FIREFLY EPISODE DISCUSSIONS

What's the story with Wash - our skilled Firefly pilot

POSTED BY: JAYNEZTOWN
UPDATED: Monday, August 23, 2004 09:23
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Saturday, August 7, 2004 12:18 AM

JAYNEZTOWN


He's a great flyer and his skills are well know. He is a super pilot, managed to high tail it out of the hospital and lose those hands of blue in Ariel plus other folk like Tanaka or Renshaw have been trying to get him. Wash seems to be a bit of a legend like Rex White the Nascar champ was, the Captain von Richthofen known as Red Baron or the F1 champ schumacher.


However there seems to be more to Wash than his quick jokes, and flying skills. Unlike folks like Jayne, our pilot Wash seems to care a lot about what happened in the War. He has a fierce envy of what Mal and Zoe did in the war and seems to wish he were there in the action. He has a good heart, and has a real dislike for those alliance and feds but he doesn't seem to have done much in the old battles.

Now if he's a great pilot seems like he could get a nice paid job with the hands of blue type people as a flyer but it's clear that Wash and these folk wouldn't get along, unlike Mercs Wash isn't in it for the Cash and he seems to be a true browncoat. Wash of course loves Zoe a lot and they are very close, however he has no tales of war or honour. So what happened Wash ? Was he shot down in the early part of the fighting, did the high tail it like some chicken, or maybe the Independant commanders clipped his wings and grounded him for insubordination and some inappropriate acts and he never got to fight or fly.

Just wondering how Wash got to the place where he's at now, and what made him sign up with Mal instead of Tanaka or others like Renshaw and so forth.








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Saturday, August 7, 2004 10:55 PM

THEREALME


I don't think that Wash is a Browncoat. I think that the only real Browncoats on Serenity are Mal and Zoe.

Simon, River, and Inara seem to come from the Core worlds. We know that Inara supported the Alliance.

Jayne tells us that he didn't fight in no war, in Train Job.

Wash seems annoyed about the shared war stories of Mal and Zoe, and tells none of his own, so it sounds like HE didn't fight.

Kaylee seems unable to fight. When personal harm enters into the equation, she seems to fold up. Hey, I love her too, but I can't see her in a war. Also, she's probably too young.

Perhaps the homeworlds of some of them were not part of the resistance against the Alliance.

I don't think that Wash is jealous of having missed the fighting. I think that he is jealous of the bond shared between Mal and Zoe BECAUSE of that war.



The Real Me

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 2:50 AM

PURPLEBELLY


Quote:

Originally posted by JaynezTown:
Just wondering how Wash got to the place where he's at now, and what made him sign up with Mal instead of Tanaka or others like Renshaw and so forth.


My take is Wash was trained to fly in the Air National Guard, which he joined to avoid the Draft. He became involved with criminals to supply his coke habit.

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 3:01 AM

HOTPOINT


Quote:

Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
My take is Wash was trained to fly in the Air National Guard, which he joined to avoid the Draft. He became involved with criminals to supply his coke habit.



That was hi-larious. Thanks for the laugh

...................................
Hurrah, hurrah, when things are at their worst
With cries of “Death or Glory” comes the mighty Twenty-First

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 7:20 AM

EMBASSY


My theory is that Wash went to flight school as a result of some significant sacrifice by his family. He went through the program and did much better than anyone expected. Then one of two things happened. Either Wash came to some sort of moral crisis that made it impossible for him to be an attack pilot for the Alliance (The Huck Finn Theory, I call it), or, the war ended and they cut all the people in the training program loose (I call this one the Waldo Pepper theory). There's probably a good fanfic story somewhere in there.

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 7:28 AM

JAYNEZTOWN


I suspect we may learn more in the movie

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 7:39 AM

SHEPHERDQ


wellllllll, according to Wash himself ( commentarty on OIS ) He was in the war ( doe snot say which side but implies was a browncoat ) was shot down on first sortie and did shadow puppets to amuse fellow prisoners. He feels he missed the war.

The Journey is the worthier part.
www.southdownabby.com

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 11:11 AM

THEREALME


Really!

I can't believe that I missed that. I'll have to watch that episode again.

The Real Me

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 12:21 PM

INDY


Well, that's Alan's own theroy. Great one too, though. I hope Joss lets us know in the movie. Hope he uses Alan's idea. Check out Alan's commentary with Nathan in "War Stories" and with Jewel in "The Message"

----------------
"Hell if Jesus had the power than so do I
To rise up from the dead and take up to the sky"
--Scissor Sisters

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 2:17 PM

RANGER


Yeah, my take is that he was a "Scout" (part of the exploration service, it's a Traveller thing) before the war. He joined up and was shot down on his first mission during the war. I think that will be confirmed in the movie as one of the photos passed around shows him in a military style flight suit (with military style patch on the arm) in front of a wrecked ship of some sort... would tend to support the general story line, but who knows for sure till we see the final product.

Traveller, if you go to Sparta, tell them you have seen us lying here as the Law commands.

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Sunday, August 8, 2004 10:58 PM

JAYNEZTOWN


Quote:

Originally posted by Indy:
Well, that's Alan's own theroy. Great one too, though. I hope Joss lets us know in the movie. Hope he uses Alan's idea. Check out Alan's commentary with Nathan in "War Stories" and with Jewel in "The Message"

----------------
"Hell if Jesus had the power than so do I
To rise up from the dead and take up to the sky"
--Scissor Sisters



I'm going to have a look n listen of those episodes again !

I suspect we might learn more the firefly movie

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 5:55 AM

BROWNCOATFAN1


i do belive that wash does fell a little jelous that zoe and mal have war stories and he dosent realy have alot of exiting ones

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 6:05 AM

FEMALEJAYNE


Alan said that is what he wanted but Joss or someone high up didn't like that idea

With Hope because love is nothing without hope.

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 6:54 AM

PURPLEBELLY


Some actors with a training in improv theatre can tend to have a hair-trigger I just thought of this, let's do it 'tude which isn't shared by careful constructors of character driven narratives; it is shared by some contributors to some 'boards, though

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 8:22 AM

STATIC


Quote:

My take is Wash was trained to fly in the Air National Guard, which he joined to avoid the Draft.


I realize you were joking. ..and I laughed. ..

But. . .

I joined the National Guard also, convinced that I'd probably never see combat. I wasn't seeking to AVOID combat. ..just convinced the Army would never let a bunch of weekenders fight the war.

Imagine my surprise!

Five combat tours later. . .here I am. And oh yeah. . .Afghanistan is about to become a %100 National Guard mission.

Wowsers.

==================================================
"Wash. . .we got some local color happening. A grand entrance would not go amiss."

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 9:20 AM

PURPLEBELLY


Originally posted by Static:
Quote:

I realize you were joking. ..and I laughed. ..


Thanks Static. Even though I'm not a US citizen, I do realise the Abrams reforms placed an increased responsibility on the National Guard. My aim was satire, and my target politics.

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 10:01 AM

STORMBIND


Quote:

Originally posted by JaynezTown:
He's a great flyer and his skills are well know. He is a super pilot, managed to high tail it out of the hospital and lose those hands of blue in Ariel plus other folk like Tanaka or Renshaw have been trying to get him. Wash seems to be a bit of a legend like Rex White the Nascar champ was, the Captain von Richthofen known as Red Baron or the F1 champ schumacher.


However there seems to be more to Wash than his quick jokes, and flying skills. Unlike folks like Jayne, our pilot Wash seems to care a lot about what happened in the War. He has a fierce envy of what Mal and Zoe did in the war and seems to wish he were there in the action. He has a good heart, and has a real dislike for those alliance and feds but he doesn't seem to have done much in the old battles.

Now if he's a great pilot seems like he could get a nice paid job with the hands of blue type people as a flyer but it's clear that Wash and these folk wouldn't get along, unlike Mercs Wash isn't in it for the Cash and he seems to be a true browncoat. Wash of course loves Zoe a lot and they are very close, however he has no tales of war or honour. So what happened Wash ? Was he shot down in the early part of the fighting, did the high tail it like some chicken, or maybe the Independant commanders clipped his wings and grounded him for insubordination and some inappropriate acts and he never got to fight or fly.

Just wondering how Wash got to the place where he's at now, and what made him sign up with Mal instead of Tanaka or others like Renshaw and so forth.




If he was that good, they would have kept him for training recruits, or as a test-pilot.

I don't like that he is the stuff of legend though. It's nicer to think the ship and crew are pretty "ordinary". So that's how I see the character - just another trained pilot :p

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 10:13 AM

DBLADE


More than likely Wash was a civilian pilot flying ordinary nonmilitary missions during the war. He probally flew shipping routes and other mundane jobs until he got the itch to try something a little more exciting. Enter Mal and Serenity.

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004 10:14 AM

LADYDISDAIN


I tend to prefer my Wash a little more mundane. I think the man loves to fly, and his off-the-record gig on Serenity allows him to do more of that, in a more challenging sense, than he would ever working for something more official -- shipping tourists between worlds, or something equally dreadful.

My only justification for this is "Our Mrs. Reynolds", wherein Wash mentions his homeworld as being a place where the pollution is so thick you couldn't even see the stars.

He's just having a love affair with the open sky.

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Sunday, August 22, 2004 4:21 PM

GOCARTMOZART


My dear Ladydistain are you yet living?

I always figured that Wash missed the war because he had never been in a firefight before which we learn in War Stories.

Still, he seems well travelled with his geese juggling stories and all.

He actually reminds me of my best friend who is great at what he does because he truly loves it. He is just a regular guy who is better than most because he loves it so much. In fact, I would make the following ranked list of the things Wash loves.

1) Zoe
2) Flying
3) Food
4) his crew
5) Humor

Agree/disagree


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Monday, August 23, 2004 9:23 AM

RHYMEPHILE


Quote:

Originally posted by gocartmozart:
In fact, I would make the following ranked list of the things Wash loves.

1) Zoe
2) Flying
3) Food
4) his crew
5) Humor

Agree/disagree



Hmm, I'd say that food ranks last, and that humor and his crew are third and fourth, respectively.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All of me is beautiful and valuable, even the ugly, stupid, and disgusting parts.

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