Jayne's Soul

POSTED BY: JuniperJayne
UPDATED: Friday, July 14, 2006 17:27
VIEWED: 6887
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DRACONUS

Thursday, July 6, 2006 8:09 PM

"Shepard Book use to tell me, if you can't do something smart, do something right."
Now does that sound like something someone without a conscience would say?

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May you have enough.

MSG

Thursday, July 6, 2006 8:10 PM

you might want to mention how he treats women...lusty yes, but gentle and kind. Never hits one ( unlike Mal), obviously adores Kaylee, relatively gentle with River ( he really could have hurt her a few times and didn't and feels awful the one time he does), asks never demands a womans company even in Heart of Gold he asks the girl and brushes her hair and treats her nicely. He pets Saffron gently on the shoulder when she cries and does what he sees as the noble thing offering his most prized possession for her when Mal doesn't want her... you never once see him mistreat a woman and it's obvious from the Message that he sends a good portion of the money he makes home to support his mother and sister:)

I choose to rise instead of fall- U2

RAKARR

Thursday, July 6, 2006 8:52 PM

Every one has a soul...

JUNIPERJAYNE

Thursday, July 6, 2006 9:11 PM

Mmmmmmmm gentle giant Jayne. He's just...unpolished I suppose is the word I'm looking for. As much as I can admire Mal's character part of me wants to say that at least Jayne doesn't concentrate on the past...and a lot of times Mal's behavior bugged me.

I think I'll direct my friends to this thread. Perhaps they will finally understand.

TRAVELER

Friday, July 7, 2006 12:58 AM

I notice Jayne in Heart of Gold too. He stayed with one woman instead of bouncing from bed to bed and he talked to her as a person and not an object as you would expect. I think his lack of education is what makes him seem coarse. It's not only that his mother sent him that hat, it's how he appriciated it. You could see the love he shares with his mother when he slaps it on his head. Says something about being fetching. Big word for him. I grant you he loves money. But he threw his into pot as easily as the others to save Mal and Wash, in War Stories.

IMPROBABILITYZERO

Sunday, July 9, 2006 4:21 PM

I think before meeting Mal and Zoe, he was a typical mercenary where they go after the best deal, which I guess made it easier to switch to Mal's crew (see Out of Gas). During the course of his stay he's become gradually more loyal (managing not to betray Mal in the end of the pilot episode), but was affected on the episode of Ariel where he got attacked by River. I think that he thought he was doing the crew a favor also by getting money and in a sense protecting them (earlier in the episode when he warns the captain to lock the doors at night). Evidently he is still learning but you can see his inherent good nature with him sending money to his mother and his confusion at the end of Jaynetown. He's uneducated, but he's got wit.

SPACEANJL

Sunday, July 9, 2006 5:43 PM

Er...I'm going to sidle into the thread with some unashamed and blatant fic-pimping. I am a complete Jayne-aholic, (perhaps a Cobbnut is a good term?) and for those people like me, a large amount of Jayne-like goodness can be found in the Blue Sun room with my name on it. Thank you.

*Sidles out again*

Seriously, I'm fascinated by the evolution of what was clearly meant to be a bad guy role. Part of it is down to the mighty (hot) Adam Baldwin, the rest of it to the writers. I'm running with their ideas. (very fast, before the lawyers catch me.)

INDIGOSTARBLASTER

Friday, July 14, 2006 5:27 PM

Well, pretty much everyone thinks of him-/herself as a good guy -- we're all the heroes of our own stories, right? -- but in Jayne's case I agree with most of the posters that he really is a good guy.

He treats women (his mother, his crewmates, his sex partners) with respect and affection.

He regularly sends money home to help out his family.

He works really hard.

He understands good and evil the same way Book (the preacher and therefore the moral "expert") does.

He's loyal to Mal and the rest of his crew (the betrayal(s) of River and Simon come about because he doesn't think of them as crew quite yet and because they are in fact endangering his crew).

(To the extent he has been disloyal to former colleagues/employers, I'm guessing it's because he didn't feel like he was part of _their_ crew -- he felt they would be willing to turn on him for convenience or profit, and it would therefore be foolish for him not to do the same.)

He's ashamed of the bad/wrong/amoral things he's done ("Don't tell 'em what I did... make something up...".

He's physically courageous (some may scoff, but it takes a lot of will, I think, to go out and risk getting shot at).

He doesn't whine, scheme, or play politics. He talks straight.

He recognizes and respects the good in others (e.g., Simon's ability to plan and his competence as a doctor in Ariel) and forthrightly disapproves their less desirable qualities (e.g., Mal's waffling in the BDM).

The fact that he's also crass and willing to maim and kill for a living -- well, he's a big, strong guy without a lot of education, and he and his family have a powerful need to eat, as Mal would say. There's no question that our work (chosen freely or otherwise) shapes us as much as our family and friends do. As such, we can't expect Jayne the armed mercenary to be overly empathetic or heroicly committed to a lost cause. But all things considered, his work has still left him a remarkably sweet human being.

And this, mind you, is all coming from someone who isn't particularly a fan of Jayne's. But it's the genius of this show, that I can understand and feel for and even love characters I don't actually like (if that makes sense at all).

And it's a credit to Adam Baldwin, too, that I like Jayne more and more, each time I watch the series/BDM. He did a remarkable job, as did all of the cast and crew of this wonderful 'verse.

Indigo S.

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