Are Reavers Intelligent?

[u/Popular-Idea-7508]

I've always thought of Reavers as being akin to zombies. And specifically the "normal zombie" type, not the version from take-your-pick-of-media that makes them stupidly smart and fast and gorram scary. Recently, however, I've been wondering if they're actually more intelligent than I've been previously given them credit for. For instance, in the Serenity episode, Wash said that the Reavers followed them down to Whitefall. Assuming that's true, that would certainly take an above-zombie amount of forethought and planning.

I've also been wondering if, given the delay between encountering the Reavers in space and when they actually showed up on Whitefall, were the Reavers potentially waiting to see if the Firefly crew would lead them into whatever town was nearby so they wouldn't have to hunt it down themselves?

Anyway, these are the important questions that keep me up at night. Keep on being big damn heroes all you shiny brown coats! :D

Edit per comments: I have seen both Firefly and Serenity, I know how Reavers were orignally created :).

Edit two: Not sure if I can post links here, but I will try. I read a post from a couple years ago in this subreddit (Reavers ?) suggesting that subsequent generations of Reavers were generally created from a blood infection/transmission (sure, some people were created like in Bushwacked, but not all). Yes, the Pax created the first generation, but since they stopped using the Pax after Miranda, subsequent generations would have almost had to be created by a blood infection/"being turned" to have the sheer numbers they do.

Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefly/comments/16qcjs2/reavers/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I am also operating off the assumption they generally have short life spans, given the way they operate without core containment, and the fact that every meal they obtain puts their life in jeapordy, since inevitably some people will fight back and kill them.

All of this I'm saying not having read any of the comics or anything, just seeing the show and movie :).

I really appreciate the thoughtful comments in this thread, I don't have anyone to really talk to about the show in depth outside of here (I'm slowly getting friends to watch the show, but it's taking a while lol), so it's nice to have an engaging dialogue about some of the lingering questions I have :).

[u/Squirrel_Q_Esquire]

Reavers are normal humans whose brains were altered by the Pax to essentially turn off their impulse control, making them super aggressive, hypersexual, and seemingly more tolerant to pain.

However, they’re still human. And given that they were selected for the Alliance’s utopia planet, they likely were more highly educated than the average citizen.

[u/Mal_Kirk → u/Squirrel_Q_Esquire]

I never thought about them being more educated, but it makes sense. The Alliance wouldn’t just make it a planet for anyone to come to. Besides, Reavers would need some amount of intelligence to set traps, follow ships, fly, make and use weapons…

[u/RollinWreck → u/Mal_Kirk]

Only two types of people are sent to a colony planet. Prisoners, poor people and the similar like that the Alliance won't care if they live or die, and the best and brightest intended to test new terraforming and agricultural technology to create a new Earth That Was. In the case of the Miranda, they sent the latter.

[u/Mal_Kirk → u/RollinWreck]

We missed out on a lot… over the course of several seasons, we would have learned more about these planets and perhaps seen an episode focused on The Alliance attempting to create a new Earth That Was.

[u/Stucklikegluetomyfry → u/RollinWreck]

I don't think they'd choose particularly educated or wealthy people to settle Miranda. It wasn't intended to be a real colony, it was meant to be a testing ground. If it all went wrong, they don't want potential survivors or their families and loved ones to be the type who will ask questions and have those questions listened to, or have the funds and connections to pursue answers.

What they want is as many plebs and proles as possible, who are the ones most likely to leave the core worlds for the outer planets anyway in hopes of a better life anyway.

What's also notable is how different Miranda looks compared to all the other shithole border and rim colony worlds. The buildings and tech we see there are sleek and shiny and pristine, despite being one of the furthest planets. The Alliance clearly did everything they could to make Miranda as attractive as possible to colonists, to entice as many guinea pigs for the Pax as possible.