Blue Sun Room

More about sex and Inara

POSTED BY: mal4prez
UPDATED: Saturday, August 1, 2009 19:12
VIEWED: 20411
PAGE 7 of 11

BYTEMITE

Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:46 PM

Yeah, if you disagree with it on a characterization level, maybe that fic wasn't such a good example of non-lobotomized relationship Inara. Oh well, I tried.

Hey, here's something: How come we never really expect BOTH of them to give up their jobs? It always seems like we expect one or the other of them to sacrifice for the other, or for neither of them to compromise at all.

And yet, I'd say Mal's job is more dangerous to their relationship than Inara's, even considering Mal's misgivings towards her profession, because his job could actually get one of them killed.

It's not a healthy occupation, both in the sense of injuries and in the sense of stress, emotional impact, self-esteem impact, and exacerbation of psychological trauma. Why is it so difficult to imagine that eventually his priorities might shift?

Right now, Mal's still so bitter about the war that a job openly defying the Alliance is the only job he feels fits him anymore. Yet assuming Mal lives long enough, and actually gets to start something with Inara, it seems unreasonable to imagine that he wouldn't eventually reach the conclusion that maybe his work is too dangerous.

He's not getting any younger, after all, and in a relationship with Inara I see a big worry of Mal as being whether or not he can protect her.

I see the series moving towards a point where he no longer needs Serenity. It'll be all metaphorical, too, about how he's finally come out of Serenity Valley.

AGENTROUKA

Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:

I see the series moving towards a point where he no longer needs Serenity. It'll be all metaphorical, too, about how he's finally come out of Serenity Valley.

I AGREE, I AGREE, I AGREE! 100%!

(I'm a little embarrassingly excited about this, because it's a bit of an unpopular opinion in this fandom, I feel.)

BYTEMITE

Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:57 PM

That's a shame, because otherwise Mal's character just remains stagnant or declines. Personally, I'd prefer to see something uplifting about him healing.

And I just don't think, as a writer, that Joss could have resisted that metaphor. Who could? It's potent, and if he wanted a strong direction to take Mal's character arc, that would be it.

Honestly, the way I see it is that Joss was setting up for that just by MAKING the Serenity Valley/Serenity ship connection. I don't really see any other way he might have gone with that.

AGENTROUKA

Thursday, June 25, 2009 5:03 PM

Well, I also see the other side, in terms of.. Mal being a "martyr" for the idea of freedom (abstract only). We don't really see Joss's heroes get happy ends because in a way it implies making peace with an unfair world, which some might liken to settling and complacency.

I don't see it that way, of course, but I see why some might.

That's only on a metaphorical level. Realistically speaking, I find the idea of Mal growing old on Serenity silly, and story-telling-wise, I find both the option of Geriatric Serenity or Mal dying young.. well, boring. Not even starting on "Happy end on the family ship Serenity" scenarios. I've had my discussions about those, no need to start a new one. Safe to say, Mal leaving Serenity eventually is the scenario I find most interesting.

MAL4PREZ

Friday, June 26, 2009 12:19 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
I get the impression that this aspect of the discussion is nearing the "agreeing to disagree" zone.

I can't stop yet because I think you're not getting what I'm saying. You're over-complicating and taking this places I don't mean, and getting off the point.

Let's keep it simple: Bytemite thinks that Mal's attempt to talk honestly meant a wholesale acceptance of Inara, profession and all. That he was fully willing to start a relationship with her, right then and there, and be the lover of a working, practicing Companion.

Just confirm that this is indeed what you think, then I will know that we do indeed disagree and I'll leave it alone.

But I'll still think you're wrong. :p

Now, I just arrived in Las Vegas and I have seriously cheesy shit to go do and see. Woo-hoo!

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MAL4PREZ

Friday, June 26, 2009 1:05 AM

Oh - but one more quick thing: yeah, I think Mal needs to move off Serenity.

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

BYTEMITE

Friday, June 26, 2009 2:20 AM

...Um, actually, that wasn't what I meant to say, and I clarified...

Well, anyway. Know what else? I don't think Mal likes his job, in truth. I think he has a lot of regrets and that his job is just a projection of depression-related low self esteem.

KAOSIUM

Friday, June 26, 2009 2:59 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by mal4prez:
Quote:
How so? He slept with Nandi, didn't he? She was no blushing virgin.

Anyway, I never said that being in a sexually open relationship is any way mature. It has nothing to do with enlightenment, it's about Mal's particular situation. He's made tough choices before. He'll plug his nose and work with evil gangsters or even the Alliance when it's the most productive thing to do. Clearly, he's open to acting against what he'd like best. So, given a choice between a life with a woman he loves and a continued existence alone, he might be willing to make sacrifices. Not because it's natural, but because life and love are imperfect and he knows it.

Nandi was someone he'd likely never see again, not someone he was considering a relationship with. I cannot see Mal ever coming to terms with Inara's companioning. He might try, but it would fester in the back of his mind and tear him apart when she was out on the job--not unlike the way it appeared to in the show when she was off and about. When Mal goes into something he gives of himself totally, there's no half-measures. The way he fought the war, the way he defends his crew threatening to space both Simon and Jayne as punishment for endangering anyone he thinks of as under his care. He goes all the way, and I think he'd expect that of anyone he truly loved if they were in a relationship with him.

Like Badger says in the pilot, he considers himself a "man of honor in a den of thieves." He works with some dirty people, but he doesn't stoop to their level in his mind. For a 'petty crook' he's an awfully honest man. In the pilot he lets Patience keep the food bars even though she tried to kill him and was at his mercy. He gives the medicine back as well as Niska's money in "The Train Job." He doesn't claim the cattle even though it looks like the people who paid him are going to be hauled off to jail in "Safe." In "Shindig" he tells Inara one of the things he hated was "the lie of it all."

Perhaps an old joke can illustrate the way I suspect Mal sees Inara's profession: A well-heeled man walks up to a pretty girl in a bar. After introducing himself and some minor chit-chat he asks her "would you sleep with me for a million dollars?" She is taken aback, but thinks on it, how that money could change her life and answers in the affirmative. He then says "Okay, would you sleep with me for twenty dollars?" Offended, she replies "What do you think I am?" He says "We've already established that, now we're just haggling over the price." Everything in the show indicates that despite the education and training and other services provided, companioning in Mal's mind is no different than whoring. It's taking money to have sex, and no matter how much money it is, or how well protected by the guild they are, it's the same thing with a prettier bow.

On some things Mal just won't compromise, and it appears this is one of them, which I suspect is why Inara left. She knew that they were incompatible as long as she still wanted to be a companion thus it was just hurting both of them for her to stick around.

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BYTEMITE

Friday, June 26, 2009 3:05 AM

Hmm. Perhaps that might have been part of why she left, but I suspect more than her job, Inara's secret is what really kept her pushing Mal away, and why she ultimately left.

KAOSIUM

Friday, June 26, 2009 3:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:

Hey, here's something: How come we never really expect BOTH of them to give up their jobs? It always seems like we expect one or the other of them to sacrifice for the other, or for neither of them to compromise at all.

Right now, Mal's still so bitter about the war that a job openly defying the Alliance is the only job he feels fits him anymore. Yet assuming Mal lives long enough, and actually gets to start something with Inara, it seems unreasonable to imagine that he wouldn't eventually reach the conclusion that maybe his work is too dangerous.

He's not getting any younger, after all, and in a relationship with Inara I see a big worry of Mal as being whether or not he can protect her.

I see the series moving towards a point where he no longer needs Serenity. It'll be all metaphorical, too, about how he's finally come out of Serenity Valley.

I don't think Mal ever intended to openly defy the Alliance as much as to simply escape from them. When he introduces Zoe to his new ship he says something to the effect of 'it's independence, never have to live under the heel of anyone ever again. Take jobs as they come.' He wanted to hire a mechanic and maybe a cook, he didn't say 'we need a burly thug for business dealings.' Also he didn't buy a warship, but an unarmed freighter, and at no time tries to arm it. I think he really just wants to be a freighter captain, and it's just the way of life on the Rim that when you start out you need to work some questionable dealings to keep flying. The only actual heists that didn't involve simple smuggling or salvage were originated by Simon and Saffron, not Mal.

Having Mal settle down to regular runs and just be a transport wouldn't seem to me to be out of character in the slightest. I think what Mal really wanted was freedom, not revenge.