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In the Firefly movie "Serenity", at the final battle, the Serenity flies through Reaver territory, drawing them into a battle with the Alliance.

Were all of the Reavers in that battle destroyed? Were all of the Alliance forces in that battle destroyed? Do we know the extent of the damage done to each side?

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No, not all the Alliance forces were destroyed.

Some find the Crew after Mal sent out the message. The Operative orders them to stand down.

From the script:

Behind it, grappling hooks chained to a huge tractor pull the wall away as through the smoke come some fifteen Alliance soldiers, who line up, rifles trained on our gang...

SOLDIER: Drop your weapons! Drop 'em now!

ANOTHER SOLDIER: Do we engage? Do we engage?

We don't know for sure exactly what happened to the Reavers.

The Firefly Wiki makes an unsourced claim that the entire Reaver Fleet was destroyed:

They engaged the Union of Allied Planets Navy in the Universe battle and were annihilated.

Knowing that the Alliance ultimately won the battle, combined with the Reavers' blood-rage likely preventing them from retreating even in the face of near-certain destruction, and the fact that taking Reavers prisoner is almost impossible, I would agree and say that they were probably all destroyed.

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  • What purpose would the Alliance have in taking Reaver prisoners anyway?
    – Xantec
    Mar 15, 2016 at 18:22
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    @Xantec To study?
    – Rogue Jedi
    Mar 15, 2016 at 18:30
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    Maybe. But the Alliance already knew where the Reavers came from and they didn't seem too interested in curing or removing them up to that point.
    – Xantec
    Mar 15, 2016 at 18:31
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    @Xantec That was an Alliance secret, only known to top officials; the whole point of Serenity was the cover up. Your average Alliance commander wouldn't know about it. In Bushwhacked the Alliance captain thinks the Reavers are a myth made up to cover piracy. So they might be motivated to take prisoners (who would then quietly disappear).
    – Schwern
    Apr 21, 2017 at 20:25
  • IIRC, the operative ordered all ships from THIS sector there, which implies that the alliance has a lot more ships, just not there. Also the reaver space looked quite bit, it seems unlikely that ALL reavers took the bait.
    – Florian Schaetz
    Dec 15, 2017 at 14:12
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That entire armada may have been destroyed but there could have been several smaller fleets on raiding runs etc, so we can not be sure that every Reaver ship, in the 'verse, was present when Mal fired his "itty bitty cannon"

Alliance soldiers "rescue" the crew of Firefly so they were not all destroyed

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    Well, I asked about alliance forces "in that battle", sooo . . .
    – albusseverus potter
    Mar 14, 2016 at 16:44
  • Where do you think that the Alliance soldiers come from?
    – user001
    Mar 15, 2016 at 12:05
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    yes, but you said "in the 'verse", and i am talking about the forces in that specific battle, not all alliance forces everywhere.
    – albusseverus potter
    Mar 15, 2016 at 13:53
  • @albusseveruspotter Which is why it's a good thing that you edited the question title so.
    – user001
    Mar 15, 2016 at 14:52

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