Inara's Jedi mind tricks

POSTED BY: SergeantX
UPDATED: Monday, May 31, 2004 22:10
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NICOLACLARKE

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:01 AM

Perhaps she finds it refreshing that Mal doesn't automatically treat her like a sex object/commodity. However much she enjoys her work, it must affect how she views men to some extent. While she could doubtless read Mal's feelings developing in the way he acted towards her, and long before he said anything outright, she was intrigued because he made such pains to deny it to himself. Plus, she's fallen for him.

As to her mind tricks, I agree that it's all about an intuitive reading of body language. In that, I guess she's the counterpart of - and contrast to - River, who gives every appearance of reading minds. Quite a neat symmetry.

/ pure intentions, juxtaposed /

GRACEOM

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 6:31 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by HUMBLE:
"Certain people" meaning Mal? He's kind of a live wire, a raw nerve. Maybe that's why Inara is drawn to him. Confusion/love/lust. Her Companion training seems to break down around Mal for some reason. Maybe old Mal is learning a few of HER mind tricks. Or maybe it's that and something else combined.

Just my view from the peanut gallery. HUMBLE.

Hmm. The thing about Mal is that he cares more about his ship and his crew than he does about getting laid. I suspect Inara hasn't met too many men who put their principles before personal gratification. It's pretty clear she admires that quality in him, even though it's a large part of what keeps him away from her (much of the rest being pride, imo, as in fear that she would reject him).

Also, apart from her little comment when he rents her the shuttle ("You want me"; he blusters

--'coz he does; she lets him off the hook: "...on your ship because..."), I don't think Inara has seriously tried to use her Companion training on Mal. I think she doesn't want to try it because: 1) it might work, and then she'd lose respect for him, or 2) it might fail, and then she'd be totally humiliated.

Clearly he's not immune to the lure of a Companion--both Saffron and Nandi got him going with just a bit more than the usual trouble.

In any event, these two people have really cornered themselves...

Grace

HUMBLE

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 7:05 PM

GRACEOM-I'm with you on Mal caring about his ship and THEN his crew. He'd live and die for Serenity, having proven the in Out Of Gas. I think Inara is jealous that these are his primary concerns. She may admire this quality about him but having met so few men of his caliber, she's lost on how to go about putting the moves on Mal. Inara's training probably would not be a factor. It's obvious they have a mutual attraction. (Both being to stubborn to admit it.) The sexual tension is thick enough to cut with a knife!

I think that with Saffron, Mal wasn't going to do the deed with her. Inara's pull was too strong. With Nandi, that's totally on Inara. It was her idea to get Mal to help out. His initial idea was for Nandi an Co. to hightail it. But, oh no, gets persuaded to fight it out. Nandi jumps on poor Mal like a tigress on a steak. Then Inara acts out the hurt, confused, and betrayed schoolgirl routine crying her eyes out.

I believe from Inara's first meeting on Serenity, she was painting herself into a corner. Laying out the foundation to prevent a relationship from forming between her an Mal. Regretting it later on.

Yeah, I think you're right about Mal wanting Inara at that first meeting. She was testing his reactions to get a read on him. Scoping him out. Maybe she didn't intend at first to actually liking and falling in love with Mal.

Whaddaya think. HUMBLE.

GRACEOM

Tuesday, May 25, 2004 10:28 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by HUMBLE:
GRACEOM-I'm with you on Mal caring about his ship and THEN his crew. He'd live and die for Serenity, having proven the in Out Of Gas. I think Inara is jealous that these are his primary concerns. She may admire this quality about him but having met so few men of his caliber, she's lost on how to go about putting the moves on Mal. Inara's training probably would not be a factor. It's obvious they have a mutual attraction. (Both being to stubborn to admit it.) The sexual tension is thick enough to cut with a knife!

I think that with Saffron, Mal wasn't going to do the deed with her. Inara's pull was too strong. With Nandi, that's totally on Inara. It was her idea to get Mal to help out. His initial idea was for Nandi an Co. to hightail it. But, oh no, gets persuaded to fight it out. Nandi jumps on poor Mal like a tigress on a steak. Then Inara acts out the hurt, confused, and betrayed schoolgirl routine crying her eyes out.

I believe from Inara's first meeting on Serenity, she was painting herself into a corner. Laying out the foundation to prevent a relationship from forming between her an Mal. Regretting it later on.

Yeah, I think you're right about Mal wanting Inara at that first meeting. She was testing his reactions to get a read on him. Scoping him out. Maybe she didn't intend at first to actually liking and falling in love with Mal.

Whaddaya think. HUMBLE.

Can't agree with you about Saffron, LOL! If Mal hadn't passed out from her lipstick, he was so not going to stop with kissing his "nekkid and articulate" new "wife"

That's my opinion, anyway.

In Heart of Gold...I think the writers exagerrated Inara's snarkiness toward Mal in order to make his excursion with Nandi seem like less of a betrayal--IOW to provide some foundation for his evident view that Inara had no feelings for him (so he might as well do whatever it took to forget about her). In the other episodes, their banter is mostly more playful--though calculated by both of them to maintain a distance. Much of the time we see them simply enjoying each other's company--wandering about a space station bazaar, having a drink...etc.

In any event, I think her despair when she found out Mal had spent the night with Nandi kind of took her by surprise. For whatever reason (and there may be more than we know at present, as discussed in the "Inara's secret" thread) she'd pushed him away hard, and he...went. I don't think she anticipated it hurting so much. Maybe it's herself that her "Jedi mind tricks" don't work on

Grace

HUMBLE

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 12:19 AM

GRACEOM-I think Mal would've resisted Saffron. If she had to go for the hard sell(no pun intended), by throwing her butt-nekkid bod at him to get a rise out of him, she's either doing something wrong or barking up the wrong tree. No, I believe at that point Inara was his interest.

In Heart, I THOUGHT Inara was weeping over Mal's sexxin' another woman. But maybe she was planning something like this all along. Something else going on with Inara that nobody knows about except her. A medical condition she wants to spare Mal from having to deal with? Maybe she has some some of fatal illness that is progressively getting worse?

I agree that the writing was inconsistent with their "relationship". Hot to cold, etc.,etc. Inara does seem to be her own enemy keeping mostly to herself and somewhat aloof. Like someone that doesn't want to form too close of attachments with others not knowing when you will have to leave them. It makes it easier for her to just pack up and go that way.

HUMBLE.

HUMBLE

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 2:44 AM

NICOLACLARKE-I think everything you're saying is right on the money. Better than I could've said it and with a lot fewer words.

HUMBLE.

NICOLACLARKE

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 12:07 PM

Humble - Thanks!

As for the Nandi situation, I think that Mal's attraction to her (and Nandi's to him) isn't difficult to explain - she has all the qualities that Mal admires (strong will, determination to be independent/self-sufficient, etc). Plus, there's that night-before-a-battle element - the desire to feel alive.

When he says that they (he and Nandi) are the only two people in the room, he means it (mostly)... he doesn't realise Inara has feelings for him, and he's doing his best to repress his own at least partly *because* he doesn't realise. (Notice how, at the end of the episode - after Nandi has made it clear to Mal that Inara does have the feelings - he goes straight for the question...)

Inara's reaction is totally human. She has been trying to deny her feelings too, but this - the first time (bar Saffron) she's seen him respond to another woman - makes her see that isn't as easy as she'd thought. Hence her immediate desire to leave.

As to why she's in denial... perhaps it's her mysterious illness/whatever. Or perhaps not so mysterious: after all, could anyone imagine Mal being happy with Inara as a Companion if they got together? Yet being a Companion is, after all, her life - I'd hesitantly suggest that it's as important to her as Mal's own role as captain of Serenity is to him.

Just my thoughts...

/ pure intentions, juxtaposed /

LIZ

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 3:16 PM

I thought of something that doesn't relate so much to the Mal/Inara thing, but might be an interesting contribution to the "jedi mind trick" thing:

in "Serenity," we see the scene with the different reactions Inara would have liked to have had to the gentleman she was with, but she represses themin favor of a more socially acceptable response.

We see Jubal Early do the same thing when River is talking about his past. (kind of Matrix-y, but that's for a different thread)

i just thought it was interesting that these are the only characters from whom we see these alternate reactions, especially since Early knew what Inara was trying to do when she tried to soothe him.

HUMBLE

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 5:22 PM

NICOLACLARK-You're Welcome!

Yeah, I totally with you on the Mal/Nandi hook-up. (The survival instinct to pass on ones genes prior to a life-threatening situation.)

Can Mal be such a dumb-ass that he has no clue that Inara has feelings for him? Possibly. While watching OMR the guy is so dense about why Inara was knocked out in his cabin that it made ME want to slap him upside his head.

I'm thinking that if the series would have continued, Inara would have forsaken here career as a Companion and gotten more into Mal & Co.'s illegal/quasi-legal activities. (As in Trash when she got the jump on Saffron towards the end of the ep.) Also, as all things come to an end, Inara can only be a companion for a certain amount of time. Joining up with Mal as his partner in crime/significant-other would eliminate the conflict Mal has with her being a Companion.

T.T.F.N.-HUMBLE.

GRACEOM

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 9:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by NicolaClarke:
Humble - Thanks!

As for the Nandi situation, I think that Mal's attraction to her (and Nandi's to him) isn't difficult to explain - she has all the qualities that Mal admires (strong will, determination to be independent/self-sufficient, etc). Plus, there's that night-before-a-battle element - the desire to feel alive.

When he says that they (he and Nandi) are the only two people in the room, he means it (mostly)... he doesn't realise Inara has feelings for him, and he's doing his best to repress his own at least partly *because* he doesn't realise. (Notice how, at the end of the episode - after Nandi has made it clear to Mal that Inara does have the feelings - he goes straight for the question...)

Inara's reaction is totally human. She has been trying to deny her feelings too, but this - the first time (bar Saffron) she's seen him respond to another woman - makes her see that isn't as easy as she'd thought. Hence her immediate desire to leave.

As to why she's in denial... perhaps it's her mysterious illness/whatever. Or perhaps not so mysterious: after all, could anyone imagine Mal being happy with Inara as a Companion if they got together? Yet being a Companion is, after all, her life - I'd hesitantly suggest that it's as important to her as Mal's own role as captain of Serenity is to him.

Just my thoughts...

/ pure intentions, juxtaposed /

Well, I agree with all of this, except for the very last bit about Companion-is-to-Inara as Captain-is-to-Mal. It's her career; she's good at it; it supports her in fine style. It also undermines her self-respect, which is what Mal keeps trying to tell her. Atherton Wing's behavior was just one particularly egregious example. I think it's in "Serenity" the first time we see her with a client...the young guy first asks her to stay, and then when she politely declines he makes a crack about her kind always cheating on the time the customer has paid for. She must get a lot of that kind of crap, and however well she's learned to rise above it, how can it not take a toll?

Grace

edited to add: I'm still not convinced that Mal would not have had sex with Saffron

. He seemed pretty far gone to me... But obviously we'll never know, so that's a question for Nathan or Joss as some future con

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