Had Firefly done Seven seasons... What ending would have suited you?

POSTED BY: TheSomnambulist
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 6, 2011 08:38
VIEWED: 19375
PAGE 7 of 8

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NEXT PAGE

RIONAEIRE

Thursday, March 24, 2011 10:17 PM

I like Byte's Jayne/Saffron story, he wanted her ... now she's got him. :)

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

MAL4PREZ

Friday, March 25, 2011 1:58 AM

And here's where I show my not-such-a-good-fan-wanker side. I think it's silly to guess details, because the only thing we can be sure about is that the verse seven years later would be completely different and completely unexpected. Who the hell watched the first season of Angle and thought Angel would end up running the evil law firm, and have a son who'd had an evil grandchild thing with Cordie then gone crazy? Who watched the first season of Buffy and figured... well, any damned thing that happened by Season 7?

The only things to be sure of about Firefly's unrealized future: major events would have changed the main characters. They would have ended up in situations that no one would expect from the scant info of 14 episodes. They would have made bizarre decisions that really wouldn't be so bizarre given the events of seasons 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. New characters would've appeared and played major roles, and they'd be as beloved as the ones we met in season 1. There would have been entirely new settings, new "homes", new twists, new plots.

But please gods of Joss sci-fi fiction, those new plots would never ever be purely based on who's bopping who. Thank you, pizmo, for calling that out. There is so much more to this show than soap opera pairings, and it grieves me to see people reducing it to that. Characters bumping uglies with other characters is fun and all, but if that's all a story has it's nothing. The bizarre social and political background that Serenity floats through is where the real goods are at.

A-hem. OK, so after that rant I'll make one guess: this plot was going towards "bigger" things, ie Blue Sun and the Alliance. I think it would have gone there physically. As in, at least a few of our favorite characters would have lived in the Core, allowing Joss to reveal the dirty secrets and strange ways of the civilized worlds. Like Buffy got into and tore down the distant Watcher's Council, like Angel revealed Wolfram & Hart and TPTB, Mal and crew would have gone into and beyond Blue Sun and the Alliance.

-----------------------------------------------
hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left

PIZMOBEACH

Friday, March 25, 2011 2:53 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
Would you believe I had this very argument with the person who introduced me to Firefly not one week ago?

Only we were using terms from D&D (Yes, I'm a geek), like "Is Mal Chaotic Good, or Chaotic Neutral?" Neutral is normally defined by a person looking out for themselves (and possibly family/friends/romantic interests) in a non-malicious manner. We both agreed that Jayne, at least, is classic Chaotic Neutral. But Mal is more "good" than Jayne, so where is his alignment?

Eventually we agreed that both interpretations were probably valid. I still say a lot of his more selfish seeming moments are actually a jerk-ass facade and feeble excuses though, such as telling Book he was keeping River (and Simon) on for the fare they could pay them, when their bank accounts had been frozen by then.

I think he needs to think he's bad for various reasons, not least of which is guilt over people who have died under his command and potentially guilt about his crisis of faith. He's lying to himself about things. Actually, I think a lot of the characters on Serenity are lying to themselves about things, which is part of what makes them so interesting.

"Lying to themselves about things" = human condition. I'd bet that the most trustable, straight arrow poster here does that on a regular basis. Mal has some lame, jerky moments for sure, but he always seems to salvage it by being the coolest Captain (and maybe luckiest in a way) that you'd want to be with. I didn't say Best Captain (Picard?) but funny enough, being imperfect also makes him cool. Do people use "cool" to mean cool any more? Is there a new post 2010 word for "cool?"

I think you have touched on something that never gets enough mention unless in fanfic, and I don't read near enough, so maybe my bad; "not least of which is guilt over people who have died under his command." He's unavoidably shaped by that trauma. When I hear him say, "Do the job" that's always seemed related to that experience, like, "OK, new rules. Never again. I'm never going to risk so much for so many to lose so much ever again." "Do the job" means, "I'm only going to do what I have to for my immediate, much smaller crew, and NO ONE ELSE. See this circle? If you are outside of it, die or live or make mud pies, I could care less." Caring outside of it costs too much and gives nothing back. Never again. "Do the job." And yet, for some reason, he can't always seem to stick to that.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

DREAMTROVE

Friday, March 25, 2011 3:04 AM

Mal, thanks, well put. See my post above. Also, ECGordon who beat me to it.

Fact is, at just over a dozen eps in:

Buffy's love was Angel. Spike was not a character. Anya was not a character. Faith was not a character. There was only one slayer. Willow was not a witch. Andrew was not a character. The First was not the enemy, the Magic Box was not a location, Sunnydale High was a location, Cordelia was a major character, who was not yet dating Xander, as wasn't Anya, Willow was not gay, and even not yet dating Oz.

Similarly:

Farscape, Scorpius was not an ally, nor an enemy, nor a character. Neither was Graza. Neither was Granny three-eyes, nor Sikozu, nor Jool. Chiana wasn't even a character. The main mission was not defeating the Scarrans, (what's a scarran?) Or peace with peacekeepers, it was getting back to Earth. Zaan was a character, as was Krais.

Lexx was not battling Prince, but his Divine Shadow, and while Prince is an awesome enemy, I'm afraid this time His Divine Shadow is one of my all time favorite enemies.

By the time Blake's 7 reaches it's conclusion, Blake hasn't been a character in ages, and there has been a fairly major cast change.

Those are the only four space pirate genre shows I can think of unless you count red dwarf which I don't really because it's a sitcom and not really a space opera.

Bebop: Eddie and Ein were not characters until fairly late.

Seriously though, if the Mal-Inara romance carried on for 7 seasons I'd go insane-r.

Angel, Illyria was not a character, neither was Lorn, I don't even think Gunn was a character, we didn't work for Wolfram and Hart, Leslie and Lila did, and they were our enemies. There was no big cat upstairs, but a little girl, or something ancient and evil that liked to dress up as a little girl. Wes was not a character, and neither was Spike.

So, yes, people would be working for the Alliance, and Blue Sun. I should'a seen that coming. Kudos.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs.

BYTEMITE

Friday, March 25, 2011 3:20 AM

:)

Also, I found the story. It's longish, but, well, it has lots of merits.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1996576/1/Reliance

DT: "Seriously though, if the Mal-Inara romance carried on for 7 seasons I'd go insane-r."

Of course. I don't think even the most die-hard of my fellow shippers thinks that the will-they-won't-they would drag on THAT long... Or even that there isn't a likelyhood that they'd break up several times and have side pairings.

But, I've tried to not comment much on this and indulge in the behaviour that has gotten us so rebuked.

PIZMOBEACH

Friday, March 25, 2011 3:47 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
:)

Also, I found the story. It's longish, but, well, it has lots of merits.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1996576/1/Reliance

DT: "Seriously though, if the Mal-Inara romance carried on for 7 seasons I'd go insane-r."

Of course. I don't think even the most die-hard of my fellow shippers thinks that the will-they-won't-they would drag on THAT long... Or even that there isn't a likelyhood that they'd break up several times and have side pairings.

But, I've tried to not comment much on this and indulge in the behaviour that has gotten us so rebuked.

Thank you Byte, I'm looking forward to reading this.

DT - you seem in a huff about this stuff, sometimes I think you need a purpoise.

Scifi movie music + Firefly dialogue clips, 24 hours a day - http://www.scifiradio.com

MAL4PREZ

Friday, March 25, 2011 4:25 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
So, yes, people would be working for the Alliance, and Blue Sun. I should'a seen that coming. Kudos.

Good summary of other series DT. I guess I should admit that Buffy and Angel underwent huge changes in part because Joss was figuring out cast size as he went (he admitted as much on some commentary or another.) So maybe he didn't plan such a drastic expansion of cast for Firefly. But there had to be some changes. You can't have 7 seasons of the same space cowboy adventures.

BTW, I'm not thinking of the crew working for the Alliance necessarily. Just being near it or inside its society in some way. And there would likely be recurring characters on that side of the line. It was just such a big hook, all the hints at the big bad Blue Sun. The Core provides a perfect contrast of setting and change of tone and expansion of plot from what we saw. Joss had to mean to go there, imho.

Mal and Inara splitsville? Sadly, I think so. And I agree that they wouldn't split up just for other pairings within the existing characters. Same ship, same people, different sleeping arrangements? Nah. It just doesn't grab me.

-----------------------------------------------
hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left

BYTEMITE

Friday, March 25, 2011 4:28 AM

Oh, no worries. :) DT is just giving me a little jab from a conversation we had way back. He feels the same way most do about the shipping sometimes going too far, only moreso. Funny enough, the two of us AGREED on the actual ships likely to be seen in the show, it's just he found the one I like kinda annoying. But he made some good points too: such as about Mal being kinda pathetic, particularly in regards to this.

BYTEMITE

Friday, March 25, 2011 5:07 AM

Could be fun though, just think, we could be having all sorts of shipping fights with new characters in the near future!

*Everyone else cringes in dread*

Interesting, about Blue Sun. I've heard people speculate that Gabriel Tam works for them in middle-to-upper management, enough to be fairly well off.

Inara and Zoe could be possibilities too, they have some readily apparent medical hooks that could force them into working against the crew. Jayne might betray them as well. Can't imagine any of the other characters pulling that though.

MAL4PREZ

Friday, March 25, 2011 2:17 PM

Haven't been around for a while, so I just figured out that the switch to 2.0 is on. I'm giving it a go. Looks nice!

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Interesting, about Blue Sun. I've heard people speculate that Gabriel Tam works for them in middle-to-upper management, enough to be fairly well off.

Inara and Zoe could be possibilities too, they have some readily apparent medical hooks that could force them into working against the crew. Jayne might betray them as well. Can't imagine any of the other characters pulling that though.

I don't at all mean they'd work against the crew! It's more likely they'd work for it. Blue Sun has some secrets looked away in all those food cans, and River knows at least something about it. Could be that a year or two after Miranda they'd end up chasing Blue Sun down in some way. (I don't mean they'd turn all Rebel warriors. Most likely they'd be unwillingly pushed into it, like what happened in the movie.) But it could be that Inara would use her connections and even her sickness to worm her way into Blue Sun. Because who would put security on a sick, helpless, harmless little Companion?

Could also be that Simon, if he's truly off the hook, would go with her to work in his own way. Maybe on the Blue Sun problem, maybe something different. Maybe he'd get more info about how to "fix" River. And maybe Jayne or Kaylee would also go, providing the eyes of the "hick" taking in the big city, as it were. This splinter of the crew would get to know new characters in the Core, perhaps good guys, perhaps bad guys, more likely somewhere in between and changing from good to bad or bad to good as time goes on.

And maybe relationships within our splinter would change as this goes on. They'd develop new dynamics if they spent so much time together, away from the rest. I so do not mean that this would be romantic. Sure, it could end up there, but that's not the point of it all.

OK. Posting in 2.0 has been tried. I like! But I guess I need a new signature. Hmm.

PREV PAGE 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NEXT PAGE