Something I've wondered for a while

POSTED BY: slickt0mmy
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 18:22
VIEWED: 4440
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SPACEANJL

Monday, July 10, 2006 10:19 AM

I was wondering about this, too. I think River has a certain amount of control over her response - she didn't shoot Mal in the Maidenhead, and she had the time. She was knocking out bar patrons, and injuring them (some of them possibly fatally, but pointing a gun at her was dumb) but she didn't kill Jayne, and there were other people coming round when Mal carried her out. Whether they then survived the Operative is another story - (he had Fanty and Mingo captive in TBOTF)

Gotta wonder what else is in her brainpan though...

FUTUREMRSFILLION

Monday, July 10, 2006 7:56 PM

SlickTommy - You have to really look at the BDM and the show as two separate entities.

I think it is as simple as that. People new to the verse would not have heard the first quote.

This was a way for Joss to convey that there was a lack of friendliness between Mal and Simon. In the show, we saw that during the whole pilot, in the BDM it had to be conveyed in the first scene so that we would understand Simon punching Mal and Mal agreeing to their leaving.

NOSADSEVEN

Monday, July 10, 2006 8:07 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by slickt0mmy:
Sorry if this is a stupid question but why is it that in Safe, Mal says to Simon (after being rescued) "You're on my crew. Why are we still talking about this?"

Then, in the BDM at the beginning he says, "I look out for me and mine. That don't include you unless I conjure it does."

Why does Mal feel one way towards Simon in the series then another in the movie? Did I miss something?

In addition to the devolution of Mal's general disposition by the movie, I see Mal as not so much telling Simon he's not one of the 'me and mine', just that if Simon gets in his way enough he won't be.

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Ain't. We. Just.

CHRISTHECYNIC

Monday, July 10, 2006 8:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by slickt0mmy:
Sorry if this is a stupid question

It isn't.

Quote:
but why is it that in Safe, Mal says to Simon (after being rescued) "You're on my crew. Why are we still talking about this?"

Then, in the BDM at the beginning he says, "I look out for me and mine. That don't include you unless I conjure it does."

Why does Mal feel one way towards Simon in the series then another in the movie?

This has already been said but I want to repeat:

Mal's position isn't different in the movie because otherwise he would have left River in the bar, what the line says seems very clear to me, "You're on my crew because I say so, I can change my mind." Whether you see it as a warning or a threat the line only makes sense if he currently does include them in, "me and mine."

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On the subject of River the shooting script has more conversation between the Operative and the Dr Mathias than what made it into the final film.

In that conversation is is revealed that the reason the Operative is there is because someone realized that River's mental state went to hell right after she was shown off to Key Members of Parliment so the implication is that, while the medical part of it may have left River in trauma and slightly off kilter the reason for the vast majority of her problems was having Miranda in her head.

INDIGOSTARBLASTER

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 6:22 PM

Just to elaborate on that... I think Mal really meant it when he said in "Safe" that Simon and River are part of his crew, and he was just being ornery when he said Simon and River were his "guests" in the BDM. (Kind of like a parent saying to his/her children "This is my house, you follow my rules, and if you don't like that you can just leave." Very few parents actually mean that, or mean to imply that it isn't their children's house as well.)

After all, even after they had explicitly agreed that Simon and River were leaving and would therefore not be part of the crew, Mal still took them back to Serenity after they had caused a heap of trouble.

It's one of those kind of puzzling things -- Mal is more or less a man of honour and his word is his bond, but he can be downright mean sometimes. He tells the Tams they are merely guests when really he thinks of them as crew; he calls Inara demeaning names when he really has enormous respect for her. If they took his words at face value they'd think he hated them.

Hmm... it just struck me that he only acts this way to the "Alliance-y" members of his crew. It's like he just can't resist taking them down a peg... maybe some kind of inferiority complex?

Indigo S.

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