Continuing with the
Firefly trend...
Tyler Higgins - Wash
AQD: Wash is the pilot of Serenity and, because he's a laid-back and peaceful kind of guy, he's often overlooked when it comes to the Firefly's business. He would rather talk than fight, and that separates him from the continually rambunctious crew. He provides a voice of reason, however, and he often comes up with clever ways to get out of annoying situations. As the husband of Zoe, Wash constantly feels emasculated and yearns to be manlier but, as the show progresses, we discover what a brave and awe-inspiring man Wash truly is. We realize that, just as Wash is lucky for having a powerful and gorgeous wife, Zoe is lucky for having a determined and compassionate husband.
Comparison: Tyler's not married to Yvette, I get that. But I feel like Tyler has that same love in him. Whoever snags his heart will find a great source of support and devotion. Tyler's also a pretty reasonable, quiet guy, and he can sometimes be... overlooked... in rambunctious crowd meetings. But when you pay attention, you notice that Tyler is quirky, funny, loyal, and strong. I foresee Tyler doing great things in the future.
Lindsay Long - Kaylee
AQD: Kaylee's the ship engineer and, like Wash, she's not one for the violent and chaotic behavior of the rest of the crew. She's an incredibly sweet girl, but she's got more than enough backbone to stand her ground when she's offended or upset. One of the only female engineers ever to appear in the scifi world, Kaylee has an incredibly unique skill set, and she's stunningly good at it. She can walk you through the inner core of a spaceship with the patience and ease of a kindergarten teacher, but she never makes you feel foolish for knowing anything less than she does. She is a diehard optimist that's in love with being girly, but also totally comfortable being a grease-ridden crewman.
Comparison: Lindsay seems, at first, a sweet girl who can hit high notes and who wears lots of sparkly things. I'm not gonna lie, I get distracted by the sparkles quite often. She adores being girly and we love her for it. Hell, someone has to be, am I right? But Lindsay's cool, too; she'll play Pong and crack jokes with the rest of us. And fuck is she good at Pong. Even when she's top dog, though, Lindsay never makes you feel like less of a player, and she always encourages people to try harder.
Natalie Woods - River
AQD: Wow. This one'll be hard. River Tam is... probably the most unique person on the entire show. She's insanely intelligent, in fact I think her IQ is supposed to be somewhere in the 200s. River is so amazingly intelligent that she performs acts of "magic," like telling the future, simply by calculating the various probabilities involved in the scenario. But she's damaged. She went to this amazing school in which they're supposed to offer specialized curricula for brilliant children, but they actually treated her like a lab rat and literally messed around in her brain. She escaped by sending coded letters to her brother, Simon (he's also onboard), who used his status as doctor to sneak in and steal her away. He hid her in a crate, sedated, until he came aboard Serenity and the crew discovered her. So, that's her history. Told you this one would be hard. River, personality-wise, is a child. As everyone who knows someone smart knows, intelligence comes at a price. Many gifted children today are ADD, but many of them are autistic in some way. Although she knows more than everyone everywhere, River suffers from a combination of autism (not bad autism, though. It's more like a total lack of a filter combined with a child's morbid love of outlandishness) and fear of everything. She can't begin to process how horribly she was treated, and she often forgets that she left that "school."
River's also scary. She can tell you facts about yourself with absolute certainty. Oh, and she's a bit of a killing machine. Part of the treatment she got at the "school" involved making her deadly with just about any implement, but they hid it under "sleeper" style brainwashing. She's the most badass chick in the galaxy, and she's also the most innocent. She knows everything and nothing all at once. She's an enigma, but her life is an open book.
Comparison: Alright. This one's abstract as hell, especially because I did a shit job of explaining the character... but here goes. Like River, Natalie's this tiny little person and you think, "Well, she's harmless," but you're so, so wrong. Natalie is fierce and matter-of-fact about her opinions, and she won't hesitate to take you down a couple pegs when she feels it's necessary. Now Natalie and I aren't that close, so I'm sorry if I totally get this wrong... but I feel like there's a lot to Natalie that no one sees. While she's open about herself, she's also hiding a lot, and she's very good at it. You often know exactly how Natalie will act, but ask yourself, do you know why she acts that way? I'm not trying to pry into Natalie's life, here, but I do firmly believe that there's a lot more to Natalie than meets the eye.
