Inara's Shame

Definitely an interesting possibility! If there's any truth to it, I favor Traveler's explanation.

"Can you, for a moment, imagine how depressing it is to teach one thousand years of masculine ineptitude? Why do you think there are so few women historians? I'll tell you why. Because history is not such a frolic for women as it is for men... History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. History is women following behind with a bucket and a mop." - Alan Bennett, "The History Boys"

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I always got the impression that Inara was upperclass and ashamed of that and what it stands for on some level, but not ashamed of her profession. I also got the impression that Mal's roots were not as poor as he made out...maybe his mother struggled for a bit but eventually she was doing all right and they were well off. So Mal was well looked after and well educated, but still expected to pull his weight and earn what he was given. So if you think about it, Mal and Inara are not that different..ie both hiding something about what shaped them and their opinions.

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Has anybody tossed around the idea that the black vial was poison? She believed she was a bout to be raped and eaten alive. Uhhh, I'd go ahead and reach for the poison. Unless I've missed something I don't know how one can speculate it is anything else. Hell, I've been wrong before. Somebody fill me in if theres info I be missin!

For the love of your god I hate FOX!!!

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The vial was a toxin that would poison anyone having relations with the Companion thus injected, according to the original Tim Minear idea. Whether it was then also fatal to the Companion, and thus a last resort, i have no idea.

Of course, if not, that raises an interesting sideline into what other services Companions perform...

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I initially thought it was a form of poison or something, but after watching the commentary, Joss dismisses this saying something along the lines of "it works in the context of the episode, and therefore the episodes that were made, but this is not what it was, and it would have been explained in a future episode."

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Tim Minear had said it would kill whoever she had sex with? So therefore if the Reavers raped her, they would've died. So hopefully they'd rape her before killing/harming her in any other way. Though, if that were the case, would she ever have gotten over being violated by a Reaver?

I'd also like to add that in my opinion, Inara enjoys her job, she likes what she does, how she does it, etc. etc., but she doesn't like the world that her profession is a part of. That's why she joined the crew of Serenity. She services customers, but aside from that just stays with the crew/ship, so she obviously is scared/offended/annoyed/whatever by the world which surrounds her profession. She likes the true friendship and honesty that is found in the crew of Serenity and the places it goes to, rather than the falsities and problems with that of the rich folk.

Just my 2 cents...

"Never f$@% with a browncoat dude...." - Kevin Smith

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Quote:

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Originally posted by boris:
I always got the impression that Inara was upperclass and ashamed of that and what it stands for on some level, but not ashamed of her profession. I also got the impression that Mal's roots were not as poor as he made out...maybe his mother struggled for a bit but eventually she was doing all right and they were well off. So Mal was well looked after and well educated, but still expected to pull his weight and earn what he was given. So if you think about it, Mal and Inara are not that different..ie both hiding something about what shaped them and their opinions.

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You and I think a lot alike. Inara is from maybe the upper middle class who wanted more for their daugher,or may be even an upper class father with a Companion for a mother. That would fit in with what Moreana said.

I also agree with you about Mal. I get the impression (maybe from Mal's apparent education shown though out the series and movie and remarks he makes in OMR) that the Reynolds ranch was a success, what with 50 hands. That would indicate a fairly prosperous and large ranch.

I also picture Mal's Ma as a very strong woman who made a success when everyone thought she would fail. She would also insist on a good education for her son but at the same time insisting that he do his chores and learn how to run the ranch so that Mal could eventually take it over.

This seems to have come out in some of my "young Mal" fics. (Yes, shameless plug!).


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So, I put some thought into Inara's situation for fic purposes, and here's what I came up with. I agree with other posters that she is very much *not* ashamed of her job. She's proud of it, and obviously thinks of it as more than sex. The Jaynestown and War Stories clients are examples of clients she enjoys - she gets to know them as vulnerable human beings and can then provide some sort of counselling. This fits into her general role on the ship, which I've heard show writers refer to as "motherly". She's a caretaker. I think that's inherent and central to her personality.

Unfortunately, there is the occasional bad client like Ath. Hey, no job is perfect. I think she says she doesn't fit in with his world because she didn't become a Companion to sip cocktails with the snobby elite. I think she's human enough to enjoy the luxury and nice outfits, but she's not into it for self-glorification. She blushes and isn't pleased when Ath tells her that every man wants to be in her bed. To her, that's not the point.

This has been the bedrock for my fanfictional background for Inara. Whether she comes from a rich or poor background, she chose to be a Companion so she could be in a caretaker role - in a safe way. I guess that she didn't want to be a caretaker in the usual domestic way. Why not? I invented a strained relationship with her birth family which turned her off to the idea of marriage and child-bearing. In my fic, her own birth family happened to be poor, but that detail isn't necessary. It's her alienation from them that matters.

This fits other evidence from the series. First, that she never talks about her background or family; second, that when family and children come up in conversation, she becomes noticably tense. (Bushwhacked: "Families?", OMR: "Can you imagine me with a passel a children underfoot - Get out!" or something like that, HoG: she wants to leave because these close relationships are a trap to her.)

EDIT: This doesn't fit what Morena said... unless Inara's mother was a whore. Hmmm....

Also, Mal never said he grew up poor. He mentioned a ranch with lots of hands, I think that entails some financial comfort. And he's decently educated, (he's read a poem) very much like the child on a big ranch in the old wild west who had good tutors, enough to give him some knowledge but not to change his accent.

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hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left

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