Did the 'Companion' thing ever bug you in Firefly?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Saturday, February 7, 2026 14:42
VIEWED: 45553
PAGE 7 of 21
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Quote:
Did he?
In The Message, he tells Inara that he doesn't want her to jeopardize her career helping him.
Yes but what Mal says and what Mal does are two very different things...
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I think it's more likely Mal being pissed off and mean is a front than him being nice is a front. I see glimpses of niceness from Mal being glimpses of his real self. So if Mal is nice to Inara occasionally about her profession, that seems to suggest to me hints about how he might really feel about it. He doesn't seem to hold whoring against Nandi. Something about Inara just makes Mal defensive, so he lashes out instead of says what he really thinks and feels.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Real prostitutes try to keep their personal lives separate from their work. But for Companions there is no separation. They want love and friendship from clients. That's what I think.
I see - so you could describe companionship as like 'an art of intimacy', and the sex is a natural part of it?
That's an interesting idea, but quite a difficult one to write I imagine. All too easy to fall into cliches - like Inara in Jaynestown turning a quivering 'boy' into a decisive 'man' in one episode, just by sleeping with him (and also a little bit of life coaching).
It has to be more deep and complex than this, for me. I would like to see the idea represented well - companionship making a significant and credible difference in a person's life. It would be posible to write this, but difficult and involved I think (especially difficult when condensed into just one episode).
Quote:
Her spirit shows when she plays a Companion. She is not faking. Or if she is, Inara's doing an award winning performance.
Morena's performance left me cold, I sometimes wonder if there's something wrong with me...
I don't like the way she delivers her lines, in like her witty exchanges with Mal - that's one thing... she seems to hurry them and just recite them it seems... Hmm.
Heads should roll
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Wha... Really?
I've always thought she gets REALLY animated when they're fighting. And her eyes kind of do this flashy thing, her facial expressions are pretty excellent. Like in Trash, that was a particularly good fight. And her shocked look that the end of Our Mrs. Reynolds is well done too.
Maybe it's her tone when the fighting is more subdued. Her snarky tone is very subtle. I know people who actually think Inara's specialty really IS washing feet (it's not. Snark!).
I like that she has range and can be subtle, because the CHARACTER is subtle. And when she gets really mad, and she speeds up like that, it doesn't strike me as bad acting, it's a superbly done "feisty latina girl." Hands on the hips, huffy gasp, I half expect her to let fly with a whole bunch of angry indecipherable Spanish all running together. It's awesome, I love that Morena was willing to bring that to the portrayal, it's a very spirited interpretation.
And maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just a girl thing, but that is just such a perfectly expressed non-verbal "Oh no you DIDN'T!" that I can't help squeeing a little inside.
Morena, argument, can't act? Doesn't compute.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:I don't want Inara to be a selfless Buddhist sex therapist. I prefer to imagine her as selfishly bedding people to make friendship. Money comes secondary. She helps little Mister whats-his-name in Jaynestown, the callow and inexperienced youth, to grow because she's looking for a friend when the kid finally get some emotional maturity. If Inara wants to make a friend, she acts friendly, and that kid needed her help. Inara was thinking long term relationship with the kid -- after his old fart father dies. That's why Companions take clients from the important people -- to make connections. Mal's a nobody. Inara doesn't need his friendship.
Originally posted by kpo:Quote:
Real prostitutes try to keep their personal lives separate from their work. But for Companions there is no separation. They want love and friendship from clients. That's what I think.
I see - so you could describe companionship as like 'an art of intimacy', and the sex is a natural part of it?
That's an interesting idea, but quite a difficult one to write I imagine. All too easy to fall into cliches - like Inara in Jaynestown turning a quivering 'boy' into a decisive 'man' in one episode, just by sleeping with him (and also a little bit of life coaching).
It has to be more deep and complex than this, for me. I would like to see the idea represented well - companionship making a significant and credible difference in a person's life. It would be posible to write this, but difficult and involved I think (especially difficult when condensed into just one episode).
We can pretend that the 'Verse has recently left some Golden Age of Sex, maybe because of war, where the Companions' ideals could be reliably expressed. A time when relationships worked properly. The 'Verse has fallen into the Lead Age, where there are billions of guys like Atherton Wing, narcissistic, all polished surface, no interior life, who will never love Inara no matter how many times she makes love to them.
[Then there is rough, ill-mannered, emotionally complex Mal, Atherton's complete opposite. That's not right, Jayne is Atherton's exact opposite. I don't think Inara is willing to go as low as Jayne while searching for authentic love and friendship. There are limits.]
Somebody could write fan fiction about Inara's disillusionment with Companionship. A few more bad clients ought to make her crave retirement. She can switch permanently to teaching. If she was a whore, Inara wouldn't care for anything but being paid. She'd never stop taking clients. The Atherton Wings of the Universe are good enough for whores. The 'Verse is growing cold and hostile toward what Companionship is. The 'Verse is getting mean and nasty, like Earth-That-Was was. There could be years of drama in that for Inara.
The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Wait wait wait. Switch over to teaching girls how to do the thing she couldn't stand any more, for clients she couldn't stand anymore? Send them out into a verse that's gone cold and mean towards her ideals of love and comfort, took a profession she trained for since she was twelve and crushed all her idealism and enjoyment out of it?
Sounds like happy times.
There are plenty of fanfiction about Inara's disillusionment, and while some are well written and very pretty, they're all kind of alternate character interpretations. Even if Inara has had some bad clients, she's never expressed anything but satisfaction and pride for her career. Putting up with the occasional boor seems to be part of that.
Quote:
If she was a whore, Inara wouldn't care for anything but being paid. She'd never stop taking clients. The Atherton Wings of the Universe are good enough for whores.
And this. What? So most whores today, they can stop taking clients whenever they want, huh? They only do it so they get paid, that a fact? And getting hit by some rich jerk, uglied up so no one else wants them, that's "good enough" for a whore? So Inara has to like her clients to be a good person? To want their love and friendship (which I don't think she does)?
I don't agree. She has a job, she wants to be independent, she wants to spend what time she has in dignity and comfort.
What's with all the judgment? She's making money to support herself. Yeah, maybe she could do other things. But if she likes this, isn't that her choice? Why take that away from her?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:It's not that terrible. Inara doesn't need to be a hypocrite to still work with those that maybe, someday, become Companions. Inara could be a physical education and creative writing teacher. She teaches archery and English. A teen entering a Companion school doesn't mean they're destined to be a Companion, no more than starting high school means you will go on to college and become a Licensed Electrical Engineer. You may end up being an electrician.
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Wait wait wait. Switch over to teaching girls how to do the thing she couldn't stand any more, for clients she couldn't stand anymore? Send them out into a verse that's gone cold and mean towards her ideals of love and comfort, took a profession she trained for since she was twelve and crushed all her idealism and enjoyment out of it?
Sounds like happy times.
There are plenty of fanfiction about Inara's disillusionment, and while some are well written and very pretty, they're all kind of alternate character interpretations. Even if Inara has had some bad clients, she's never expressed anything but satisfaction and pride for her career. Putting up with the occasional boor seems to be part of that.Quote:
If she was a whore, Inara wouldn't care for anything but being paid. She'd never stop taking clients. The Atherton Wings of the Universe are good enough for whores.
And this. What? So most whores today, they can stop taking clients whenever they want, huh? They only do it so they get paid, that a fact? And getting hit by some rich jerk, uglied up so no one else wants them, that's "good enough" for a whore? So Inara has to like her clients to be a good person? To want their love and friendship (which I don't think she does)?
I don't agree. She has a job, she wants to be independent, she wants to spend what time she has in dignity and comfort.
What's with all the judgment? She's making money to support herself. Yeah, maybe she could do other things. But if she likes this, isn't that her choice? Why take that away from her?
As for Inara STOPPING taking clients, why not? Inara's better than me. Whores and me are paid by people we don't like and work under dreadful conditions. Inara would tell a bad client to bend over and take this job and shove it without K-Y jelly. Me, I don't have the courage to quit. I got to work. Unless a prostitute is Sasha Grey in the "The Girlfriend Experience" they are stuck in their crappy job, like it or not, until better comes along. Some of us don't have good options.
Bytemite, this thread is for explaining why Inara and Companions get extraordinary respect. If Companions act like me, wage slaves, fearful and angry at their employers, getting all their self-worth from their career, Companions wouldn't be respected. Companions have to arrogantly believe they're better than that or they will be mistreated. And sometimes they need to quit the job or go on strike or call the police rather than suffer abuse.
Inara could follow the example of the writers strike in Hollywood. Why go on strike? They were getting paid. They got their names on movies or TV episodes. They could have peacefully capitulated to the Studio. But they didn't. Well, some of them retired. Some took the Studios side against the Union.
The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
But... WHAT abuse? It only makes sense to go on strike if your Employer is abusing you, and Inara's employer is the guild, not her clients. Furthermore, it's made pretty clear that companions choose their clients. She doesn't have to quit her job to get away from the Atherton Wings of the world. You seem to be making an assumption that Inara's situation is automatically abusive and/or exploitive.
And normally I'd agree with you, comparing her to real whores in the modern day, and I'd also point out that Joss Whedon is using feminism to hide the fact that Inara is being oggled in the show and treated like a sex object. But apparently she's choosing it and SHE doesn't see it as abusive or exploitive, or why would she even think of training other girls into it? Call it a poor representation of the profession, if you must, but it still doesn't make Inara abused or exploited, because nothing suggests that she is. And as you said, she has the option to quit... Most whores don't. That alone says her situation IS better, for whatever reason.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Inara's Companion career is on a long, slow detour. She is teaching and not seeing Clients. Not even at parties, on weekends or festivals. I'll take the following dialog as evidence. It is from page 136 of the 190 page script for Serenity, the one where Wash and Book live http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/8/13/2048723/Serenity-190pages.pdf
Originally posted by Bytemite:
But... WHAT abuse? It only makes sense to go on strike if your Employer is abusing you, and Inara's employer is the guild, not her clients. Furthermore, it's made pretty clear that companions choose their clients. She doesn't have to quit her job to get away from the Atherton Wings of the world. You seem to be making an assumption that Inara's situation is automatically abusive and/or exploitive. ...
MAL: So how many has it been? Clients.
INARA: There are so many levels on which that's none of your business.
MAL: Come on, death on the doorstep, can't be truthsome with an old friend?
INARA: Well, let's see, five months, minimum three hour visit, plus regulars and extended contracts, allowing holidays...(does the math in her head) ... none.
MAL: None.
INARA: I've been teaching, Mal, you know that.
MAL: So, none.
INARA: Let it go, Mal.
I can't believe Inara's too busy teaching to have time for sex. I don't know why Inara stopped seeing Clients. Maybe she's on strike? Maybe she's unhappy with some Clients? All Clients? Maybe she is trying to impress Mal? Only Joss knows Inara's motives. I do know that she is still a Companion.
The Joss Whedon script for "Serenity", where Wash lives, is
Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
I think it's more likely Mal being pissed off and mean is a front than him being nice is a front. I see glimpses of niceness from Mal being glimpses of his real self. So if Mal is nice to Inara occasionally about her profession, that seems to suggest to me hints about how he might really feel about it. He doesn't seem to hold whoring against Nandi. Something about Inara just makes Mal defensive, so he lashes out instead of says what he really thinks and feels.
Mal doesn't hold whoring against Nandi because he isn't in love with Nandi. He is in love with Inara. His conflict comes from the fact that he has fallen in love with a woman who is invoved in a profession that he does not regard as honourable.
Mal sleeps with Nandi for one reason only : To highlight to Inara how painful it is when someone you love engages in a sexual act with a complete stranger.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME