[ SECRET POST #2206 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2206 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 043 secrets from Secret Submission Post #315.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I don't really agree.

Firefly is really clearly rooted in the Western genre. Not just in the obvious sense of it being a "space Western" and having that Western, cowboy aesthetic, but I would argue in the whole setup of the series - who the characters are, what the situation is, what stories they're telling. There's some variations from it being set in space, but it's clearly a Western. And the Western is a specific genre that comes from a specific context - it's a specifically American context, and it's telling stories set in the American West, most usually in the 30 years from the end of the Civil War to the closing of the frontier. And part of that context is the aftermath of the Civil War - it's a huge part of the content of the Western genre. So when you have something that's structurally and aesthetically a Western in the way that Firefly is, I don't think it's particularly controversial to say that it's analogous to the American Civil War when you have a civil war that immediately precedes the period the series takes place in. (To be honest, I don't think it would be that wrong either way - the Alliance / Independents analogue to Union and Confederacy seems fairly straightforward to me - but certainly given the context I don't think it's ambiguous). So I really do think that the stories it's referencing are about the American Civil War, and the setup of the series itself is analogous to that Civil War.

Regarding the rest of your post, I can't see any way in which the series as presented is dealing with the current understanding of the Civil War - it pretty much seems to be taken on that view as it was specifically presented in the Western genre. I really can't identify any way in which it has a more complex take on that view, or views it as complicated in any way, really. I don't see how it's "looking to the future using the past as a template" in any way different from what Westerns were doing, but maybe I'm just not getting what you're driving at there - I'd love it if you could elucidate on what you mean by that point.

At the end of the day, for me, Mal and Zoe are former Confederate soldiers, and the series doesn't seem to be troubled by that, and it really kind of bothers me - and the Jubal Early connection is bothersome because it shows that the show creators aren't ignorant of that context, even though the show seems to be.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

and the Jubal Early connection is bothersome because it shows that the show creators aren't ignorant of that context, even though the show seems to be.

Yes! My first reaction was -- well, I don't think they would intentionally do a Civil-War-without-slavery parallel. It doesn't seem like it's intentional. But then they name a character after a -- not obscure, but not exactly mainstream Civil War historical figure -- that shows they are not coming from a position of ignorance.

I hesitate to out-and-out accuse them of Confederate apologia, but I don't know what the hell they were doing.