General Discussions

Is Inara just faking

POSTED BY: msg
UPDATED: Sunday, May 21, 2006 09:36
VIEWED: 4447
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MSG
Friday, May 19, 2006 6:56 PM

We all agree Inara's job is to read men's emotional states and respond. Why does she seem so completely oblivious to Mal's emotional state. She constantly mis-interprets his comments/behavior. So either she understands and is choosing to mis-interpret to keep him at a distance, or she's just strangely blind where Mal is concerned. Any thoughts?

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Friday, May 19, 2006 7:00 PM

She is blind where Mal is concerned.
Her own feelings towards have him have her going up, down and sidewise.

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Friday, May 19, 2006 7:03 PM


Love is blindness?

I also believe she's decided to wait for him
to 'make the first move' or confession of love.
I think she's too afraid of opening up and for
whatever possible reason (complications?) he'd
end up rejecting her. Crazy, yes, but I think
that's about where her head is at.

Either that or she's a soulless tease.

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MSG
Friday, May 19, 2006 7:06 PM

ok I love the concept. Souless tease:)

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Friday, May 19, 2006 7:08 PM

I think she's trained to objectively assess. She is not objective when it comes to Mal, also Mal and her clients are very different kinds of people.

For example:
Inara's clients ask her not to leave, an offer that she rejects uniformly but sees as a sign she is doing well, and would have liked Mal to do the same when she said she was leaving. To her that would have been a sign that he cared.

Mal did the opposite, he didn't tell her what to do and he didn't question her ability to make up her own mind. He probably saw that as the only respectful thing to do, but Inara didn't interpret it that way.

They're operating on different levels, Inara isn't trained to deal with a person who thinks the way Mal does (he's just too low class for her teachers to bother with), it could be much of her training or instinct is giving her the wrong ideas.

-

Mostly though I think her own emotions are making her less of an objective observer than she needs to be to properly judge.

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MSG
Friday, May 19, 2006 7:11 PM

OK that's pretty much how I saw it. That somehow the signals Mal sends ( which I must say I find perfectly clear) come across to Inara as uncaring or abrupt. I just think she should be able to read him better. Mind you I have often been told I think like a guy so I wanted to see how everyone else viewed it. I just can't figure out how she can see exactly how Kaylee feels, but be so painfully blind to Mal.

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Friday, May 19, 2006 7:21 PM

I agree with the Love Is Blind theory. When it comes to Mal things are just... different. :)

---
"Sun came out, and I walked on my feet and heard with my ears. I ate the bits, the bits stayed down, and I work. I function like I'm a girl. I hate it because I know it'll go away."

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Friday, May 19, 2006 7:21 PM

I think you also have to take in to account the pride of both individuals. Neither one wants to be the "weak" one. So they are both waiting for the other to make the first move. There is a lot of repressed anger there.

Some of my favorite scenes are when he is choking back what you know he REALLY wants to say.

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Friday, May 19, 2006 7:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by FutureMrsFIllion:
I think you also have to take in to account the pride of both individuals. Neither one wants to be the "weak" one. So they are both waiting for the other to make the first move.


But Inara takes it a step further than that, when Mal is in an "honest mood" what does she say before he can tell her anything, "I'm leaving." There's a definite game going on there.

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Friday, May 19, 2006 7:35 PM

true, I almost fell out of my seat because Inara's response was so unexpected

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php
-try it out, I dare you

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