M/I Fanfic Cliches
POSTED BY: Steamer
UPDATED: Friday, August 3, 2007 07:28
VIEWED: 10956
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I understand the lack of rationality etc (becasue... well... they are emotions... not really rational...), but it is still not a mistake.
I do not think either of them made relationship overtures to the other. I don't even see it as anything to do with insecurity or prejudgement. (but that could be just me. I asked for opinions on another forum before I almost "got" the ending of HoG...)
It made Inara realise what it would mean (for both of them) if they went down that road. She decided to run. I am not even calling that a mistake.
But because it is a job probably does not too much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.
Everyone (yes, I am generalising) always thought it would be Mal who ups and runs because he cannot deal with Inara's fidelity. Joss showed the polar opposite.
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Well that's just it nbz, I don't see it as a mistake or either one of them at fault.
They were both dishonest with their feelings. Mal actually realizes this first when he tries to come clean and truthsome (end HOG), but it's too soon or too late in Inara's case because she's already decided to do the bunnyhop (spare herself and Mal the messy entanglement) She's not ready to listen until perhaps the end of the BDM. When she realizes that being apart emotionally isn't solving their shared pain.
So, no I don't see either action (Nandi or Inara's run) as a mistake...just a misinformed screw-up.
Will M/I screw-up again? Probably! That's what their coming together subplot is all about. Will the viewers need a firmer resolution at some point. Absolutly! It's part of the story structure.
But, until then we have some good fanfic writers that explore their issues and resolve.
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I love the Mal/Inara conflict, it's what attracts a lot of people to them as characters. I agree with Platonist's comments too. I find Inara the hardest character to write, but I still enjoy their on-off relationship.
As a fanfic writer I have no problem with writing cliches as long as it's done without cheesiness. By which I mean the construction still has to be believable (yes, I know it's sci-fi). In the same way I don't mind if people think my writing is predictable, as long as they enjoy the journey.
I agree with PhoenixRose about mushy though. Mushy and sappy is all very well, but you have to have conflict to balance. It's just Karma, man.
As a person I'm a glass-half-full kind of girl. As a writer I'm meaner. Bad shit happens - a lot - but climbing out of the mire (triumph over adversity) is something I love to read and write about. I keep the mush firmly under my boot when I write, although sometimes you slip on it, just like poo.
ri shao gou shi bing
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The M/I is a great conflict relationship.
I don't see them ever getting it together, because of the big work issue.
Inara is a Companion. In her world, that is a respected, valued profession. To Mal, she sleeps with other men for money.
Mal is a man who values his freedom, has commitments to his crew to keep them safe. To Inara, he's a thief.
She can't walk away from a lifetime of training and a career she values, to do...what? She doesn't like to fight, values peace and order.
He can't walk away from his ship and his freedom, the crew he is responsible for, to...live on her earnings?
Two worlds. And both have too much to give up. If either of them did, there would be big-time resentment and that would take the relationship down.
Of course, neither of them are being rational in any way, because they are human. The big deal is Inara getting whiny because Mal might actually move on. There's a whole 'Verse of women out there, and a year or so of unrequited angst can get pretty dull after a while.
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Mal values freedom, yes...but Inara HAS freedom, especially emotional, spiritual, and definitely SEXUAL freedom (you go girl! luv ya!). She gets her strength from her freedom. It is her freedom and autonomy that she's holding onto when she leaves Serenity, not her job, considering, she dashes away from the Training House, without even a second glance. Her training and the Guild may be the freedom vehicle she is committed to ride on, but they don't define her as a person or create character choices or growth. That's why she rejects Atherton's offer. Inara wants to maintain her freedom ...and, decorate her beloved little shuttle with all her things. You can't put a dollar value on that.
Mal is bound by honor, loyalty, and responsibility to his crew. His 9 to 5 is as restrained as my accounting neighbor. In a way, he is trapped in and on Serenity. He has traded one prison for another. He doesn't move on emotionally. He has failed to make any lasting intimate emotional relationships. He doesn't know what he wants because he is an emotional mess. And he certainly doesn't know how to connect with the woman he wants (Inara), so he lets her go to maintain HER freedom and stares at her picture for six months!
Not too much with the moving on.
I think Mal and Inara could share and learn a few things from each other about freedom and love, and I don't know if they are meant to be in a fairytale kind of way. But Firefly isn't about fairytale relationships. It is about real people that argue and say and do the wrong things. And hurt each other unwillingly.
The real dullness for me is to have Mal in a one demensional relationship, with a women that is just like him, with the guns and attitude and all.
Let's face it, beyond gun talk, a few shots, and Nandi bragging about her "carving out a whorehouse" what could they have really created? A flying whorehouse?
Just another opinion
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Quote:
Originally posted by Platonist:
In a way, he is trapped in and on Serenity. He has traded one prison for another. He doesn't move on emotionally. He has failed to make any lasting intimate emotional relationships. He doesn't know what he wants because he is an emotional mess. And he certainly doesn't know how to connect with the woman he wants (Inara), so he lets her go to maintain HER freedom and stares at her picture for six months!
Not too much with the moving on.
The real dullness for me is to have Mal in a one demensional relationship, with a women that is just like him, with the guns and attitude and all.
Let's face it, beyond gun talk, a few shots, and Nandi bragging about her "carving out a whorehouse" what could they have really created? A flying whorehouse?
You made me laugh, Platonist! "A flying whorehouse." Classic! 
I agree with your estimation of Mal and Inara's relationship. I don't think it would work unless both were willing to make some big sacrifices. But in love, sometimes you have to make those sacrifices, no? Who knows where Joss and Tim would have taken them? I hope we'll find out one day. Till then, we've got fanfic, baby!
Patsy: When you were two years old, we tied you to the central reservation of a motorway.
Edina: But you were like a homing pidgeon, sweetie....back within a week!
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Sleeping with rich people for money, telling them what they want to hear, and pretending you connect with them even though you don't really know them are not actions that represent my idea of freedom, sexual or otherwise. To me they seem more like letting people use you for money and selling chucks of yourself. It is hard to see Inara as free when she can't act on her obvious feelings for Mal.
I have to agree with you about the dullness and unlikelihood of the Mal/female Mal relationship. If he and Inara don't work it out, I don't see him falling for a girl who is basically him with breasts.
May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.
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The question of Inara's freedom really turns on how one views prostitution/being a companion. If you think that using your body as a comodity is anti-freedom, then yes "sleeping with rich men and telling them what they want to here" makes Inara, in Mal's words, a slave.
However, all forms of employment, particularly legitimate ones, require a person to "whore" themselves on a regular basis. You smile at your boss when you just want to flip them off. You go to your office and are trapped there, when you'd rather be at the beach. So what makes Inara different from any other professional? If the answer is duh she sells sex; well then what's wrong with that as long as it is her choice? As a lawyer, I feel a particular affinity with prostitutes since we both screw people for a living and charge by the hour.
Is it something about the use of her body that makes it somehow repugnant? Is it the concept of being penetrated? Mal gets shot everyother episode yet no one call's him a slave for being repeatedly penetrated with metal.
In my opinion, Inara is one of the most liberated characters on the show. She chooses her clients (that's guild law). She doesn't tell them what they want to hear, so much as what they need to hear, i.e. Fess Higgins and the Council-Woman. When one is blessed enough to be chosen by Inara, they recieve both the benefits of her body and her brain. Moreover, as her interactions with various clients (excluding the ass in the first episode and Atherton) demonstrate that she has a deep level of empathy for them. She seems to derive pleasure beyond realm of the merely hedonic (of course there's nothing mere about a really good orgasim)by bringing them pleasure.
To push the envelope a little further, I would say that its her level of liberation that is partially problematic for Mal. In a sense he envy's her freedom. (There's also that pesky Alliance connection, there's nothing worse than panting after the enemy). Unlike the rest of the characters who are bound to the ship through either hyper loyalty or sheer necessity, Inara can leave at any time. For someone with clear control, loss and abandoment issues like Mal, that's a palpable threat.
Inara's freedom is kind of interestingly reflected in her shuttle which not only spacially seperates her from the crew, but also detaches from Serenity itself. Mal's need to reasert control over this space and by extension Inara is reflected in his constant unannounced invasions and their arguments over whose shuttle it really is.
Moreover, she often uses her freedom as a bargaining chip in fighting with Mal. In episode one she threaten's to leave if her turns Simon and River out. Inara's one of the few crew members (except for Jayne which is a seperate essay) who will actively and openly challenge Mal. She also has more say than the other's in where Serenity goes, since she has the only other and presumedly more successful business on the ship. Mal is, oddly enough, often in the position of a client having bargain and compromise inorder to retain her capital and presence (and all the pleasure he derives from it) on the ship.
Career and criminality aside Mal and Inara will always have relationship problems because they are both fiercly independent and loving someone means losing a bit of yourself. For individuals like them, that level of surrender is not acceptable.
Phaedra (a bad luck name)
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I guess I'm just a romantic who feels that sex should be something more than just another business transaction. If I were Inara, I think I would feel used up because I was always giving myself to strangers who only gave money in return. After being a companion for awhile, I probably would not be able to feel anything at all and I am sure I would not feel free. To me, selling sex is not the same as selling legal services because sex is extremely intimate act that says something about your feelings for person you're doing it with and that person's feelings for you, even if those feelings are just honest, no strings attached, mutual lust.
Also, if Inara is so free why doesn't she just jump Mal's bones? It seems like she wants him and Mal has proven susceptible to the wiles of others with similar training.
Finally, as far as I can tell the crew can quit and leave Serenity at any time as long as it is not in the middle of a job. I don't think Mal is holding any of them prisoner.
May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hoperules:
I guess I'm just a romantic who feels that sex should be something more than just another business transaction. If I were Inara, I think I would feel used up because I was always giving myself to strangers who only gave money in return. After being a companion for awhile, I probably would not be able to feel anything at all and I am sure I would not feel free. To me, selling sex is not the same as selling legal services because sex is extremely intimate act that says something about your feelings for person you're doing it with and that person's feelings for you, even if those feelings are just honest, no strings attached, mutual lust.
I agree and I am in no way denying that Inara doesn't have some serious issues to consider, like her job, losing some of her freedom weighed against her love for Mal and Serenity.
None of us can have everything. At some point soon, looking at their BDM resolution, she will have to choose and sacrifice what doesn't work for her anymore. After all, strong relationships and families take work and sacrifice. Mal also, would need to consider safer and not so reckless jobs. A compromise, maybe?NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME