I'm not generally in the "how is this news?" camp, but if something was the topic of a Penny Arcade rant more than three months ago ( http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/06/07 ), how is this news?
actually, i believe that it parallels the war of independence much more
than the civil war. brown coats as compared to red coats, the colonies
fighting for their freedom, it speaks for itsself.
Except... Firefly's browncoats were the colonists, whereas history's redcoats were the colonizers... And the browncoats lost, whereas the American colonists won. So really, the main similarity is that one side in each conflict was referred to by the color of their coats.
Meanwhile, Joss has specifically cited reading Gettysburg as an inspiration for Firefly ("That, of course, made me think of the Millenium Falcon, because most things do."), and the parallels with ex-Confederates moving West to start anew are quite obvious.
That said, in the world of Firefly, slavery is at least tolerated by the ruling authority, and it isn't racially motivated. Indeed, race is never explicitly or even implicitly mentioned in Firefly, and slavery is never linked with the war in any way. So while Firefly is obviously drawing on American history, dismissing it as Confederate appologia is absurd given the racial and gender equality presented in the show.
One of the things I love about Firefly is that it has adherents all over the political spectrum, and I've heard it dismissed as hopelessly biased both to the left (sexual freedom, distrust of the "rich and fancible") and to the right (guns as way of life, distrust of big government). It's interesting to note, of course, that Serenity got a lot of really positive reviews on Libertarian web sites...
First off, it's not an entire season--there are four episodes not being shown ("Trash," "The Message," "Heart of Gold," and "Objects in Space"), three of which were not aired originally, if memory serves. Second, an entire season? There's only the one... not even complete, at that. You have to rub it in?
See, browncoats aren't rabid... we're just pedantic.
Slashdot Mirror
I hate to break it to you, but this is _very_ old news. As much as I despise AICN: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23493
I'm not generally in the "how is this news?" camp, but if something was the topic of a Penny Arcade rant more than three months ago ( http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/06/07 ), how is this news?
Meanwhile, Joss has specifically cited reading Gettysburg as an inspiration for Firefly ("That, of course, made me think of the Millenium Falcon, because most things do."), and the parallels with ex-Confederates moving West to start anew are quite obvious.
That said, in the world of Firefly, slavery is at least tolerated by the ruling authority, and it isn't racially motivated. Indeed, race is never explicitly or even implicitly mentioned in Firefly, and slavery is never linked with the war in any way. So while Firefly is obviously drawing on American history, dismissing it as Confederate appologia is absurd given the racial and gender equality presented in the show.
One of the things I love about Firefly is that it has adherents all over the political spectrum, and I've heard it dismissed as hopelessly biased both to the left (sexual freedom, distrust of the "rich and fancible") and to the right (guns as way of life, distrust of big government). It's interesting to note, of course, that Serenity got a lot of really positive reviews on Libertarian web sites...
See, browncoats aren't rabid... we're just pedantic.