An echo of humanity

The border planets are depicted as lawless, savage, and barbaric. At the very fringes of this space exist the mythologized (for those on the central planets) Reavers—beings outside the power and imposition of the Alliance. While Reynolds and his crew are part of the empire and resist from within—by stealing, smuggling, and harbouring fugitives—the Reavers are banished to the imaginary excesses for core planet populations. They are only real to those on the border where the excessive and the grotesque can exist. Reavers rape, tear the flesh from live humans, and disfigure themselves in their madness. The Reavers are the extremes of resistance. They cannot be colonized and are beyond the meanings of imperialism. Moving from the irrational to the rational is a colonial trope subverted by the Reavers. In Serenity, reason, enlightenment, and the civilized development of humanity, economically, politically, and culturally through colonization is corrupted by these creatures. They are irrational and cannot be brought to the rational—advanced and civilized—ideals of the colonizers. The Reavers are the embodiment of madness—of the colonial project gone wrong and perversions that result from imperialism.

PopMatters: A Postcolonial Provocation: 'Serenity'