this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
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What?
In the audio commentary of the pilot episode (it's been 10,000 years so might be a different episode) Whedon talks about the war being space US Civil War and Mal is inspired by the confederate soldiers who went west after the war because the inner planets = manufacturing power and center of government like the north, and outer planets = agrarians who are having their 'rights' trampled like the south. Obviously it's a prime time show from 2001 written entirely by white people so there's no discussion of slavery, the closest it gets is one episode does feature an outer planet guy who 'owns' people via their debts to him
I'll be damned
There's a whole lot of dogwhistle language that "Confederate history buffs" would recognize. For example, how Mal occasionally talks about his side rising again.
I think that's less dogwhistle and more Whedon is just a bit stupid. It's very bog standard evil sleek shiny empire vs. ragtag bunch of loveable misfits, more in line with Star Wars. The entire crew is way too progressive, excluding Jayne who is explicitly the asshole, for them to be reactionary US confederates.