Hard choices: Mal, Inara, and Zoe

POSTED BY: BYTEMITE
UPDATED: Thursday, January 3, 2013 14:49
VIEWED: 10848
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BYTEMITE

Thursday, December 27, 2012 9:28 PM

Ah, then that's actually the issue I meant too. I agree completely. I don't think Simon will be able to help her even as a top three percent trauma surgeon. It's not his field and they don't have the resources. I think he's been advising her in the role of a general practicioner for the ship, but more than that he simply doesn't have the expertise.

So there will be a serious question about whether Inara will go back to the core.

As for the discussion, no problem. I find discussions like these always sort out story ideas or generate new ones.

PLATONIST

Friday, December 28, 2012 12:09 AM

Isn’t the notion of Inara returning to the core for treatment or a cure somewhat counter intuitive to what we’ve seen in canon so far? She leaves the core to rent a shuttle from Mal, and she doesn’t return to the core when she leaves to teach at the Training House.

For some strange reason, I’m not feeling the “cure” of the core.

BYTEMITE

Friday, December 28, 2012 12:34 AM

Maybe. She has her own reasons to not want to return to the core, but when whatever she has progresses enough, she might not have a choice.

And another thought is, if she doesn't go to the core, when will we as the viewers learn about whatever it was that chased her out of the core, and when will she confront that?

All I know is, I think Simon might be set up to reveal her secret, but I don't think Simon is being set up to be the cure.

EBFIDDLER

Friday, December 28, 2012 4:56 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
I guess I could question whether he really is repressed, since he doesn't act out (too much). But I think he is, the show all but outright says he is, and if he's not acting out then I suppose he's found himself some kind of acceptable outlet. Perhaps in one-night stands, like you suggest, and avoiding actual attachment, but that seems like a futile gesture if he's already developed that attachment and admits it to himself. And I don't think he's actually in denial about how he feels, it's more he thinks it would be wrong to express that.

Plus, in six months he's only had two one night stands (or rather a single one night stand and an almost-but-no-just-kidding-ima-steal-your-ship-now), which doesn't strike me as he's having to use other women to distract himself from genuine feelings.

I wasn't actually suggesting that he acts out and has lots of one-night stands -- because we know he doesn't. Vide your quote, above. Nandi and Saffron both had to work at it, to get him to cave, and Saffron didn't really succeed. I think, in Inara's case in particular, he uses her profession as an excuse for not engaging, like I said. But he clearly has more issues with intimacy than what's related to Inara -- otherwise wouldn't we see him with a girlfriend on some planet somewhere? Or at least meeting up with an ex-girlfriend at some point? But we don't see that, which suggests he didn't have them, which begs the question of why. Not, apparently, because he was uninterested -- he says to Saffron and Nandi pretty plainly that he's interested, just that he won't. He has made a decision not to engage, not only with Inara, but with other women as well. Worth exploring why it is he thinks he can't have an ordinary relationship with a woman, what is inhibiting him.

BYTEMITE

Friday, December 28, 2012 6:04 AM

Hmmm. I just assumed he never really thought about the long term future before Inara, he figured that his prospects for normalcy and a family life died with Shadow.

Then after Inara it was because he thinks he could die any time and he would expose that girl to risks and because he's a penniless smuggler with bravado compensating for deepseated feelings of loss, bitterness, and inadequacy. And maybe a little bit of him thinking God's out to punish him.

What are your thoughts?

BYTEMITE

Thursday, January 3, 2013 2:49 PM

I came up with another option recently.

Looking at this another way, I wondered why am I so sure that Zoe would think she needs Mal's help? We're talking about Zoe here, who is a majorly tough cookie, and we're also talking about MAL here.

There's pretty much no situation I can think of involving Mal trying to help with or manage Zoe's kid that doesn't end with Zoe rolling her eyes at Mal's bumbling. It's like how Mal panics at the pregnancy in Heart of Gold and thereafter they pretty much keep him away from the birth. Mal probably isn't BAD with kids, he's probably fun with them and probably even likes kids, but at the same time, he'd be at a loss with a truly unruly or crying kid, and he also sometimes lacks common sense.

Listen. I am asking you to imagine Mal, looking entirely frazzled, exhausted, and bewildered, with a squalling baby and full diaper in front of him on a table, bottle of talcum powder in one hand and a cloud of it all over his face. Then imagine it happening any different. You can't.

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