"Mal, bad... in the Latin" what does it mean?

POSTED BY: Persteph
UPDATED: Monday, August 6, 2018 09:02
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SYDNI64

Thursday, June 24, 2004 4:03 PM

On the commentary track for "Serenity," Joss Whedon remarks that Firefly is in one sense the story of how Malcolm Reynolds became a bad man after losing everything in the war against the Alliance. I think River's comment is a way of underscoring for the viewer that Mal is in some important sense bad, lest that fact be overlooked.

MER

Thursday, June 24, 2004 4:10 PM

Hmm...I would have figured it had something to do with Mal taking the passengars medicine for that doctor guy.

Doesn't River know what's to happen?

But I think some of the responses are reasonable too.

FUTUREBOY

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 3:37 PM

Just stumbled upon this... a few years late.

The Latin adjective malus, mala, malum means "evil, bad," so River being River utters some knowledge of a VERY ancient language by Firefly standards, Latin, which I'm sure she learned in a week or two. Mal itself is just the prefix, but the name Malcolm itself refers to St. Columba (literally, Columba's servant). Many English words use this prefix as mentioned, malcontent, malicious, malformed, etc.

Therefore her use of the phrase "Mal" in reference to Malcolm is actually wrong, but saying "Mal... bad... in the Latin" is correct.

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 7:20 PM

It's also from Hebrew, the word MLKM, meaning "their king" and a reference to David of David and Goliath fame.

RIONAEIRE

Wednesday, August 17, 2011 6:22 AM

I just took it as River making an observation, though it was probably put in for the purpose of letting the viewer contemplate whether Mal was more bad or more good. River may be working on figuring that out herself and so she voices that his name does mean bad in Latin, plus she's River and she's super brilliant, she's also touched. If I were there I'd have said "you're right", simple enough, just go with it, and she is right.

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

BUFO

Monday, August 22, 2011 3:10 AM

I definitely thought that River was making a statement of fact, in her mind. Kind of thinking it's no coincidence that the prefix 'mal' means bad. So it's not just his name but also his character she was stating.

JEWELSTAITEFAN

Saturday, January 28, 2012 10:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bufo:
I definitely thought that River was making a statement of fact, in her mind. Kind of thinking it's no coincidence that the prefix 'mal' means bad. So it's not just his name but also his character she was stating.

My personal take was that River correctly connected Mal to Bad, and also she sensed that Mal was inherently good, albeit not by Alliance standards (she was raised by Alliance standards, but had seen their evil underbelly like few others had), and she was momentarily stricken by the incohesion, the contrast, the irony of the 2 truths.
This shot and her shot in Serenity "It's not safe - for them" ring parallel to me.

GWEK

Sunday, January 29, 2012 1:57 AM

It's Joss saying "Look how clever River is. She understands Latin, and also temporarily misleads her brother into thinking that she believes Mal is evil. Also, look how clever I am: I named my hero after a bad word."

Joss, of course, has a history of ironically named characters, including Buffy, Angel, Faith, and Spike.

www.stillflying.net: "Here's how it might have been..."

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