damage my calm". ) Thank you for doing these videos!

[@danforward14]

I aim to misbehave. This was great. Going back and watching this in my later years- this show did a wonderful job of painting the picture of the repercussions of war torn idealism. But, maybe that's just me seeing my own reflection in this fiction.

[@Soupdude338]

Loved the star wars holiday special reference. Truly the epitome of star wars lore.

[@TwixersTwingersnap]

hot danm, this is a good one! can't wait for part 3

[@richardround2071]

Your channel is great. Its nice to see a more positive video essay channel.

[@scofah]

Could have watched another hour of this. Loved it.👏🏿👏🏻👏🏾👏 Thank you also for **not** having that shitty background music that KZbin essayists put behind their videos.

[@russellwboss]

Incredibly well-formed, sharply-produced, and easily digestible breakdown of a unique piece of media. You have renewed my long-held passion for this show and introduced my adult self to something that defined a younger iteration of me's understanding of powerful storytelling.

[@CosmoShidan]

You know that it's a denial the US civil war was about slavery right?

[@Davidrinius]

I absolutely adore your editing style! I'm really glad I found your channel and can't wait for part 3. At least I have the privilege to binge watch your videos for the first time now!

[@spacecase0]

I have watched Firefly so many times that it's hard for me to watch it again because I know everything. My next favorite show would be The Magicians. Dark matter of being right up there with the two of them. Not sure what that means about me. But there's a very few things I will watch more than once

[@jamiehosmer1481]

Love your list. Based on your name and choices you should check out The Expanse (if for some reason you haven't). That one has significant rewatchability.

[@spacecowboy426]

Found my new favorite channel!

[@fuglyorphan]

Wow that 17 mins went by fast. Great video. Time to watch it again and pause it to read all of the text that I did not read the first time through.

[@mcgregor711]

I'm really liking your channel. Thank you. Started with max.

[@dionisistheambivalent1553]

idk what this is, but I can't wait!

[@FureyinHD]

Wow wasn't expecting you to fire shots at the Horus Heresy in the first 10 seconds 😢

[@madiantin]

Whaaa. Why? Why do I have to wait a week? Noooooooooooo. Also the "Uploaded September 20 2039" is vastly amusing. You have my thanks.

[@carsoncasmirri3874]

Considering I had family on both sides that I have read and I can say in the way of motives it is rarely so cut and dry. The main reason my family fought is because their state picked a side and that is the long and short of it. Most common soldiery aren’t true believers just willing to do what they have to for who they have loyalty for. Even then that only goes so far. Oddly Game of Thrones said it best. The small folk don’t care about high and mighty ideals. They care about having enough to eat and drink and enough room to raise a family

[@CosmoShidan]

The ones who didn't care about fighting for slavery in the Confederacy, were either Confederate army deserters like Mark Twain, or Unionist insurgents who waged guerrilla warfare in the Deep South. The soldiers and citizens who supported the Confederacy were in it for slavery, and were promised slaves as a reward.

[@sehajt]

Just came across your channel, some really good stuff! I really enjoy your style!

[@billyb6001]

If this don't blow up, I'm mot gonna be happy

[@ricktherock]

Jayne is the only GOAT.

[@yourverybestfriend1263]

The hype is real.

[@Devfns]

You are right on about it not being the war that was mirrored. Instead it was the post war that was more mirrored. Foul leaders on both sides that didn't go away or really stop after, over reach by an incompetent central government, punishment and neglect of those that lived in the areas that rebelled even if they didn't support the rebellion themselves, lack of prospects at home for many former soldiers on both sides, and the push to places that were more free and open for opportunities where it mattered much less who you were or where you were during the war. The wild west type setting is generally very libertarian friendly.

[@CosmoShidan]

Though, Firefly is still a contribution to the lost cause myth, in which slavery is erased from history. The show doesn't get off the hook that easily.

[@Zeithri]

6:15 - " _A veritable repository of knowledge! ..... This is the inside of a POLICE STATION!_ " - Mike Dawson, Dark Seed 😆

[@nathanwilens5611]

Please do an entire video on Doctor Doom

[@overdressed]

Firefly was so impossible interesting, funny and unique.

[@karolisr]

Waiting...

[@joegrimes9232]

Abewala. A creole ex Alliance soldier cum Pirate. Used by "the consortium" he is tasked with a Job. Simple job. A bit on Abe. He was involved with the war. He was a good soldier and became a member of "The Hyenas" a group who did essentially shady operations and were known for tenacity and "laughing at the Face of Death. There came an order. To kill any Browncoat they encountered. Abe refused and after the war was a penniless drifter. He became a sort of corsair. He's physically imposing and wears his old Alliance Jacket. He's a short on words, big on results guy.... Buuuuuut well. He gets unravelled as time goes on... His story doesn't get involved until about a few years after the events of Serenety. The Alliance looses a lot of face and crime... Sorta on the up. "the consortium" rises. They peg Abe for a job.. But this time it requires certain critera. Enter Mal. Now alone he's frequenting bars. The consortium specifically asked for this man.... Mal agrees with 2 Caveats - 1 - your job? My crew. 2- I want my Ship. Firefly. Serenity. Begrudgingly Abe agrees and brings Mal to his ship. Music swells. Nostalgia.. Then "that's not my ship." "yes she's a firefly. Look" "it's green" "ffffff ok. I coldn't find your ship. Come maybe she flies like her?" "I had a pilot" "you... Mmmm my god. I had to pull so many strings to find a s**pile, you don't even fly it? " "I did, but you know. Pilot is better" "I'll fly it" "mmm..." The as yet un named s**pile is like Serenity, but... Off. A metaphor for a sequel story going forward. The pilot seat is on the left, rather than right. There's a larger crew deck. Final scene of Ep1. Abewala is showing Mal in the ship. Mal is not impressed, then a wall panel falls off and the lights cut out - black screen. Beat. "she'll do."

[@Condorinflight]

This is really great! Great video, great subject, thank you.

[@RangerXML]

And here comes my "Well actually" moment, the Browncoats may have actually been the bad guys, we only really see the fringes of the Alliance and corrupt contractors (think Pinkertons and corrupt gov't agents) and ambivalence/down right ignorance of the actual Alliance military/gov't. Mal isn't as much loyal to the Browncoats as we see how he treats his superior officers, as he is to the people and he may have a personal hatred of the Alliance and something that happened in his past, to his family and their farm/homestead. He states several times how everyone thinks he is fighting a war that is long over and he is loyal to the losing side, seeing him as black and white, but than he says that no one knows the whole truth, like his past that is always hinted at. I wish the story would have continued and the true complexity of that world would have taken shape, the world is by no means black and white, its a world that was far more grey than we actually got to see.

[@CosmoShidan]

The Browncoats are stand-ins for the KKK. I mean Firefly glorifies the Lost Cause myth in that it's denying that the US Civil War was about slavery.

[@nrpbrown]

Damn i miss this show

[@PrincessNine]

Seeing clips from the wrong anime(bebop) instead of Outlaw Star is so weird to me as a fan of both because it feels like people in love with firefly are afraid to just point out how eerily close they are

[@Otokichi786]

I once tried to watch "Outlaw Star" on Adult Swim, years ago, but it's "Made for Tweens" posturing turned me back to "Cowboy bebop." With Jet and Spike, there's nothing about dating, dances, or pranks to get even. But then, I didn't find "Trigun" too off putting in spite of Vash's kid-like escapades and viewpoint.

[@NedWasHere94]

Ayn Rand. “EYEnd, RONd.” You’re welcome.

[@PavewayJDAM]

This whole video is a Stargate to the black pill verse.

[@metaforest]

You are killin' it! Outstanding work!

[@terrypold]

Why was it cancelled? Answer that and youanswer, life the universe and everything. 42.

[@tabithamartin4092]

That was 17 minutes of saying NOTHING...

[@skenzyme81]

The CSA was libertarian in the sense that they were seeking EXIT. A sort of second American War of Independence. The Union played the role of King George, terrified of losing the trade and tax proceeds.

[@TheSunshineVault]

This suggests ‘smaller government’ is more important than ‘human rights’. If 2 murderous cannibals tried to go kill and eat people, IN SPITE of their 100 friends, I wouldn’t say they were ‘more libertarian, in a sense’ because there were LESS of them. Their non-cannibal friends aren’t ‘serving the part of King George’, they just don’t want those two to go kill and eat people.

[@CosmoShidan]

Yes, which was over slavery of course.

[@gnetkuji]

I very much disagree with your line here. In the video you draw a separation between Malcolm/The Browncoats and the real life Confederacy, and that division is based around libertarianism wherein you correctly assert that the Confederacy was not libertarian at all. This would be fine and perfectly correct if not for the fact that we live in a world in which the "Lost Cause" Myth exists. You're right that the Browncoats are not accurate representations of the Confederacy as they actually existed, but they *are* representative of the way the South *retconned* the Confederacy. The Confederacy was all about slavery and white supremacy, but the Southern narrative about the confederacy has long since become about "States Rights" and "Small Government" where many, or maybe even most, of the soldiers totally didn't fight for slavery, often personally abhorred slavery, widely recruited black soldiers, and other absolute works of fiction invented by post-reconstruction revisionists to put a better spin on their short-lived proto-fascist experiment. It's a complete fabrication, of course, but it's the story they tell themselves and others through endless cultural propaganda. Cultural propaganda that, sadly, Firefly now stands as part of. Maybe Joss Wheadon had bought into the Lost Cause framing of the war even if he still believed the correct side won. He certainly wouldn't be the first. And he certainly isn't the sole reason, or even a major reason, for Confederate Revivalism today. But by putting the Lost Cause in his show, he *did* create yet another in a long line of outlets for Southerners to claim they're merely "taking pride in their culture" when they rewatch Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind every Easter Sunday. Its this sort of thing that tells me that while you're a decent person, you're likely not a historian in training. I see supposedly *historian* youtubers misunderstand or entirely forget about the Lost Cause myth all the time and it frightens me because it signals just how incredibly untrained they are in the topic. Lost Cause narratives are part of first-year college courses on 20th century history in practically every school in the country. It's part of the reason the GOP absolutely despises colleges so much and think the institutions are brainwashing children to become liberals. From a certain perspective, if you consider analyzing relevant primary and secondary documents about the Civil War and coming to the conclusion that the South was not only a Nazi Germany that hadn't invented Zyklon B yet, but that the bulk of American culture has lied about it ever since to be "brain washing" then yes, that's pretty much exactly what colleges are doing. Little wonder so few students graduate and become GOP voters. My point being, you're refuting the comparison between the Browncoats and the historical Confederacy and that's easy enough, but you have entirely failed to refute the comparison between the Browncoats and the American cultural *perception* of the Confederacy. Especially insidious when you consider the show as having a dedicated Browncoat repudiate Jubal Early, an obscure reference to extreme bigotry within the historical Confederacy. As such, as a piece of Lost Cause narrative fiction, Firefly ranks only mildly better than Gods and Generals, but only in so much as at least it doesn't try to make a literalist argument for the Myth and instead reserves its assumptions for its allegory.

[@TheSunshineVault]

This is interesting, but I’m wondering about your final Jubal Early point. The show makes a big deal about what a villain Jubal early is, and as the video says throws him off the ship; is that not enough to separate the history of the American civil war from the sci-if elements? The historical allegory can be so subtle that my brothers thought it was revolutionary war. I get the ‘have your cake and eat it too’, but I always liked how careful Firefly was with all of its influence

[@gnetkuji]

@@TheSunshineVault "Hey look, these confederates repudiate the clearly villainous Jubal Early. That's because he was just an outlier. The confederacy *wasn't* about slavery or white supremacy!" Finding a scapegoat to push all of the confederacy's crimes off onto and then repudiating *that guy* is not enough to free them from allegorical propaganda, no.

[@CosmoShidan]

I absolutely agree with your points friend of friends. I do want to add, one other aspect of Lost Causer rhetoric that never gets touched upon, is how the character of Zoe Washburn is another piece of Neo-Confederate propaganda. And that is, she's part of the myth of Black Confederate soldiers, of which there were none whatsoever. In the series, she's depicted as a soldier who fought in the space Confederacy's army, which is meant to be an allegory of the myth of the Black Confederate trooper.

[@shaun469]

Eh. Turning firefly into something political is beyond stupid. Find a hobby.

[@SynymynBuhnz]

Wait... Wait a fucking minute... I've watched the whole thing and the movie too many multiple times to count and I have never once thought about it being some Confederacy thing, literally never, and I'm only set 01:38 into this video

[@TheChiraagG]

I'm not even American but I made that leap before, albeit thinking the Browncoat ideology was different, I still equated it as "the losing side" but as opposed to the Confederacy I was more open to Mal's opinions about it "not being the wrong one". Interesting show.

[@CosmoShidan]

When I watched the show for the first time, I was absolutely baffled and only deepened my disliking of the show. When I found out what an arse Joss Whedon is, it only made me hate it more. It's basically denying the US civil war was fought over slavery in promoting what is called the Lost Cause.

[@Fenris77]

It was acnelled because FOX was and still is a bunch of *expletive tirade about certain people's ancestry and inellectual capacities*

[@JazzGuitarScrapbook]

Tim Minear is a libertarian

[@Szeptun]

Way too fast. If you make a joke or try to lay out an idea then give a moment to understand what's happening. I've felt left out almost entire time and started to feel anxious.

[@intermixhector2902]

1:33 any you saying why not going to be anything you wont win but you can explain it wish you talking so contradicted nonces no is not i never seen your face why saying god god or american open portal how why end who goodbye