Zoë Warren

[Lonewolf89]

I didn't see a thread for Zoe, like the rest of the characters so I thought I'd add one.

Originally posted by ray gower
What makes the characters in Firefly tick?

The series finished before it got going, leaving a huge hole in what we know and understand about them. So there must be some good theories about them, so let's have some thoughts?

Let us have a go at Zoe here.

I really like Zoe's character, personally I think she's become one of the best first officers on TV.

Zoe is one of those people that can be a leader, but is happier following orders than giving them. I think she came onboard the Serenity because she didn't have anywhere else to go. She's very close to the captain and they came to depend on each other so much that she just naturally followed him and fell into the role as his second.

One of my favorite aspects of Zoe is her relationship with Wash. Whoever said opposites attract was obviously talking about those two. It's also good to see some married couples flying around in spaceships for once. On most Sci Fi shows it's just a bunch of single people.

[Tabitha]

Originally posted by Lonewolf89

I really like Zoe's character, personally I think she's become one of the best first officers on TV.

Really???
I though that of all the characters on Firefly, Zoe's was the one that was least fleshed out, and we knew by far the least about her. I had no real sense of her character at all, other than her unflagging (and still unexplained) devotion to her Capt/Sgt, and her passion for Wash.

I think I would have grown to like her, and that she probably would have become a "Still waters run deep" kind of character, but there was so little information, and few clues as to her past, that it is hard to really get a feel for the character.

[Dave]

She has a very dry sense of humour though, and although Wash gets all the punchlines, she often gets the funniest lines.

[Rik_the_Riff]

You can really sum up most of what we know about Zoe's character from this exchange in The Train Job:

Mal: "Whatever happens, I want you to remember that I love you"

Zoe: "Sir?"

Mal: "Because you're my wife"

Zoe: "Oh, right, yes, sir.... honey"

All we know is she's a soldier who obeys and follows Mal out of instinct. I assume we'd have got to other stuff later, though - if there was to be any.

Rik

[obcooke]

My favorite's from "Safe":

MAL: Well, look at this! 'pears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?

ZOE: Big damn heroes, sir.

[Rik_the_Riff]

Notice how she's *always* with the 'sir'?

I reckon (you guys must be really fed up of my opinions by now...) that at some point in the war, she became unable to think of Mal as anything other than the captain. Hence;

"Take me, sir , take me hard" (War Stories?)

Rik

[Maria8475]

I think the "sir" thing is just to emphasise how she is a good little soldier (plus we know Mal likes that ).

But she doesn't blindly follow all his orders -
And in Out of Gas, she was responsible for bringing them back home after Mal ordered them away.

and in War Stories
Mal: There's plenty orders of mine that she didn't obey.
Wash: Name one!
Mal: She married you!

I assume plenty means more than one.

One point that might be moving me to "dangerously obsessed" territory, in the commentry for Shindig, Shawna Trpcic, the costume designer, said the band Zoe wears around her neck symbolises her marriage bond, which is why she always has it on. In the flashbacks in Out of Gas, she has it on before she meets Wash. In the Serenity flashbacks, she's wearing a scarf so not sure if she has it on underneath or not. But what could that mean. She was married before? What happened to him? Did she leave him for Wash? Did she just forget to take it off for that scene?