Did the 'Companion' thing ever bug you in Firefly?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Saturday, February 7, 2026 14:42
VIEWED: 45553
PAGE 10 of 21
Quote:Do doctors and shrinks need to be warm and caring? Yes, they do... on TV. There are the cold technocrats of medicine that nobody likes (respect, maybe) and the warmhearted ones that everyone loves, even when they incompetently kill a patient on TV. But they really feel bad when their patients die! If you want to work in the imaginary world of Companionship, you got to be warmhearted. Cold commercial sex gets no respect on Earth. The Firefly Universe is no different.
Originally posted by Bytemite:
...And Two pointed out this problem, but Inara offering actual love for money is dangerous.
Actually, I don't really like the friendship idea, because that feels very manipulative and unethical to me. I don't think Inara MAKES people feel ANYTHING, I think people feel that on their own.
Why does Inara have to offer anything other than sex, beauty, grace, and comfort? Why does she have to be anything different to be a high class whore, or even set apart from whores in general? I think we can all agree that maybe while the basic transaction is the same, Inara is very different from a streetwalker.
But so long as we're going here, I do think she cares about people, in general, and likes to relieve suffering, in general. Personality wise, she is not like someone who is only interested in money or pleasure, I think she's naturally helpful and friendly, and she's just getting paid for it. I don't know why that requires any specifically deep meaningful connection. Does a doctor have to be a friend or lover to their patients to treat them? Does a psychiatrist?
We haven't solved the mystery of why Companionship is respected while prostitution is not. The question in my mind is: Will the opposite of cold commercial sex be respected and admired? I think the answer is YES and that gives Companions high status. Others think NO and that gives Companions low status.
We could put it to a vote. Maybe run a survey. If you vote NO then stay far, far away from Companions. They are just whores with pretensions of superiority. You can get the same service cheaper from girls in front of No-Tell Hotel. Those girls aren't judgmental and they know you only as John. Inara actually knows who you are and you know who she is. And she likes you, anyway, faults and all, because she picked you, knowing who you are. She did her research. She spoke to other Companions about you. She read your psych profile. She remembers you.
I bet Inara would be horrified by 21st century dating where people hookup with people they know little about. It would seem bizarre to her.
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
...I think your survey is a little bit loaded...
Okay, there's some ways I agree with you, but I think it's going too far to say Inara, and by extension other companions are looking for friendship. She clearly didn't know some of her clients very well, and some clients earn themselves a black mark on the guild registry.
And I don't really think the service she's OFFERING is friendship. Maybe for repeat clients and people who continue their subscriptions could get to know her better, but I have trouble believing that Inara would compromise her "undefinable allure" to let herself be very well known to anyone. It also runs counter to the service I think she IS offering: someone who will listen, a shoulder to cry on, well meaning advice, comfort, massage, and obviously sex. There's certain advantages to remaining an unknown and also unattached; it allows you to be more objective about the problems you might be helping someone with, and someone might tell you things they wouldn't tell someone closer to them. Call it cold, but I see it as distant benevolence.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
...the service I think she IS offering: someone who will listen, a shoulder to cry on, well meaning advice, comfort, massage, and obviously sex.
I agree that this is how Companioning is presented mostly through the character of Inara. For me, 'sex' fits as well into this list as well as 'chocolate' does into one comprising 'oatmeal, gravel, chalkdust, unsweetened muesli'. The others are fairly safe, emotionally; sex isn't. And this is what I find, if not cringe-worthy, then most hard to square about 'Companion' - two sets of things (with sex on its own in one of the sets) that can not work if presented as part of the same package.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ah, and that's the thing, isn't it? Inara clearly has some clients that do attach emotionally with her, and possibly because of the sex being seen as something emotional and intimate by the same clients.
But my thinking is, in the Core, that same feeling might not be attached, or people might not take it as seriously. It's like, look at today, and how many people in urban areas have sex just to have sex. Project that into the future, and that might give a commentary on how much importance people attach to sex in the future.
If you think of the Alliance as a Brave New World Corporatocracy kind of thing, this fits even better. Brave New World encouraged citizens to have sex with numerous partners and to not find much meaning in it because it made the citizens more complacent and encouraged economic consumption for social reasons.
Maybe the problem with Inara is that she has some kind of core world "sex isn't very important, it's just for fun" mindset, coupled with religious guild teachings about sacred marriage and goddess worship. It's a contradiction, but maybe one she's never had any reason to question. So to her, maybe it's not the sex that's important, maybe for Inara, sex DOES fit into a list of more vanilla comfort activities. For Inara, maybe it's the RITUALS associated with the sex that's important, rituals that come from being a companion.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
New York Governor Spitzer, who resigned because he hired expensive call girls, wasn't recognized by most of the women. Who's he? they said. Some big shot on Wall Street or something. They didn't know him but still... All the escort service knew about Client 9, the Gov, was his credit card number and his preferences. And these women were at the top of the field, the best. This bunch in tight clothes and high heels were nothing like Companions. They deserve to be arrested for not knowing who Spitzer was. I understand why call girls are disrespected. They just don't give damn about anything important beyond themselves.
Again, there has got to be gigantic differences between call girls and Companions. Companions would not act this way. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/10/emperors-club-all-about-e_n_9
0768.html
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
That's a little rough. They deserve to be arrested? So, should someone be arrested for not knowing who Thomas Reid is? Ignorance is not a reason for arrest, most people don't pay attention to politics. And what if you don't have a good memory for faces?
But anyway, you're making the point that Inara would remember her clients. Sure. She's an educated woman, ignorance and her don't even belong in the same sentence together. But that doesn't mean she's friends with them. They're acquaintances, business associates.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:If the Alliance elite wanted great anonymous sex with someone who's a hopeless ignoramus like those call girls of Governor Spitzer, they could buy a used robot from the estate of Mr. Universe. It can do what women can not attempt. And it has a reservoir that can be filled with all the healthy pheromones necessary for a completely natural and wholesome experience. What can a Companion offer that a robot can not do better?
Originally posted by Bytemite:
That's a little rough. They deserve to be arrested? So, should someone be arrested for not knowing who Thomas Reid is? Ignorance is not a reason for arrest, most people don't pay attention to politics. And what if you don't have a good memory for faces?
But anyway, you're making the point that Inara would remember her clients. Sure. She's an educated woman, ignorance and her don't even belong in the same sentence together. But that doesn't mean she's friends with them. They're acquaintances, business associates.
Face recognition software is available for the discerning Alliance elite who want a more personalized experience. For Christians, it is only a venial sin, not a mortal sin, to use a sexbot, which is good to know. Again, how can a Companion compete with that?
Only problem I see is that a top-of-the-line sexbot will cost a million to own. Or lease it for 20,000 per month. You do have to keep it's battery charged. But you don't have to respect it.
Companions will become a historical curiosity, much like chimney-sweeps, when everyone on the social register buys a sexbot.
I'm only kidding. There's more to Inara than sex. Time for everyone to post their answers! Does the future need Companions?
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
Actually, I'm pretty sure all the functions of the sex bots are why anyone who owns one earns an automatic black mark in the guild registry. At least, that's according to the RPG manual. It's pretty hilarious, the ladies clearly feel like their turf is being intruded upon.
Besides, I dunno about you, but the thought of it kinda squicks me out. Not the lack of connection, but just that it's not human. What if there's, like, GEARS in there? Euuuugh.
It's also bizarre for me that the moment we can make robots that realistically approximate people, the immediate question everyone seems to jump to is "can we have sex with it?" I mean, why even GO there?
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Makes me concerned about Joss Whedon. Why sexbots in your movie? Why Mr Universe marrying a machine? People were not recommending the movie to friends because that was creepy. And Joss reminds us how creepy by putting the robot's picture on the Mr Universe's memorial stone at the end of the movie.
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Actually, I'm pretty sure all the functions of the sex bots are why anyone who owns one earns an automatic black mark in the guild registry. At least, that's according to the RPG manual. It's pretty hilarious, the ladies clearly feel like their turf is being intruded upon.
Besides, I dunno about you, but the thought of it kinda squicks me out. Not the lack of connection, but just that it's not human. What if there's, like, GEARS in there? Euuuugh.
It's also bizarre for me that the moment we can make robots that realistically approximate people, the immediate question everyone seems to jump to is "can we have sex with it?" I mean, why even GO there?
A point I made before: call girls don't want to feel anything about clients. No future with the client. It's inhuman, a girl impersonating a robot that wants nothing to do with the client unless the client is paying - zero friendship, all business. I guess the call girl could fraudulently pretend to be a girlfriend so that the client will call again. That's sleazy business.
If Inara wants to be a Companion, she has to be more human than any 21st century call girl. She makes connections with her clients, does things more meaningful than sex because if it is only about sex, the robots (and whores) win every time.
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
Well, not necessarily. According to the RP handbook, there's no such thing as AI. The sexbots are good at their primary function, but can't say more than a few dozen phrases, they need a constant powersupply so can't move beyond what their power cord allows, and pampering... probably not.
I still think there might be something to this ritual thing. Inara makes a big deal out of it: maybe that's more what people go to her for, like the Geisha (who doesn't have sex) with her tea ceremony. Maybe because of some kind of devaluing of sex in Core culture.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME