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Date Posted: 02:51:15 10/29/02 Tue
Author: Cactus Watcher
Subject: Re: Alliance and Independents... who's good (if at all) and who's bad?
In reply to: Soraya 's message, "Alliance and Independents... who's good (if at all) and who's bad?" on 01:35:49 10/29/02 Tue

First off, thanks for your thoughtful post.

You're right, it would be a mistake to start making value judgements about what went on during the war. Maybe some of that will be answered when the pilot airs in December. From the hints we've gotten, I'm only certain that Mal and Zoe fought on the Independent side, and that Mal wants to escape the regimentation of the Alliance ruled worlds.

It's is clear that Alliance rule hasn't brought law and order to the fringes of the system. The mobile station we saw in 'Bushwacked' seems to indicate that the outer planets are stuck a time comparable to the era of "carpetbaggers and scally-wags" of the post civil war south. Much of what the outer planets are seeing is not the Alliance government itself, but opportunists using the authority of the Alliance to make names and fortunes for themselves. This makes the Alliance look evil when it may be only neglectful.

The use of seizure to fund law enforcement as we saw in 'Bushwacked' exists in the US today as a part of drug enforcement. During the early days of its introduction, there were widespread abuses of property seizure by local law enforcement, often with good intensions. It is something that must be continually watched over carefully from the outside or such abuses could become widespread again.

The Academy is another puzzle of good and evil. We don't know for sure what the place is like. We presume that Inara got her training there, and that she both appreciates that training and is aware of dangers lurking in what she learned (ie women like Saffron using it for other purposes). We don't know what happened to River or why. It seems likely that she was a promising student in the sciences. It is clear that she was experimented on. But, we don't know whether or not it was to artificially boost her intelligence or something similar that she might have volunteered for. Perhaps it was something pure evil. But, whatever it was, the experiment seems to have gone wrong. We don't even know why the Alliance wants her back so badly. It is easier to understand why the Alliance wants to arrest Simon for taking her from their control.

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