Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-107.184.24.227-20140726103232/@comment-3146930-20140726213506

For me, Cinder is the more powerful of the two, but Roman is much funnier as a character. However I feel like the others walk all over him because Roman isn't as strong as he thinks he is. On a scale of 5, he is like a Level-2 or Level-3 villain, but believes himself to be a Level-4. I say this because in the first episode when you see his mug shot, it looks like he was beat up pretty bad and the fact that he got arrested at all may show how competent he is. He also seems to blame anything that goes wrong on his hired help and prefers to run instead of fighting directly. He manages to fight Blake off pretty well by himself, but he also resorts to a lot of cheap tricks during that episode to get an edge. He is a good thief, but he doesn't inspire any kind of fear and thinks too much of himself.

Interestingly enough, there is a character named Badger in Firefly that matches this description. He is a small time criminal that mostly deals in smuggling and illegal salvage. This quote about Badger from one of the characters could also apply to Roman easily:

"Anyone off Dyton Colony know's better'n to talk to strangers. You're talking loud enough for the both of us, though, ain't you? I've known a dozen like you. Skipped off home early, minor graft jobs here and there. Spent some time in the lock-down, I warrant, but less than you claim. Now you're what, petty thief with delusions standing? Sad little king of a sad little hill."

They could have picked up Roman only because he is expendable.