Tracy's Death: Avoidable?

POSTED BY: Madrik
UPDATED: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 19:38
VIEWED: 5919
PAGE 2 of 2

PREV PAGE 1 2

GROUNDED

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 11:57 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Quote:
Originally posted by Grounded:
Even so, I don't think Mal's need for control is great enough that he'd let an old war buddy (maybe the term buddy is a bit generous here...) die for no real reason.

You wouldn't think so, whould ya? But maybe Mal figures Tracy as much as anyone ( after Zoe ) would know what Mal is all about. What the viewer sees as a flaw in the Capt. ( and perhaps justifiably so ), Joss writes into his characters levels which the viewer may / may not be privy to. Or maybe if the story went . " Hey, Tracy...put down that gun, we've got a plan" then the Feds would be chased off,Tracy would still be alive and be bangin' Kaylee in the engine room, with Simon all but forgotten.

Would ya rather have that ??? Huh?

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

I don't think it would have been too tough to rewrite the scene so that they tell him the plan and it still goes wrong.

BROWNCOAT1

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 6:25 PM

Could Mal have explained things? Sure, but what would that do to his authority? He & his crew wind up in tight jams all the time. Sometimes there is no time to explain things or to even consider other courses of action. Mal has to act & he has to rely on his crew to follow his orders without hesitation or question. In some cases for the crew to hesitate or question Mal it could lead to one or even all of them getting killed.

The point that was brought up that had Mal told Tracy he had a plan, he might have thought Mal was lying in an effort to defuse the situation. Mal may have let his past experience w/ Tracy being an inexperienced subordinate who jumped when Mal told him color his judgement. Things may have turned out differently had Mal let Tracy in on things, but they might not have either.

The point is that Mal is not perfect. Mal, like everyone on Serenity, is flawed. He is human & hence has short comings. This is what makes him & the rest of the crew more real and the story Joss told us all the more enjoyable. Mal is not the infallible Captain Picard, he is a man on the edge of society, a scarred man doing the best he can.

Having been in the military I know how command comes easy for some & the military mindset is not to question orders. When orders are issued you obey. Disobey at your peril. Obviously Mal took more than his attitude toward the Alliance away from the War of Unification.

__________________________________________

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Richmond, VA & surrounding area Firefly Fans:

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/richmondbrowncoats/

http://www.richmondbrowncoats.org

NOSADSEVEN

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 6:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
Excellent post there. But I have to wonder, as fine a plan as Mal has w/ both Simon( Bushwhacked) and Tracy ( The Message ), several times the point is made that Mal's plans usually blow up in his face. Not that any of that is so relevent to the characters, but to us the viewer, it's an odd dichotomy.

It is significant that both Simon and Tracey balked not because they didn't think the Captain's plans would work, but because they didn't trust the intention of those plans. In Tracey's case, that is what ultimately caused the plan to blow up in Mal's face. Simon would have done the same thing if he had some leverage (like he did when Kaylee was shot), but in Bushwhacked not only did he have nothing, he also had some trust in Book, and consequently went along with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ain't. We. Just.

SHAMBLEAU

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 6:57 PM

Could somebody point out to me the moment when Book told Mal about his plan and Mal agreed to try it? Because it ain't there, as far as I can tell. How do we know that Mal had been told yet? In fact, Jayne makes a comment while Tracy is listening in to the effect that he's with Book, because he doesn't want to die for Tracy. The implication is that all Book has said up to that point is what we actually hear him say, turn Tracy over.

It's Book after all who starts to say something to Tracy, but Tracy cuts him off by threatening to shoot him if he continues. And nobody else mentions that they've got a plan either, which presumably, since they were all in the room, they've also heard. I could certainly imagine Wash blurting it out.

JOSSISAGOD

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 7:49 PM

It was an unspoken plan, the crew had been with Book for long enough to trust him, so they didn't need to convey the plan in spoken language, they used their eyes. It sounds weird but some people can do that if they are willing to trust eachother.

JOSSISAGOD

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 7:53 PM

I'm unsure if Tracy's death was aviodable. on the one hand the crew could have told him about the plan BEFORE he started shooting, on the other, I think the plan required that tracy be in the dark about it.

MADRIK

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 6:09 AM

Keep in mind of this quote:

"...because I needed a chest wound."
"That can be seen to."

I could have been seen to! Perhaps at this point would be a good spot for Malcom to tell Tracy what was going on. I can see Mal explain this in his clever, witty way: "You need to put some trust in us, hear?" Or something.

Tracy obviously knew that Zoe and Mal "carried him through that war". Tracy trusts them. And no, not because they're saps.

While the cop was brought aboard and the confrontation started, Tracy was chillin... I dont remember the line but he had one. So at this point, Tracy had put some trust in the plan. After the cop left, he said, "That was the plan?" .. Point: What do you think was told to him in between the scenes? Also, why wasn't his wound "seen to" during this time? I mean, they needed to outnumber the cops but Tracy nor Simon had a weapon during the confrontation.

JOSSISAGOD

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 7:38 PM

"Womack, I think I broke your junk." I never doubted that Tracy trusted them, I think the question was could the crew trust Tracy, after the war Mal and Tracy had a falling out and Mal wasn't sure he could trust Tracy anymore. I still believe that the crew's plan required Tracy to be in the dark though.

PREV PAGE 1 2