When Simon gets hit . . .
POSTED BY: Starrbaby
UPDATED: Sunday, August 19, 2007 17:05
VIEWED: 9648
PAGE 4 of 4
I think why Simon gets hit so often is because he's not willing to change how he acts for anyone else((Or not able to, due to lack of social intelligence)). This is a strong quality, which does often have him saying the obvious thing that no one wants to mention and therefore leads to his being punched. I love the interpretation that he would be terrified to know he flails when punched, and I'm now going to pop in Firefly to watch and enjoy that little extra depth that we either see or Sean actually brought to the character.
I think we laugh when Simon gets punched because; a. its slapsticky the way Sean moves in response, and slapstick humor is virtually universally appreciated; b. we either were expecting it or would have done it ourselves, which is vindicating and emotionally rewarding, hence laughter; or c. He deserved it, as a character. If you look at it, Simon gets punched when someone bad ((Or at least sorta-bad, like Mal.)) is threatening him and he refuses to yield to them. I think this shows up most in Jaynestown, because at the begining of the episode Mal describes him as essentially a dandy who wouldn't know how to survive in the real world, but when he is accosted by Stitch, he doesn't adopt a manner of talking down to him and when he's attacked he defends himself, albeit badly. He surprises me with his tenacity and his deep sense of self.
I'd just like to tangent a bit here and say how good our BDHs are as actors. Their characters are believeable, multi-dimensional, and feel real. I think thats why we have people who love the show, but personally dislike a character. It's not that the acting is bad, but the person being portrayed isn't liked, and I as an actor would hope that my performances would arouse emotion because of the character portrayed, and not the portrayal. Does anybody know if any of the cast are trained in Method, because they all seem very in the moment and in the character whenever they're on screen, wheather they're the focus or not?
Any ways, I think that seeing Simon punched arouses laughter mainly for the slapstickyness of it, at least for me personally.
((Edit: I think I hath said I think too much.))
"I'm not going to say Serenity is the greatest SciFi movie ever; oh wait yes I am." - Orson Scott Card
"To have ruined oneself for poetry is an honour." - Lord Henry, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
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On seeing this topic bumped, and not having read it in a while, I misinterpreted the title as referring to Simon getting "hit" (aka shot) in the BDM.
Then I reread the initial post with that in mind, and was a bit startled to see someone saying they giggled about it...
So I'd like to point out that Simon getting shot was very, very far from amusing. We may get a bit of snarky satisfaction when he catches a fist, but I'd say our real feelings about him come to the fore when he catches a bullet.
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I'm pointin' right at it!
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