"Mal, bad... in the Latin" what does it mean?

POSTED BY: Persteph
UPDATED: Monday, August 6, 2018 09:02
VIEWED: 39385
PAGE 1 of 3

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE

PERSTEPH

Thursday, May 13, 2004 6:06 PM

In episode "Train Job", River, Simon and Mal are in the infirmary in the opening. Mal leaves and River says, "Mal, bad... in the Latin".

I've seen the episode several time now and I don't understand this satement.

Can anyone clarify it for me??

TTFN

LIZ

Thursday, May 13, 2004 6:13 PM

well, the simple answer is that in Latin, the word bad is "mal" (in Spanish bad is "malo"). as far as deeper meaning.. i'm not touching it.

HERO

Thursday, May 13, 2004 6:14 PM

Mal means "pain" and "bad" in French, but the word does not exist in Latin. She may mean the latin word "malus".

Also, saying "in the latin" is its own phrase. It could have been simply a figure of speech.

H

...or Vir in the latin.

WREN

Thursday, May 13, 2004 6:17 PM

Mal is a Latin prefix that means bad, evil, wrong etc. For instance malformed.

Wonder where that came from? I'm gonna go bang my head against a wall and see what else I can shake loose.

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Thursday, May 13, 2004 6:18 PM

I'm not terribly sure myself. Taken literally it seems to be an attempt to reference the Latin word malus(adj) or male(adv), which means "bad" or “badly.” The word 'mal' is a Latin root, but the word itself is not meaningful without an inflection.

GUNRUNNER

Thursday, May 13, 2004 6:49 PM

Malfunction, Maltreatment, Malnourish, Malice are also words that have the prefix MAL.

The Firefly CCG Web Site:
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/Bllm119/firefly_ccg_web_site.htm
My Other Site:
http://www.geocities.com/billds9/

SPARRONI

Thursday, May 13, 2004 7:09 PM

I've always taken it one of two ways. First, Joss probably threw it in to create a little suspicion about Mal's character, since it was the first episode aired. Second, technically Mal is indeed a 'bad guy.' He's an outlaw, a smuggler, a killer, and an occassional thief. To the Alliance, he's the villain. To us that know him better, we know different!

----------------------
"Forgive my rudeness. I cannot abide useless people."

FORRESTWOLF

Thursday, May 13, 2004 7:17 PM

I agree with Sparroni on this. I always assumed it meant that Mal, deep down, had a healthy dose o' bad in him. Heart of gold and all that, but Joss has said that he intended Mal to be darker than Fox allowed him to be.

Any other possibilities? River's insights are always fun to discuss!

GEEZER

Thursday, May 13, 2004 7:25 PM

I was aware of the Mal = bad, but assumed it was just random synapses firing in River's brain.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

ZORIAH

Friday, May 14, 2004 12:49 AM

I think it was a dialogue gag (which still also fits with River's random synapse firing thing) - she says "Mal, bad." There's a pause and we think she is telling Simon that Mal is a bad man, that she is suspicious of him. But then of course she completes her thought: "in the latin." Which turns a potentially charged statement into a fairly innocuous/random one.

1 2 3 NEXT PAGE