Why I love Firefly (WARNING: SPOILERS) by pdk

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Why I love Firefly (WARNING: SPOILERS)

POSTED BY: PDK
UPDATED: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 21:47
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VIEWED: 1112
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Wednesday, December 27, 2006 7:42 PM

Like many people on this forum, I love Firefly, I have from the first time I watched it, which sadly was only about a year ago. My one regret is not watching sooner and getting in on the ground floor with the fan hysteria.

So, I got to thinking, why do I love this show so much, more than any other show, to the point where I can watch it over and over and talk about it without it ever getting old? Hell, I dressed up as Jayne for Halloween (and I do, by the way, bear a striking resemblance to Adam Baldwin).

I figured it out. The answer, lies in one of my all-time favorite video games, Final Fantasy VII (overall the best in my opinion, with VI as a close second). Please note that this post contains spoilers for for Firefly/Serenity and Final Fantasy VII. I don't expect this to be a huge problem since the crowd who watches Firefly and the crowd who plays Final Fantasy VII probably has a fair amount of overlap. Still, if you do not want to read anything that may spoil the show/movie/game, STOP READING!!!

(I'm getting tired of typing Firefly and Final Fantasy VII, so I'm just going to say FF and FF7 for them, respectively...cool? I'll also try my best to introduce the FF7 world to people who know nothing about it, but I'm sure I'll fail in that regard).

The first aspect comes in the story. Both FF and FF7 have extremely character-driven stories. While this may often lead to more slowly developing plot lines, I believe that this makes us more attached to the characters, and more attached to the events in which they find themselves. This is especially important to FF7 because you're actively playing as the characters, and it becomes so much more engrossing when you care about them and what they're doing.

I love character-driven stories because it never seems like the characters are along for the ride. They're making the decisions, controlling their own destiny, and you root for them. But enough mindless theory, time to back it up with a few concrete examples. In Serenity [Movie], as the Operative continues to bear down on Mal and the crew, Mal is faced with the $64,000 question, keep running away, or fight back (or give up for that matter). In War Stories, everyone decides to go and break out Mal when they could have easily left because of the danger or sought help from others, and you root for them. Come on, you know you said "Hell yeah" when you saw Jayne with about 12 guns strapped to him ready to take on Niska. In FF7, Cloud (the main character) is about to give Sephiroth (the main baddie) the black materia (which can summon a near-planet-destroying attack), but the game throws an interesting curve ball at you. You take control of a translucent, younger version of Cloud trying to impede himself from doing the obviously stupid. It does not work, he eventually does give up the black materia. This more than likely represents his conscience, and the fact that you are controlling it draws you in deeper.

The character driven story leads me to the second reason I love FF/FF7, the characterization. Everyone has tremendous, thoughtful, and thorough character arcs, the backstories are richly developed and explain things beautifully. More importantly, there are many character parallels. Cloud is a tortured, cynical, directionless leader who is this incredible set of damaged goods (like Mal), and (like Mal), finds himself after disaster and incredible self-doubt. Not all characters fit so nicely (I think the Mal-Cloud connection is the best), but we see a wide array of characters who, by all rights, should never have been together, but somehow find themselves together and depending on one another.

Also, the characters in both FF and FF7 are incredibly deep, and subject to incredible characterization (the strongest point of both these pieces of work). We come to learn that FF7's Barret (the idealistic brawn of the group), has a past he'd like to forget (he basically watched helplessly as his hometown was destroyed, and he indirectly caused it). Jayne is a surprisingly sentimental, emotional man. River goes from being a troubled girl to a powerful girl, like FF7's Aeris. FF7's Cait Sith, controlled by a government official, grows into the group and loves what they do, much like Simon eventually being accepted by the crew and marginally and frustratingly accepting life in space. Hell, each work has its own set of powerful female characters. Sadly I've only begun to scratch the surface of examples, but I must move on.

There are three other story elements I'd like to discuss before the grand finale. First, both FF and FF7 have two major, related antagonists. FF has the tyrannical though not fully evil Alliance and the savage reavers (which the Alliance created), and FF7 has Shinra, the governmental corporation, and Sephiroth/Jenova, the "evil from the sky" on whom Shinra experimented. Each has a synthetic evil, and each has a more basic primal evil which play off of each other and lead to more richly developed plotlines.

Second, there is this sense on things being natural even in the most outlandish (well, outlandish for our time) situations. Space travel is more difficult than it ever looks on Firefly, but it seems so natural to break atmo twice a day. In Final Fantasy VII, Materia (the substance which grants you magic and other powers) is born from natural processes in "The Planet" and plays a key role in the story. Nothing seems tacked on, and it's very easy to suspend your disbelief.

Third, there is moral ambiguity. The Alliance isn't all evil, Mal is certainly not all good. Hell, in FF7, you start the game committing acts of eco-terrorism. Firefly isn't Star Wars where everone's happy all the time after Palpatine dies, and Final Fantasy VII isn't the "let's power up to face the evil dragon" RPG that the original Final Fantasy was. It makes you think about what right and wrong really are, and makes the experience that much richer.

Finally, the coup de grace, the reason why Firefly/Serenity and Final Fantasy VII are related, and so lovable to me...death. We all know about Wash, but the most beloved character in FF7, Aeris, meets an untimely end by being run through with a gigantic sword, too (before writing that, I never noticed the similarities in the manner of death). The deaths are sudden and crushing. We come to know and love both characters, Wash for his wit and honesty, and Aeris for her kindness and emotional strength. In many ways they were both the hearts of their parties. When they die, something about you dies along with them, and it seems to break things up. We feel disoriented, and we don't think that we, or any of the characters, can really move on. The short time you had with them has suddenly been taken away...that's it, no more. No more sarcastic remarks, no more bright healing energy. In a way, no more hope. The other thing they have in common is that the deaths are absolutely necessary. Wash's death "makes the stakes real" in the final battle and puts the audience on edge. Aeris's death makes us hate Sephiroth all the more, gives us motivation, and fleshes out act II of the story all the better. And all the while, you feel this incredible sense of loss, because you have grown attached, to fictional characters, one of whom is completely digital.

It's easy to ultimately see why I love Firefly. It's like one of my favorite games wrapped up in a sci-fi series, and the stories are just that good. I think I would have loved Firefly anyway because of the jokes, the lovable characters, and, of course, the hot women (I believe I fell in love with Kaylee from the first time I saw her). I barely scratched the surface with this post, and I could easily have gone twice as long discussing similarities in subplots and subquests, and about the incompleteness of both works. I thank you for reading this far, and please comment.

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Wednesday, December 27, 2006 9:47 PM

RHAEGARTARGARYEN

The coop dee gracie!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

My signature...Rhae.

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