What are your *least* favorite Firefly moments?
POSTED BY: Okkay
UPDATED: Saturday, February 14, 2004 16:39
VIEWED: 28282
PAGE 2 of 13
Quote:
Originally posted by Okkay:
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I agree that Mal was probably written with that particular character trait, and I can understand him not explaining his actions in Bushwhacked, but in The Message, Tracey has a gun pointed at Wash and Kaylee. I'm thinking those are extreme circumstances where the story just feels stupid by not having Mal explain himself. One line: "Tracey, we're not going to turn you in", would have been enough to take care of the situation and not get his crew killed.
Batman doesn't explain himself, but I'm sure if one of his friends had another of his friends at gunpoint, he would explain himself so no one would die.
But that's just my opinion.
This is the way I thought about it when I saw the episode first, but on later viewings I realised that it does work as is - one thing that is clear about Mal is that if you threaten his crew, he doesn't give an inch - and so once Tracey shot Wash that was it, Mal's sole concern was stopping Tracey. Yeah, it would have been better for Tracey if Mal wasn't so obsessed with the safety of his crew - but he is. Tracey was trying to use that to his advantage and it backfired.
Anyway, back to the point - my least favourite moment is the end of the Heart of Gold where Nandi is shot. I know there had to be a reason why she wasn't around to finish her conversation with Mal about Inara's feelings and all that - but this was pure adventure serial cliche, and it just annoys me!
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"I think the right place to start is to say, fair is fair. This is who we are. These are our numbers." Mr Willis of Ohio - The West Wing
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Regarding The Meassage, and Mal not explaining things to Tracey: I had considered this as well, and watched the episode again to try and figure out what was going on there. In truth, Book has the idea for a plan, and doesn't even have a chance to tell Mal when Tracey freaks out. Book actually tries to talk with Tracey, but he screams at him and wigs.
They attempted to communicate, but in a high stress situation like that, and with Tracey unwilling to listen I have absolutely no problem seeing that as realistic.
Ariya
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About Mal not explaining things: have you ever been really, really mad? Not a time when you much feel like explaining things is it?
Couple moments come to mind: the scene in Trash where Saffron is introduced to the crew kinda ruins the whole episode for me. There is no way in hell that Mal would collude with Crazy Girl after she sent his crew to almost certain death in OMR. He can forgive Patience shooting him but no grief visitted upon his crew is ever forgotten (Jayne is a member of his crew, so he gets a pass as long as Mal can see a soul swimming around in that murk). In OMR Saffron comes across as something of a genius, but she would have to be so, so very stupid to think that Mal would go in with her on that deal. Of course, when I first saw the episode I didn't know that they were playing her so I was all, "WTF? Oh this is LAME!" Saffron was genuinely dagerous in OMR, but here she comes off like a gorram "wacky character." "That Saffron...what will she do next?"
And moment #2 in an otherwise excellent episode is Nandi getting shot in Heart of Gold. It's the one time that Firefly dips unselfconciously into the vast wasteland of adventure series cliches and kills off the girl after our hero has sex with her (back in the day there was no such thing as a story arc, so if Kirk got something going with an alien girl we had to wrap things up within the hour--no loose ends).
HKCavalier
Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Okkay:
Another time Mal caused an understanding by not explaining himself was in Bushwhacked, when they're caught by the Alliance and he asks Simon to get River, Simon gets mad because he thinks Mal's selling them out. Why couldn't have Mal just said "Simon, get your sister, we're going to hide you guys."?
Just little things that bug me. So I wondered if other people had similar moments that they either didn't like or didn't get.
I agree, in real life, it would be all too easy to lose control of the situation. If I were in his place, I would make a quick "quiet" gesture, and say, "I've got a plan."
But this is fiction, and would diminish the drama ... especially just before a commercial.
ABOVE ALL ELSE, KYFHO!
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Okay, I can offer my .02 on this. . .
I'm not currently the commander of my company, but I've been in leadership positions, and I've done so in combat, so I can say that when bombs are landing on and around you, and you're the boss, you don't have time to explain your plan. You just tell folks what to do. Everyone else on the crew knew they could trust Mal, and for goodness sake, Tracey SHOULD have known he could, because he was IN combat with Mal. Tracey panicked because he knew the whole time that he was wrong.
"The Message" tears my guts out every time I see it, because I've seen too many kids fade out in the same manner that Tracey did. . .lying there knowing that they're on the way out. . .expressing their regrets. . .you never get used to that. I feel sorry for any man or woman that COULD get used to that.
Just my thoughts.
Oh yeah. . .and I get so tired of seeing Simon grab River by the wrists. I mean, when she has a weapon, or some other means of hurting herself. . .that's one thing. But in "Shindig" when River entered, right before her 'Badger speech'. . .Simon tries to usher her quietly away, and when she resists, he grabs her wrists. That drives me NUTS!
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"Wash. . .we got some local color happening. A grand entrance would not go amiss."
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My least favorite Firefly moment was not an actual moment on an episode, but rather a sense I got while watching the commentaries. Alan Tudyk was talking, I believe during the WS one, about when they were shooting HOG and how when the cast were all walking in a line, they were all very very sad because they knew it was the last show they were gonna do. 
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Quote:
Originally posted by Enderspawn:
1) The weirdly edited Inara bathing scene in the final version of the pilot...what happened guys? Big technical weirdness. That was more of a glitch then bad Firefly though.
When I first saw this, I also thought it was odd, but I figured it was done on purpose. The guy says later "you must play with time so that the pleasure passes quickly", or something along those lines. My first interpretation (this was before I had had a chance to watch further episodes) was that Inara really was playing with time, and the "weird editing" was evidence of it (kinda like a "glitch in the matrix" or something). After watching nearly the whole series now, I don't think Inara is either physically or morally capable of really doing that. I also don't like to think that it was merely editing problems as that would be waaaay too obvious during the editing process. So as long as it really isn't just an editing mistake, I think it has something to do with perception/altering of time.
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My least favorite Firefly moment would have to be Jubel Early threatening to rape Kaylee. I think it was not only offensive, but completely unnecessary.
Why would a bounty hunter even suggest such a thing? If it is so that the audience knows that he is evil and means business, I think there could have been a better way to do it.
As it stood, it just came across as excessively violent and weird.
Oh yeah, and when Mal sleeps with Nandi: only because I love Mal and he made Inara cry...meanie!
***Never judge a book by its movie***
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My absolute least favorite bit occurs in Our Mrs. Reynolds. Saffron has married Mal and is aboard Serenity doing her innocent act. Then, the ship passes the guys who fry crews and steal their ships. These guys talk about whether or not Serenity's worth taking, and decide to steal her. Then, later on, it turns out that Saffron was working with them?! Why the heck would they bicker over stealing Serenity if Saffron had already boarded her with the purpose of guiding her into the ship-frying net? That's bugged me ever since the first time it was aired.
_______________
"Yep. That's a cow fetus."
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My least favorite moment was in Heart of Gold, but not when Nandi gets shot- it's when Mal chases down the hovercraft thingie on a horse. The least they could have done was to have the hovercraft be damaged and spewing smoke as an excuse for a horse that can do what, 30mph? catching up to it. Also the effect was a little weak when Burgis shot at Mal on the horse before running out of batteries.
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