Questions about Inara
POSTED BY: Wulfhawk
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 06:13
VIEWED: 8542
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While with Serenity, Inara had sex with many clients, yet she cried when Mal had sex one time, the only time since Inara came to Serenity perhaps. Why?
Inara's friend from HoG is a former companion, but left the Guild to be a madam. Why?
Inara was clearly angry and jealous about Mals 'marriage' in OMR. Why?
In OMR, Inara explains that Guild training includes the use of body language, trigger language, and vocal controls. why?
Inara left the Guild, and a rising position within the guild, to travel the frontier with smugglers; yet she remains a Guildmember in good standing. Why?
In Jaynestown, Inara claims that being a man's 'first' is an honor and duty, and is an important part of what she does. why?
Take my love
Take my land
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Here's my best attempt to answer:
While with Serenity, Inara had sex with many clients, yet she cried when Mal had sex one time, the only time since Inara came to Serenity perhaps. Why?
Inara is jealous and unfair. She is a hypocrite, but this doesn't make her a bad person, just human.
Inara's friend from HoG is a former companion, but left the Guild to be a madam. Why?
Nandi tells Mal that she smashed a Dulcimer during a music lesson and realized a Companion's life is too restricting. Then she "trucked out to the border, and learned to say ain't..."
Inara was clearly angry and jealous about Mals 'marriage' in OMR. Why?
Once again, Inara shows her extreme unfairness and double standard views.
In OMR, Inara explains that Guild training includes the use of body language, trigger language, and vocal controls. why?
All this stuff makes them better lovers and companions. Plus, it keeps them in control of the situation.
Inara left the Guild, and a rising position within the guild, to travel the frontier with smugglers; yet she remains a Guildmember in good standing. Why?
That's the million dollar question.
In Jaynestown, Inara claims that being a man's 'first' is an honor and duty, and is an important part of what she does. why?
Good question. I'm not sure why having sex with virgin boys is such an important part of her job. In fact, it's kind of creepy.
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While with Serenity, Inara had sex with many clients, yet she cried when Mal had sex one time, the only time since Inara came to Serenity perhaps. Why?
Inara is jealous. Unlike SUCCATASH, though, I don't think she's a hypocrite. I think she stays a companion becasue she doesn't believe Mal feels the same way about her. I think she would quit if he asked her to so they could be together.
Inara left the Guild, and a rising position within the guild, to travel the frontier with smugglers; yet she remains a Guildmember in good standing. Why?
I don't think she left the guild, just the circle of power in the guild. It's apparent that Companions are spread throughout the Firefly verse, so her choice of becoming a traveling Companion may be strange only because, before that, she was on the fast track to power within the guild heirarchy.
In Jaynestown, Inara claims that being a man's 'first' is an honor and duty, and is an important part of what she does. why?
Would you want your first time to be with a clumsy and uncomfortable amatuer or a skilled and compassionate pro? The first time is always memorable, so I'm sure Companions have been taught to have special respect for it. Besides, it'd be easy for Companions to get a bad rep if they regularly f*!$#d up their clients' first times.
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I don't know, Tiger. Inara has sex with lots of men, and then acts like Mal let her down.
Plus, she treats him like crap. I'd say her expectations of him are hypocrytical. She tells Mal that her sex life is none of his business, but then she makes Mal's sex life her business.
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When Inara catches Mal leaving Nandi's room, she says he shouldn't be emarrassed, she's glad he did it, etc., so she's not being hypocritical in her public reactions. Only privately does she cry her eyes out. I think Inara always tried to match Mal's (supposed) apathy toward her sex life by being equally as nonchalant about his. In OMR, she never publicly gets mad becasue he's married, only because of the way it happened. When she said 'the whole thing is degrading', outwardly she's commenting on how a girl could marry and obey a stranger just becasue an elder can't pay his debt, but inwardly she was just being mean becuase she was so hurt. (And Mal's come-back is interesting here - 'That's what she said about your line of work'. This exchange is the public expression of private longings which neither of them are willing to admit to the other).
Moving further from the original point, I honestly think Inara is waiting for Mal to ask her to quit. If he does, she knows he wants her; if he doesn't, she doesn't lose a great career over a pipe dream. The problem is, I don't think Mal would ever tell Inara how he feels unless she quit being a companion FIRST. Hence all the 'whore' comments - the likes of which might get Jayne banished from the dinner table but which the Captain finds perfectly reasonable from himself (remember what he did to Atherton for just implying what he says to her face?) Hey, he likes her but hates her job. It's understandable.
And then, of course, the last line of Firelfy we're likely to hear until the movie, is Inara saying in HOG, "I'm leaving". Why then? Mal chose Nandi over her for comfort when he needed it. (Of course it makes sense to US; she was nice to him for god's sake) but for Inara, that put the pipe dream out of fuel.
God it sucks that we can't see what'll happen next.
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Quote:But...that is the definition of hypocrite. She puts on a false appearance, then privately behaves differently.
Originally posted by Tiger:
...so she's not being hypocritical in her public reactions. Only privately does she cry her eyes out....
I agree with almost everything you say. I too believe that Inara would have quit the Guild if Firefly hadn't been cancelled. But I think her quitting would be a very big struggle, and not nearly as easy as you imply it would be. I don't think Inara is waiting eagerly for Mal to ask her to quit. Well, maybe deep down, but if so she hasn't come to terms with it and it certainly wouldn't be easy, in my opinion.
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It's not hypocritical when Inara puts on an act to cover her true feelings (it's just kinda sad). Her actions and her speech are consistent with each other, even though she doesn't really mean it. She would be hypocritcial if she told Mal he was wrong to sleep with Nandi even though she has sex for a living. In that case, her actions and her speech would be INconsistent with each other. But we obvioulsy agree on the underlying motivations.
You're right, it wouldn't be easy for Inara to leave the guild(I didn't mean to imply that, but maybe I did). It probably would have taken whole seasons for the Mal/Inara subplot to be resolved one way or the other, particularly because they both would have had to change their lives so much to be together.
I think Inara IS waiting eagerly for Mal to ask her to quit (more exactly, I think she wants him to LOVE her, and profess it, THEN ask her to quit), but I also think when the time comes she would balk, and dozens of episodes of Mal/Inara confusion would ensue.
Honestly, if it wasn't that we had seen Inara and Mal meet AFTER (presumably) she undertook her wandering ways, I would have thought they had met casually somehwere and she sort of ran after him because she finds the mystery in him she hasn't seen elsewhere.
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If done correctly, I would love it if the Firefly movie showed a few scenes we've already seen (like Inara renting the shuttle in OoG, and what events lead up to it) with a different point of view. Kind of like Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Shadow" meets "Back to the Future 2 & 3".
I think it would be fun if, in the upcoming movie-- Book, Simon, and Inara have adventures that end in a familiar setting. I.E., Just before Book and Simon board Serenity. And, we must know why Inara wants to rent Mal's shuttle, as seen in Out of Gas.
I think all flashback scenes from OoG are up for grabs to reappear in the movie.
For example, what if the movie shows a newly hired Jayne, unable to resist his urges on Inara and she kicks his ass with cool Companion Ninja moves?
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Quote:
Originally posted by Wulfhawk:
While with Serenity, Inara had sex with many clients, yet she cried when Mal had sex one time, the only time since Inara came to Serenity perhaps. Why?
She loves Mal, and is not immune to "puritanical beliefs" concerning sex and love. His being with her friend, while supposed to be cool by her, made her face up to a hard situation. She does not want to be trapped by love, or be part of a family, (why?) but she finds herself jealous, or at least envious of her friend.
The problem is that sex and love are often confused for each other. Sex is often viewed as "an outward sign of an inward grace" or strong feelings of attachment. Companions are supposed to be immune to such confusions, but sometimes older emotional constructs bubble up from the subconcious unbidden at bad times.
And she probably knows that Mal sees himself, or at least thinks she sees him as beneath her social station, as too good for her. She uses it often enough to knock Mal down a peg or two when he needs it. So while they may love each other, their relationship is doomed. Differences in social standing, as well as political issues alone are stressful enough to keep their love unrequented.
Quote:
Inara's friend from HoG is a former companion, but left the Guild to be a madam. Why?
Insufficient data. The series was too short lived to investigate why either gal left the guild halls and temples.
Quote:
Inara was clearly angry and jealous about Mals 'marriage' in OMR. Why?
See above. An unmarried Mal is obtainable. A married one will never leave his wife, no matter how much he does not like the wife or love the other woman. Besides, being mistress to a married man is not something that Inara wants in her life, again.
Quote:
In OMR, Inara explains that Guild training includes the use of body language, trigger language, and vocal controls. why?
How best to separate the customer from his hard earned currency? Prostitution is an illusionary business. She sells the illusion of love, romance, adventure, etc. Yes, there is sex involved, but just plain sex is not as profitable as mixing it up with the semblance of love, romance, etc.
No guy wants to ask if a gal wants to try something that she may find gross, disgusting, humiliating etc. So by reading another person's body language, and all those unspoken words and invisible clues, the good companion figures out what the client wants, and either steers him into an area she is more comfortable with, or lets him know that its cool with her. Without the embarrassment of direct confrontation.
Quote:
Inara left the Guild, and a rising position within the guild, to travel the frontier with smugglers; yet she remains a Guildmember in good standing. Why?
Again, insufficient data. She ain't said, and the show got cancelled too soon for us to find out. Damn Faux!
Quote:
In Jaynestown, Inara claims that being a man's 'first' is an honor and duty, and is an important part of what she does. why?
How a man treats women in some ways is related to their first sexual experience. And how he looks at life later on. Again, the ties to romance, adventure, etc. play a role in how the person responds sexually, whether they see sex as a great part of life, or as an appetite, as if sex were "a drink of water"
We go in with all sorts of fears and insecurities. And how those work themselves out, colors the person's attitude later in life. A good companion can make a difference change a potentially scary experience into one of spiritual bliss.
Hope this helps.
"Wash, where is my damn spaceship?"
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Quote:
Originally posted by Succatash:
I don't know, Tiger. Inara has sex with lots of men, and then acts like Mal let her down.
Plus, she treats him like crap. I'd say her expectations of him are hypocrytical. She tells Mal that her sex life is none of his business, but then she makes Mal's sex life her business.
I think that it is not so much a willing hypocricy as much as confusion about her own feelings.
Sex and love are different things. However, sex (until recently) caused babies. A new generation barbarian horde invading a civilization and more than willing to wreck it every year.
Because children are not just the future of a civilization, but potentially its greatest threat, societies have established traditions and morays on how to deal with sex. Such as, sex should only be done by folks who are married to each other. That way, if kids should pop up, they are popping up in a family that love each other, rather than single parents, or fighting parents. (That is the ideal and the plan. I know reality can be problematic.)
So, sex gets tied with love. Having sex with another person is taken as a sign that the two love each other, and are at least willing to risk bringing civilization down on top of them.
People are taught that one does not have sex with one they are not in love with. Modern medical technology decouples sex from child bearing, so the problem is not as serious. But still millions of years of evolution are not going to get changed overnight. Some of that residual emotions, like jealousy, are going to spill over.
Yes, Inara treats Mal like crap. She has to, if she is to maintain her independence, not just from Mal, but from the world in general. Love is a tie that binds, and never feels like a chain, although it can be quite stronger than steel. She may want Mal, his heart and his body, (she may not see them as divisible, or if divisible, worthwhile separating the two) but if she gets him, he owns her in her mind, in a way that scares her badly.
So, Inara having sex with lots of men, even "creepy" virgins
is not a problem. Its all business. Mal is not a companion, is an "old fashion" kind of guy, and probably has sex out of a deep attachment to the person. She wants that, but it would be bad for her, (or so she thinks) She wants what she cannot have, and the only person preventing her from having it, is herself. She knows, even if Mal does not. And that has got to mess with her decision making processes."Wash, where is my damn spaceship?"
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