General Discussions

Mal and Nandi

POSTED BY: manwithpez
UPDATED: Sunday, July 25, 2004 16:01
VIEWED: 9315
PAGE 2 of 3

CHANNAIN

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 7:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by JCobb:
What about in Our Mrs. Reynolds when Inara shows her feelings for Mal?

Seems to me the only folks who saw that was us. In the cargo bay, none of the crew seemed the wiser to the look on Inara's face, and nobody else was in his quarters when she kissed him except her and him. He thought she got drugged because she kissed Saffron, remember? Poor schmoe didn't have a clue.

OMR's my favorite episode. I queue that one up a lot...

We have art so as not to die of truth ~ Neitzsche
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922

JCOBB

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 7:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Channain:
Quote:
Originally posted by JCobb:
What about in Our Mrs. Reynolds when Inara shows her feelings for Mal?
Seems to me the only folks who saw that was us. In the cargo bay, none of the crew seemed the wiser to the look on Inara's face, and nobody else was in his quarters when she kissed him except her and him. He thought she got drugged because she kissed Saffron, remember? Poor schmoe didn't have a clue.

OMR's my favorite episode. I queue that one up a lot...

We have art so as not to die of truth ~ Neitzsche
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922

Ah, so you weren't saying thats how Inara really felt, just how Mal THOUGHT she felt. I can see that.

I don't care, I'm still free.

GRIMLAKIN

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 7:40 PM

How does that change one thing? Think about it the origional script was written before the script for OIS. Just revised before it was filmed.

That is like saying scenes in a film are out of order because one was shot before the other. Several scenes of many movies are like that. Heck nearly entire movies are like that. Because that is when you CAN film that part or that script.

PURPLEBELLY

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 7:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Grimlakin:
Think about it the origional script was written before the script for OIS. Just revised before it was filmed.

It means that close textual analysis is fruitless without more information.
Of course you can speculate with less information, if you find it entertaining.

MANWITHPEZ

Wednesday, July 21, 2004 10:28 PM

After reading my original post, I guess I need to make a clarification. What I meant to say was that Mal didn't show any OVERT feelings for Inara. At the end of Heart of Gold and then again in Objects in Space, he begins to. Inara sees it, and thats when she starts in with "I've put this off for far too long." and tells his she wants to leave. Typical Whedon. One character removes the stick from their ass, and the other firmly plants it in theirs. Yes, Mal and Inara do reveal their feelings from time to time, but to them, I think its exclusive. I think she knows she likes him, but doesn't know he likes her, and vice versa. Nandi was on the point of letting the cat out of the bag, but of course, in another Whedon twist, didn't get to. In the Joss Whedon universe, the people who long for each other are in for woe, as are the people who know about it. Which is good no one in the regular cast knew about them.
I have to go. My stomach hurts.

Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."

THEREALME

Thursday, July 22, 2004 3:39 AM

ManWithPez, sorry about the tummy.

I am convinced that Inara's Companion Powers (go ahead, laugh) showed her exactly how Mal felt about her. Hmmm... I sense a new thread coming.

The Real Me

MANWITHPEZ

Thursday, July 22, 2004 4:53 AM

I don't know. She did say that she found to be a mystery and "just when I think I have you figured out." Maybe her own feelings for him are blinding her, or Mal is such a contradiction that she just can't figure it out.

My stomach's better, by the by.

Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."

GUILDSSISTER

Thursday, July 22, 2004 2:29 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by manwithpez:
I have to go. My stomach hurts.

Just take a little sprite with some bitters in it, and you'll be just fine!

Guild Sister

NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME

BROWNCOAT1

Thursday, July 22, 2004 3:10 PM

Channain wrote:

Quote:
Or because he was very certain of how she felt in that she had no regard for him at all. Maybe Mal wasn't willing to risk his heart, which he's been protecting since that awful moment at the end of the war. Nandi may have given him the notion it was okay to really feel something again.

Good point Channy (

by the way). It could be that Mal, being a man, had no idea that Inara cared for him at all. I am not sure that he cared for Nandi to the depth he does Inara, but he probably got caught up in the moment and emotions at that point.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

SHAMBLEAU

Thursday, July 22, 2004 6:32 PM

I agree with Rowan. Something happened to Mal when Nandi died. His "Life's too short..." speech that he starts to give at the end of HOG pretty much says what changed. Not that he didn't already recognize that from everything that had happened in his life. But. having it brought home to him so graphically after he'd connected (in both senses) with Nandi, he went for it.

On why he hesitated before, it wasn't just that he wasn't sure whether Inara cared for him. I think he was perfectly aware that there was a mutual attraction. But. She'd been pro-unification. She was a Companion. Most of the people she saw were the privileged rich of the Alliance. She said she wanted to keep things on a business-like level. She kept herself aloof. Mal couldn't control her. Contrasted to all that, as Sam Spade might say, was maybe she loved him and maybe he loved her.

shambleau