# Firefly: What did the Alliance want? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2015, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435 "2015-08-30T22:21:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/121 "2015-09-08T15:44:29Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Who himself probably wasn’t much better than The Hero of Canton, the Man they Call Jayne. It’s my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of 'em was one kinda sombitch or another. > [@Elendil's Heir](#): > > The dialogue, the cast, the characters - all good. For a 'Verse that was supposedly jointly settled by the U.S. and China, though, I found it quite odd that we never saw any prominent character of Chinese descent. River was part-Asian when she was a little girl, but she seems to have grown out of it. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/122 "2015-09-08T16:24:08Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > River was part-Asian when she was a little girl, but she seems to have grown out of it. :dubious: [Was she?](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1329374208/nm1496367?ref_=nmmi_mi_all_pbl_14) ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/123 "2015-09-08T16:35:10Z")
> **[Hunter Ansley Wryn on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more... - IMDb](https://m.imdb.com/name/nm1496367/mediaindex?rmconst=rm834771456&ref_=m_nmmi_mi_nm_pbl_1)** > > Hunter Ansley Wryn photos, including production stills, premiere photos and other event photos, publicity photos, behind-the-scenes, and more. Looks like that actor could be “part asian” to me. Though the pic Miller linked looks like they were going for an East Indian vibe. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/124 "2015-09-08T17:04:41Z")
Actually, I found the casting rather realistic in the sense that none of them were blonde haired and blue eyed. If we assume a lot of cultural and racial mixing over several centuries, you would expect people to lose their unique racial traits and eventually become the kind of people you see on the show. Kaylee looks like she could have some Asian genetic heritage, as does River. Book and Zoe are ‘black’, but also look like they have mixed racial heritages. What you might find is that in predominantly ‘Chinese’ communities you see the same thing, only with more emphasis on Asian features and language. Maybe they speak Chinese predominantly but have inherited many colorful phrases from English. But the process of integration is well under way on both sides. Also, the scenes on Persephone showed lots of Chinese people. I’m still surprised by the people who claim Firefly wasn’t very realistic in terms of the science. In an era where we don’t bat an eye at FTL ‘warp’ drives, ‘phasers’ with miracle properties, matter transporters, space ‘fighters’ that turn as if they are in atmosphere, Firefly is the most scientifically accurate SF show in my memory. There is no faster-than-light travel. There are no aliens. It takes weeks to travel between planets - not hours. The Firefly 'Verse has a real economy with real limitations, unlike Star Trek and its idiotic ‘money has been abolished’ utopianism. The Firefly ‘Verse’ is a series of planets and moons orbiting a blue star. Blue stars are hot and have ‘habitable zones’ much larger than our own. It doesn’t take much of a stretch of imagination to conceive of a blue star with several earth-like planets in the habitable zone, along with many moons orbiting super-Earths or hot Jupiters inside the habitable zone. Given the premise that terraforming is a proven technology, it’s not hard to imagine a solar system with a dozen or more habitable worlds. The only ‘magic’ science on Firefly is anti-gravity, but I’ll given them that because of the logistics of shooting everything in zero-G. Other than that, it’s a pretty well thought out and plausible future in terms of the tech, the sociology and the economy. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/125 "2015-09-08T17:47:04Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Was she?](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1329374208/nm1496367?ref_=nmmi_mi_all_pbl_14) No, the [younger one.](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1711263/?ref_=nmbio_bio_nm) Like I said, she grew out of it. [That one.](http://child-actor-gifs.tumblr.com/post/49194845532/my-skylar-roberge-gifs) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/126 "2015-09-08T18:50:12Z")
Morena Baccarin (sp?), while from Brazil, has that international mutt look that I could believe as mixed from pretty much any races. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/127 "2015-09-08T18:55:02Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Morena Baccarin (sp?), while from Brazil, has that international mutt look that I could believe as mixed from pretty much any races. Which, for the most part, is what “from Brazil” means. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/128 "2015-09-08T19:08:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Which, for the most part, is what “from Brazil” means. Good point. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/129 "2015-09-09T01:27:37Z")
My point is that we had obviously-white major characters, and obviously-black major characters. Obviously Asian? Not a one. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/130 "2015-09-09T01:58:27Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > My point is that we had obviously-white major characters, and obviously-black major characters. Obviously Asian? Not a one. What are you talking about!? They were all over season two. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/131 "2015-09-09T04:31:58Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > [Hunter Ansley Wryn - Photos - IMDb](http://m.imdb.com/name/nm1496367/mediaindex?rmconst=rm834771456&ref_=m_nmmi_mi_nm_pbl_1) > > Looks like that actor could be “part asian” to me. Though the pic Miller linked looks like they were going for an East Indian vibe. Hunter Ansley Wryn. She looks vaguely Plains Indian to me, or a mix of that and something else. That’s probably not her actual background, though. I think Simon and River are supposed to be at least culturally _more_ Chinese than the rest of the crew, but the actors look as Western as the rest of the crew. That casting is a choice which I don’t think I’ve ever seen explained; that doesn’t mean it’s inexplicable. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/132 "2015-09-09T04:43:48Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Actually, I found the casting rather realistic in the sense that none of them were blonde haired and blue eyed. :dubious: Alan Tudyk as Wash was blond and blue-eyed. Fillion and Staite are pretty fair-complected as well. But I agree that many of the _characters,_ including some of the regulars, are probably meant to be more mixed-heritage than is immediately obvious. They’re just _cast_ with Westerners. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/133 "2015-09-09T04:47:34Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > What are you talking about!? They were all over season two. Really though, this is both the joke answer and the real answer. Whedon has said over and over again that the only reason we never saw any fully Chinese characters was because the show was canceled after a dozen episodes. > [@foolsguinea](#): > > I think Simon and River are supposed to be at least culturally _more_ Chinese than the rest of the crew, but the actors look as Western as the rest of the crew. Meet [Chloe Bennet](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4032297/mediaindex?ref_=nm_phs_md_sm) (birth name, Chloe Wang), an actress with an Asian-American father and European-American mother who is currently appearing on Agents of SHIELD. ---
**Author:** ![Garula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Garula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garula)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/134 "2015-09-09T05:46:57Z")
The dearth of primarily Asian ancestry actors bothered me somewhat too. Seeing a bunch of Western guys peppering their speech with Chinese phrases made it kind of feel to me like the group that left Earth was composed entirely of Sinophile college guys. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/135 "2015-09-09T07:53:30Z")
Well, maybe it was. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/136 "2015-09-09T12:37:44Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Hunter Ansley Wryn. She looks vaguely Plains Indian to me, or a mix of that and something else. That’s probably not her actual background, though. > > I think Simon and River are supposed to be at least culturally _more_ Chinese than the rest of the crew, but the actors look as Western as the rest of the crew. That casting is a choice which I don’t think I’ve ever seen explained; that doesn’t mean it’s inexplicable. River has a kind of odd facial structure that could be taken for Asian – or anything else, really. Just – non-standard. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/137 "2015-09-09T13:55:50Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Never made sense to me that they’d test it on an entire planet’s population like that. Any error has _huge_ consequences. Even if you have no ethical sense or policy of informed consent, controlled studies on smaller groups would be a lot smarter. And yet here in Real Life, corporations have been putting GMO products into our food supply for some years. I don’t want to get into the politics of whether GMO products are safe or not - that’s a different topic - but it sure seems the same situation to me. The fact that the “pro” groups fight so hard against labelling implies they want to hide something from the consumers. It don’ t make no sense to me, but there it is. Aside from developing a woman-crush on Inara, I think it’s a real shame they didn’t get a chance to explore her back story because that would have told us more about the alliance also. She was in favor of unification and seemed happy to live within the alliance governance. And yet she went sort of rogue by leaving her “house” and living on Mal’s ship. There was a good story there and I’m still dying to hear it. Booke also had some interesting backstory we never heard. He had an alliance ID and they never explained how or why. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/138 "2015-09-09T14:02:28Z")
> [@](#): > > And yet here in Real Life, corporations have been putting GMO products into our food supply for some years. Assuming that by “GMO” you mean “modified by people who have a clue what they’re doing”, since that seems to be the usual usage of that term: That’s only after those foods have passed controlled studies on smaller groups. That is, exactly what the Alliance didn’t do. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/139 "2015-09-09T16:21:07Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > Booke also had some interesting backstory we never heard. He had an alliance ID and they never explained how or why. There are official comic books, one tells Book’s backstory. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435/140 "2015-09-09T19:57:08Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > There are official comic books, one tells Book’s backstory. I read 'em all and didn’t think they were very good, but it was nice to get a little more of a _Firefly_ fix. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/firefly-what-did-the-alliance-want/729435.md?page=6)