Jayne Cobb

From The Firefly and Serenity Database

"You know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I go get and beat you with until you understand who's in ruttin' command here."

―Jayne Cobb^[src]

Jayne Cobb, also known as the "Hero of Canton," is in charge of "public relations" on board Serenity.

Contents 1 Background 2 Behind the scenes 3 Appearances 4 Notes and references

[edit] Background

Jayne is a mercenary who did not fight on either side in the Unification War. He met up with former Independence fighters Malcolm Reynolds and Zoë when his gang tried to rob them. Mal offered him a larger share of heists and his own bunk, and so Jayne shot one of his companions and joined up with Mal instead.

Jayne is good in a fight, and reacts before he thinks on many occasions. He has also shown to be somewhat cruel; when arguing with Mal, he is not above insulting Mal's leadership skills by bringing up the events of the Battle of Serenity Valley, a highly sensitive subject for Mal.^[1] Although he often appears to be somewhat stupid, he has his own peculiar wit. He has played successful jokes on the more intellectual Simon Tam (for instance, tricking Simon, who harbors an excessive fear of the vacuum of space, into putting on a spacesuit to board a pressurized ship^[2]). He's also credited for the witty, fan-favorite line, "I'll be in my bunk". Jayne also has a keen sense of danger and is often the first to raise an accurate warning about impending peril.^[2]

Although often represented as a strict mercenary, Jayne has his own code of honor. He is loyal to his employer as long as he is being paid well. When he has not acted up to his code of honor, he has worked to atone for it, for instance by buying a crate of fresh apples and sharing it with the crew of the ship for what he did on Ariel. Jayne also demonstrates unexpected sentimentality when it is revealed that he sends some of the money earned by his mercenary activities home to his mother, Radiant Cobb. He also proudly sports a ridiculous orange knit cap with earflaps, simply because his mother made it for him (Wash: "A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything.").^[3] There are at least two instances that show that he truly does care about his fellow crew members; after Kaylee was accidentally shot by Lawrence Dobson, Jayne was naturally angered by this, but another side of this was shown when he was huddling by the window of the infirmary in bated breath to see if Kaylee survived the operation, and, in Out of Gas, he went out of his way to help Mal close all air vents leading below deck to buy the former time to repair Serenity's engines and even prepped a spacesuit for Mal for when he ran out of air without being told to do so (while Mal does appreciate this, he tells Jayne that he won't need it).^[4] Also, when Mal is about to space him as punishment for attempting to turn Simon and River over to the Alliance for the reward, Jayne tells him with complete sincerity to lie to the other crew members about the reason for his death, caring about what they thought about him in the end; however, even before the Feds double-crossed him in order to take the reward money for themselves, he showed remorse for what he was about to do, especially after seeing Simon skillfully save a dying man and discovering what the Alliance had done to River.^[5]

Jayne keeps a large arsenal in his bunk on Serenity. He has named his favorite and most powerful gun (a "Callahan full-bore auto lock with customized trigger double cartridge thorough gauge") Vera. He acquired it after killing the previous owner, an assassin trying to kill him. Jayne frequently carries a handgun based on a LeMat Percussion Revolver, and later carries an assault rifle named Lux.^[1][6]

Jayne doesn't have many fears, but he has shown fear at anything to do with Reavers, a subpopulation of feral humans. He is convinced that fugitives Simon and his sister River Tam will bring the Alliance down on them, and this concern fuels his dislike of the Tams. He also has a notable fear of River, who slashed him in the chest once and unnerved him with her occasional outbursts, creating a rift that her generally sweet (albeit odd) nature does not help to heal. Jayne has also demonstrated fear of dying in what he considers an unmanly manner, notably being "spaced".

Jayne is regarded as something of a Robin Hood-like folk hero by the people of Canton on Higgins' Moon. They have erected a statue of him in the center of the town and sing a song dedicated to "the hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne" ("The Ballad of Jayne Cobb") in which they tell how "he robbed from the rich and he gave to the poor". The true story is, however, less heroic. Jayne and his then-partner Stitch Hessian did indeed steal from Magistrate Higgins and drop the money on the town, but this was only because during his escape, Jayne's ship was attacked and damaged and he needed to lose a lot of weight from the ship just to keep it flying. Jayne dumped the money in desperation, but only after having already thrown out his unfortunate partner. It was in this episode that he let his emotional walls down the most, becoming deeply disturbed when the townspeople continued to idolize him after learning the truth.^[7] He spends the rest of the episode trying to deal with this, even going to Mal for help in doing so.

[edit] Behind the scenes

Jayne is portrayed by actor Adam Baldwin in the television series Firefly and the motion picture Serenity.

Jayne's very favorite gun, Vera, is possibly named for the actress Jayne Mansfield whose birth name is Vera Jayne Palmer.

Adam Baldwin also voices a character in Halo 3 that has obvious similarities to Jayne - one of his lines references a gun called Vera, another to the grenades he left behind in Serenity.

Adam Baldwin also alludes to his character in his other show, Chuck. His character, John Casey, on one occasion refers to his car as 'shiny' in the context the word is used in Firefly. He also comments about an intelligent kid in another episode, "What's he gonna do? Hurt me with his brain?" (referencing the scene in "Trash" when River casually tells Jayne, "Also, I can kill you with my brain.") Another time he says Chuck is "damaging [his] calm", referencing Jayne's remark toward River in Serenity.

[edit] Appearances

• Firefly
  • "Serenity" (First appearance)
  • "The Train Job"
  • "Bushwhacked"
  • "Shindig"
  • "Safe"
  • "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
  • "Jaynestown"
  • "Out of Gas"
  • "Ariel"
  • "War Stories"
  • "Trash"
  • "The Message"
  • "Heart of Gold"
  • "Objects in Space"
• Better Days
• Those Left Behind
• Serenity

[edit] Notes and references