Blue Sun

What is the Blue Sun Corporation? After writing the entire Wikipedia article regarding Blue Sun I started getting a few e-mails about it and I thought I'd write a blog entry to help those people who are new to firefly begin to understand the underside of the main story !ow keep in mind" this blog entry is entirely my opinion It is not canon It is based on my e#pansi$e personal knowledge of %irefly coupled with how and where Blue Sun inter-relates &o understand Blue Sun you must first possess an understanding of the political structure of the '$erse %irefly can be politically compared to the '(th century )nglish go$ernment At that time there was a triad of intrests go$erning the highest decisions of British life %irstly there was the *ing" and along with that persona you find the nobility Second is the parliament of +elected+ officials I place the word ,elected- in .uotes because the concept of a democracy was more of a philosophy than a reality during that time period &he third and final ma/or force were the capitalists of the era and along with them comes big business 0ne of the largest of these organi1ations was the )ast India Company Blue Sun is modeled on )IC In the '(th century" political corruption was a fact of life and a nature of business In order to see your commercial interests forwarded" one need only use ones money to influence the nobility and thus parliament 0ftentimes members of parliament were nobles who had political stock in )IC or other trade engines &he system was tightly interwo$en and the result was that an elite few were able to become wealthy by treading on the backs of the common man &his is the e#act situation we see in the %irefly '$erse A nobility class clearly e#ists 2al refers to a +*ing of 3ondinium+ in the pilot episode Warrick 4arrow e#plains to 2al that his red sash indicates lordhood Atherton Wing and 2agistrate 4iggins are clearly lesser lords Interrelated with these nobles you find the interests of the Alliance go$ernment" which we know from the film to be go$erned by a parliament &he third and final piece of the pu11le is big business In %irefly we see this e#pressed in the form of the Blue Sun Corporation" which while surely not the only corporation" is likely the largest and most influential 5oss Whedon once described Blue Sun as a combination of 2icrosoft and Coca-Cola 5udging from what we see of Blue Sun a more apt comparision would be 2icrosoft6Coca-Cola67rocter 8 9amble Clearly the future of corporations in$ol$es business buying itself out until only a scant few entities remain &hose few companies pro$ide all the logistical infrastructure in the '$erse 0ne of Blue Sun's niches is in the consumer staples market !ote the following apperances of Blue Sun on food products: ' &he crybaby was a radio transmitter taped to a Blue Sun coffee can ,pilot episode; <i$er rips labels of Blue Sun brand food ,shindig= A Blue Sun cola commercial runs as Serenity debarks her landing platform ,&he 2essage> <i$er kicks a Blue Sun brand bottle off a table in the maidenhead bar ,Serenity feature film? 5ayne passes a Blue Sun brand li.uor bottle to Simon ,Serenity feature filmBlue Sun's other market is in electronic technological ad$ancements &he only e#ample of this is in the episode Ariel When Simon boots up the holo-imager" a spinning logo appears before the machine begins to show <i$ers internal organs If you look closely at the center of the spinning element of the hologram" you can clearly see Blue Sun's logo Be aware that it will appear backwards because it is presented in a manner that would appear correct to the operator of the imager ,Simon- and we are on the opposite side I ha$e heard ,non-canon- discussions that there were plans to hide Blue-Sun logos in internet communications" implying that the company has patients on common telecommunications technologies" such as sending +Wa$es+ and accessing the Corte# ,%or non-browncoats the Corte# is the WWW of the '$erse It tra$erses all the planets in the star system" though transmissions off-planet are sub/ected to delays due to lightspeed issues @ou see it used occasionally in the &A series when Inara is trying to book clientsSome of the grandest mysteries of %irefly in$ol$e the goals of Blue Sun 5oss e$entually admitted in %irefly: &he official Companion" Aol ' that the hands of blue $illains were associated with Blue Sun &hat re$elation opens the door to the likely scenario that Blue Sun is a sinister entity" in$ol$ing itself with secret pro/ects for the Alliance go$ernment &his makes sense gi$en that half of the company is de$oted towards the pursuit of maintaining a monopoly within technologies markets I belie$e that the academy <i$er attended was a front Blue Sun established under Alliance super$ision" in an effort to identify e#ceptional humans for testing purposes I also belie$e that the clips of the < &am sessions were filmed by Blue Sun Certainly there are innocent sides to the megacorp I mean" is e$ery employee going to be culpable? Surely not But there are e$ils hidden within the folds I maintain that along with it's public face" Blue Sun has go$ernment contracts ,3ike our modern defense contractors- to produce $arious secret products" such as a psychic assassin in the form of <i$er &am &here are surely many other secrets &his leads into an interesting .uestion: 4ow did the 4ands of Blue kill the guards in Ariel with their +little blue sticks+?

Before we go there I want to e#amine <i$er's beha$ior in the )pisode Shindig <ecall for a moment the scene when 5ayne" Book" and Simon were playing &allcard As they sit absorbed in trying to win the rights to not do chores" <i$er enters the dinning area She walks to the prep table where she finds a bo# filled with groceries Inside are canned goods and a couple cracker bo#es bearing the Blue Sun logo As soon as she sees this she begins to $iolently tear labels and attack the bo#es while saying this: &here it is" there it is It's always there if you look for it )$erybody sees and nobody sees it &hese are the ones that take youB 3ittle ones in the corner that you almost don't see But they're the ones that reach in and do it &hey're the ones with teeth and you ha$e to smash themB A million things" and the little ends of the roots go e$erywhere and when you brush your teeth or all the little blue things are there but no one says it because" because sometimes they're afraid And then they come We must ask oursel$es" What are these +little blue things+ to which <i$er refers? What's in the food that she fears? I maintain that Blue Sun puts stuff in their products in a manner similar to the way the 7AC agent was deli$ered to the citi1ens of 2iranda What this +stuff+ happens to be is not something defined anywhere" but it can ser$e to create a rational e#planation as to how the 4ands of Blue killed the federal guards in Ariel If e$eryone in the '$erse has eaten Blue Sun food" or brushed their teeth with Blue Sun toothpaste or whate$er then it stands to reason that a strong ma/ority of the population is infected with the +little blue things+ <i$er rants about 2y theory is that the Alliance go$ernment sought out a means to control the general population in the unlikely e$ent of another ci$il war Since Blue Sun and 7arliament are in each others hip pockets" ,recall the political relationships further up in this blog entry- it's plausible that 7arliament contracted with the technological di$ision of Blue Sun to engineer an agent which the consumer staples side of the company could introduce into household products So as I e#plained pre$iously" I belie$e that Blue Sun has introduced a biological agent into the food that they mass market I belie$e this was done as contracted work for the Alliance go$ernment in an effort to control the populace should there e$er be another ci$il war &he 4ands of Blue $illains utili1e the +little blue sticks that hum+ to stimulate the infection and ultimately cause death of infected hosts &hey can do this safely due to the fact that they are not themsel$es infected I'$e often wondered if death is the only result of e#posure to acti$ated blue sticks 7erhaps there are multiple settings on the de$ice" such as S&D! or 7AI! If this is true" the 4ands of Blue could capture $ictims without inflicting physical harm &orture could be effected in a similar fashion &hose are /ust wild speculations &here is no e$idence to support anything like that But it's an interesting idea As far as a mass infection goes" the Alliance go$ernment now has a powerful tool at their fingertips Imagine this scenario: A rim world begins to once again become hostile to the Alliance A mo$ement on that world decides to declare independence &hen on a dark night Alliance $essels enter the area and broad wa$e the same stimulus that the 4ands of Blue effected against the Alliance federals in the 4ospital in Ariel City but on a much larger scale Within minutes" thousands of rebels ,and innocents- will be dead At that point" the only /ob left is to clean up the mess and chalk it up to a mysterious mass disappearance Some people might learn the truth" but who cares? &he $ictims were /ust rim worlders !obody in the core will notice &he rea$er co$er-up worked for '; years I'$e also spent time speculating about <i$er &am and her relationship with Blue Sun As I stated before" the academy <i$er attended was ,I belie$e- an Alliance front to identify e#ceptional humans for study &he actual dirty work is performed by Blue Sun and members of 7arliament will occasionally take tours to obser$e results If you watch the < &am sessions" you can see that <i$er didn't start out cra1y In session ' she is e#cited and happy <i$er clearly feels that there is so much to learn and has no idea of the sinister elements about to descend on her We can also see that her psychic abilities are not as strong as they will be later when she is on board Serenity &he inter$iewer asks her about her intuitions and she describes them" but the ability to

fully read minds isn't culti$ated yet In the ne#t session <i$er is clearly damaged" but still semi-sane She asks to go home but is told no In the ne#t ; sessions its ob$ious that she's stark ra$ing mad" but also clear is that Blue Sun has come a long way in +turning on+ her psychic senses &his culminates in her statement that without speaking Er 2ithias +ga$e her a mission+ &he intent of what Blue Sun was doing is clear to me: &hey were sculpting a psychic assassin" /ust as 2al describes during the crew meeting in 0b/ects in Space <i$er shows ; moments where she negati$ely reacts to Blue Sun &he first is the aforementioned destruction of Blue Sun brand food &he other is when she slashes 5ayne with a butchers knife in Ariel In the directors commentary" it is stated that <i$er was actually attacking 5ayne's Blue Sun &-shirt rather than 5ayne himself 5oss does a masterful /ob of misdirecting us in allowing 5ayne to insult Simon by spitting on his Whetstone after being asked to cease <i$er then slashes 5ayne While our initial reaction to the e$ent is that she was angry 5ayne insulted her brother" the true answer to why she attacked lies in her statement +4e looks better in red+ <i$er was acting out against Blue Sun" but due to her state of mind the crew ,and we- percei$e a dangerous lunatic 2y final conclusions about Blue Sun are thus: ' &hey are a megacorp 7ossibly the largest ; &heir public business model is ?FG household staples 8 ?FG information technologies = &hey are in the side pocket of the +establishment+ ,i e parliament 8 the nobility> &hey contract with the Alliance go$ernment in secret ? ; secret pro/ects are A- 2ass infection of the general populace and B- Creating psychic assassins H &here are surely other pro/ects we know nothing about As a final note" I suspect that Book knew some of these things 2y belief is that Book was an 0perati$e during the Dnification War 4is guilt o$er past deeds forced him into his current role as a Shepard 4ad the show continued as it should ha$e" I think Book would ha$e begun to relate some of the things he knew about Blue Sun &his concludes my analysis of Blue Sun While I'm surely not 'FFG correct" I think I'm close 2y conclusions ha$e been reached based on > years of watching %irefly" = years acti$e on this board" and lots of independent thought