Is There Any Charactor On FireFly that annoys you?
POSTED BY: piratejenny
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 8, 2004 01:02
VIEWED: 26195
PAGE 5 of 10
I like all the characters and have a tough time dealing with the thought of any of them leaving. I suppose that I feel this way because the stories for each of them have not yet been developed and I can't face the thought of them just ending.
I have a thought about Jayne. He gets my vote for the best conflicted character in a series. Most of the time these characters (Dr. Smith in "Lost in Space", for example) don't end up making sense--a reasonable person would just shoot them. Jayne on the other hand would be hard to shoot and he really helps in the tight spots.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I haven't yet found any of the characters annoying...
When I first watched it I wasn't immediately keen on Mal, but as the show progressed I realised just how great he was.
Now though Jayne is the best for me and Early was the best visiting character. I hope he comes back somehow, I thought he was an inspired villain.
But as shows go, for nine characters not to have any of them annoy me is incredible. By the time Buffy ended I hated even Xander!
www.cirqus.com
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Simon. Cannot stand Simon. Sure he does the whole save the day Doctor thing now and them but his overall character bugs the hall out of me.
He is a sniveling rich kid who not only looks down his nose at his newfound predicament in the beginning of the series, but he continues to resist any attempt to adapt to his new environment. Yes, he saved his sister, but who did he leave behind? Instead of just focusing on what HE wanted, why did he not instead find what was the purpose of the school and find if they were doing this to other children.
I do ‘ship of the Janyn and Kaylee. Forgive me for that one. But I want to know why Simon must see her as “his only option” instead of the lovely person that she is? He is of a kind of man that I have detested all my life. Gutless. He insists on dancing around the subject of a relationship and never gets the balls to do something about it. When Kaylee grows tire of the waiting game and takes a step up, he is then repulsed by her overt actions.
Rereading that I find that I was a bit more overzealous in my attack of Simon than I had originally intended. However I can think of no way to restate my opinion in a more gentile way. I just want him to grow a set and stop thinking everything is about him and his sister.
*ducks under desk and prepares to be flamed. quietly prays for a swift firing squad* 
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Well, Vena, I'm not going to flame you, but I am going to sort-of-disagree with you. Personally, I blame Simon's flaws on his sheltered upbringing, rather than any deficiency in himself. He is dealing with things that he barely knew existed, and if he did know of them, he'd learned that they were bad.
He doesn't resist all attempts to adapt to his new environment. His planning the heist in Ariel and being willing to take up arms in War Stories show that. So do his attacks on Dobbson in the pilot and Early in Objects in Space, but they show a lot more than that: They show that, at least where the people he cares about are concerned, he will do anything he has to with little regard for his own safety. That doesn't seem gutless to me.
He is selfish in his selflessness, and he is shy. He is flawed in that way. I would argue, however, that all the characters of Firefly (and, indeed, any narrative) are defined at least as much by their flaws as by their virtues. Further, every character on Firefly was developing, and I think Simon was slowly moving in a direction that ultimately you'd approve of.
In your defense, sometimes one's personal dislike for a character, if it's visceral enough, can overwhelm other considerations. I had to stop watching Friends for a while, even though I think it's hilarious, because I found myself wanting to kill Rachel. I simply despise her.
In short, I'm not trying to stomp on you, but I do take issue with some of your assertions about Simon.
PS-- Ask me sometime which Firefly character I'm most similar to...
____________________________
"You're mean. Firefly's making me reconsider my lifelong devotion to Star Trek." --My mother
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Sikkukut:
Book sometimes rubs me the wrong way, actually. Not because of anything inherent in his character, but because of the way he is so often handled in the episodes. It just always feels to me like there's an undercurrent of disrespect for his worldview in a way that there isn't for any other character. When Jayne explains his worldview in Jaynestown, flawed as it is ("There ain't people like that. There's just people like me."), we listen. When, earlier in the same episode, Book earnestly explains that "You don't fix faith, River. It fixes you," this doesn't get nearly the same weight, and that storyline quickly bogs down into a joke. The hair thing was funny, sure, but it bugs the hell out of me every time, because I was much more interested in the results of their conversation.
Yeah, and with the thing with the hair, there came a bit just before that where it seems River had studied the pages, perhaps even thought about it - any religious stuff there though is quashed by Book's hair. Just a minor quibble I have. Maybe 'cos Joss is an atheist though, and seems to have a bit of an axe to grind
.For the first few episodes until, well until around "Shindig" or "Safe", I found River to be just sorta, I don't know, a bit on the overdramatic side. Then, the accent came, the creepy blood quote came and I guess I warmed to her.
Jayne: "Know what the chain of command is? It's the chain I beat you with till you understand who's in command."
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I agree, you have all good points. You brought up some things I had failed to take into consideration.
I think in the end it just comes down to the fact that his personality rubs me the wrong way. Nothin’ wrong with that I suppose. I just keep waiting for him to do something… I want to say decisive, but that’s the wrong word. In general I see him as weak and that characteristic in a man *REALLY* bugs me.
Which Firefly character are you most similar to SIKKUKUT?
************************
Because I am an American. And what does an American want? Democracy? Capitalism. I want to sell out and settle down. For one day only, it's a blue light special on Aisle Three. My wormhole technology... and a free set of steak knives... for all the tea in China. And anything you can imagine to pay me... welcome to my cold war.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
i wasn't going to respond to this coz the simple answer is - no, no character really annoys me. then i thought, hey that's a response. so here is me saying 'i love them all, would be lost without them all, and no real annoyance from any of them'.
cheers!!
"They say the snow on the roof is too heavy. They say the ceiling will cave in. His brains are in terrible danger."
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Vena:
...his personality rubs me the wrong way...
Odd how that works isn't it? There have been a small, but measurable number of people in my life who have simply irritated the crap out of me for reasons I couldn't explain. Every time I would try to explain, I would end up describing symptoms of my dislike, not causes. Same for some characters on TV.
Bad chemistry. Or they transmit at the wrong end of the spectrum. Or comms protocol incompatibility. Something...
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Definitely Atherton Wing! I hated that guy. Didn't care for Saffron but you aren't supposed to care for her. Of the crew, I found River annoying at first but she started to grow on me toward the end.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Fireflew, I agree with you about Joss's atheism coloring his presentation of religion. Now, it's one thing when characters in a story disrespect something. I once had somebody raise the bigotry flag because somebody in a story I wrote spoke disparagingly of Jews... but the story was set in the midwest in 1898, so I was only being honest. Characters are allowed prejudices, so Mal's allowed his. But Book's faith is disrespected not only by other characters, but by the way it's presented.
Sheesh, I sound like a Bible-thumper, don't I? I'm not even Christian. But I do think that Book's viewpoint deserves equal weight.
I've got some thoughts on the idea of naming Atherton Wing or another villain as somebody who annoys you, but I can't put those thoughts into coherent shape right now. Maybe later.
Vena, I'm going to argue that Simon is indeed inactive-- until he must act, and then he does, quickly and decisively. I also completely acknowledge that sometimes a particular person, real or fictional, can just get under your skin.
Quote:
Originally posted by Vena:
Which Firefly character are you most similar to SIKKUKUT?
Why, that's a very good question, Vena, and I'm glad you asked. Although my worldview is probably closer to Kaylee (which explains why I came up as her on the "Which Firefly character are you?" questionaire), in many ways I am very similar to... you ready? Simon.
Now, I'm not awkward like Simon. I can talk to people, although I do stick my foot in my mouth pretty regularly. But... this is hard to explain.
Simon takes everything so *seriously*. Everything's a thing with him. Sure, he can joke around, but ultimately, he takes crises (see Out of Gas, Safe, Objects in Space, etc), and conflicts (see his conversation with Jayne in Trash) very, very seriously. And this stems primarily from the fact that he thinks about everything (except maybe the next thing out of his mouth). He's very introspective. He also values gentlemanliness and politeness. He tends not to act until he feels he must, and then he acts swiftly and effectively.
And all the statements in the above paragraph apply to me. It's weird, though... I take everything seriously, but I love comedy and constantly make jokes. I think about everything, except the things I decide not to think about, which I can do a remarkably good job of ignoring. I'm introspective, but extroverted. And I value politness but loathe formality. Doesn't make much sense to me, but whatever.
In any case, I'm not exactly like Simon, but if there's anybody on the ship I am like, it's him. I wonder, if you met me, if I'd rub you the wrong way.
____________________________
"You're mean. Firefly's making me reconsider my lifelong devotion to Star Trek." --My mother
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME