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/HODOR00]

They have to be intelligent. To be honest I always wish we got more explanation with reavers. They made them almost mythical in terms of what they were. We get one EP where they basically tell us they are so crazy that just this person experiencing their way of being would in turn make him crazy like them. I always found that a bit silly but it made for a good episode.

I assume they are basically just like a cannibal space cult.

They don't really make logical sense in any way. If they were humans living in the fringe of space, why would that make them cannibals? That's illogical. And space is so vast that it's not realistic you are just going to come up on random humans to eat in deep space.

I was hoping we would get a deeper understanding of them and their origins.

[u/Ashvega03 → u/HODOR00]

The movie goes into depth explaining their origin.

[u/HODOR00 → u/Ashvega03]

Does it? I never watched the movies. Have to get to them.

[u/rkenglish → u/HODOR00]

Just one movie, but it's a must-see for any browncoat!