War Stories and Zoe's choice
POSTED BY: usagivindaloo
UPDATED: Friday, August 18, 2006 01:53
VIEWED: 10831
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I personally go with the combination of emotion and logic. I had, though, wondered earlier about the fact that Zoe seems to treat the ransom/rescue attempt as a oneshot chance of getting the men to safety and Wash's flying skills are absolutely pivotal to the second attempt. I'm not quite with Doncoat in thinking Zoe didn't have a hope of getting Mal back when she took Wash out - consider the way she tells Wash in the shuttle that they basically have time to think of something else because Niska won't kill Mal immediately. I doubt she was using some kind of reverse psychology to get him to think of a route to fly in because she couldn't see how.... though anything is possible.
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Creative Writing
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Zoe is extremely smart and a real tactical thinker. While on her way to speak to Niska with the offer to buy back the men, she's studying the layout, counting heads, assessing everything.
She's already planning for the assault she hopes she doesn't have to stage.
When Niska tries his mind game to make her choose, she immediatly chooses Wash. While love would have played a role in the decision as well as Mal probably being the one more likely to survive longer she also recognized that to get both men back she would need Wash.
Strange as it may sound, the chance of success in getting the second man back would have been lessened if she had chosen Mal.
While Mal would go back for Wash without a doubt, the rescue plan (silently drifting up to the skyplex) wouldn't have worked without Wash. Besides, Mal clearly lacks the personality for stealthiness (Serenity pilot). Mal would have led, there would have been no element of suprise. And Wash would be dead.
To Zoe, Wash was a tactical asset in this instance. No one else could have flown Serenity in the assault on the skyplex. In addition to being her husband.
Oh, I got heathens aplenty right
here.
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Zoe had no choice to make...she's married to Wash and without hesitation chose him.
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Quote:
Originally posted by VTbrowncoat:
Zoe is extremely smart and a real tactical thinker. While on her way to speak to Niska with the offer to buy back the men, she's studying the layout, counting heads, assessing everything.
It's obvious; she didn't expect Niska to let Mal go.
On the other hand, the snarky way she didn't let Niska gloat over forcing her to chose, probably cost Mal an ear (at least temporarily). Clearly Niska wasn't thinking of this until Zoe interrupted him and turned it into a contest of sang-froid. Point of interest: it transliterates as "cold blood", and means "the ability to stay calm in a difficult or dangerous situation".
Keep the Shiny Side Up . . .
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Quote:
Originally posted by VTbrowncoat:
To Zoe, Wash was a tactical asset in this instance. No one else could have flown Serenity in the assault on the skyplex. In addition to being her husband.
I like all that logic and agree with it. It was something I had never thought of before. Besides the above, Zoe would have chosen Wash whether or not they were married. I don't think her emotional attachment to him was a factor in any way at all because that is not how Zoe thinks in those types of situations. She is able to remove herself emotionally from any situation as is essential in times of war.
If she chose Wash out of her love for him then when he bites it in "Serenity" she wouldn't have been so believable in her reaction, or rather her lack of one. Zoe is a warrior in every sense of the word. Logic always rules above passion.
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I just wanted to point out that Mal was in the process of escaping at the time of the rescue. Yes, the rescue was the distraction he needed; but, he would have siezed any opportunity. Wash was actually a liability in that capacity. A liability Zoe removed from the equation and applied as an asset to her rescue operation.
Zoe knows better than anyone how tough Mal is. She did the right thing for both men.
22
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Quote:
Originally posted by DonCoat:
We can take this topic one step further.
Zoe went in hoping to buy both Mal and Wash. Niska quickly denied her that, but did allow her to take Wash out.
Now, some folks in this thread have suggested that she selected Wash out of love and/or knowledge that Mal could better cope with torture, and that she then intended to return to rescue Mal.
But did she? Her buyback strategy had failed (partly). As far as Zoe was concerned, that may well have been the end of it.
Let's not forget: it was Wash who made the decision to rescue Mal, not Zoe. So Zoe's decision was even more drastic. It wasn't "buy now, rescue later". It was "get out with what can be salvaged". Zoe made her choice for keeps.
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I don't disagree on any particular point.
I looove what you said here. How true it is. Another reason I love this episode, among the many: Wash gets to play the hero for a little bit.
I <3 Wash.As for my take on Zoe's choice... I see how some people think she might've just used logic to do what was best. It makes sense to say Wash might not have lived while Mal could hold his own. It makes sense that Wash was a bit of a fish out of water and perhaps a danger to any plan Mal (or Zoe) might come up with for escape (or rescue, if Zoe).
But, I guess I'm too much of a romantic to believe she didn't pick Wash based on her love for him and her devotion to him. I just can't truly believe that it was logic speaking when she, without hesitation, chose her beloved husband. I just can't. I believe it was an act of love. <3
Zoe's tough and she certainly is a warrior, but she's not without a heart. Even the toughest and most independent people need love and their loved ones in their life, I believe. And, I think that love is what motivated Zoe to make her choice.
*****
"I'm a leaf on the wind..." - Wash
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Probably one of the greatest strengths of Firefly as a series, and the episode War Stories in this particular instance, is that the writing and characterizations are so complex and intricate that almost every opinion expressed on this thread is true to a certain extent. Well, except for this one:
Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
…Minear's interpolated scenes of torture as entertainment threaten what is otherwise a pivotal episode.
That would only apply if Tim Minear wrote it, but he didn't. Cheryl Cain did.
wo men ren ran zai fei xing.
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War Stories is my favorite espisode, for reasons I have stated in other threads.
As for Zoe's choice, I think everyone has mentioned factors in the calculus - Mal can take it, Mal would have wanted that choice made, Niska would not have given up Mal anyway.
This was a recon mission. Gina Torres is brilliant in this sequence - watch her eyes, she is totally planning phase 2 of this operation from the moment she walks in. She has a job to do, and playing Niska's game is not a part of it. She is going to get out of there, and give Niska the least amount of pleasure doing it.
Don't think love played a huge part here - may have made the correct choice easier, but that is about it.
See how I'm not punching him, I think I've grown!
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^^ Check your sources. Cain is the credited writer, but the interpolations were by Minear.
Quote:
Minear in Cinefantastique - 10th December 2003:
We brought back Niska from “The Train Job.” This was another late script that we had to sort of pitch in on at the end of the day. I remember Joss wrote the teaser and the first act and it was a really long teaser. I remember looking at the cut and saying, “The teaser’s kind of boring with all of these people talking. What if we move this into the teaser and made this the first scene of act one and dropped this all together?” He totally went for it. And in the interrogation scene where Mal and Wash are being tortured, I took a pass at that and was trying to write Wash as sort of Woody Allen.
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