Have you ever considered screenwriting? Only mostly kidding haha

This is the best characterization I have ever seen. The episodic plots and the way they symbiotically service character development is just amazing! If you ever have a notion to continue this I will be cheering you on.

I especially love the way you were developing River at the end there - giving her two feet to stand on instead of remaining on the weaponized victim level that most people are comfortable keeping her at. It's a really worthy end in my mind for the massive amount of potential Whedon introduced her with. As this fic is basically going to be my headcanon for Firefly season 2, this gives me peace for her character. (Maybe a little more if I knew this 'season 2' was going to continue :))

Also I just realized one thing that was nigging at me about the unfinished Ash&John/Echo plotline is that Ash says her family has Kaylee's updated Cortex address but wouldn't be conducive to giivng it to her on account of being estranged from them. I think her explaining how she witnessed Kaylee's "disappearance" would warrant a good enough reason for her family to not ignore her. From the episode Out of Gas it seemed as if Kaylee asking permission from her family must have included at least the name of the ship and captain that took her, which would clear up Garis' implication that Serenity kidnapped/killed Kaylee pretty fast.

Kind of nitpicking at this loose thread but the fact that I even noticed it meant that the other beautifully intricate plotlines are basically perfect!

Have you considered screenwriting? Only slightly kidding...

But seriously this is so good in regards to caring for both growing the characters and studying them - it's probably the most in character fic for Firefly I ever read! It's a perfect marriage of plot servicing characters that drive the plot.

If you have a notion to continue this know that I'll be cheering you on the entire way!

So with all this spare time on my hands, working from home during the quarantine, thought I would reread my all time favorite Firefly fic. Just as great as I remember.

Great!

I miss this story. Went through it, for nostalgia's sake. I hope you're well, wherever you are now, and still doing projects you love.

Still very good. Question...

Wash says they're going slow, and blamed it on "our fuel issues".

But Mal, same chapter, not five minutes of story time BEFORE that, said that "We did get our food stores and fuel restocked".

While you could say that 'restocked' doesn't mean completely fueled-up, it does imply it in the context, since they only got a little money and 'restocked' food out of a ten thousand credit recovery operation.

I love your story. I know this was written a long time ago, but I feel compelled to point something about. If you've seen BDM, which you obviously have given your story, you'd know that River isn't a glass cannon.

In the maidenhead, and with the reavers, she took many hits. They didn't stop her, they didn't slow her. Even getting thrown full body, at speed, against a concrete wall by reavers in BDM only made her pause a moment. What good is a killer/assassin who can't take hits? When she's "just a girl", I get having this reaction, but when she lets the programming take over, it just doesn't make logical sense.

Returning to this fic for the third (forth?) time. Your fic is such a good example of the best of fan fiction - transformative, not plagiarized and unique on its own. In particular, you have a knack for keeping the character development dynamic. Too often, fan fic authors don't think of character progression when they write and, to me, that is a gorram shame.

Nice job...hopefully the muse visits you again and you can pick up where you left off.

All I can say is, I really wished you had finished this story.

It sucks that this story was abandoned!

it sucks that this story was abandoned!

When I read the first paragraph it was love at first sight. Those first moments in the barfight after are beautifully written with their attention to detail!
You continued writing a story that feels so true to the characters that it felt like I was home again. I miss those guys so much and reading your story, to this point is the closest thing to rewatching all the episodes and the movie.

Thank you for every extra minute and hour that you spend on writing those seemingly story-irrelevant character moments. The scenes where the characters are just interacting normally as you wrote in your author's notes. I will never get tired of them, Because they give a story life.

Thank you so much!

Nooooo!

Why did it have to end here?

I know that what I'm asking for will never happen, yet I can't help but do so. Please, finish this some day.
"Forward" is not just any story. It is of such a caliber that I consider it my personal head-canon. Before I began reading it, I thought it would have to be good, considering the recommendations I've seen... but that turned out to be an understatement. Frankly, this is one of the best fics I've ever read - in any fandom.

My criticisms are minor. Of course, there's the occasional grammar and typo issue, but they're not so common as to be a significant detriment. Other than that... can't think of much to gripe about. Earlier on, I felt that you may have stayed a bit too close to the canon, heavily utilizing already established characters (you do love recurring antagonists, don't you?) and not growing your own wings enough like a canon continuation of Firefly doubtlessly would have. But with the last story arc in particular, you blew that argument right out of the window!
One thing that personally makes my head tilt is the Rayne pairing that you're heavily foreshadowing, due to the rather large age and personality difference. But that's my opinion.

And the good stuff?
*Riverthink*! God, you did such an excellent job with describing her mental processes. Her character development is also very interesting and believable. All in all, I can't praise you enough on how you handled River.
The other characters are also well-done in general.
Mal is... Mal, the man we all know and love. You sure did him justice!
Zoe seems slightly one-dimensionally developed, perhaps. You explored her growing mother instinct quite a lot, as well as how it can interact with her stone-cold soldier aspects. A possible look into some other dimensions of her character might be good, but I'll let you be the judge of that :)
Wash... there are some interesting hints regarding his POW experience and consequent PTSD. Wonder if there will be more about that (provided you get back to this story, of course).
Jayne - he sure is changing, and you've made it gradual and believable. Makes a lot of sense, kudos for that :)
On the other hand, I can't help but feel that Inara is slightly overlooked (though I'm of course aware that you primarily focus on River and Mal, and increasingly Jayne too). We're seeing the beginnings of change in her relationship with Mal, but not much else in the way of character development, it seems.
Kaylee is growing a spine... makes me wonder how she'll handle Early when he inevitably finds his way back to Serenity. That said, I don't remember her having much of a personal episode yet. Would be nice to see her have a moment in the limelight sometime.
Simon is handled well - still the big brother, but learning that he has to let River go and be her own person. And he's still the resident criminal mastermind :D
Shepherd Book... hoo boy, where to begin! I prefer your version of his backstory (or the suggestions of one that you've given so far) to the canon one in The Shepherd's Tale. I really wonder just what the hell he did and what his apparently rather high position in the Alliance was (or still kind of is?). I love the direction you chose for him, and would really like to see more of his past explored one day when Forward moves forward again.

Your exploration of the Academy's activities and projects is fascinating. The various kinds of psychics, the Merlins, the bastards who run the whole damn thing... very well done.
You sure know how to craft OCs too. The people who run the Academy's projects seem like just the sort of vile people who would be necessary for such an endeavor. Dr Rashid is interesting, if perhaps a bit too much of a 'badass grandpa sensei' stereotype. The Six Rifles were more intriguing than I expected them to be at first.

You have a rather large amount of action in the story, but know when to give the crew some downtime and time to just interact with each other (these are moments which I enjoyed very much). And while humor isn't particularly common, it is there. Mal and company are as fun as they were in Firefly/Serenity, and I just love it when River goes all snarky (whether vocally or just in her thoughts). You just seem to have nailed every aspect of what made Firefly/Serenity work :)

Thank you so much for writing so much of this story, and please come back. I will even beg you, and I never do that, so I'll let this speak for just how much I desire to see "Forward" to the end (or even just some more of it).

I come back and re read this like once a year and feel sad all over again that we got the tv series dcancelation without the movie to wrap a little better with your story. Haha!

Still my fav. If you ever write again I hope you find the drive to finish this story or at least the last arc. 3 You have great talent.

Always loved this story. Been coming back to it for a couple years now, always hoping to see more.
Sheet scope of it is downright incredible and he content blows me away. James revenge on Niska, the six rifles (although I question if you really needed to kill the Frenchman, he and the Brit might be my favorite parts of he whole thing) other psychic kids, colonel olbrin, the trainer from the academy it’s crew all hose were just the highlights.
Understand that writers block can be pretty bad sometimes but this no about it; this story has over 1,700 reviews. It has an incredibly detailed tv tropes page complete with a character page! All that but it still lies dormant. Se ms wrong somehow. If you are still alive and reading these then I’ll say this: if you never do come back to writing his, at least posting an outline of what you would have done to conclude wrath and/or the story itself would be good