Someone please break Joss' fingers! [spoiler]
POSTED BY: Toadsmoothy
UPDATED: Saturday, January 1, 2011 01:04
VIEWED: 40555
PAGE 6 of 13
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Originally posted by Toadsmoothy:Quote:
Originally posted by greenka61:
Oh! This changes everything! Now I have to go back and rewatch the episodes again and rethink my assumptions.Hmmm.
Yeah, like the syringe she pulls out when the Reavers were near. I thought it was a suicide dose in case they were boarded by the Reavers. Now I'm thinking it could have been medicine for her condition.
The one thing that we know it's NOT is a suicide kit. In the commentary for the scene, Joss Whedon says it's not a suicide kit... but because many people assumed that what it was, and because the series didn't continue long enough for him to reveal what it really was, he's okay with people making that assumption for now.
Personally, I don't believe it was medicine, either. As pointed out by another poster, that doesn't really make sense in the thematic vision of the montage.
To get at the possible truth of it, consider the story that Tim Minear talks about that was rejected by Fox:
When Joss initially pitched the show, it was much darker, and Fox told him to lighten a few things up (when we see how bleak Mal is at the beginning of the movie as opposed to the series, I think we can get a feel for what Joss was initially going for).
One episode idea that Joss and Tim realized they couldn't use involved the ship being attacked by Reavers. Inara is kidnapped and taken back to the Reaver ship, where she is gang-raped. When the crew eventually rescues her, they find her surrounded by a bunch of dead Reavers.
What I (and others) have inferred from this is that Inara has some sort of (for lack of a better term) "sex poison" that can kill someone who has sex with her. (Such a close knotting together of sex and death is certainly within Joss's general mindset, and it leads to some very interesting speculation about the true nature of Companions and their Guild).
Although it's a lot of speculation, I think tying Inara's condition, the "sex poison," and the equipment we see in the pilot together all makes a lot of sense.
(As a sidenote, if anyone is interesting, our virtual series did an episode where we pay off the kit. You can find it here: http://www.stillflying.net/?page=episodes&disc=117, in episode 2x09... although it's the second part of a 2-parter, so you might want to try 2x08 first).
www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."
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But, when I see the word "Vampire"
I think "hand me a stake."
I don't like vampires, and I like even less that they've been romanticized. Either they're demon possessed or they have no soul or both which can make a formerly nice human a complete sadist, but either way I have issues with the "I love a corpse and it's so beautiful!" thing.
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Theoretically, the syringe could have been painkillers. Ties to her condition AND makes sense in the context of reavers attacking.
In Those Left Behind, River does something similar when she senses the Blue Hands nearby, and Simon finds River and takes her up to Inara. I think this may be intended as an echo to the pilot scene.
I get the feeling that Tim Minear was speculating on the contents of the syringe more than he knew what the syringe was with the sex poison thing. He was suggesting that episode not as an idea that he and Joss had that Fox vetoed, but rather proposing it as an example of on-the-spot episode writing at a panel for a convention.
A sex poison goes kind of contrary to Inara's Buddhist beliefs and her profession, which views sex as transcendental. A sex poison turns sex into something dangerous and potentially evil.
It's like those horror films where the people who have sex are punished for it after the fact. Inara would have to get raped for the poison to work, and that's assuming the Reavers don't eat her or sew her skin into their clothing first.
It's a really unlovely idea and and even more unfortunate message, if you think about it.
And that's not even getting into the possible psychological damage and changes to Inara's character after the fact if she were to live. I've always thought the poison syringe was a bad idea.
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Originally posted by Bytemite:
Theoretically, the syringe could have been painkillers. Ties to her condition AND makes sense in the context of reavers attacking.
Painkillers? Seriously? No offense, but I'm pretty sure Whedon wouldn't waste a shot on glorified aspirin.
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In Those Left Behind, River does something similar when she senses the Blue Hands nearby, and Simon finds River and takes her up to Inara. I think this may be intended as an echo to the pilot scene.
I haven't read TLB for a while, but if I recall correctly, in the scene you're talking about, River ODs on drugs because she's trying to "put herself to sleep" (which plays on a whole season of trying to "wake up").
I'm not necesarily discounting a parallel to the pilot, but I think Simon taking River to Inara is more about giving Inara a role in things, and letting Simon be un-encumbered by River so he can have his "man up" moment against the Hands of Blue.
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I get the feeling that Tim Minear was speculating on the contents of the syringe more than he knew what the syringe was with the sex poison thing.
To be clear, Tim Minear did NOT speculate on the contents of the syringe. In fact, when he was asked if the syringe was tied to the story, he said he didn't know.
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A sex poison also goes kind of contrary to Inara's Buddhist beliefs and her profession, which views sex as transcendental, and turns sex into something dangerous and potentially evil.
Which is why I noted that a "sex poison" leads to a lot of interesting speculation about the nature of Companions and Guilds. It may conflict with what we APPEAR to know, but what we know about Firefly is only a fraction of the seven-year story arc Joss was planning to tell.
And Sex is ALWAYS potentially dangerous. Inara knows that. Whedon knows that (and plays with the theme a ton in his work).
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It's like those horror films where the people who have sex are punished for it after the fact.
I'm not really sure what horror films you're talking about.
There has been speculation through the years that the Guild is not all that it appears to be, that it could be some sort of espionage-based organization (in which case the ability to kill via sex--and leave little or no evidence--would be quite useful) and also that Inara might not be as free as she appears to be. Note that I'm not saying that I necessarily believe any of those theories wholeheartedly, but if you're going to speculate on the gray areas of the 'Verse, you have to keep an open mind about things. Book's history as depicted in THE SHEPHERD'S TALE is solid evidence that Joss had many twists and turns in mind that we could not necessarily have predicted from what we've already seen.
Keep in mind also that in the movie, we see that Companions are trained with weaponry and martial arts, and that Inara seems to be a bit more accomplished as a combatant than the series would indicate. This may well be license to make the dynamic of the movie work, but could also be indicative of a side of the Guild that the series only barely hints at.
www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."
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I think her martial prowess is legit, she certainly seemed to know how to use a knife 'Heart of Gold'
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Originally posted by GWEK:
...One episode idea that Joss and Tim realized they couldn't use involved the ship being attacked by Reavers. Inara is kidnapped and taken back to the Reaver ship, where she is gang-raped. When the crew eventually rescues her, they find her surrounded by a bunch of dead Reavers.
What I (and others) have inferred from this is that Inara has some sort of (for lack of a better term) "sex poison" that can kill someone who has sex with her. (Such a close knotting together of sex and death is certainly within Joss's general mindset, and it leads to some very interesting speculation about the true nature of Companions and their Guild)...
...(scraping my blown mind off my monitor)...
I am such a punter.
My mind would have never gone there. Are we sure we would want to go there? If the crew found out about this aspect of Companion culture what would that do to the crew dynamic? Suddenly everyone would be wary of Inara. If she killed the Reavers with sex, who else has she killed with sex. I thought Companion culture was supposed to be a positive thing. It would change everything, bring the darkness in amongst them rather than just external. Man, that's sick. Makes me wonder what I'm doing here. Do I want to know more? I'm not so sure. It reminds me of the old, male castration fear in primitive cultures. Suddenly Inara's vagina has teeth!
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I don't like vampires, and I like even less that they've been romanticized. Either they're demon possessed or they have no soul or both which can make a formerly nice human a complete sadist, but either way I have issues with the "I love a corpse and it's so beautiful!" thing.
I wonder about the psychological gears of people who are really into that stuff. I think it's gone way beyond horror flick into adoration. I'd say "Hellboy, bring out Big Baby, we're huntin' Vampires!"
Gotta love Hellboy! ;)
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It reminds me of the old, male castration fear in primitive cultures. Suddenly Inara's vagina has teeth!
EXACTLY, and partially why I don't think this idea of Tim's would've made it to the screen.
I have to disagree with GWEK, because if I see anything in Joss' world about sex, it's that barring Angelus and Buffy sex is put up on a pedestal. Fes Higgins can't become a man until he has sex (and shows up his old man)! Ballard and Echo are tragic because he dies before they get to be together, and it's a happy ending because Alpha "fixes" that! Spike becomes a total wuss after he falls for Buffy, and spends the rest of the series trying to get his badass back!
Yeah, I'm probably wrong on the Buffy and Angel examples because I haven't seen the series, but that's my understanding from what I've read.
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A sex poison goes kind of contrary to Inara's Buddhist beliefs and her profession, which views sex as transcendental. A sex poison turns sex into something dangerous and potentially evil.
Thank you. 100X Thank you! :hug:
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It's a really unlovely idea and and even more unfortunate message, if you think about it.
I could not agree with you more!
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And that's not even getting into the possible psychological damage and changes to Inara's character after the fact if she were to live.
Obviously from my above response, I have the same thoughts. I think it would ruin the whole crew dynamic.
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Originally posted by TheHappyTrader:
I think her martial prowess is legit, she certainly seemed to know how to use a knife 'Heart of Gold'
Yeah, but if she is a killer why didn't she slit his throat instantly and be done with it? It seemed to me a rather lame attempt. If I had such supposed skills, and a scumbag had a gun on my friend, he wouldn't have known what hit him.
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