Profile

Full name: Zoe Alleyne Washburne

Aliases: None

Canon from: Firefly/Serenity

Canon type: TV series/movie

Age: Mid-thirties

Gender: Female

Link to picture of character: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/firefly/images/1/10/Zoe.jpg

Character history: Zoe Alleyne was born to military parents aboard a spaceship, and she's been spacefaring ever since. From a young age, she was earning her keep helping out around the ship with minor tasks. A future in spacefaring military service was a foregone conclusion for her.

When she was nineteen and looking to make her own way, Zoe signed up as a hired gun with the then fledgling Independent Armies. This is where she met Malcolm Reynolds, a fellow soldier. While Zoe grew up military, Mal was from one of the outer planets and saw the war as a defense of his people. She often shook her head at his idealism and contagious excitement. The Unification War dragged on for seven long years of protracted sieges and bloody battles, and in the end the Independents lost to the Alliance, a larger and better equipped group from the central planets looking to regulate and control the resources of the poorer outer planets. Mal and Zoe lost the entire rest of their platoon during the Battle of Serenity Valley and were forced to surrender.

After going through such an event together, and not really having anywhere else to go, Mal and Zoe stuck together. Mal still wore the brown coat (the emblem of the Independents) because he believed in the cause, while Zoe still wore hers because she believed in Mal. After drifting for a while once the war had ended, Mal acquired a beat up old Firefly-class transport called Serenity. Zoe was initially skeptical, because the ship was (and is, if we're being honest) kind of a piece of junk, but they quickly warm to her and for the next seven years, Serenity became their home. Mal quickly recruited a crew, including mechanic Bester (later replaced by much better mechanic Kaylee), a thug named Jayne, a Companion named Inara who rented one of their shuttles, and Wash, the pilot. Mal had to work to sell her on hiring Wash on, since she immediately disliked him. This is likely due to his creepifying moustache.

Eventually, despite the moustache, Zoe came around to Mal's point of view about their new pilot. After that, she kept on going in that direction and the two entered a romantic relationship, much to Mal's consternation. (He was not a fan of shipboard romances because they "complicate things") However, she did force him to shave the caterpillar off his face before she would consent to kiss him. Despite orders from her captain not to marry him, Zoe and Wash eloped in secret while on shore leave, adding some beads to the old bootlace she wore to symbolize their commitment. They managed to keep it a secret for several months, until Zoe got shot on a job and Wash blurted out that she was his wife in a fit of worry. Mal handled this announcement with all the grace and maturity that Zoe had come to expect from him. He eventually did come to accept that he couldn't change it and stopped complaining about their relationship (as much).

A few years after the drama over their marriage had died down, life got truly complicated. The crew of Serenity picked up passengers, including a preacher named Book, a prissy young doctor named Simon, and (unbeknownst to them at the time) Simon's psychic sister, River. Simon and River were on the run from the Feds as River had been weaponized against her will and was now Alliance property. Also, the Alliance personnel were kind of stupid and put the psychic girl near some people who knew some pretty powerful state secrets that the Alliance wanted to keep covered up. So they were pretty keen on getting River back.

Eventually, the crew learned the secret that River knew - that the Alliance had created the wild former human creatures known as Reavers by accident while trying to make a population more docile - and worked to release that knowledge to the public. During the ensuing fights, Zoe's husband Wash was impaled by a harpoon and died. The rest of the crew sustained injuries and nearly died as well, but all but the preacher survived. Zoe is heartbroken by the loss of her husband, but is determined to keep flying.

Character personality: Zoe is a very direct person. She can't understand why someone would use fifteen words where five would do, or dance around an issue, saying things they don't mean. Even with Mal, who she respects highly as a superior officer and as a person, she is very willing to tell him when she thinks he's making a poor choice or otherwise being kind of an idiot.

Zoe is also career military. She thinks about situations tactically and is much more comfortable solving her problems with her shotgun rather than diplomacy -- though she does know when words are liable to work better. She knows her way around many different types of weapons and is almost casually proficient with them. However, she also has a tender side and tends to be a sort of "house mother" to everyone on board Serenity, especially Kaylee and River. Growing up on a ship has made her more comfortable in enclosed spaces, and she never likes to be planetside too long.

While the battle of Serenity Valley didn't change Zoe the way it changed Mal, she still carries some pretty deep scars from it. Her friendship with Mal, another survivor, and later her relationship with Wash, helped her to overcome the darkness and be happy again. However, after witnessing her husband's death, she basically landed right back in Serenity Valley. However, she is determined to survive and thrive in his memory.

Physical description: Zoe is quite tall, and has a huge mass of dark curly hair that she usually wears pulled back from her face. She always has a dark leather band with beads on it around her neck, a symbol of her bond with her husband, as well as her way of memorializing those who fell at Serenity Valley.

Magical powers or special skills: While she doesn't have any magical powers, some say Zoe's abilities with a gun are almost supernatural.

Any crimes committed in canon: Treason, smuggling, general thievery, harboring fugitives.

Crime incarcerated into Glaxcin for : Treason.