If Whedon had originally intended Mal to be more dark....

POSTED BY: lightinthebrainpan
UPDATED: Monday, August 9, 2004 10:55
VIEWED: 15790
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SIKKUKUT

Wednesday, August 4, 2004 6:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SSJ4BlackBelt:
I believe Joss is bringing back the darker Mal in the movie (ie. the bank robbery in the trailer) and I cannot wait to see what Joss truly intended for Mal.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up. TRAILER?

____________________________
"You're mean. Firefly's making me reconsider my lifelong devotion to Star Trek." --My mother

DIGIFICWRITER

Wednesday, August 4, 2004 7:38 PM

I personally haven't ever noticed much change between Mal in 'Serenity' and Mal in 'The Train Job'; one ep puts more emphasis on the darker, more moody aspects of his personality while the other ep puts more emphasis on his humor.

Take my love
Take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don't care
I'm still free
You can't take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell 'em I ain't comin' back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can't take the sky from me
There's no place I can be
Since I've found Serenity
But you can't take the sky from me

KALIMEERI

Wednesday, August 4, 2004 8:02 PM

Quote:

That's the sort of Mal that I wish we'd seen but obviously didn't turn out to be true. A Mal who whilst appearing incredibly dark still seems to do the right thing by people on his boat. If Joss had been allowed to do that though I think Nathan Fillion totally could have done it - he just had to play it at the degree of lightness Fox wanted. When we see glimpses of the darker Mal Nathan is fantastic. For example in Serenity when he really, really stresses at Zoe:

'our luck! Have you noticed anything about our luck lately'

To be truthful, after watching the pilot episode that Joss initially pitched to Fox, I'm glad that they lightened Mal up as a character. Much of the Firefly essence came from that humor (many of which were re-shot scenes). It was very hard to like the "dark" Mal as portrayed in that version of the pilot.

I'm hoping that Joss doesn't go that dark in 'Serenity.' We would love Mal anyway, but new fans, not so much.

Jen dao mei.

BLEYDDYN

Wednesday, August 4, 2004 8:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Sikkukut:
Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up. TRAILER?

A reference to the short trailer Joss showed at Comic-Con a couple of weekends ago.

--Bleyddyn

KELLAINA

Wednesday, August 4, 2004 8:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Sikkukut:

Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up. TRAILER?

I think they're referring to the trailer/clip shown at Comic Con during the Serenity panel.

As for dark/not-so-dark Mal, whether intentional or not, I've always liked the fact that while there was a darker side to him, he can be a little lighter too. It's what made the character more realistic to me. The darkness is there, just below the surface but it isn't dominating him (although it easily could).

Slightly off-topic question: If he was dark all the time, wouldn't he be, well, Angel?

As for his interactions with the crew, I think the fact that the crew know so little about him (as Mal tells Saffron in Our Mrs Reynolds, they know better than to ask) alludes to the fact that he is a darker character (or that he's supposed to think that he's dark or a "mean old man"). He's close to his crew but he keeps them at arms length. He's not cuddly. But he's not scary either. I think the scene that best illustrates this (to me at least) is in Serenity when Mal punches Simon for insinuating that he's Alliance. The fact that Mal hit Simon (and that Jayne knew it would happen) suggests that violent reactions aren't out of character. But the fact that Simon was able to approach Mal to make the insinuation in the first place shows that Mal is not so dark that he's evil or anything. He's worthy of the crew's trust, but they don't want to make him mad.

As for the casting of the role, like the rest of the cast, I think Nathan Fillion is perfect in the part. I can't imagine (nor do I want to) anyone else in it.

End rambling reply (can you tell I really like the character?

)

GRIMLAKIN

Wednesday, August 4, 2004 9:41 PM

HUmmm interesting...

Allow me to set up something for a miniute here.

Wheadon relies on something generally set up and relied upon as being eternal for the primary hook to any of the three tv series of his that I know of.

Buffy had the slayers.. a mythological trait passed on to a young woman every generation... blah blah you get it.

Angel had... well... Angel. The eternal pivitol character to the series.

And Firefly has the Firefly class ship Serinity. The series to me was more about the crew of the ship. IE the Ship and it's crew. Mal is only captian of the ship insofar as he gets to generally guide things. The story of Serinity has the potential to span multiple generations of characters. And I think that is the primary source you could pull other seasons from with a new cast.

Just my opinion mind you.

ARODIN

Thursday, August 5, 2004 12:36 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by YT:
Spielberg was sufficiently impressed with his dramatic abilities to cast him in Saving Private Ryan, as Private James Ryan.

Should note that he played James Fredrick Ryan, not James Francis Ryan (the title character) who was actually played by Matt Damon. This role of Nathan's actually makes him seem less likely a candidate for Mal, because James Fredrick Ryan was a sniveling, sobbing soldier who was crying about going home.

SHINY

Thursday, August 5, 2004 12:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Sikkukut:
One hopes that "darker" does not mean it'll lack the humor to which we've grown accustomed.

Even if Mal is "darker" there are still at least a few ways to get really good humor across:

1) Playing really dirty tricks on Simon (e.g. "Kaylee's dead" or "don't take all day; you still have to get suited up")

2) Dry wit, sarcasm or gallows humor (e.g. being a smart-ass to Niska, or Zoe's "oh yeah. now we can retire" from the movie trailer)

3) Cutting from Dark Mal to some flat-out funny quip from his Dinosaur-playing, goose-juggling, shadow-puppeting pilot.

Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.

SWITCHY

Thursday, August 5, 2004 2:33 AM

Quote:

And Firefly has the Firefly class ship Serinity. The series to me was more about the crew of the ship. IE the Ship and it's crew. Mal is only captian of the ship insofar as he gets to generally guide things. The story of Serinity has the potential to span multiple generations of characters. And I think that is the primary source you could pull other seasons from with a new cast.

I like it! No knock to the current cast of characters but I think you're right about the central figure being Serenity herself. Good work.

LIGHTINTHEBRAINPAN

Thursday, August 5, 2004 3:12 AM

Great conversation!! Had meetings back-to-back today so couldn't join in....

Auraptor, as I think about it, "crazy time" in "Trash" seemed over the top to me not in terms of Fillion's delivery, but in the writing of it. I'm a huge fan of Whedon's writing, would probably crawl on my hands and knees across Nevada to work for his shop, but every now and then something seems over the top. Still, overall, the man's a master at dialogue, and I'm quibbling over a little thing.

Thing about Mal is, and I wonder if Whedon did this on purpose, he reminds me of some Vietnam veterans I knew who were in Saigon at the fall. A particular brand kind of cynicism/sarcasm/humor, and sometimes very sexy, in that world-weary sort of way. So that's one aspect of Mal's character that I like. "Crazy time" was funny but verged on sitcom to me. Again, quibbling.

I too will be VERY interested to see how Mal's character evolves in the movie---perhaps shifting toward the darker end of the spectrum---didn't someone say that when the movie begins, something major has happened that has had an impact on the Captain? It's there that we might see a very dark Mal. And then perhaps he brightens again, as the film plays out.

One thing that came up in this thread was how Fillion captures the cadence and idiom of Whedonspeak so well, and that's true. A world comes alive through the Captain's speech. Actually, it seems to me that ALL of the characters are like that. I've wondered whether Whedon chooses actors based on the timbre of their voices--their diction. I think in the DVD Whedon mentioned something about the way "Simon" says a phrase, and that's exactly it. Words really become wonderful in their mouths.

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