Essay Throwdown: Kaylee's Past and Future
POSTED BY: Hera
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 03:10
VIEWED: 4444
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I would imagine that Kaylee comes from a rough and tumble life.. full of hard work and doing without. 'Course she has done a little better than most because she's had her talent to repair things that's been usefull to her. But it sounds to me like times were gettin' hard where she lived with her folks. Sounds like the work was dryin' up. Kaylee doesn't strike me as the type of person that'd like being stuck in a place with no chance of seeing the rest of the worlds and doing something with her future.
She accepted Mal's offer because of the chance to live the dream of the stars. Travel, meet new people .. remember she thinks it's shiny! Work on the Firefly she lives on.. be purposeful and accepted and appreciated for who she is. Be a part of a family she comes to truly care for too.
Out in the black... Kaylee is living her dream.
"You hold. Hold 'til I get back." Mal
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Embers, thanks for your comments on my Kaylee fic.
Interesting insight into her Daddy. I had something slightly different in mind -- namely, that he was using the inspection of Serenity to spend some time with Mal and "feel him out". But the idea that he would draw conclusions about Mal from the condition of the ship didn't really occur to me. (For one thing, there was another mechanic involved up until that time.)
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I'm pointin' right at it!
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I imagine Kaylee has an extremely high IQ. But her environment held her back. Her outlet was working with the machines on her home world. School and men probably bored her. Sex was the only way she could relate to men, so that is why she was so free with it. I just don't picture her parents as being involved with her. She is a total misfit on her world.
When Mal offered her the job, it was like heaven. Her chance to get out. You see she has difficulty with real relationships through her attempts with Simon. Of course he is not much help either. Mal and Jayne are father figures to her. Probably better fathers than her own. I can see her and Simon together. She is not sophisticated, yet. In time she would find her footing. She is intelligent but immature. I would say smarter than Simon and would adapt to any culture, even his. She only needs maturity. As they all do.
Two paragraphs. Not easy for me.
Traveler
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I think Kaylee's entire past shaped her as a person. (And I expect Joss and Tim have her entire past mapped out in pretty good detail.) But here's my attempt at reverse-engineering her character:
She's mechanically inclined, to the point where she can comfortably work on spaceships. And yet there are no spaceships for her to work on back home. This eats at her, and she'd do anything, including trading in her ties to her family (which are tight) in order to feed that need.
She's also a girl, which puts her in an odd minority amongst the mechanically inclined. (It's hard to look pretty when you're covered in grease and carbon dust.) So she's drawn toward things that let her BE a girl to the people around her (Siiiimon!) Best case in point is the dress in Shindig. But also, I think this is partly why she's so drawn to Inara, because Inara is the very epitomy of a girl.
Her family ties are strong. How many times does she explain her mechanical aptitude by repeating what her father said of her? But having given up her own family to be on Serenity, it's become her new family with ties no less strong. (This is one of the things I like a lot about Kaylee: that she asked her folks's permission to go, and there's no bad blood between them.)
But everything comes back to her love for Serenity itself. The gestures she makes, the things she says, leaves no doubt. How pissed off was she when the Alliance officer insulted Serenity? And how happy was she in the pilot when, despite having been shot, Serenity pulls a Crazy Ivan and saves their collective hides? She's not complimenting Book and Jayne... she compliments her ship. This is really hammered home in Out of Gas when her skills as a mechanic simply aren't enough to make Serenity well again. Those scenes were masterfully well done.
I think Kaylee readily accepted Mal's offer to be Serenity's mechanic because she had no choice. Not really. It was the only thing to do.
-- Twitch
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