Funny Firefly came up. I just started rewatching them a few weeks ago.
I'm not arguing Charles, but for the sake of an interesting discussion, you could pick virtually any genre and make an argument that Star Wars already explored that aspect of Sci-Fi. Most obvious was medieval fantasy, of course. So you are definitely not wrong, but I'd hardly say Firefly copied Star Wars. I see them as pretty different concepts within Sci-fi.
Also, Star Wars was hardly the first throw in a western element. Let's go back to the late 60s and a Star Trek episode where the crew relived the shootout at the OK-Coral.
Even when the west was literally being won, there was sci-fi. Edgar Rice Boroughs started writing about John Carter of Mars in 1912. The majority of the stories took place on Mars but the main character was a toughened soldier from Virginia (OK, that's East vs. 'Western') but his personality and war tactics on Mars were derived from his pioneer days soldiery. There were mounts like horses and the bipedal ,insects like, warrior race who roamed the plains and fought against the more civilized human type cultures in the cities was pretty much pure cowboys vs. Indians.
Again, not arguing. Well, OK I am but in a fun way.
