Simon - who IS he??
POSTED BY: wytchcroft
UPDATED: Thursday, September 27, 2007 23:29
VIEWED: 8134
PAGE 2 of 4
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Originally posted by nbz:
Another reason to trust Simon is that River is a reader. And I do not buy into this "masking" ability that many fics lead into.
not read that one - sounds ghastly!
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You cannot control what you think. If it was Simon's fault or if Simon bore some responsibility, she would know.
Instead, she thinks very highly of him.
but nonetheless - the question goes begging that 'Gifted' simon may indeed have abilities we don't know of - blocking of a sort after all. How do we even know he wasn't at an academy...
"no, dad, i was uh, underground'."
i keep thinking of fray and how the twins get their abilites split between them.
sure she thinks highly of him - in fact often states that she is loking after HIM - so again, what does she know?
i'm just following a thread here - don't necessarily buy it - just seeing how it plays...
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Since you asked, I'll give you my analysis of the character from what Joss gave us. I immediately identified with Simon as a character, even though I didn't particularly like him then, so I didn't find him at all hard to understand. My analysis will be chronological to Simon's life, not the episode order.
When we first see Simon, he's preteen/young teenager, at home, and studying. His little sister is playing by him, and he's distractedly humoring her at first, but then drops what he's doing to play more fully. This scene tells us much about Simon's character: he's studious, probably precocious, but a warm and loving brother. We also see a very open and emotionally honest boy. Whatever you can say about his relationship to River later, at this point Simon has no particular reason to care for her, yet he obviously does. This is perfectly normal for someone of his personality type, if we can judge from this short scene.
Two important things to note: River is playing as the Alliance, not Independents; and the set, clothing, and speech patterns show the Tams to be wealthy. After his father comes in, we learn that Simon respects his father, and by his looks it seems plain that Simon seeks his approval as well. He's excited about the idea of getting a dedicated source box to better aid him in his studies—clearly a precocious child. The last shot of him is a warm smile as he turns to play with River again.
The next we see of him, he's confronting his parents over the letters River sent. More than his looks have changed: though his emotions are still strongly expressed, with concern foremost, he's hiding more of them. This is typical for someone raised in a high-class society, but it makes Simon a little more enigmatic, though here it is clear what he's thinking.
We get more hints of his intelligence because he could break River's code: I doubt a girl who corrected his textbooks when she was about 6 wrote a simple code. His parents are, understandably I think, concerned about his mental health (don't know if the Tams have watched A Beautiful Mind, but it's not unreasonable to jump to certain conclusions when conspiracy theories are being voiced). Gabriel Tam gives an important line here, that he wonders if Simon is lost without River around. Simon seems incredulous, but considering the great love we saw in the first scene, it is likely that he greatly missed her. Though he was very interested in his studies in the earlier scene, at this point every mention of the damage to his career is met by Simon with disdain; he prizes his sister’s safety above his career. Though he may have learned to hold himself with dignity and cool removal, he still has a loving heart.
Next, we see him being bailed out from an Alliance prison. If it was not clear from the earlier scenes, Simon is growing bitter, and clearly does not favor the Alliance (and their representative in his father) anymore. Like Mal, he has lost his faith. Still, he has not entirely lost his desire for his father’s approval, and for a moment as he tries to convince him we see that his bitter sarcasm is still a bit of a mask over his true emotions. Important to note is that he has been among some criminal company.
Next, we see him actually rescuing River from the Academy. He is calm, cool, and collected, and as the part he must play is hardly worse than his usual mask, it is not hard to imagine him pulling it off. Once the weapon goes off, however, he drops the mask once again, and is anxious for River’s safety. The rest of the scene we see him concerned, but not frantic, and always careful of River. Any hesitation that he had in earlier scenes are gone here.
We don’t see what happens after that until he actually boards Serenity. He’s wearing the same mask here, if not the inspector’s uniform, and is chill and reserved. Though he strives to appear impassive, a bit of uncertainty is on his face, and with Serenity’s oddities, it’s not surprising.
We see him next as Mal tells them about “the job”. Simon the doctor responds first, questioning Mal’s li
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thank you for such a wonderful considered reply. i don't agree with all of it
(a great deal of the neutral facts we supposedly 'see' as a viewer are actually things being 'told' by simon etc) -
but that's why i stuck a post up - to hear people's opinions -
you laid yours out perfectly.
thanks again - this is all useful to a fic writer.
this shiny shiny site
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merryk, I love your post!
I don't think it's fair for the poster upthread to say that Simon "waited" three years--I think it took part of that time for him to be absolutely sure that drastic means were necessary, and the rest of the time to arrange the drastic means! And in "Safe," I really wouldn't blame him for lying to kidnappers. (The real plot hole is how they know he's a doctor; I handwave this by assuming that River said something about it.)
Unfortunately we don't have the other four seasons that would really explore it, but I don't see how cutting into someone's brain could *add* a capacity like telepathy or clairvoyance--I think The Academy searches out people who already have psychic abilities, and that the abilities have a psychic component. So one reason Simon is so bad at dealing with people is that he was always encouraged to stay away from nasty common people who'll just fog up his genius brain with their petty little problems.
And, since it's the future and they have all kinds of shiny gadgets, my pet theory is that Simon and River are twins, they just thawed him out first.
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Quote:
Originally posted by shinyseven2:
merryk, I love your post!
I don't think it's fair for the poster upthread to say that Simon "waited" three years--I think it took part of that time for him to be absolutely sure that drastic means were necessary, and the rest of the time to arrange the drastic means! And in "Safe," I really wouldn't blame him for lying to kidnappers. (The real plot hole is how they know he's a doctor; I handwave this by assuming that River said something about it.)
Actually, earlier when Simon and Mal are talking, Mal refers to Simon as a doctor. the scene then cuts to leaves rustling for a second. The kidnappers were in the bushes, scouting out Serenity, and overheard. They followed Simon to town and snatched themselves a doctor.
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>(The real plot hole is how they know he's a doctor; I handwave this by assuming that River said something about it.)
The kidnappers were hiding in the trees when Mal calls Simon a doctor and tells him to take River somewhere not there. You can see the trees rustle for a moment. That's the clue that they know what Simon is.
And that long, long post was wonderfully laid out!
"A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned."
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Quote:
Originally posted by shinyseven2:
merryk, I love your post!
Unfortunately we don't have the other four seasons that would really explore it, but I don't see how cutting into someone's brain could *add* a capacity like telepathy or clairvoyance--
ask yourself - how do we know that river's brain got cut?
who was Simon explaining this to - when we, as the audience, learned the 'fact'...
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my pet theory is that Simon and River are twins, they just thawed him out first.
back to Fray again... heh heh
stay shiny
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schooner, leiasky: thanks--good observation!
If Simon's lying about the brain scan, he sure went to a lot of trouble for not much result. And God knows I can't read even a plain ol' Earth MRI, much less a space!MRI, but I bet if we froze the frame we could see some kind of mark on the brain scan.
As for twins of different ages, I think Fray got it from Podkayne of Mars.
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Quote:
Originally posted by shinyseven2:
If Simon's lying about the brain scan, he sure went to a lot of trouble for not much result....
oh no, i'm sure he got a result - it's just WHAT result? we only know what he SAID he was looking for - and most of his explanation was to JAYNE (snort).
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we could see some kind of mark on the brain scan.
yeh but we wouldn't know what it meant - could be a genetic thing, alien tumour theorize ad finitum. not saying you're wrong, don't forget.
keep yr signal strong
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replying to wytchwood: I think that the fact he was basically talking to Jayne is evidence that we can assume Simon was on the level on this point (which doesn't prove he's truthful and accurate about everything, of course).*
Sure, people lie about things, but only if they have something to hide and can gain something by lying or concealing the truth. What does Simon get out of the caper, other than a chance to use the diagnostic scanner (and, OK, maybe annoy Mal a little by planning a more successful robbery than he usually does).
There are lots of points in the series where we see Simon do something intelligent, so I don't think the point is that he's a dumb sneaky person who can't figure out that Jayne might sell him out--the point is that Simon is basically guileless and tends to be trusting. Which is one reason why it took so long to rescue River--because most people, if their kid sister got a scholarship to a sort of Harvard-meets-West-Point-meets-Juilliard program would NOT assume that their sister was going to get turned into a psychotic, not to mention psychic, assassin.
*I think of the movie as a separate canon, with its own necessities to speed up the story-telling, so I can say that within the frame of the series, Simon was telling the truth about getting River from the Academy. Also, Simon looked REALLY TASTY in that blue jacket.
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