Inara's true age
POSTED BY: PirateCat
UPDATED: Monday, January 1, 2007 21:41
VIEWED: 17729
PAGE 4 of 6
Until Joss gives us her backstory, that theory is just as valid as any other.
wo men ren ran zai fei xing.
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Right, except...not. 
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Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets
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Alright, I never meant to imply that Inara supported the browncoats during the war, more that when she told Mal she supported the Alliance, she lied.
I doubt that she was politically active during her training... as has been said... she was fairly young... and while some children are young and idealistic in their youth... they dont stay that way in the alliance and manage to get anywhere...
I look at her past similar to Simon's... she was defacto Alliance so long as she didnt work against it... but she had her concerns and sympathies, but she didnt act on them... finally... SOMETHING occurred which drove her away from the core...
Where she meets Mal... there was a great deal of tension between the two... and Inara has ALWAYS used arguments with Mal to ignite/defuse the tension... so I saw the alliance comment as an early occurrence of that.
In regards to her friend 'the whore', I think that example served to highlight Inara's sympathy for those that cant manage to live up to "the shining light of civilization" created by the Alliance... which pushes away all that cant conform to the status quo to the darkness and borders.
Sympathy and Support are two entirely different words though, and Inara's between a rock and a hard place... much as Simon was... Simon had his love for River to force him to abandon all he once had... but most of what Inara has is her station and traditions... and she isnt quite ready to do that, unless perhaps Mal was ready to speak up and ask her to... "I'm a big girl...."
I also didnt mean to say that she had those sympathies as a child, simply when she CHOSE Mal's ship to go to...
She sympathizies with those that "fight the system", because she cant find the strength within herself to do so...
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Originally posted by Bagheera:
... and while some children are young and idealistic in their youth... they dont stay that way in the alliance and manage to get anywhere...
Except the Operative, of course. Idealism doesn't neessarily mean the same thing as "moral." The Operative was obviously very idealistic--he believed that the Alliance was making better worlds. There's nothing to suggest that Inara didn't agree with that whole-heartedly. The mere fact of her shipping out on Serenity doesn't establish that she'd rejected the Alliance (after all, she has no problem going to worlds like Ariel, and even suggests taking Book to an Alliance ship). Her not being in the Core could be due to something completely different. I think this is sort of like insisting that Jayne is, at heart, a big teddy bear and all-around nice guy, when in fact, that just ain't so. Why do Mal and Inara not get along? Because he's fiercely independent, and she isn't so much. And before anyone objects that of course she's independent (she's on Serenity, isn't she?), let me just ask: if she's so independent, why didn't she leave the Guild?
Also, the period is your friend. Do not fear the period.
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Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bagheera:
Where she meets Mal... there was a great deal of tension between the two... and Inara has ALWAYS used arguments with Mal to ignite/defuse the tension... so I saw the alliance comment as an early occurrence of that.
I absolutely agree with that. Inara never once questions or doubts Simon's story about River and the Academy. In fact, she's ready to give up her place on the ship to protect him further. (Although we never once see her criticising or denouncing the Alliance, either.)
And in their first meeting, she obviously tried to distract Mal. Ignite the situation, as you say. He wants to pry into her business, she drops the "supported Unification" bomb he can't ignore, hehe. And technically, she doesn't even lie, because she most likely did, 6 years ago. *g*
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but most of what Inara has is her station and traditions... and she isnt quite ready to do that, unless perhaps Mal was ready to speak up and ask her to... "I'm a big girl...."
(..*snip*..)
She sympathizies with those that "fight the system", because she cant find the strength within herself to do so...
I'll disagree there. Mal is obviously justabout to spill his feelings whens he interrupts him from finishing and saying it, and her speech is a very honest explanation to him, why she is leaving. His family ties her down, she is leaving before she can't break away anymore.
Independence is as important to Inara as to Mal. 'Choosing', 'my decision to make, not yours', those are keywords between them and I don't think she's clinging to her job because it's all she has. I think it's all she has because she wants it to be. Those Rules Mal so complains about give her a unique freedom, to be independent, untouchable and free to help and show affection to others without being trapped into the downsides of love, which are loss, betrayal and uncertainty.
I think she's trying to be very Buddhist about her life (though not for religious reasons) - be free from all attachments and desires, because that way lies suffering. A committment phobia.
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Originally posted by Causal:
Why do Mal and Inara not get along? Because he's fiercely independent, and she isn't so much. And before anyone objects that of course she's independent (she's on Serenity, isn't she?), let me just ask: if she's so independent, why didn't she leave the Guild?
Because it would, effectively, render her less independent. :)
Right now she has generous means at her disposal and the backing of a large organisation to keep her safe. She's doing a job that she enjoys and can essentially do nearly everything she wants, be anywhere she wants, help anyone she wants and is widely respected.
Without the Guild - depending on how much money she has saved up - her world would shrink. Look at Nandi's life. That is only desirable to a very small amount of people.
Inara could take a steady job in another field, but she would still depend on her boss and likely not be able to travel so much, have the kind of variety she now enjoys, or the kind of relative freedom from society.
She could go completely independent, run a business, but that's still another kind of dependence, a constant stress factor and relying on the ability to gain and hold customers.
Hell, Mal, in his way, is not all that independent, either. He has to all but sink to his knees in the dirt in front of Badger in the pilot episodes because he's whatcan be considered dirt poor. His ship's falling apart and he can't always afford the repairs it needs. He can't settle anywhere he wants because he's a wanted man and what exactly kind of future is he looking at when Kaylee wants to have a family, Jayne wants to move on, Wash is insistent on not having a baby on a flying death trap (scratch that last one, he's, oh, dead.) It's a bubble he lives in.
Inara's independence lies in her "independent means" afforded by the infrastructure of the Guild. It's not the same kind that Mal has, but an equal kind. Their restrictions are very different, as are their freedoms, but they each considerable in their way.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Causal:
Except the Operative, of course. Idealism doesn't neessarily mean the same thing as "moral." The Operative was obviously very idealistic--he believed that the Alliance was making better worlds.
Oh yes, certainly, I should qualify my original statement about idealism and the alliance with a quote (prolly messed up as always) from Godfather...
"I wish you well in your business endeavors... so long as those endeavors and my own do not conflict."
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Originally posted by AgentRouka:
His family ties her down, she is leaving before she can't break away anymore.
Independence is as important to Inara as to Mal. 'Choosing', 'my decision to make, not yours', those are keywords.
I think she's trying to be very Buddhist about her life (though not for religious reasons) - be free from all attachments and desires, because that way lies suffering. A committment phobia.
Yes, quite. She's a very complicated person, and while at times she keeps him from confessing his love to her, at other times she WANTS him to confess.
"I'm a big girl, tell me I've been naughty, throw me down on the bed and spank me, just please don't let me run away from everything again"
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Originally posted by AgentRouka:
Right now she has generous means at her disposal and the backing of a large organisation to keep her safe. She's doing a job that she enjoys and can essentially do nearly everything she wants, be anywhere she wants, help anyone she wants and is widely respected.
Ooh... you hit upon an aspect I hadnt noticed.
She HAS used her status as a companion to not only keep herself safe, but those she cares about. ie.. the Train Job.
She has stated that "the policy on companion dating is complicated", which I take to mean that the ability to live your own life when it may conflict with the Companion Guild's desires may be complicated, difficult, or against regulation. Company that with what her friend says about companions ALWAYS continuing music lessons and such and such, and you end up seeing a rigid stratified culture where you get ahead not by innovation, but by taking the same engine and slapping a different case onto it.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bagheera:
Yes, quite. She's a very complicated person, and while at times she keeps him from confessing his love to her, at other times she WANTS him to confess.
"I'm a big girl, tell me I've been naughty, throw me down on the bed and spank me, just please don't let me run away from everything again"
Well.. I don't quite see it that way. Certainly not the spanking, secret "Control me" fantasy that people love to put into the mind of independent women. (I'm sensitive about it because fanfic is stuffed with it. Apologies.)
I don't attribute the "I'm a big girl, just tell me" quote from "Objects in Space" to her relationship with Mal anymore than I attribute his "None of it means a damn thing" quote just to it. The latter is pretty emblematic for Mal's entire sense of disillusionment and cynism, the former could refer to any amount of meaningful secret from her past.
Obviously, Inara indulges herself in a crush and all the according behavior to a point, but at the end of the series, when it really comes down to it, she stops him from speaking. When leaving, she doesn't want to draw it out.
I'm not saying that part of her didn't want him to try and stop her, but I don't think it's a secret, disappointed hope that he didn't. She doesn't want to be "forced into her own happiness" and her decision had been made before Mal ever opened his mouth.
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She has stated that "the policy on companion dating is complicated", which I take to mean that the ability to live your own life when it may conflict with the Companion Guild's desires may be complicated, difficult, or against regulation.
Well, it's ambiguiously phrased.
Kaylee: What's the Companion policy on dating?
Inara: It's ...complicated.
It's a very wide open way of replying. For all we know, there might not even be a policy. It could be a rigid rule or it could be just Inara avoiding the subject. It could be all Companions or it could just be.. her.
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Company that with what her friend says about companions ALWAYS continuing music lessons and such and such, and you end up seeing a rigid stratified culture where you get ahead not by innovation, but by taking the same engine and slapping a different case onto it.
Nandi: I was at practice. You never stop practicing, you know, not a true companion.
Nandi, as is already obvious, detests constriction, but any artist never stops practicing and Companions presumably have a very high standard of quality and offer a variety of services.
I think "you're playing it, not feeling it" as her instructor kept repeating, might even be a very well-written metaphor for what Nandi was doing with her entire career as a Companion. She wasn't it, and the pressure of it built up into one big tantrum of an explosion.
Continuous practice doesn't seem like too harsh a condition, especially as it is a kind of self-benefit. It seems like a stretch to immediately interpret this as a rigid, stratified structure without innovation.
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Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
Inara's independence lies in her "independent means" afforded by the infrastructure of the Guild. It's not the same kind that Mal has, but an equal kind. Their restrictions are very different, as are their freedoms, but they each considerable in their way.
Yes, I'm sure she would have volunteered for duty with the Independents if only there'd been a recruiting station near the training house.
I'm just curious why we have to have Inara be sympathetic to the Independents, instead of taking at face value that she was honest in her assertion that she supported unification. I think that it makes the show much more nuanced and interesting to have that constant source of uncomfortableness there. Joss isn't exactly a black-and-white sort of a writer (see, e.g., Jayne), so I have no doubt that the discord between Mal's history with the Independents and Inara's support of unification was intentional. Seriously, I know that the Browncoats were supposed to be the good guys, and we're for the good guys, but maybe it isn't as cut and dried as everyone-on-Serenity-is-a-good-guy. Jayne sure as hell isn't, and Book may not exactly be either. I know that Inara isn't still on Sihnon, and I think that they were going to explain that at some point--but I just have a hard time believing that it was because of her secret support for the Independents and her driving need to get out to the border.
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Grand High Poobah of the Mythical Land of Iowa, and Keeper of State Secrets
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Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
Certainly not the spanking, secret "Control me" fantasy that people love to put into the mind of independent women. (I'm sensitive about it because fanfic is stuffed with it. Apologies.)
Heh.. maybe I went a lil overboard with that innuendo... I dont think she wanted Mal to control her... but I do feel that she was waiting for Mal to say "Wait !!! Don't go !!! I need you here !!!".
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I don't attribute the "I'm a big girl, just tell me" quote from "Objects in Space" to her relationship with Mal anymore than I attribute his "None of it means a damn thing" quote just to it. The latter is pretty emblematic for Mal's entire sense of disillusionment and cynism, the former could refer to any amount of meaningful secret from her past.
Yeah, you got me there. Perhaps they are being used in both a general and specific capacity. I was under the initial impression that she didnt really take Lord Petticoat's offer to become his personal whore seriously, and that she would flinch from being a caged bird... but perhaps a small part of her WAS considering accepting, as he told her she was wanted and needed... something that Mal didnt have the strength to do... (mind you, I figured most of the dwelling on the offer had to do with seeing how Mal would react)
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When leaving, she doesn't want to draw it out.
except of course for leaving behind 'her best stuff'.
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I'm not saying that part of her didn't want him to try and stop her, but I don't think it's a secret, disappointed hope that he didn't.
actually, im kinda with you on that one. she was a pragmatic, independant woman... and even IF she wanted to be loved and needed (which doesnt mean being controlled, as in Lord Petticoat), she wanted Mal to do it on his own terms... and by the time she had left, it was becoming apparent that Mal didnt have the passion, or whatever, to confess to her (ironically enough, there were all "dozens of suitors confessing their love to save her from this life" which she didnt take half as seriously as Mal).... she wasnt trying to be a dramaqueen and look for a casablanca moment in either direction... but she did leave Mal an out in case his passions did stir, in the form of her stuff, which he obviously never took up on.
Inara was fairly smart in that regard... how much time passed til the movie ? a year... and still he had trouble ... but oddly Inara still hadnt attached herself to someone... so it wasnt that she was just looking for any old person ... but rather the right person... at the right time of their life...
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She doesn't want to be "forced into her own happiness" and her decision had been made before Mal ever opened his mouth.
Yep. exactly... but... i think if Mal had been willing to expose himself to her, she would have remained... at least, thats how Kaylee took it... "drive us all away, just like Inara" ...
i interpret as meaning that the captain's relative indifference to Inara drove her away to look for her home elsewhere...
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It's a very wide open way of replying. For all we know, there might not even be a policy. It could be a rigid rule or it could be just Inara avoiding the subject. It could be all Companions or it could just be.. her.
well... i'm not certain the truth of the matter has much bearing on its influence to her independant sympathies... ie... i find her unlikely to lie to Kaylee... evade, yes. but not lie... so in that respect, i think she was telling the truth in that something about her being a companion made her 'dating situation' difficult... perhaps that wouldnt apply to another companion... but i got the impression that in order for Inara to date, something would have to get less complicated, and that it would make her break away slightly from her companion background.
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Nandi: I was at practice. You never stop practicing, you know, not a true companion.
Nandi, as is already obvious, detests constriction, but any artist never stopsNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME