River Tam

Character
Name:	River Tam
Occupation:	Fugitive/psychic
Relationships:	Brother Simon Tam
Fandom:	Firefly, Serenity
Other:	Played by actor Summer Glau
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River Tam is a main character in the TV series Firefly, and the film Serenity.

Canon

"Also, I can kill you with my brain."

River Tam is a core-born child prodigy who escaped from an abusive institution (posing as an academy for gifted children) with the help of her brother, Simon. Aboard the Serenity, a Firefly-class spaceship, River is revealed to have gained extensive weapons/combat skills during her time at the academy, and become a "reader" (psychic), but suffers severe mental instability.

Fandom

A common fan reaction to the character is summed up by this xkcd cartoon, whose final caption has since been used for meta and fan videos.

Shipping

Person	Ship	Name
Jayne Cobb	River/Jayne	Rayne
Malcolm Reynolds	Mal/River
Simon Tam	Simon/River	Crazy Space Incest
Kaylee Frye	Kaylee/River
Inara Serra	Inara/River

AO3 has a small but notable collection of fics for the crossover pairing of her and Riddick of The Chronicles of Riddick.

She is a popular character in Firefly crossovers, especially with other shows produced by Joss Whedon, such as Buffy where she is often cast as a Slayer, and with other shows Summer Glau has appeared in such as Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Some Fanworks

Meta

• SYL 32: River Tam Beats Up Everyone by Jill Bearup (video)
• Girl on the Brink by inalasahl, on Idol Reflections (2007)
• Take my Sue, take my land, take me where I cannot stand... on Canon Sue

Vids

• The girl or the weapon? by kiki_miserychic
• Small Blue Thing by shati
• Fireflies by ivanolix
• Fade Out by cylune9
• River Tam Beats Up Everyone by flyingbagel13

Archives & Links

• River Tam works on Ao3
• River works on ff.net
• River Tam character page on Wikipedia
• River Tam character page on The Firefly & Serenity Database