ST TFA Parallels with Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity

Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity spoilers ahead.

So in both my viewings of TFA so far I couldn't help but notice some striking things that instantly reminded me of the TV show Firefly and/or its movie Serenity. I couldn't help but feel that Kasdan/Abrams perhaps drew some inspiration from this cult classic and I am quite happy about some of the similarities regardless of intent.

One of the things that jumped out at me quite quickly is the similarities between Rey and Firefly's Kaylee. They both have a natural gift with machinery, it just seems to speak to them. There is also a scene where Rey is asking Finn for a certain tool and she has to keep telling him to look where she's pointing. Kaylee has to do something nearly identical in the TV series as well, it brought that to my mind immediately and made me smile. I have to say if they were at all looking through other space operas for character inspiration and decided to base Rey off of Kaylee even in the slightest I can't help but applaud that as she is a wonderful character in Firefly.

Another scene that jumped out at me is on the freighter when the gangs board and are demanding Han pay them. This was so reminiscent to me of Firefly and Malcolm Reynolds dealings with the many shady characters, some who board his ship in much the same way. The freighter itself reminded me a bit of good ol' Serenity. Granted, Malcolm Reynolds character is very much based off of Han Solo, but hey perhaps now we've come full circle in reference.

Finally, at the end of TFA when Rey boards the Falcon and sits next to Chewie I was immediately reminded of the end of the movie Serenity when River takes Wash's seat. This seems like the least likely intentional reference, but I still love to see the parallel.

I know many of you won't even know what I'm talking about if you've never seen Firefly, and perhaps some of you who have think I might be reading a bit too much into it, but I just had to share my observations regardless. Since Firefly is so referential to Star Wars I can't help but love the idea that Star Wars might now be a little referential to Firefly.

 

Any similarities between Firefly/Serenity and The Force Awakens SPECIFICALLY are purely coincidental because both Abrams and Kasdan made a deliberate effort to fashion the film so that it matches the straightforward way they view, understand, and think about the Star Wars franchise, and gave very little thought to anything else.

However, Joss did deliberately make a conscious effort to model Firefly/Serenity off of Star Wars, not simply on a superficial level, but also in terms of the deeper underpinnings that set the series apart from other Sci-Fi properties.

 

Unless you were making the film right along with them I don't think you can make this claim. We can't make a 100% claim for or against because neither has been confirmed or denied.

I'm simply having fun with the idea, and I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility seeing how much the fans of Firefly are devoted to it.

 

Actually, I CAN make that claim because the way that the two of them view the franchise can be easily documented due to the interviews that they have given regarding the series.

It's a nice idea, but just doesn't factually match up with Abrams and Kasdan's stated viewpoints on what Star Wars IS to them.

 

Considering how unique I find the characters of Rey and Finn are to the saga, I find it hard to believe that they simply only drew inspiration from Star Wars. No one can creatively do that. I know authors who find stuff in their own work that they realized later they must've subconciously been inspired because they didn't realize how close it was to something they loved.

I don't want to argue with you of course, but I do have to say I find it completely impossible that they made a hard line and somehow only took inspiration from Star Wars in this film's creation.

 

I should note that I'm a HUGE Firefly/Serenity fan, so while I would love to think that Abrams and Kasdan may have drawn inspiration for TFA from Whedon's Sci-Fi Western, I know too much about the way that they view the Star Wars franchise to let myself do so.

TFA is far more derivative of the Star Wars OT (specifically ANH) than it ought to have been, and is very straightforward, being largely devoid of the deeper thematic, mythological, and archetypal underpinnings that set Star Wars apart from other franchises and that are all over most of Joss' work, including Firefly/Serenity.

 

When we first see Rey, she's scavenging for parts. When we first see Jayne in the Firefly pilot, the crew is on a salvage job.

Then Rey demonstrates that she's Zoe (fending off Unkar Plutt's goons), Wash (piloting the Falcon, brilliantly), and Kaylee (engineering ships and stations on the fly), before ascending to River in the showdown and settling in as Malcolm at the end.

And if you really want to stretch the "Rey is the crew of Serenity" analogy, she mind tricks the stormtrooper like Inara, learns to believe like Book, and bedsides the comatose Finn like Simon.

 

Argalin, don't mind JF21. He deals in absolutes. Even the ones that absolutely aren't there.

Rey's "garbage" reaction to the Falcon reminds me of Zoe's first reaction to Serenity. "You paid money for this? On purpose?"

 

Yes, but since so much of Firefly is inspired by SW, it is hard to argue that Firefly, as opposed to SW, is what inspired TFA.

The garbage line and Zoe's comment are the perfect example, as they each clearly seem to riff on, "What a piece of junk" and, "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."

 

This is all Rick Berman's fault. **** YOU RICK BERMAN!!!

 

This topic just reminds me that Serenity is the best Star Wars film we've had since 1983.

 

I thought it was based on Blake's 7 ,

which was based on the Magnificent 7

which was based on . . . and so on .