Heart of Gold Motivations
POSTED BY: Bytemite
UPDATED: Thursday, September 8, 2011 22:33
VIEWED: 8287
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Grrr, I posted a response but it's lost! I'll try to recap.
I went back and looked at the Mal/Nandi scene in the Official Companion's script. At that point it doesn't seem like Mal goes to Nandi with the understanding that she needs comforting, although he may have been able to infer something general from her comment about people being unable to sleep the night before a fight.
But that page of the Companion includes a short commentary by Nathan and he refers to Mal learning about himself through other characters, and being with Nandi giving him a way to feel what he hadn't felt in a very long time. Also, that it allowed him to be a human being, which he says is really hard for Mal to do.
I think the entirety of the experience of the night with Nandi let Mal reacquaint himself with the idea that sex is a lot more complex than the way he disdainfully characterizes it to Inara (and others): lust, weakness, power, exploitation.
In their conversation after Nandi dies, with his uncharacteristic openness about feeling like he failed her, it seems like he's still in an emotional place where he realizes the power, for both people, of being emotionally transparent. If he's not holding back about his sorrow, in a way he's giving permission for Inara to be open as well. And the if's and maybe's declaration - well, we'll never know but I think the caveat that he gives, that he's not asking for anything for her, signals that he wants her to know in advance that she need not, by word or deed, respond to him. I'd like to think he's about to tell her how he truly "sees" her - sees and values her. Not that he's THE ONE who can see her, but that her particular and quiet wonderfulness has not escaped his notice.
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The possibility that Mal WASN'T about to reveal his feelings is also something I considered, and would also make more sense with the fact that you'd think, and hope, that Mal would respect Inara's grief enough to not try to make romantic overtures on her at that point.
As for who comforts whom, I guess it could have been both, and Mal learns about strength and yet still being human that way.
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As for his later behavior toward Inara, I think Mal's expression upon hearing Rance Burgess refer to Nandi as a whore was very telling. Apart from the anger, he looked horrified. I always thought that hearing Burgess reduce Nandi in that way changed the way he felt about how he speaks to Inara.
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I actually think the big change happened earlier, after Atherton. Mal doesn't call Inara "whore" after Shindig except for in a flashback in Out of Gas.
I do think Mal reacts the way he does towards Rance for a similar reason as he reacts towards Atherton, only more so because instead of just abusing or threatening the companion in question Rance actually killed her. (Somehow I wouldn't have put that past Ath, either, there were times Atherton seemed a little psycho)
However, I do agree that while Atherton stopped Mal from saying whore, Rance probably caused Mal to scale back the negative comments even moreso. In Those Left Behind, there's plenty of occasion for Mal to be bitter and provoked and yet the worst Mal says to/about her is that she has a schedule to keep. In OiS after Jubal Early slapped Inara, he's very gentle towards her, and in The Message, which also used to be placed after Heart of Gold, they're laughing and friendly together and he even defends her profession and reminds her that she doesn't want to hurt her reputation by helping him.
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"She was just a whore"
Yeah, agree with your summation GR. Mal may have seen himself at that moment.
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I think these theories all make sense, the mutual comfort, the new understandings, why Mal went to Inara when he did to try and suss out what he really wanted to say, it all makes sense.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya
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Wellll... I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say Mal saw himself, because no matter how bad Mal thinks he is I doubt he'd use the profession of the women as an excuse to abuse, hit, shoot, or bully them because in his view they have no worth as human beings. For another, he wouldn't force a girl on her knees in front of him and a whole lot of other men to perform various acts and humiliate her and then say that it's "her place."
But, it would maybe confront him with the fact that his comments have been ugly and not respectful. Which actually isn't something I think he fully intended where Inara is concerned. I think instead that first he doesn't really understand her choices, and second his brain is haywire with aggression and PTSD and it causes him to run at the mouth sometimes with some meanness. When you're angry just about all the time, your mind will go dark places, and some of that will come out in speech because you also self-censor less when you're angry.
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Riona: I'd like to think so. At least it's better than my "settling debts" theory. That makes Nandi very independent, but almost a little too calculating and unfeeling.
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Mal's consistent degrading of her chosen profession, is not only disrespectful, but devalues her as a person, as much as he wants to claim it doesn’t, it does. Is that any different than what Rance does by the way he acts? Sure Rance’s actions are more irreprehensible, but the justifications for their behavior are the same, whores don’t deserve respect or have value, and when you don’t respect something you can treat it anyway you deem necessary to set things righteous. I think this is what Mal sees in Rance, a bit of his own prejudices, and he doesn’t like it.
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I don't know that INTERNALLY he doesn't respect her, is the thing. He shows no such hangups towards Nandi, he's attracted to both, the only difference is with Inara he has these lasting feelings that a one night stand can't get rid of.
I mean yes, his language is disrespectful, and when Mal starts to realize it I'd agree he starts trying to change that. The question I have is if Mal really means what he says, and I don't think he does.
The companion thing is just something he lashes out at because he's afraid of rejection, which becomes a vicious cycle. He just shoots his mouth off sometimes. And I also think he tries to express that he has concerns that her profession is dangerous (pot, meet kettle), but they come out all wrong. He DOES think they deserve respect and that their lives have value, which is why he doesn't like it when clients are disrespectful or possessive (and why he fights for Nandi and Petaline). Unfortunately he's REALLY bad at expressing this.
But Rance really means, thinks, and believes that prostitutes and even just women have no value beyond a sex toy and baby-making. It really seems like a whole 'nother level of being a bigot abusive misogynist, versus Mal being a little screwed up in the head and difficulty controlling his anger.
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