Reaver (Firefly)

Reavers are a fictional group of humans in the television series Firefly and film Serenity who live on the fringes of civilized space and have become animalistic. Within most of the timeline of the series and movie, the existence of Reavers is officially denied by the Alliance, the ruling government of humanity, but they are a harsh reality around the outer planets.

The Reavers are mentioned several times during the course of the television show. A Reaver ship is seen in the pilot episode, and the episode "Bushwacked" shows someone becoming a Reaver. The movie Serenity featured Reavers and revealed their origin.

Whedon has said of Reavers, "Every story needs a monster. In the stories of the old west it was the Apaches". He explained how he removed the racial aspect of the Apache metaphor by using the Reavers. "I used that example by saying that anyone who goes out into space and goes mad can become a monster." The purpose Reavers serve in the show has been compared to the Hollywood "Injuns" of the 1950s in western movies by outside sources.

Comic book artist Bernie Wrightson, co-creator of Swamp Thing, contributed Reaver concept designs for the film Serenity. The "mythology" of the Reavers in Firefly and Serenity has been said to be different.

In Firefly, Reavers are readily recognized in any situation by both appearance and behavior. Whether ritually or in fits of rage, they mutilate themselves, peeling off parts of their own skins and shoving pieces of metal into the flesh. Reavers are savage, brutal and primal, though they engage in some form of social behavior and cooperation within their own group. Their contact with normal humans appears limited to combat, rape to death, torture, and cannibalism. These contacts are brief and survivors few. As a result, little is known of Reavers' social structure.

Reavers growl and snarl like beasts; even radio transmissions within their flotilla seem to be little more than shrieks and moans. However, they presumably communicate on some level as they are still able to cooperate and act purposefully enough to use spaceships and set sophisticated technological traps. In Serenity, the reavers only begin to closely inspect the disguised Serenity after it fails to respond to a red light pulse from a reaver ship. This suggests that Reavers have retained some level of higher intelligence and social structure, though they are guided solely by their impulse to capture and consume any humans they come in contact with.

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