Diagnosis: retcon (Inara discussion)

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

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 2:24 PM

I could see Inara planning ahead. But I think she does enjoy being a Companion. All of her interaction with Kaylee and River suggests that at her most basic, Inara is a nurturing person. She doesn't have to act that way, Kaylee and River aren't paying her. And she says during Jaynestown that she prefers the healing, therapeutic aspect of her work.

I don't know about the luxury, but the prestige at least is important to her. She certainly doesn't like to be called a whore, and the distinction seems to be the respectability factor. Part of that respectability is looking, dressing, and acting the part.

However, I will say that she does seem to fit in remarkably well in a lower class world, even seems comfortable. And when Mal identifies her world as upper class, she clearly doesn't seem to think it's really where she belongs.

Hospitals in the Core. Never really heard that take on them. I didn't think the Doctors on Ariel were that bad. Sure, the one guy made a mistake, but he's not top three percent. The rude doctor, I'll grant, had a chip on his shoulder and clearly thinks himself superior to a lowly paramedic team. But between those two I don't see evidence that the entire Alliance hospital is uncaring or negligent.

However, I myself like to exponentially grow the operational problems we have nowadays with our government and social programs to project what they might be like in the future, so your reasoning for a two-tiered medical system does appeal to me. I have to say we don't have evidence for it, and aside from the blackout zones it's hard to imagine any Core worlds having shady underbellies, but I do like the idea. It's just like the Alliance bureaucrats to whitewash the bad and unsavory parts, and sheeple living under the Alliance might live within a mile of nastiness and never know it/fully realize it.

There IS canon writing that Parliament doesn't give a good gorramn about the Rim worlds, and that there's even some sentiment that the Rim worlds need to be punished for the Independent War. So if you're looking for examples of lower class versus upper class in the Alliance... It's not exactly anything about the dynamic of a Core world, but in at least some cases class struggle exists.

TWO

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 3:33 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:

Hospitals in the Core. Never really heard that take on them. I didn't think the Doctors on Ariel were that bad. Sure, the one guy made a mistake, but he's not top three percent. The rude doctor, I'll grant, had a chip on his shoulder and clearly thinks himself superior to a lowly paramedic team. But between those two I don't see evidence that the entire Alliance hospital is uncaring or negligent.

However, I myself like to exponentially grow the operational problems we have nowadays with our government and social programs to project what they might be like in the future, so your reasoning for a two-tiered medical system does appeal to me. I have to say we don't have evidence for it, and aside from the blackout zones it's hard to imagine any Core worlds having shady underbellies, but I do like the idea. It's just like the Alliance bureaucrats to whitewash the bad and unsavory parts, and sheeple living under the Alliance might live within a mile of nastiness and never know it/fully realize it.

The two-tiers of hospitals in the Alliance are like the National Health Service in the UK for everyone and anyone and an Alliance private hospital system, running in parallel, for those who pay for the extra privileges. I don't think there is anything shady or secretive going on -- if you're rich and pay in the Alliance you get respect, attention, and service at the private hospital that others can't have at the public hospital, no matter how sick they are. And the private hospital is not in the bad part of town, the black zone. It's in River Oaks, the classiest part of the city.

It's too bad that mistakes are made at every hospital, everyday, but sometimes there is just silly bungling, on a daily basis. http://drop.io/strangecase "Between 400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected in a three-year period at the National Health Service Stafford Hospital in central England." http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.09affc88c9815310300a92378a
ed0564.2f1&show_article=1

The Alliance knows that an apology after you're dead is more economical than paying the cost of a well-run hospital. I remember the Alliance turning away Book when he was shot in the chest. The hospital would have let him die if he hadn't revealed to the hospital who he really was. I was not impressed with the Alliance hospital for the public in Ariel. They weren't actively harming their patients, but the staff that directed River's and Simon's bodies to the morgue were just plain uncaring. Hostile, even. That's not the kind of hospital for Inara. She deserves better.

If hospital staff is rude to pretend emergency medical technicians (Mal, Zoe, Jayne) and callous about the dead (River, Simon) and gives the obviously wrong drug to the living, it is a mediocre hospital, no matter how modern its diagnostic equipment is and how clean its floors and windows are. If Inara has a complex disease requiring many specialists, she had best stay away from the public hospital system and get into a private hospital, a place like Simon worked at.

WASHNWEAR

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:
Quote:
I'm not sure how much romance there will be on Dollhouse, so it might not even be a concern for that show.

Yeah - a lot depends on how fast that whole "man reaction" thing catches on with the rest of the male Actives. And if the females ever start having "woman reactions"...? Damn - just hang onto your imprints, people!

It was like Dominic is a walking "man reaction" when we got here!

BYTEMITE

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:35 PM

That's true enough, I can see how the conditions of the hospital might be interpretted that way.

Maybe I should watch Ariel again with this in mind.

PLATONIST

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 5:35 PM

Interesting back-story for Inara, two, and why she became a Companion. It would allow her access to the very best of care and benefits and she is a naturally a nurturing person, so it’s a good fit, just like her teaching, a good color for her, again, and she still maintains the benefits.

And, I agree, Dr. Tam has two patients on Serenity in need of long term care, because in Better Days when Inara becomes distraught over thinking that Sanda has found himself a Dust Devil in Mal, she has an episode (Simon has his sleeves rolled up when Mal sees him leaving her shuttle, like he’s been working). And, we all know stress can aggravate any medical condition.

My question at this point is why did she leave to fly on Serenity in the first place? I mean I get why she leaves to go and teach… to spare others her pain, but why leave the very best care. Is she rejecting it at this point? And once she meets Mal is it that she decides there is no way she’s going in a cryo box.

BYTEMITE

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 5:58 PM

I think either she's just waiting to die at this point and decided to get off Sihnon for a while, or she left Sihnon for more reasons than just that she was sick.

PLATONIST

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 6:23 PM

Or maybe she got more bad news from her doctors, "just tell me I'm a big girl" news.

And doesn't she she say "I don't have time to wait around" on that vid that Mal watches in the BDM?

More bad news from Simon, confirming it doesn't look at all hopeful, before she left.

OK... this story is getting too sad, again. How is Mal going to cope with all of this?

BYTEMITE

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 6:36 PM

Frantically.

I suspect mountains and moving might be involved.

But seriously. If she ever tells him, he'd cope, if only to be strong for her. He'd distract himself from his own worries and feelings by doing everything he can think of to save her.

Although... In that thread about PTSD, Rallem mentioned that might have some effect on how he acts. Haven't really thought through how that possibility could effect things.

TWO

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 9:53 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Platonist:
My question at this point is why did she leave to fly on Serenity in the first place? I mean I get why she leaves to go and teach… to spare others her pain, but why leave the very best care. Is she rejecting it at this point? And once she meets Mal is it that she decides there is no way she’s going in a cryo box.

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
I think either she's just waiting to die at this point and decided to get off Sihnon for a while, or she left Sihnon for more reasons than just that she was sick.

I'm liking the idea of Inara having two choices about treating her nearly fatal illness, where both have tremendous disadvantages. Joss Whedon would want it to be a dilemma because there is more drama where there are more problems.

Inara can continue the way she has been, taking drugs to keep the symptoms under control and getting weaker year by year and dying young. Or the really nasty choice...

...Inara chooses the expensive treatment, the reason she became a Companion in the first place -- she gets a complete cure but she has to go into suspended animation for 70 years while her cells are being repaired, one by one. Everybody she loves will be dead, dead, dead when she awakes.

Inara was seriously thinking about the 70 year cure. That's why she left Sihnon for a while; she wanted to get some distance from all those people that she loved and see what it was like living without them. And she wanted to see the frontier, the Rim before it was gone and made all civilized and air-conditioned and dust-free. Where there are no more outhouses on the Rim and every home has flush toilets. And all the saloons are now restaurants with waiters and menus. There can be a lot of changes in 70 years. Now for the tragic part that you have been waiting for....

....Unfortunately for Inara, she found ANOTHER group of people that she is in love with -- the crew of Serenity. The only way out of this heartbreaking mess for Inara is to get the whole crew of Serenity to all go into suspended animation together with her. She can't think of a way because she is not selfish. I can think of a way. So can Joss Whedon.

Joss will send the entire crew of Serenity to Earth for the very last episode of Firefly. Everybody goes into suspended animation for 70 years. Or 80. Even Jayne. Inara wakes and she is cured. Mal wakes and he has left those bastards in the Alliance far behind. Hurray! It would be a four part story arc -- how the Crew got on one of the ships going to Earth. Joss Whedon named the episode “The Last Train to Mars” for obscure reasons related to lyrics from a song by Hum called “Stars.” If Firefly had not been canceled in 2002, those final episodes would be on FOX right now. It would be like the final episode of Battlestar Galactica, which is showing very soon.

After filming 140 episodes of Firefly over a seven year run, it goes into syndication. All the actors become rich from the money that Firefly makes on blu-ray. That's my daydream this afternoon.

BYTEMITE

Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:09 PM

It took a couple generations leaving Earth on the Arcs to reach the new system, according to the RP manual.

But hey, more time between them and the Alliance.

I can really imagine all of them and their elaborate plan to sneak into cyro. But one question: why would they want to go back to earth?

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