Browncoats & Brownshirts by sid872

FIREFLY EPISODE DISCUSSIONS

Browncoats & Brownshirts

POSTED BY: SID872
UPDATED: Sunday, April 16, 2006 19:53
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Friday, April 14, 2006 1:30 AM

This has probably been questioned before but did Joss intentionally dress them in Browncoats and call them Browncoats to perhaps parry Hitler's Brownshirt army? I don't know if there are any other similarities but was just curious.

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Friday, April 14, 2006 1:35 AM

EMBERS

I don't believe any such comparison was intended...
in the commentary of the pilot Joss said that the intention behind 'Brown coats' was the home spun, naturaly earthy colors...
as opposed to the 'purple bellies' of the Alliance who wore synthetic clothes...and hats.

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and buy the 'Serenity' comics published by Dark Horse
have you checked out this thread?:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=15816

and listen to 'I'm Going To See Serenity':
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c814e1229742ce77ed4497cbf4631c

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Friday, April 14, 2006 1:58 AM

NUCLEARDAY

Off-hand, I'd agree with Embers, there. Likely a parallel to the American Civil War. Blue vs Grey, and the South was Grey by and large because the soldiers basically brought their own homespun clothes for uniforms. (One thing the South had an abundance of was cotton, after all. Hence the gray coloring. North had all the industrial base, and the resources to produce enough dyes, hence the blue.)

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You can take my hope when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

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Friday, April 14, 2006 3:29 AM

DUELIST

Only Federal troops were issued blue uniforms, and there weren't very many of them at the start of the war. Union officers, state militia units, and volunteer units were expected to provide their own uniforms. At the start of the Civil War, a LOT of the volunteer units on the Union side had gray uniforms, too. It was a fashionable military color at the time. Made for a lot of confusion. We won't even talk about the Zoaves....

As for the Confederates, the most common dye used by folk for homemade Reb uniforms was copperas, which was made by soaking walnut hulls in water. Walnut-hull dye doesn't turn cotton gray, it turns it a sort of brown.

Why are Alliance troops called "purplebellies" when their uniforms are gray?

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Friday, April 14, 2006 3:43 AM

NUCLEARDAY

Quote:
Originally posted by Duelist:
Why are Alliance troops called "purplebellies" when their uniforms are gray?

I've oft wondered the same thing, myself. Only seem to be one or two mentions throughout the whole season.

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You can take my hope when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

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Friday, April 14, 2006 11:02 AM

EPEYON

If you look you can see that the Alliance seal is purple. At least on Alliance products. And there is purple in the combat gear of the Alliance.

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Friday, April 14, 2006 11:12 AM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER

Quote:
Originally posted by Duelist:
Why are Alliance troops called "purplebellies" when their uniforms are gray?

I think it's a combo of Alliance having purple coloured insignias on their uniforms and a reworking of the Western concept of a "yellowbelly" or coward. Plus purple's a regal colour, and no regal person likes to get their hands dirty with things like crimefighting and murder;)

BEB

Literature has shown us some of humanity's greatest achievements; history, some of our greatest failures -- Alun Lewis

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Sunday, April 16, 2006 6:28 PM

SINGATE

Quote:
Originally posted by Duelist:
Why are Alliance troops called "purplebellies" when their uniforms are gray?

There is a good deal of purple on the Alliance armor in the torso area. Much of the color is concentrated around the stomach, hench the term "purplebelly". Unfortunately the shade of purple is so light in color it is sometimes hard to distinguish. Much easier to see on an HDTV.

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We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

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Sunday, April 16, 2006 6:37 PM

SAMEERTIA

I'm positive the comparison was never ever intended by Joss. He was striving for the Blues and the Greys kind of thing.
Browncoats gives a home-down sort of feel, a western flavor, a slapped together volunteer army sort of feel.

Unfortunately, the Brownshirts are a piece of history that we, as fans, have to deal with cautiously.
I love the Browncoats, but we need to be careful about how they are portrayed in our attempts to attract attention to the 'verse.

(OF course, that MIGHT not be a bad idea! Controversy is GOOD! Controversy gains attention! Let's see if we can get MSNBC to do a story portraying us as One Army, and see what happens? Could be the best free publicity we've ever gotten.)

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Sunday, April 16, 2006 7:53 PM

PIRATENEWS

John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!

Joss apparently got his initial idea for Firefly from "The Killer Angels", a novel based on history of the Civil War. The movie Gettysburg is apparently based on that book, which is a fictionalized account of that 4-day battle. Perhaps there was a Confederate unit wearing homespun uniforms?

Wasn't there a "Redlegs" group in Missouri in Civil War? In one of Clint Eastwood's movies the Redlegs were the bad guys after the war, hired to kill all surviving Confederate soldiers. To me, their "red" boots looked the same color as Mal's coat.
The real Redlegs enforced martial law evacuation of ALL residents of Missouri in rural areas, which was 99% of the state. Vicious guerilla war, with Redlegs heads put on sticks.
www.republic.k12.mo.us/highschool/teachers/kstephen/oz4d.htm

The Independents didn't have professional uniforms, so they wore "homespun" suede leather, I guess. Don't seem too practical, in a dirty war. Maybe they have good dry cleaning in the future.

I think Joss just has A Thing about long trenchcoats - first Spike, then Angel, then Mal.

Sexy shouldn't be comfy!
-The Operative, Kinky Boots
www.themoviebox.net/movies/2005/IJKLM/Kinky-Boots/trailer.php

FIREFLY SERENITY PILOT MUSIC VIDEO V2
Tangerine Dream - Thief Soundtrack: Confrontation
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/8912.php

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