Excellent essay. I love how you managed to get through so many points in such a short space.
I admit, I went into the series already spoiled for everything that was going to happen (all the canon ships, for example), so I was pretty critical of how they played it. But the moment I fell in love with Simon/Kaylee was ironically in War Games when Kaylee was flirting with someone else. She's listening to whats-his-name talking about going back to his parents because family's so important to him, and you can see her smiling at that - and I immediately connected it to Simon and his love for River. It's probably not a particularly convincing moment to the ship since it's about traits instead of people, but I thought it showed that Kaylee really would understand about River and her importance to Simon.
no subject
I admit, I went into the series already spoiled for everything that was going to happen (all the canon ships, for example), so I was pretty critical of how they played it. But the moment I fell in love with Simon/Kaylee was ironically in War Games when Kaylee was flirting with someone else. She's listening to whats-his-name talking about going back to his parents because family's so important to him, and you can see her smiling at that - and I immediately connected it to Simon and his love for River. It's probably not a particularly convincing moment to the ship since it's about traits instead of people, but I thought it showed that Kaylee really would understand about River and her importance to Simon.