Controversial Mal characterization
POSTED BY: SpaceAnJL
UPDATED: Saturday, January 3, 2009 06:12
VIEWED: 42749
PAGE 12 of 12
Hmmm....yeah. I'm with you there. Gun-eating or BABIEZ!!! fic gets tedious after a while. I hope this request stirs up some fic of a happier variety. 
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Apparently I missed this thread.
Regarding the opening post, methinks that after BDM the Alliance will be too busy with all the uprisings and riots from the Miranda revelation that Mal and Serenity will have greater freedom, liberty, range for smuggling and thievery. More profit, less hassle.
River may still be susceptible to subliminal triggers, but most of these won't be used once th Operative is done.
Inara's guild seems to not allow her to date or marry, so if her and Mal get together she will no longer be a Companion, unless she does it without telling the Guild.
I see improvement, not destitution. Of course, Yosaffbridg is also HOT!
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Has anyone considered the opposite - the broadwave made hardly any difference at all?
THe Alliance may not be dealing with Mal and crew as they are not painful enough yet... So more of the status quo, but with pointless death in there too.
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Yeah, possible. In fact, you have the majority of folk just passing by, and a small number of very dangerous folk sitting up and taking notice.
I don't think we saw enough of the tech to get a good handle on things, but I'm a big Gibson/Dick fan, so I don't think slipping under Alliance radar is quite as easy as it seems. If Mr Universe (yay D K!!) can scoop up all those waves, what can an official scan do? If retinal scans are used for ID, and everywhere has a Cortex, soon as you log in some place, you're under the scope.
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Quote:
If retinal scans are used for ID, and everywhere has a Cortex, soon as you log in some place, you're under the scope.
Maybe put some kind of optical obstacle between the scanner and the retina? A contact lens that would scatter the beam a bit and foul the scan?
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Wow! Many beautiful thoughts expressed in this thread! :) Here's how I see Mal.
I'd like to look upon Mal's mental traumata as a 'Big Bang' event that tear a man apart in all directions, like an expanding Universe that, when stretched out to the max, will slowly begin to gather in on itself again, gently allowing the various alienated parts of his person to regroup. With Serenity's crew, after the popular theory, all representing different aspects of Mal's personality, they can truly be said, and seen, to heal as a whole. Whether Mal and Inara will ever enter the love boat is the subject of much musing between us all. But as Smaug pointed out so astutely in another thread, their story is about them coming together... not them BEING together. And so goes for all. 'Twere never about what the crew will do after having crossed a sea of troubles, but 'bout their journey. As Book would say: how they get there is the worthier part.
So, when did Mal make the decision that doing crime is okay and justifyable? Dostoevsky has Ivan Karamazov say: "If God is dead, all is permitted." Wouldn't say Mal was ever quite that synical, but after Mal's own 'Big Bang' thingy, I'd say he and God drifted a fair span apart, too. It ain't that Mal began to resort to petty thieving in crazed abandon after his God died: it's more that, from that day on, he saw less reason not to. His "We're all just folk now," I believe reveals a much deeper sense of desillusion than just having lost his cause to fight for: he lost his Cause BEHIND things. And then, with bits falling off his ship, a crew ain't been paid, and, oh, yeah, a powerful need to eat sometime this month, well, then a man has a choice. Besides, add an admixture of denial and nobility to the mix ("My work's illegal, but at least it's honest,") and you have a great.., well, I guess just a good man.
Book's words 'on his way out' were what Mal most needed to hear: "I don't care what you believe. Just believe it." Ever since Serenity, the pilot, Mal's soul has been aching to reconnect to the 'backend' Cause of the 'Verse. At day's end you need to be able to believe in tomorrow. Being a rebel without a cause will do you for a spell, but in the end you need an end.
As for Mal protecting Nandi and her girls, they too give Mal cause again to support a cause again (next to his longterm 'path' of helping River). Also, I think Mal simply sees Nandi and hers as the kindred folk history stepped on. Someone -- girl folk, no less -- waving "Never to be under the heel of nobody ever again," in his face, and you can bet your muscular buttocks Mal will step up to the plate. Noble as a grape.
Ah, Mal. :)
--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam
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I'm home from work today and I stumbled upon this thread and had to reread it. It was a pleasure reading it after 6 months or so.
It reminded me why I love Firefly/Serenity and all of you here.We can talk, disagree and debate with open minds and with no disrespect to one another.
So unlike the real world.
http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/
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bump
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Playful Mal... Suddenly I really want to write a fic where he has to compete in like a horse race or something. Serious stakes, but a chance for the devil-may-care risktaker to shine through.
Anyhoo. Reading Nosadseven's post, I can definitely imagine a Mal post-movie who can't fall back on his "doesn't mean a thing" coping mechanism. Not having lost Wash and Book, not after what Book asks of Mal with his dying words. Even if everyone in the verse ignored the Miranda wave, he can't believe Wash and Book died for nothing...Could he?
But if Mal wants to believe their deaths meant something, then I imagine him trying to apply that new perspective retroactively to Serenity Valley and my own mind breaks. What could it mean, then? Only conclusion I can see Mal coming up with is his usual one: nothing, and so Wash and Book's deaths...
Yikes. And here Mal seemed to get bad when members of his crew merely left the ship. Don't think post-movie can have anything fluffy in store for Mal, even if Inara stays. But I'm also sure he'll keep struggling on, too, eventually find a somehow/somewhere he can live with it.
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