I wanna do this one more time: Was Mal wrong when he shot that surrendering guy in Serenity?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Friday, June 6, 2014 05:29
VIEWED: 19444
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I've had this discussion many times, but I just wanted to see where it sits with y'all now.
My take:
Mal was pressed for time, a bit unhinged & stressed to the limit.
The surrendering dude was from the ship that killed Haven.
I would have done the same.
Some have said he might have been just a innocent cook or some such. That's gorram stupid. No cooks on an attack ship.
Yeah, Mal might have been quick with it, but how can you judge if you weren't there?
Oh, but you kinda WERE, seein' as it was a movie & all.
Thoughts? Again?
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The guy had killed a lot of people, it was more an execution.
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Why we still talking about this??
You kill me and mine (AND KIDS) yer gonna get a bullet and I'm gonna be just thrilled you're dead... 
P.S. Pretty sure the guy surrendering could have been doing so just to get them to lower their guard so he could kill them then.
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I didn't see it that way, but could be...
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Were they inclined to take prisoners ?
Nope.
If anything the just-following-orders creep shoulda been glad Mal and company were pressed for time and he got it quick and clean - had Mal sicced Jayne on him with time to spare that coulda been pretty unpleasant.
Quote:
I was gonna get me an ear, too!
-Jayne Cobb
-F
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Quote:Jayne is a little cruel, isn't he? Mal, not so much.
I was gonna get me an ear, too!
-Jayne Cobb
Mal did do wrong because he did things out of order to heighten the drama. Second thing Mal should have done is find Book. First thing is check for enemies.
Inside the Alliance gunship is the first place to look for enemies, yet doing things right would have thrown off the pace of the movie and Mal is not suppose to be aware that he is inside a movie.
Mal shooting the surrendering man was very much one of those movie moments – totally artificial and completely disconnected from law, rules of war, and morality. Killing the surrendering man was very cinematic and did make good tactical sense because Mal was facing a mutinous crew and needed to assert his authority.
Besides, dead men don't plead for mercy or wiggle around when wire-roped to Serenity's bow. Mal is very practical. So is Joss Whedon, who did not want an R rating for his movie. Get a PG-13 with some quick justice, limited gore, roll the credits, The End.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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his journey started with "wars done...all just folk now..."
but he found himself once again at war..under attack...the captain who had to return to being a soldier knows how to find his way back to the dark places.
there was no time for taking prisoners
there was no value in the leftover dumb soldier who likely was just following orders..that guy was wanting to surrender..which means he had no purpose in the fight...else he would have made effort to engage rather than surrender.
it also presented a risk...not only that he might seek escape, etc like the original pilot episode, but that it would be a distraction for the crew he was about to lead into battle...anything that trooper might have said may have caused confusion and doubt for some of the crew...there was no room for doubt now...it was time to act..decisively....I don't know how much of this mindset Joss understands or has been exposed to, but I felt they captured it very well with his sudden and swift shooting decision.
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Mal would never know it, but the guy he shot was the pilot of the ship that killed Book and the rest of Haven. Not that it matters. I always thought Mal did that guy a mercy by killing him quickly. Not too unlike the Alliance guy Mal shot back at the bank heist.
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