Views from a non-Browncoat...

POSTED BY: SpaceAnJL
UPDATED: Thursday, February 21, 2008 19:22
VIEWED: 9378
PAGE 1 of 4

1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE

SPACEANJL

Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:02 PM

...This being my husband, who has watched some of the series, (because I made him) but somehow failed to get the conversion.

He was just ambling about whilst I was on site yesterday, and he suddenly said;

"Well, Mal and Inara was never going to work, was it?"

Huh?

"She's a big picture sort of person, and he's...not. No, she might care for him and all that, but she's never going to spend her life hauling cargo round space and shooting people."

Which was very interesting. I mean, he knows who's who, but he's not seen all of it, and he tends to steer clear of my ramblings. So you have someone who has seen episodes and the BDM without our intensity.

But the big picture thing snagged me. He picked out something that I've been writing around with those two. It's not that Inara couldn't love Mal, but she isn't the sort of person to be happy just sitting in the background and waiting for him to come home from a hard day in the criminal underworld. And I'm not sure she's someone who has ever considered her future in terms of husband and kids after she 'retires'.

So...Inara Serra for President? I have my own ideas about the Guild and the politics of the 'Verse. OVC states that Companions have social and political prominence when they retire, and they move in the kind of circles that would certainly let them know where the bodies were buried, politically speaking. Maybe Mal wasn't so out of line when he referred to her as the Ambassador. Anyone else want to comment?

NVGHOSTRIDER

Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:22 PM

I kinda had that idea my own self. But what would keep them from loving eachother and hooking up every once in a while? Not much I gather. Besides. They'd probably end up hating eachother being stuck in the same space together for too long.

Gots mad skillz, loves playing with matches.

SPACEANJL

Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:27 PM

I think Inara might cope with compartmentalizing her life like that, but Mal, not so much. I think he likes his crew/family around him and immediate. And I don't think he's a man who likes to share his toys, if you get my drift.

NVGHOSTRIDER

Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:37 PM

Oh yeah. Drift gotten very well.

Gots mad skillz, loves playing with matches.

CYBERSNARK

Friday, February 15, 2008 1:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
they move in the kind of circles that would certainly let them know where the bodies were buried, politically speaking.

Or literally, as the case may be.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

OUT2THEBLACK

Friday, February 15, 2008 5:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:
...And I don't think he's a man who likes to share his toys, if you get my drift.

Mal's got toys ? Huh , wouldn't have imagined that , myself , considering his distaste at Kaylee's mention of that item of hers that requires batteries...

Maybehaps the toys were what Inara would bring to the Mal-bunk...Might've been some of those 'sundries' from that trunk of hers that he didn't look in...

Kinda see your point , though...Can't imagine Mal would fancy 'sharing' suchlike articles...

Eww...Bad--In the Latin...

PLATONIST

Friday, February 15, 2008 8:08 AM

I can see where you are coming from on one level, SpaceAnJL, but Inara isn't a typical Companion. I mean, what is she doing on that ship?

Unfortunately, whether you think they will work or not, I think Joss may ship Mal/Inara, else wise he would have sent her packing and back to the Training House at the end of Serenity.

They seem to be Joss's take on a comic romantic pairing, as he mentions it several times on both movie commentaries.

And he obviously enjoys writing their banter.

SPACEANJL

Friday, February 15, 2008 11:19 AM

I read something from Joss in the OVC about Inara being the girl Mal left behind, a star-crossed pairing. She was planning to leave the ship in what would have been mid-series (damn you, F*x!) so I think he was going to use her as a window and insight into a wider level of the 'Verse.

'Sides, when has Joss ever made a relationship easy? Death always seems to be an option (though not always a barrier, for the fangy elements...)

And there is of course that very question, Platonist. What was Inara doing on that ship? That particular ship? Or just one heading out into less travelled regions? (And I do have my own ideas about it.)

I just thought that an 'outsider', as it were, picking up on the idea, was interesting. (But then, my husband owns more classic sci-fi than me, and is a big Herbert fan, too.)

Gotta say, 'Casablanca' is one of my favourite films. And I could see that element of sacrifice in Inara's character, if she thought it would be a better thing for everybody in the long run.

ZZETTA13

Friday, February 15, 2008 12:20 PM

SPACEANJL
I tend to agree with your husband on this. Still it does come through in Firefly and Serenity that Mal and Inara do care deeply for one another. Yet I think if they did happen to hook up Mr. Reynolds may become tired of his g/f-wife saying “ I’ll be in my bunk with (insert latest clients name here)”. Think that would become kinda old for the captain of Serenity pretty quick
Z

JONGSSTRAW

Friday, February 15, 2008 12:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAnJL:

... "she might care for him and all that, but she's never going to spend her life hauling cargo round space and shooting people."

I don't think any of them are either. The Serenity "lifestyle" would be short-lived at best. Crime is a game for the young, so I think it would be inevitable that the crew would dis-band at some point and go their separate ways....Kaylee meets a guy, falls in love & gets married....Zoe has Wash's baby, and settles down on a border planet somewhere...Jayne, unfortunately, is killed in a bar fight by a guy who shoots him in the back, Inara goes back to the world of the Guild and becomes a resident advisor (will live and die never having married), and Mal........well he ends up running a saloon in some forgotten corner of the verse.

1 2 3 4 NEXT PAGE