Notes from the Serenity chronology
Zoe gives birth to her and Wash's baby in this issue, so it
must be about 9 months after
"Living
Weapon".
Didja Know?
The Chinese characters printed as part of the Serenity
logo of the comic are the word "Ninjing",
which means "Serenity".
The title of this mini-series,
Leaves on the Wind, is based on Wash's
phrase spoken in
"Living
Weapon" as he pilots Serenity, "I am a
leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar…"
Didja Notice?
The inside front cover of this issue gives a setup of the
'verse and a very brief summation of events in the
Serenity movie.
The small print of a restaurant menu display is seen on the
left-hand edge of page 2. If you have good eyes (or a
magnifying glass) one can see that the words are related to
an actual menu, with items such as beef, chicken, hot dog,
fish ball, fish tofu, rice cake, squid, chicken wing, and
potato visible.
| On page 3, panel 1, notice that a couple of
men are hanging posters of a stylized fist bearing the
slightly altered markings of the flag of the Independent
Planets during the Unification War. |
 |
 |
| Resistance logo |
Independents' flag |
On page 5, the sword in the glass display case on the
female Alliance officer's desk appears to be the same type used by the Operative in the
Serenity movie. It's not
his sword though because he still has his when Mal finds him in
"Leaves on the
Wind" Part 3. The bald man in the room with the Alliance
officer is revealed in "Leaves on the
Wind" Part 4 to be an Operative as well, named Denon.
And the female Alliance officer may be yet another Operative
referred to as Kalista by the Operative in "Leaves on the
Wind" Part 4. All three Operatives use similar swords.
On page 7, speculation on where Malcolm Reynolds and the
crew of Serenity are hiding runs rampant. Suggestions by
members of the New Resistance are that they are on Three
Hills, Haven, or Shadow. Three Hills was mentioned by Mal as
a possible location to sell stolen goods in
"Serenity".
Haven appeared in a few previous stories. Shadow,
as stated here, is Mal's homeworld, as previously stated in
"Our Mrs. Reynolds" and
"Triggered".
On page 7, Bea refers to Mal as the greatest military mind
alive. Tee-hee.
On page 8, Edgar states that Mr. Universe is a pervert and
sexual deviant. The 'verse in general must not be aware of
Mr. Universe's death (in
"Living
Weapon"). Edgar's reference to him as a sexual
deviant may be due to his having married a sexbot, as
revealed in "A Better World".
This issue reveals that Inara has been decommissioned from
her duties as a space hooker...er, I mean Companion. Inara
implies her decommission was due to her involvement with the
activities of Serenity and its crew and the
broadcast they made in
"Living
Weapon".
This issue reveals that Jayne has left the crew.
| In this issue Kaylee is wearing a tank top
with a cartoon character on it that may be one of the Fruity
Oaty Bars mascots. A televised advertisement for Fruity Oaty
Bars was seen in "Triggered". |
 |
 |
| Kaylee's tank top |
Fruity Oaty Bars mascot |
Zoe gives birth to her and Wash's baby, a girl she names
Emma.
Some internal bleeding in Zoe after giving birth leads the
Serenity crew to seek treatment on a medical ship in orbit over
Paquin. This world was mentioned previously in
"Out of Gas".
On page 15, Zoe has a nightmare reliving Wash's death in
"Living
Weapon".
Bounty hunter Jubal Early wears the same space suit here he
wore in "Objects in Space".
In this issue Jayne appears to be wearing the chullo his
mother knitted and sent to him, which he received in
"The Message".
|
On page 23, the exterior of the Cobb house is actually
modeled on the house used in the Buffy the Vampire
Slayer TV series (another Joss Whedon creation) as
Buffy's house! (This was pointed out by letter writer Maaike
van Eekelen in the lettercol of
Serenity: Leaves on the Wind #5.)
|
 |
 |
| Cobb house |
Buffy house (from
flickr) |
On page 23, notice that the three windows on the front door
of the Cobb homestead change their diagonal direction from
the closed door in panel 3 and the open door in panel 4.
Whoops.
Chinese translations
(Thanks to the
Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary for the translations)
Most of the Chinese and Japanese characters seen
throughout this mini-series were copied from a Japanese
Godzilla book by artist Georges Jeanty, who
admits he was simply looking for symbols that looked
cool, making most of them nonsensical in context. For
this reason, I am not posting most of the translations
here. Please visit
Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary for
those translations and the Jeanty story. The
translations I have included are ones that seem to make
at least some sense with the context/characters. |
|
Page/Panel |
Chinese |
English |
|
14/5 |
The Chinese symbol yu hangs on the wall of
Zoe's quarters. |
universe/space |
|
23/4 |
Jayne's t-shirt has Japanese characters spelling Gojira |
Godzilla |
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