In honor of Serenity Day, June 23, the following is a blog about the movie Serenity (I'm posting this today instead of on Serenity Day 'cause I'm going out of town and won't be able to be on the computer). The movie picks up where the TV series Firefly left off when it was abruptly canceled. In a show of solidarity, the devoted fans of Serenity will buy copies of it on June 23, to prove that a sequel is highly in demand. To find out more, you can visit the Official Serenity Day website at http://www.serenityday.org/.
*End of public service announcement.* Now for the blog!

Serene. A word that conjures feelings of well-being; calm; peace. However, for the crew and passengers who called the cargo ship, Serenity, their home, life was anything but serene. A typical day could consist of fleeing from such threats as the torturous, barbarous Reavers, the insidious Alliance, or another danger right in their own home: a young waif named River.

Poor River. Brilliant, erratic, kind, unpredictable, brainwashed...a human lethal weapon, who, when appropriately triggered, could kick the **** out of Boba, Jango, Dooku, Ani/Vader, Palpatine, and any other bad-a** combined. Oh, and she also happened to read people's minds. A victim of the Alliance's inhumane experiments on her brain, River was the Alliance's best-kept secret. Only seventeen years old, she possessed a knowledge of which she was not even aware, one that the Alliance DID NOT want revealed at any cost. River's brother, Simon, was her champion: a well-to-do doctor who rescued her from the grip of the Alliance. As fugitives, Simon and River made Serenity their home, thanks to the good graces of Serenity's eclectic residents.

Serenity was home to four crew members and two passengers. The Captain, Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds, was a soldier ("Browncoat") who fought on the losing side of the war against the unification of planets (the Alliance). Zoe was Mal's brave, loyal comrade who fought along with him and was second in command on Serenity. Zoe's husband, Wash, was the mild-mannered pilot with a great sense of humor. Jayne (don't let the name fool you) was a muscular, smart-aleck Mercenary with a soft spot for hats sent to him from his mom. Kaylee was the ship's gentle, optimistic mechanic who performed her job exceptionally well. The passengers were Inara - a beautiful, wise Companion (a combination of a Geisha and a high-class Call Girl), and Book, the Shepherd - a kind clergyman with a secret past. These folks survived by taking legal and illegal smuggling jobs. But when Simon and River entered their lives, as if there wasn't enough peril performing those jobs, there was a new catch: the crew needed to be extra cautious about staying under the radar of the Alliance and the bounty hunters who were after River.

During the year that Simon and River were aboard Serenity, Simon diligently used his medical knowledge to try to discover a way to rid River of her disturbing memories and nightmares. As a fugitive, Simon knew that saving River and ensuring the safety of everyone aboard Serenity would be a race against time.

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© Rive Caedo, Inc.

Simon's devotion to his sister exemplifies two themes imbued in the story of Serenity (and which are also main motifs in the SW saga ): family and loyalty. When he and River took refuge on Serenity, they joined another kind of family...bound not by blood, but by caring and loyalty, the fact that they genuinely liked each other (most of the time), and the fact that more often than not, they were literally responsible for each others' lives. Living the way they did, without a port to call home, the inhabitants of Serenity formed an intense bond, strengthened by the leadership and morality of Mal (or in fonder terms, "Cap'n Tightpants" ). They made Serenity as much of a home as possible. They ate together, played together, and fought together, sometimes with each other. They could certainly get into lively "discussions" and even toss around insults, but if they encountered a threat from any outsider, they would defend their own (well, except for one time, but I won't get into that here....spoilers, ya know).

This "family" accepted the fugitive siblings, protected them as their own, and tried to help them when possible. But as River suffered through nightmares and flashbacks, and as her outbursts became violent, they realized that it would have to be either her or them. And no one wants to get left behind.



Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care, I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me...

-Theme song from Firefly