Inara: more bad ass than she seems?
POSTED BY: Bytemite
UPDATED: Saturday, August 15, 2009 18:37
VIEWED: 17936
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Mal? Having a business meeting with slavers? No, I don't think that was business, but Mal, Jayne and Inara unwinding. I also don't think Mal would have stolen from them if it was business, even if they were slavers. The slavers just happened to come along and they decided to play some pool together before Mal knew who they were. That's what I think.
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I think that's just her nature. Doesn't matter if she has personal experience with any class of people or type of establishment, she's one of those rare people who will look for what's common and what's positive, rather than standing in a place of judgment. I think that's part of her role as care-taker and mother figure. She's incredibly accepting, and not just across social lines.
She is trained to make a wide variety of people comfortable around her. That would not be possible if she wasn't damned good at being comfortable with herself, no matter her situation.
...Yeah, okay.
So, wait, how come you like her as being from lower classes as opposed to upper classes? :D I'd love to hear that, maybe you have a better reason than I do! Or is that something you just wanted to explore?
I mean, I saw how you said you wanted that to explain why she runs to Serenity, just wondering if you could elaborate, and whether there was something in canon that got your wheels turning in that direction.
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She would do that because she's drawn to him for him, and not because: "Hey, here's a bad guy I can get with just to piss off dad!" You know?
I feel like I'm having a hard expressing this, but there's a difference between being open to breaking the rules when you have a good reason to do it, and breaking the rules for no reason other than breaking the rules. I think Inara is the first. You have stated the second. If that's not what you meant, just say so!
No, that's not why Inara being with Mal would be breaking the rules. I think her being with Mal would be breaking the rules because of 1) perceived social status, whatever Inara may have started out as, 2) the unspoken rules Mal and Inara have established between them, and 3) the guild wouldn't approve of the relationship. I don't know what the consequences of reason number three would be, but I think that they would be something that Inara would have to think very carefully about.
She wouldn't be with him JUST to break the rules, but being with him WOULD be breaking the rules. That's the difference.
So no, I don't think she's bad JUST to break the rules... I don't THINK I said that, but maybe I was being unclear somewhere, or gave the wrong impression. But when she does break the rules, it is for good reason, and would be thrilling.
Most rebels have a reason. The ones who don't are either teenagers or a joke.
But I also think... She likes breaking rules. Thinks it's thrilling.
I suppose this debate came from that? Ooh. I was being kind of general and non-specific then, referring to her Saffron double cross. But no, though I said she likes breaking rules, I didn't mean to imply that when she breaks rules, she doesn't have reason to... Or that I don't think there's case by case considerations.
As a Buddhist, killing is breaking the rules. She doesn't like killing.
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I dunno.
This Companion-Nanny scenario seems to entirely disregard the emotional impact and risks on the young woman in question. It's an entirely different committment than short term sexual/emotional bonding, wetnursing, being a nanny or surrogate mother.
And it's certainly a long-term committment that a person as young as 18 could barely make a reasonable judgment about. It's apparently not something she can just get out of when it turns out not to be for her.
Custody battles would be the most likely outcome, and I think the Guild would be smart enough to even try and invite that sort of heartbreak.
I also find the whole idea of "ordering an heir" pretty silly. The fewest people would want to have a child and then not be the ones to raise it. It's too volatile to hand the family fortune to practical stranger. If they want the kid to have a great education and pretty genes, there are easier ways to go about it, with fewer risks attached and less financial burden.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
So no, I don't think she's bad JUST to break the rules... I don't THINK I said that, but maybe I was being unclear somewhere, or gave the wrong impression. But when she does break the rules, it is for good reason, and would be thrilling.
I guess it's this assumption that it would be thrilling that I have the biggest problem with.
I think it's actually the opposite for her. Breaking the rules is generally undesirable for her, but sometimes excusable for good reasons. Some rules won't pain her to break, but I definitely do not see any instance where it would give her actual pleasure to do so, in and of itself. I see it only in the results when it is done for a just cause.
If being with Mal would cause her to break any rules outside of their own, it would actually be a cause of displeasure and stress for her. Inara hates complications, after all.
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Isn't that what rich people do already though? Most of them don't care for their children, they hire someone else to do it.
And the guild would have to approve any sort of long-term client contract with children, after the Companion expressed wanting to add that into the contract. If the companion was too young or had shown bad decision making tendencies in the past, the guild would deny the application.
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Originally posted by Bytemite:
Isn't that what rich people do already though? Most of them don't care for their children, they hire someone else to do it.
Is this going to go into the rich people are all evil and bad parents vein? :( Because that's a generalization I cannot support. I guess hiring a nanny or sending kids off to boarding school is more prevalant among those who can afford it, but neglect happens in all economic spheres, and it's still a different animal to the scenario Mal4Prez proposed. I say the majority of rich people still want to have children for the sake of having children, however it is that they intend to be parents.
And why would the Guild want to support something that promises more harm than good - especially to the resulting child, if your opinion of non-hands-on parenting is apparently low?
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And the guild would have to approve any sort of long-term client contract with children, after the Companion expressed wanting to add that into the contract. If the companion was too young or had shown bad decision making tendencies in the past, the guild would deny the application.
My reply was specifically to Mal4Prez's scenario with an entire different Companion branch set up. That's the thing I especially disagree with because I don't see it as remotely related to the Guild's business, and as an inefficient to downright unethical idea.
I can maybe imagine very very rare individual contracts, the way a "Personal Companion" contract might work but with further arrangements specifically set up between the Companion and Client in question.
But I can not imagine something actually institutionalized or more common than extremely rare. I mean, seriously, why would a Companion even want that? If they wanted to work with children, they would have gone into a childcare profession, right? If their genes are the thing most sought after, a donation of eggs would be easier. And the interruption and physical burdens of pregnancy would probably be a lot less tolerable for a Companion when it's not done for herself and for love. It's like a ballerina being a surrogate mother - highly unlikely. Why study to be a Companion and then become breeding stock and nanny?
So whether a separate branch would be set up or whether regular Companions supposedly would do this.. I find both scenarios extremely unlikely.
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Quote:Good point. I guess I just always assume that when they're out at a bar it's for business, since it usually is.
Originally posted by Bytemite:
Mal? Having a business meeting with slavers? No, I don't think that was business, but Mal, Jayne and Inara unwinding. I also don't think Mal would have stolen from them if it was business, even if they were slavers. The slavers just happened to come along and they decided to play some pool together before Mal knew who they were. That's what I think.
Quote:Let's see, it's been a long time since I worked out my plot for Inara...
So, wait, how come you like her as being from lower classes as opposed to upper classes? :D I'd love to hear that, maybe you have a better reason than I do! Or is that something you just wanted to explore?
Primarily, I wanted to explain why she chose Serenity. It's been made clear that she's running from some pretty awful events, (though, in the OoG commentary, Tim says that she's either running from something or to something... to something? Interesting...) She must have been badly hurt and needed to go somewhere safe. In OoG, when talking to Simon, Inara says: "I love this ship. I have since the first moment I saw it." Why? Why would a wealthy, pampered woman love such a junker? Why would she think a dirty smuggling ship a safe place to go and heal?
So I thought she must have had personal experience with a Firefly, something very positive. It seemed unlikely that a wealthy young girl would have ever been on such a ship, or would have loved it at first sight. So it was easy for me to consider her as much poorer once.
I think family is also a big part of Inara's secret. In Bushwhacked, Wash says the wreck had several families on it, and Inara repeats: "families?" in a shocked, pained way. In OMR, when Mal starts talking about passels of children, she suddenly gets all defensive. And in HoG, when rejecting Mal's overture, she talks about loving, family-like relationships as if they're a trap she can't let herself get into.
This all fit together for me when I made her birth family a trap, and her foster family on the Firefly an escape. As a grown woman who just went through something awful, she would jump at the chance for the same kind of escape.
It wasn't about class issues for me. It was more about her history with family, and her draw to Serenity.
Quote:Breaking the rules is secondary. See - we agree!
She wouldn't be with him JUST to break the rules, but being with him WOULD be breaking the rules. That's the difference.
And look at what this says about what motivates Inara: rule-breaking, or other things? The other things come first. The fact that rule-breaking doesn't stop her says a lot, but it is not her motivation. She's not a rebel as much as a free spirit.
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hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left
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AR: Non-hands on parenting isn't bad. I have intimacy issues; I may not have had a nanny, but that was pretty much the kind of parenting I got that I was comfortable with.
I was making a statement. I guess I don't see what's so different between hiring a companion to be the mother of your children and hiring a surrogate mother or a nanny or other caretaker.
It's strange. I see it as a very likely thing that a companion might be hired for... Unless the Guild has rules against it.
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Mal4Prez: I can get behind that.
Ooh! Yeah, that makes sense now. For some reason, when I read about your version of Inara and her foster family, for some reason I didn't see the connection between Inara and Serenity.
Funny how she doesn't act like she likes it in the OOG flashback, but I take her word for it when she says she did. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
AR: Non-hands on parenting isn't bad. I have intimacy issues; I may not have had a nanny, but that was pretty much the kind of parenting I got that I was comfortable with.
I was making a statement. I guess I don't see what's so different between hiring a companion to be the mother of your children and hiring a nanny or other caretaker.
It's strange. I see it as a very likely thing that a companion might be hired for... Unless the Guild has rules against it.
But why would a Companion agree to this, when what she trained for is rather different? Why would it be likely?
And why not hire a nanny, then? A well-educated nanny, well-educated teachers, send the kid to Companion school when it's twelve.. why the complication of a Companion "mother"? For the genes? I'm sure there would be systems of egg donation and surrogate mothers set up that would cause a lot less legal trouble, not to mention emotional trouble.
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AR -
I should say that I don't think my scenario is anything canon, but something that could be presented in an at least slightly believable way in fanfic.
And I find it not completely preposterous. Perhaps because I don't believe in the nuclear family as the only or even the best way. I'm also harkening back to the way of old European nobility: they brought in a governess to raise and educate the children. For the governess, it's her ticket out of obscurity. She raises someone else's kids then has the means to marry or perhaps to live independently.
And I don't see it as inherently evil ont eh part of the wealthy parents. I think that, like the Companion/client relationship, this Nanny/client relationship could in general be a friendly, positive thing, where the forged relationships lasts throughout their lives. Only a few would go wrong, and they would be dealt with as Inara dealt with Ath. Sucks for the kids, but do you really believe that the nuclear family is a full guarantee that the kid will never get hurt? Odds are the same any way, I say.
Besides - the Guild is not perfect. Inara gets hurt while doing her job. It's a business that means well, but it's still a business. Shit happens, no matter where you go.
Again though, I tend to see the man/woman/child family model as one that's sure to get out-dated. I see no reason why this set-up "promises more harm than good", anymore than wealthy Victorian children were scarred by being raised by their governess. That was how it was done, and that's how they did it.
So you can get hung up on families being exactly what our current society defines them to be, but in 500 years that might not be the case.
Quote:Many people in our present call Inara's business unethical. The Guild sees things differently. Who's to say they wouldn't change more than sex?
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
My reply was specifically to Mal4Prez's scenario with an entire different Companion branch set up. That's the thing I especially disagree with because I don't see it as remotely related to the Guild's business, and as an inefficient to downright unethical idea.
Hey, I have no interest in being part of the Nanny thing, but I would find it horrifying to have Inara's job too. The Guild is the one setting this up, not me. And the Guild redraws lines.
The funny thing is, I'm bothered more by the idea of a Companion crossing the line to Nanny. They are such completely different jobs.
Quote:Guess what - it's already real, it's already done. Women and men contribute eggs and sperm. There are websites where you can search out donors based on all kinds of personal attributes, then you can read letters from them about why they are donors and how involved they want to be in their child's life. Seriously - I've seen it.
But I can not imagine something actually institutionalized or more common than extremely rare. I mean, seriously, why would a Companion even want that?
There are also surrogate mothers, adoption services. This stuff is real.
As for the Nanny--hey, I don't even like egg donation because it really messes with the donor's body, which is never part of the advertising. Adoption can cause serious emotional problems for the birth mother, again something that is usually not spoken of.
Come to think of it, all of this is similar to prostitution, in that in current times it's unregulated and bad things can come of it. Perhaps if it's regulated it wouldn't be so harmful. The Guild regulated whoring and made it something respectful and positive. You really think they couldn't do the same with childbirth?
Quote:Exactly why it has to be a very separate thing from canon Companioning. A different kind of woman signs up to be a Nanny, the training is different, the career path is different. I knew women is high school who wanted nothing more than to have babies, and had no real other skills to build a career on. Would you tell them that Nannying is a horrible
Why study to be a Companion and then become breeding stock and nanny?
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