Inara?
POSTED BY: xElrohiRx
UPDATED: Friday, March 16, 2007 10:31
VIEWED: 20393
PAGE 4 of 6
Yeah about the pride thing, I don't think any person can really live without a certain degree of pride. The more someone is attacked for something they do, the more they naturally try to defend their actions and make justifications.
We may not agree with the way that she makes her money because right now in our society and history it's "wrong". BUT if she was in a school since 12 years old that programmed her to believe that being a companion was good and something to be proud of, then she probably not only believes that what she does is okay, she has a whole core of people who can say that believes it is a respectable thing as well
For example, in our society (I'm from the US so I mean US or western society also) it is okay to drink alcohol but some societies don't think so. To them, a person being proud of drinking alcohol is really annoying. But it's not going to stop people who do drink from thinking nothing is wrong with it because they have known since they were teenagers that drinking alchohol is good way to have fun because society says so.
Inara, like the all of us, has been influenced by her environment to learn right and wrong so if the series kept going, I think we would have seen her develop from being a product of the core to wanting what really is good: a genuine loving relationship with only one man
Inara may not be the person we want her to be but it seems there is good in her because she has a deep respect for Serenity's ideals and that she is changing to want to be better is what the show Firefly is about, we obviously see Jayne and Mal grow and Inara is set up to grow as a character
Inara's existence makes Mal's character more dynamic as well. The way that he treats women says a lot for how honorable and likeable he is. Zoe is like a sister, Kaylee is like a little sister or neice, Anybody on his crew is off-limits for him to be with because he couldn't order them around effectively if he was romantic with them. To see that he has feelings for Inara and holds himself back from pursuing something because of his responsibility as captain is another way we gain respect for him (Jayne on the other hand doesn't get this respect from the audience or the women on the crew because of his bargaining for Saffron, comments about Zoe, etc)
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by KayleeLove:
We may not agree with the way that she makes her money because right now in our society and history it's "wrong".
I do think that prostitutes do face a general stigmatization in society today, but I'd like to point out that there *are* plenty of places in the Western world where it is perfectly legal. The Netherlands, for example. Or New Zealand. Moreover, Inara's character is more reminiscent of courtesans or geishas - it's not just about sex. To call it wrong, or to assume that Inara somehow feels dirty or saddened by her profession is too simplistic. Inara comes from a long tradition, one she seems to take pride in. Certainly, I don't think she would see her work as wrong - in fact, I'd say she relies on it as a means of independence and fulfillment.
Obviously, we don't know what her reasons for leaving Sihnon were. We can speculate and come up with crazy theories about her dying or having some sort of incurable disease or being older than she actually is, but at the end of the day, we still don't know.
We *do* know that she takes her work very seriously, and even though she loves Mal, she's not willing to simply throw caution to the wind and leave it for him. Especially when he seems to jump at every opportunity to insult her and her profession.
In terms of Inara's "importance" to the ship, well, everyone has their own opinion. Personally, I find Inara one of the most intriguing characters on the show. I don't think she's useless at all, even if she doesn't have a specific job in making the ship run day-to-day. She's a fairly key player in terms of keeping the emotional tone, and that's important. If anything, I'd say it would have been nice to see her interact with more of the crew outside of Mal, but that is what fanfic is for, after all. And I'd say not knowing what her secret is doesn't take away from her character at all.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I seem to recall someone in one of the audio commentaries hinting at the theory... I thought I remembered which one and when, but I don't. Does anyone else recall?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by marina:
I seem to recall someone in one of the audio commentaries hinting at the theory... I thought I remembered which one and when, but I don't. Does anyone else recall?
In out of gas they said her conversation with Simon about not wanting to die at all had something in it that was a hint. Everyone looks at that line in the conversation, but we really don't know what the hint was.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I posted a thread a long time past about the Companion's Guild, and my thoughts on it's purpose. I know Joss is a Frank Herbert fan, and I always think of the Bene Gesserit.
Highly-trained, highly educated women who can move at the highest levels of society, know a lot of secrets and have a great deal of political influence. (Serenity OVC: Companions live like nuns, work like geisha and often rise to social or political prominence when they retire.) Inara was on the fast track to being House priestess at House Madrassa. Then she quit. Cut and ran. Didn't quit the Guild, but left the House. So maybe she found out something about the way the place was being run that she couldn't deal with.
I like the bloodwork theories. Joss likes blood, after all. The whole blood/sex/power riff he has going was built out of the Victorian Gothic vampire mythos. Maybe there is some controlling agent within the blood - the Minear plot of the Syringe of Doom was just plain nasty.
Maybe...Inara is a lot older than she looks. A serious amount older than she looks. Less fangy and more soul-sucking? There's one for the horror fans. The Companion's Guild are vampires, unaffected by an alien sun. Or maybe you just have to get really old in the service before you find that a tan becomes terminal...
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
Then she quit. Cut and ran. Didn't quit the Guild, but left the House. So maybe she found out something about the way the place was being run that she couldn't deal with.
But in that case...
If it was something against Guild spirit that so disturbed her, why wouldn't she try to change it? Notify the Guild?
And if the disturbing thing wasn't against Guild spirit, why wouldn't she quit?
Just running away from something possibly harmful to others (or why else would it be so disturbing) doesn't seem like something an intelligent, independent woman would do. It just paints Inara as artificially weak and stupid.
Not to mention, it kind of undermines one of the truly original concepts of the show: sacred prostitution and an independent, women-run network of support for highly respected prostitutes. Why would Joss build something positive and not historically precedented like that and just have it be another failure and lie? Kind of.. anti-feminist, almost, which doesn't seem like Joss at all.
Why this need to vilify the Guild?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
But in that case...
If it was something against Guild spirit that so disturbed her, why wouldn't she try to change it? Notify the Guild?
And if the disturbing thing wasn't against Guild spirit, why wouldn't she quit?
Just running away from something possibly harmful to others (or why else would it be so disturbing) doesn't seem like something an intelligent, independent woman would do. It just paints Inara as artificially weak and stupid.
Not to mention, it kind of undermines one of the truly original concepts of the show: sacred prostitution and an independent, women-run network of support for highly respected prostitutes. Why would Joss build something positive and not historically precedented like that and just have it be another failure and lie? Kind of…anti-feminist, almost, which doesn’t seem like Joss at all?
Why this need to vilify the Guild?
Why does the Alliance get vilified in the series and BDM, AgentRouka? It's supposed to be this wonderful example of civilization and enlightenment, yet Mal and every other Independent fought against its influence with everything they had. Why? It's because the Alliance was offering all this supposedly wonderful stuff in exchange for losses of freedom and identity in the name of human unity.
We know dick squat about the Companion's Guild except for the odd tidbit that has been either given by Inara and Nandi, or inferred based on things we have seen and heard during the series, comic books and movie. We want to assume the Guild is some unprecedented force for female empowerment and independence from historical roles and stereotypes. However, we have been given almost no chance to look at various parts of the Guild's structure and hierarchy like we have with the Alliance. We do not have any canonical idea of how the Guild handles internal disciplinary matters, traitors, violent clients needing to be dealt with before a Companion is injured or killed, or threats to its power and sisterhood. We have no idea about the requirements a candidate has to possess and the pre-requisites they need to go through to be accepted into the Guild’s training houses or what a Companion has to agree to in order to be declared a licensed and acknowledged member of the Guild.
Joss supports gender equality and has used his creations to push the idea of a woman being capable of taking on what has been a predominantly masculine role and excelling at it, and the Guild is an idea that take a new path with its emphasis on female-oriented sexual conduct for the purposes of healing and counselling; however, he has never shirked from a chance to cast the critical gaze on things that would undermine such strides. Including a matriarchal entity that could have more skeletons in its collective closet than we can assume or think of. We don’t know where Joss & co. were going to take us had the series gone for 5 or 7 seasons, so while I would staunchly support any effort to oppose complete vilification of the Companion’s Guild and its members…I would not grant it automatic amnesty from having a dangerous and self-centred agenda at its core. Who know what kind of lengths the founders of the Guild were required to take to ensure the safety of those who initially served it…
BlueEyedBrigadier
' border='0' alt='Sweet Charity' />
Come bid on my delectable derriere at the Sweet Charity auction! Buy me for a good cause;D
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
But the difference between an overtly large, meddlesome goverment and the Guild is that the former is very much a historical reality. And not just historical, actual. There's a point in portraying it to be partly evil, just like there's a point to portraying the ungorverned hicks in "Safe" as evil. Two extremes that both don't work right.
The Guild.. we haven't had something like that, ever! It has to be constructed before it can be deconstructed, but people insist on deconstructing and "exposing" it before even trying to look at the good, it seems.
Making the Guild evil, story-telling-wise completely takes the focus away from the actual, fascinating point, which is the idea of respecting prostitution. Not just the "honest", dirt-poor prostitution that Nandi represents and is easy to sympathize with because they are helpless damsel in need of protection from the evil men who disrespect them. Not that, but the idea of prostitution that demands a respected place in society. And the idea of a fullfilled life for women that's not centered on either romantic, monogamous love and family or on chaste devotion to some kind of service.
It just seems like a lazy, easy-fix for undermining the idea of Companionship, and Inara's life choices.
"The Guild is evil! Oh, Inara finds out and must leave the Guild! Prostitution controversy solved without actually addressing it!"
If the Guild is evil, then we don't have to worry about whether Inara has a point in loving that life, rather than choose Mal and a life of crime. It's the easy way out of the tough questions, and I don't think Joss was going for that.
Can there be evil lurking in parts of the Guild? Possible. But why does it have to be at its Core? Why does it have to have been there from its inception? Why can't it have been funded - and still be running mostly - on some actual, fundamental principles of support and protection for its members?
It disturbs me that the majority of viewers seem to completely reject that idea.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
You are completely right, AgentRouka. I was only trying to point out that there could be hidden facets to the Guild that are not as bright and shiny as everything seems. It could be a rotten core or a rot stemming from a bruise on the surface that grew outward to alter the entire entity.
And you have a valid point that people should not be immediately assuming there's something rotten on the planet Sihnon simply because it would be dramatic or it would solve the conflict between Mal and Inara over Inara's work and the Guild itself to have it under the control of a bunch of evil zealots or something. Will that stop people from using the idea as a plot point? Probably no 
I guess I am just trying to express the opinion that we know nothing truly solid about the Guild and its operations. All evidence points towards a historically unprecedented entity that has spent years fighting valiantly to alter human perception about what is seen to be glorified prostitution and who carefully protects those under its auspices. But we don't know if Joss was going to allow for a revelation about the Guild that would alter perception once again about what the Guild represents to the 'Verse at large. Hell, given enough time, there certainly would have been a story or two about Independent war atrocities and how veterans like Mal, Zoë and Monty would have to deal with knowing their side wasn't as honourable as they had assumed or hoped. So I personally am willing to accept the idea that as much as the Guild is a goal to strive towards, there could be stuff about it that Inara isn’t thrilled with. Why she stays or pushes it would be a great exploration of Inara Serra, Guild Companion, and Inara Serra, woman of independent mind and body 
BlueEyedBrigadier' border='0' alt='Sweet Charity' />
Come bid on my delectable derriere at the Sweet Charity auction! Buy me for a good cause;D
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Wellllll about the whole Inara bashing I did up there....that was just a rant I had to get out of my system and five minutes later I did not feel the same dislike for her you may have felt radiating from my words:P If you compare the first thing I wrote about her it doesn't support the second thing I said.
Perhaps Inara is dying. Perhaps that's why shes so afraid to get close to Mal for fear that her life will end shortly and finds no reason for starting something. Though there was quite a lack of foreshadowing...Sure one instance of her mentioning how she doesn't want to die- its really nothing without the comentary telling us its something...- I say I don't want to die all the time...though I do have an autoimmune disease that could possibly kill me....Hmmm why didn't I put two and two together!Inara must have Scleroderma :P. Though her body parts would not be that pretty and she would probably not work as a good companion, unless she has it in her organs and no legions have appeared on her skin....its all very possible. That could also mean that the needle she had in the pilot episode was really Methotrexite to treat the disease and it was secret foreshadowing that we would only make sense of after we found out! Ohhhh Joss you genius!
...See this is my problem..I come up with an idea and just run with it for no apparent reason. I don't even have to believe it to write paragraphs...I apologize again for wasting time...
But if you look at the main ideas: Disease (of your choosing), feeling deaths grasp/ realizing how fleeting life can be, and meds it kinda makes sense....right???
That nerdy hat
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME