Darker Mal in Serenity
POSTED BY: BrownBug
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 04:02
VIEWED: 3878
PAGE 2 of 2
I gather that Universal gave Joss free reign whereas Joss caved to all of F*X's "notes". So, he turned Mal back to what he wanted Mal to be in the first place. Whether this was a good decision or not is up to debate.
But, I think that the explanation given was that beyond the series things went in a downward spiral. And somewhere near the bottom is where we re-joined our crew.
I think that there may be some more explanation in the comic. But, I haven't read it. I mean, I own it, but from what I got in the first few pages, I just stopped. Though I know this opinion will be unpopular, I *really* didn't like what I got from it.
C'est la vie.
----
I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The only direct attempt at explanation that I heard Joss make in the commentary was that Mal has lost Book and Inara, both of whom grounded him somewhat. "He's in a dark place," were Joss's words, I think.
He's also pretty desperate, and having more of those intimacy issues with the crew (to borrow Wash's explanation). It's gotten to the point where Kaylee is openly telling Jayne that she thinks the captain will eventually push them all away. He's having trouble providing for them and keeping them safe, and it seems to me that their faith in his leadership has become a burden and a worry. He can't run a smuggling operation with fugies on board, but neither can he run from being needed by the broken little bird who crawled out of a box in his cargo bay. He's got no answers, and so he almost resents the people who keep looking to him to fix everything.
I also think Mal has put all his faith in Serenity. "What he's got now is the ship. The ship and us on it." To some extent he's looking to them to make him whole, and when it looks like things are going to fall apart... well, there goes his world yet *again.* Sounds like enough to push him to some pretty ugly extremes.
(For anybody interested, Virtual Firefly does an incredibly good job of detailing his descent into that dark place. They connect some really shiny dots in that regard.)
Anyway, that's my best guess.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME