I've never seen the show myself, but I was wondering what kind of a name "Inara Serra" is. I'm assuming Inara is of Portuguese origin, but mostly because the actress was born in Brazil. Can someone please help me with this? [Inara is actually Arabic in origin; it means "ray of light" or alternatively "heaven sent". Serra, on the other hand, is Portuguese and means "mountain range" - derived from the same word in Latin, where it means 'saw' (as in the cutting implement, which a mountain range might resemble, rather than the act of seeing).] Answered by Tailkinker
Firefly (2002) - 6 questions
The "questions" section is for any random questions that occurred to you while watching this film, or anything you didn't entirely understand, and which Google or the IMDb can't help with. Submit them as a question, and hopefully someone will answer (the bold comments in brackets) - check back regularly. If the answer is wrong, or missing information, please use the "clarify answer" option. Don't feel limited - want to know what music played in a certain scene? Whether this was the first film to use a certain effect? Here's the place to ask!
Across whole show
I've never seen the show myself, but I was wondering what kind of a name "Inara Serra" is. I'm assuming Inara is of Portuguese origin, but mostly because the actress was born in Brazil. Can someone please help me with this? [Inara is actually Arabic in origin; it means "ray of light" or alternatively "heaven sent". Serra, on the other hand, is Portuguese and means "mountain range" - derived from the same word in Latin, where it means 'saw' (as in the cutting implement, which a mountain range might resemble, rather than the act of seeing).] Answered by Tailkinker In some scenes, why do the Serenity crew members speak Chinese? [One of the premises of the show is that the two major Earth societies that survived, and ultimately merged, were the Chinese and Americans. As a result the common language includes much Chinese. Clothing, signage, and building designs also have a heavy Chinese influence.] Answered by MovieGuy I've noticed that on the show, people use "gorram" a lot. Is that phrase used as a euphemism for "God damn"? [Yes, this was done to allow them to swear without causing a problem with the censors. They also swear quite a bit in Chinese.] Answered by MovieGuy Regarding this question and answer: "In some scenes, why do the Serenity crew members speak Chinese? [One of the premises of the show is that the two major Earth societies that survived, and ultimately merged, were the Chinese and Americans. As a result the common language includes much Chinese. Clothing, signage, and building designs also have a heavy Chinese influence.] Answered by MovieGuy." Survived what? [It's never made entirely clear. What we know is that at some point, the Earth became unable to sustain those who lived there, resulting in a mass exodus to a new star system. At that point in the Firefly timeline, the two existing superpowers were the Americans and the Chinese. Whether other present-day nations might still have existed is never mentioned.] Answered by TailkinkerSerenity (2) (series 1)
Though as of today I've only seen Serenity 1 & 2, why did Mal trick Simon into thinking Kaylee was dead, and then laugh about it with Zoe, Wash and Jayne on the bridge? [To tease him. Kaylee is the only one who likes Simon at this point, so the others don't mind playing a rather mean-spirited joke on him.] Answered by Grumpy Scot