Diagnosis: retcon (Inara discussion)

POSTED BY: Bytemite
UPDATED: Thursday, November 27, 2025 21:56
VIEWED: 19100
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PLATONIST

Monday, March 16, 2009 10:47 PM

Agree with you there. ncbrowncoat, the mystery is fascinating.

Didn't Morena say something about her thinking Inara had a child, or wanting a child and didn't Early say something about making a child?

more crumbs, time for a sequel.

BYTEMITE

Monday, March 16, 2009 10:54 PM

Oh, I agree there, I think Inara definitely wishes she could have children. Her behaviour on Serenity towards Kaylee and River and her care in decorating her shuttle could be described as "nesting." She's subconsciously trying to practice her parenting skills.

I'm not certain whether her reaction to Our Mrs. Reynolds and Mal talking about "a whole passel" of 'em is because she CAN'T have them, or if she was just upset by the thought of those children being Saffron's.

But my take on it is that because of her illness, she doesn't think she'll be around long enough.

2X2

Monday, March 16, 2009 10:58 PM

Or maybe that she wouldn't want to bring a child into the world only to leave it alone...

An interesting take on the whole children thing.

Morena told us at a Q&A panel in Toronto that the syringe was indeed something that would kill anyone Inara had sex with, and her as well, so I don't know that that is connected to her illness or not...

2X2

Monday, March 16, 2009 10:59 PM

You know, what we really need is a thread with links to all these 'crumbs' so that we can compile them all in one place and share that knowledge with everyone, cuz there's a few been mentioned in this thread that I hadn't heard before - like the 'family business' one. I feel so out of touch!! ;)

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:15 AM

Another positive for compiling some of those gems is the entertainment factor.

I hear Nathan's expression in response to Morena's comment on that panel is priceless.

CELLARDOOR

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 3:23 AM

What? Where can one hear or read this response?

Um, so, I just finished watching the second episode of Castle. Oh my GOSH what a beautiful father/daughter moment!

Anyway, it made me think I could totally buy Mal/Inara finally getting together (still wondering how that could possibly take place given their attitudes)--for a little while--she leaves him a child (if she's able to of course, which I'm not sure we know--is it that she can't have children or she just thinks she won't, knowing her time would be so short?), dies tragically shortly thereafter, and though that's tragic, there's a child to give him a reason to live and believe. My apologies for the grammatically ridiculous sentence. Probably just the stuff of fanfic, but who knows? Someone shut me up if I'm being ridiculous. :P

...Though, if there's anything to the speculation/fannish hope that Zoe may be pregnant at the end of the BDM (can't recall where I heard that speculation/wish), I doubt a second child on Serenity would happen. Joss doesn't seem like the type to create a Full House scenario. *snicker*

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:03 AM

I'd try searching youtube.

The Zoe pregnancy thing I don't think has ever been confirmed... Though the fandom would definitely like to see it, because then at least Zoe wouldn't have lost quite so much. Of course, I think everyone would be even happier if Joss somehow pulled a perfectly fine, albeit slightly chest-scarred Wash out of nowhere... And to be honest, considering how all the comics have been prequels to the movie with all 9 characters, I think Joss has been regretting killing Wash and Book off.

And that's another good call. Zoe carrying on as a single parent and Mal carrying on as a single parent... Two probably too similar plotlines. One or the other might be possible though. Poor Zoe, imagine Mal having a kid and she just... Poor, poor Zoe.

I'll be watching Castle tomorrow night off either hulu or ABC's internet channel (is that what they're called?) so I better watch out for spoilers. :)

TWO

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
But my take on it is that because of her [Inara's] illness, she doesn't think she'll be around long enough.

Joss would not go directly to “Inara is dying.” He'd give that cliché a great big twist with the help of science. Everybody's ancestors on Firefly got an enormous dose of cosmic ray radiation on the trip from Earth. There were numerous mutations. (Is that too much science fiction?) In the bad old days, for several centuries after the starships arrived in the 'Verse, the Alliance handled the health problems with euthanasia. Probably explains why the Alliance leadership is still using massive killings -- the Leadership has a traditional habit of not respecting lives that fall below certain standards. Inara is one of those who would have died in the bad old days. Saving her would have been too expensive to justify.

But medical science has advanced over the centuries -- the Alliance now has a cure that is better than a bullet to back of the neck. But not much better...

The cure is to put Inara into suspended animation and repair her genes, cell by cell. Can you spell Nano-technology? (Is THAT too much science fiction?) The process takes decades because those tiny machines work slowly in the cold. Everyone she knows will be 50 to 70 years older or dead before she returns to life. How's that for tragic? Inara is out on the frontier, the Rim, because she wants to see the frontier before it is all gone and civilized. Inara will be like the vampire who outlives everyone she loves, which is a very Joss Whedon kind of plot twist. Joss could get many more stories with this complication than he could with the simpler “Inara is dying” cliché. Inara IS dying, but she will outlive all of us.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:21 PM

If Inara were the focus of the series, Joss could go for the "she'll outlive us all" story line...

I guess there are those comments Nandi made to Inara, although I always just assumed Nandi was around ten years older than Inara when they were training. Nandi looks forty something to me, and Inara looks very late twenties to thirties.

The mutations carried over from Earth-that-was and Alliance euthanasia programs I could see no matter where the plot ends up going. Neat idea.

TWO

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 11:38 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
If Inara were the focus of the series, Joss could go for the "she'll outlive us all" story line...

I'll invent a background story for “dying” Inara.... A major reason that Inara wanted to become a Companion was because she will eventually be very ill. She did not become a Companion because she loves to dress in ballroom gowns, sip champagne, and have sometimes witty, sometimes frivolous conversations with self-important men. She knew since childhood about her bad health and that's why she studied at the Academy. She needed to get into the Companion's Guild to qualify for treatment of her mystery disease, whatever it is. (I'd make it lupus-like with flareups that can kill in minutes without her special syringe of drugs. She's had a flareup while on Serenity in the comic 'Better Days'. Or maybe a rare genetic disorder called Usher syndrome, type III, which slowly causes blindness and deafness. http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/03/19/1844254.aspx )

By becoming a Companion, Inara was thinking and planning decades ahead, the totally opposite of how Mal does things. She would have a pension plan; Mal will never have one. He'd quit a job if it offered a pension. Correction: nobody would offer him such a job.

I get the impression that the Alliance is stingy with the lower classes. With the upper class, it's very over-generous. The Alliance has a two-tier hospital system. That is significant for Inara. There is a public system for the lower classes, where inadequate care is rationed and limited. And there is a separate system with unlimited, excellent care in the private hospital system for the aristocracy, the wealthy, and Companions.

For an example of the two-tiers: the Ariel hospital that Mal and Zoe robbed was staffed by grumpy, rude, and incompetent doctors. The building was ultramodern but the hospital staff were horrible. Remember when Simon saved the life of a heart patient from an ignoramus doctor who was administering the wrong drug after surgery? The lower classes receive poor service. The best paid and best doctors serve the upper class -- doctors like Simon, who was working at a private hospital, making what he called “obscene amounts of money.”

For those in the private hospital system, care is unlimited, the best of everything. That is what Inara will need, someday. Her only way into the private system was through the Companions Guild. So that's why she's a Companion. She would have a different career if only she didn't need the Guild's medical insurance. What career, I don't know. Actress? Writer? Shuttle pilot? Mal's wife? Now that's a crappy job.

That's the background story for “dying” Inara: the inequalities in the Alliance are a version of the inequalities of medical treatment in the USA and China. The problems on Earth got carried to the stars, changing Inara's life for the worse. But being on Serenity has changed her values. Maybe living beyond 50 is no longer her goal. Maybe a heroic death at 25 is starting to look appealing...

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