Companions 'Gilded Cage'

POSTED BY: Bytemite
UPDATED: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 08:47
VIEWED: 36140
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GILLIANROSE

Saturday, February 27, 2010 1:47 PM

I don't think Inara was regretful at all about Fess Higgins. I felt like he was a nice opposite to the young man we saw in the pilot. They even look similar, but while presumably the other man wasn't a virgin, it's Fess who has the emotional/psychological centeredness not to get hostile about whatever intimacy he revealed.

Maybe it's an aggregate effect. Surely Companions have to know that when they leave the worlds on which the Guild is most established, they are going to encounter a lack of respect and understanding. Maybe Inara, as she was determining to travel for her career, did imagine herself as an ambassador of sorts - interacting with others, showing, by her example, the entirety of what it means to be a Companion. Maybe the (sometimes) bad interactions are more wearisome and hurtful than she had anticipated (and in that way, she works as a mirror for Mal?)

BYTEMITE

Saturday, February 27, 2010 4:47 PM

She might not have been regretful because she was in the right place at the right time to stop the magistrate from arresting all the members of Serenity and hanging them. But emotionally, I wonder if beyond the healer effect and being momentarily useful if Inara really got anything for herself from Fess Higgins. Did she do another fake/modest orgasm thing? We'll never know, but both clients had probably about the same level of experience and insecurity, just expressed in different ways.

In the pilot episode, Inara was denied even the healer satisfaction, leaving her to wrestle with the insults she got from the kid and Mal, both of which lampshaded the sex for money.

Quote:
Maybe the (sometimes) bad interactions are more wearisome and hurtful than she had anticipated (and in that way, she works as a mirror for Mal?)

Could be.

ANOTHERSKY

Sunday, February 28, 2010 5:32 PM

Fess is like the exact opposite of the young man in the pilot, whose parting words are to the effect of "I bet your clocks are rigged to cheat us out of our time."
If I remember, he implied the plural--all clients, all companions.

Clearly much resentment at the time-is-money level there.

And then you have Fess, who didn't even hire her--with him, she does get to go through (presumably) her accustomed level of ritual, and also the counseling aspects (that big speech about standing up to his dad). Who knows if she was fufilled as a companion--it's possible she was somewhat gratified by Fess saying no to Boss Higgins the "pig".

But yeah, the not-hanged crew is a huge plus. The tradeoff for that seems to outweigh most other things. That's ALSO what she does, as a Companion, and it seems to be a particular specialty of Inara's personally--talking people into or out of things (mirror aspect again--?)

I'll be back with questions later on tonight. For now, just sayin' nihowdy.
__

Going for a ride.

BYTEMITE

Sunday, February 28, 2010 6:31 PM

And the kid in the pilot was probably annoyed that Inara had declined his invitation to stay with him permanently. I'm pretty sure his comments about the clock follow right after that.

"Talking people into or out of," also interesting. With Mal, that can be kind of hit and miss with people who aren't under his command, but ultimately I don't think there's a person here who doesn't think Mal isn't charismatic.

The question becomes, are Inara's skills with suggestion and convincing people bound up in her companion status? I think there's a basis of skill there that she would be effective without her status, much like Mal and his captaincy, but her status lends her some authority as well.

GILLIANROSE

Sunday, February 28, 2010 9:05 PM

The kid in the pilot - I got the definite impression that once he'd gotten his clothes on, he started to reflect on how he'd been with Inara before - how open in his admiration of her, and in his offer to use his father's influence to get her to stay. And I think the memory of his untempered adoration was maybe a source of chagrin to him. That curt "very good," says volumes about what he's thinking about her, maybe about how orchestrated the scenario was.

As far as Fess Higgins, are we to assume that his father contacted Inara and did all of the initial communication? He's so baldly unpleasant! There are a couple of possibilities here: Magistrate Higgins used his money and influence to get his son a place in the Guild registry, and then Fess contacted Inara; Magistrate Higgins made the opening wave, and then Inara and Fess exchanged messages or something; or a lot in between. When Inara first meets the Magistrate, she asks who he is - "Magistrate Higgins, I presume?"; that makes me think she didn't have a wave conversation with him.

I thought the conversation between Fess and Inara was lovely, the difference between a boy and a man. He was reflective, but also listening to her; she was comfortable enough to kid him gently about their time together not being "entirely forgettable."

So, for her part, I would think Inara would have found this engagement to be professionally fulfilling. She's participating in a ritual with Fess, almost like a baptism - but also giving him an opportunity to reflect on what being an adult, a man, means.

BYTEMITE

Monday, March 1, 2010 1:16 AM

So if we assume that Fess and the first kid are the flip sides of the same engagement, and Inara came away from that one satisfied, what would it have taken for Inara to feel bad about the engagement? Were elements of that already present?

ANOTHERSKY

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 4:17 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
So if we assume that Fess and the first kid are the flip sides of the same engagement, and Inara came away from that one satisfied, what would it have taken for Inara to feel bad about the engagement? Were elements of that already present?

I'll get back to this, but I'm going to get really concrete here.

What things CAN we say that Inara dislikes about her job?

(always start with the cons, not just the petty ones...

)

__

Going for a ride.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 4:43 AM

I see what you did there! But it's actually more like "bound five times but never convicted." Mal doesn't even have any war crimes in his record, despite pretty much being field promoted to commanding officer of the most brutal battle of the entire war.

Um, she doesn't seem to like it when she's considered the "possession" of whoever paid money at the time. Like Atherton, whose offer for her to stay kind of was similar to the first kid. I think she must get that a lot.

And she doesn't like it said or implied that she's a whore, or that the experience she offers is spiritually cheap, or that anything about it is money driven.

She doesn't like to be personally insulted.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 4:48 AM

EDIT: No, nevermind, Inara came back pretty smug about convincing Fess to lift the landlock. But we didn't see her after that and I have no doubt the magistrate would have waved and happy feelings gone. So long as the subscriber in question (and I get the feeling that the Magistrate is the one who paid for the engagement) doesn't have a black mark with the guild, and being that Inara is so far from any Houses, she probably has to do her own customer service and handle complaints.

ANOTHERSKY

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:15 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
EDIT: No, nevermind, Inara came back pretty smug about convincing Fess to lift the landlock. But we didn't see her after that and I have no doubt the magistrate would have waved and happy feelings gone. So long as the subscriber in question (and I get the feeling that the Magistrate is the one who paid for the engagement) doesn't have a black mark with the guild, and being that Inara is so far from any Houses, she probably has to do her own customer service and handle complaints.

What I'd like to know about Fess is if they spoke before the engagement(ie via wave). I don't think so, because unless her "Magistrate Higgins, I presume" is just to show that he is not a repeat, remembered client, she may not actually have seen either of them. Just followed the cue of the fancy clothes and big-man swagger?
But if Inara can hand out a black mark to Atherton Wing as a member of the Guild,(yes I know he didbreak a big rule), surely she can do it to a guy on a backwater moon, even it's owner.

I think she's probably backed up at distance, too. But the immediate complaints about her performance would go to her.
__

Going for a ride.

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