In the last week I re-watched Firefly, followed by Serenity, and loved them even more than when I first saw them years ago. The characters really get in your head and heart. There is much about this world and story that I love. But I have one observation to make.
As in most art, one can see flickers of the artist himself within the piece&amp;#8212;his beliefs, worldview, temperaments, interests, etc. Near the end of Serenity, after the crew discovers the gruesome origins of the Reavers, Mal waxes philosophical:

Somebody has to speak for these people&amp;#8230; Sure as I know anything, I know this. THEY [the Alliance] WILL TRY AGAIN&amp;#8230; [Eventually] they&amp;#8217;ll swing back to the belief that they can make people better. And I do not hold to that.

Now, I don&amp;#8217;t know if this is the voice of Joss Whedon speaking here or not, but I&amp;#8217;m inclined to think so because Mal is the hero and this task is the final thrust of the film. So get this: The Alliance accidentally created the Reavers by pursuing humanism&amp;#8212;which holds a belief in the perfectibility of man&amp;#8212;to its extremes. And the Alliance bogeys are the antagonists for it, justifiably so. Yet Whedon self-identifies as a humanist! With no apparent sense of irony, he subscribes to a worldview without real meaning, without lasting purpose (Mal is the nihilistic anti-hero who just keeps going but doesn&amp;#8217;t have a reason why), and the evil empire antagonist in this created world is simply his own humanistic worldview taken to its logical conclusion.
Art is complex, to say the least. I wonder if Joss Whedon has noted or pondered this tension in his beautifully crafted world of Serenity and Firefly.