Firefly - "Shindig"/"Our Mrs. Reynolds" - speculation

[jedibuttercup]

I watched "Our Mrs. Reynolds" tonight. After the lightheartedness that was "Shindig", then this one...

Comparing the Mal from these episodes with the Mal of SERENITY is like a wrench upside the head.

I was musing yesterday about the depth of the wounds the war and its immediate aftermath must have done him; it was so congruous with what we see of him in the movie that the gap between them didn't really register. But in these two? Whoa. The cloud has blown over, the sunshine is out.

The Mal of the early series may not be glossy-whole, but the joins where the broken parts have been put back together can't hardly be seen. It's been six years since the war; he's had time to heal, and while he never found a Wash like Zoë did to help fill in the gaps, he has enough of a reservoir of good mood that he's able to talk about his lost pre-War past and family to put a strange girl at her ease, go drinking companionably with Jayne on an apparently frequent basis, wear a cotton dress as disguise and joke about enjoying the airflow, giggle with Jayne when Badger mentions testicles, play strange basketball with his crew, talk with Inara about her lifestyle and client schedule without too much rancor, etc., etc.

Mal in SERENITY? *blinking* Er, no.

It's like the moment Jayne betrayed Mal in "Ariel" was the beginning of a downward slope. "People who trust each other, who do for each other, who ain't always looking for the advantage," is how Mal describes his crew to Saffron at the end of "Our Mrs. Reynolds." But Jayne disappoints him. Then Niska tortures the shit out of him, amidst other arguments that are reminding him of events from the war. Then Tracey, formerly a private under his command, shows up, brings nastiness on Mal's crew, and ends up dying by his bullet. All the while, Mal's interactions with Inara are getting harsher and harsher. Then he meets Inara's friend Nandi, an admirable woman, with whom he forms a quick understanding-- resulting in Nandi's death and Inara's complete rejection of him. Then even Serenity's sanctity is violated by a bounty hunter who shows up inexplicably out of the black. Shortly thereafter, Inara joins a training house, and Book, who has come to be a friend and advisor, also debarks (so I hear, in the comic) due to the fact he fears the smuggling lifestyle is having an effect on his morals.

Yes, let's pick all the scabs off one by one and rip the stitches open while we're at it. Mal at the beginning of SERENITY is a man slowly bleeding to death inside. Without River's cause to take up, I've no doubt Kaylee would have been right; he'd slowly have driven them all away, until he was left with only Wash and Zoë (because Zoë can't leave Mal, and Wash won't leave Zoë).

Boiling it down? Firefly, after "Out of Gas", is all about breaking Mal step by step back into the man the Alliance made of him, and Inara is, though not intentionally, one of the main tools of his gradual refragmentation.

*hiding face* I was seriously looking for happy moments to help keep the upcoming Mal/Inara conversation in Book's Legacy from being a total trainwreck, and my brain just won't go there. Help, anyone? Please?

Comments

[mgsmurf.livejournal.com]

I think you're right on track with the Mal story arch. I didn't see it as what little emphasis on story arch during the series was focused on River, but I think you're right that Mal's character had one as well.

As for Mal/Inara and their talk? Can I say that if you're going to shift it to Mal/River having him offer and her twist him into a pretezel and boot him out the door sounds kinda nice, but my Mal muse is unruly as a bear woken during hibration these days so perhaps that wouldn't be best.

So, it seems in "Heart of Gold" like Mal hasn't really realized how Inara feels for him, or else things that although she might like him her feelings do not run that deep. And if you think about it, Mal being a man and thus dense, as well as Inara being skilled at hiding her true feelings, it makes some sense he really might not have known she was falling in love with him as much as he was with her. But after this, and between the series and movie he's had lots of time to think on it, look at it as Inara had feelings for him.

So, how hurt was he that just as he knows that she leaves him? How important has his love of her, and her love of him, mattered to his pieced together self? Might help with what his next move would be. Also, being calculating, he would have thought about other things, and he's had time to play 'what if' he got her back, would he want her and how would he win her. So, could he deal with sharing her? Because to be fair he can't ask her to give up her career if he won't give up Serenity. Has in the meantime of them being apart he pieced together much of what you mentioned in your Mal/River support post that they wouldn't work out in the long run? Because the evidence is there.

Has what happened in Serenity made him willing to throw that to the wind and follow his passions rather than logic? And does he think he's really pieced back together enough to risk Inara tearing him apart again, especially with a threat of war looming, and the events that Book's knowledge could lead them into? Is she now a risk he can't juggle with the rest? Would he be willing to think instead of putting it to the backburner to mess with after things are past, when he's more put back together, and in the meantime fall in love with River (which then could lead to a nasty Inara jealousy subplot).

Lastly, if she wants to stay to be part of the crew again, as given what she just lived through with them is likely part of why she is thinking of staying, could he function with her around? Will this reopen too many freshly mended wounds? Can he convince her because of that she has to go? Or instead, can he really take a step back from them being romantic to make her work as crew and not drive him crazy? And just what is his hair-brained scheme on doing that?

Damn that was a lot of questions. But maybe a few of the answers will drive you on where and how to make the scene work.

And now I must go plot very dark and nasty orig fic if only to purge my mind of poor Mal and his deconstrution.

(Oh and Serenity is Mal's Zoe. Machines are much more relable than people anyway, and much more fixable as the movie shows.)

Mal vs. Inara

[jedibuttercup]

> Damn that was a lot of questions. But maybe a few of the answers will drive you on where and how to make the scene work.

I did use some of your questions in writing Chapter 6; it was a pain and a half to write even so, but I hope it worked effectively to move the story in the direction it needs to go. Probably a slight bit M/R-ish, but I don't think there'll be any actual 'ship. Not much room for it in the plot I have laid out, any more than there was room for a M/I 'ship. Maybe in a sequel?

> (Oh and Serenity is Mal's Zoe. Machines are much more relable than people anyway, and much more fixable as the movie shows.)

Mal's Wash, I think you meant. And yeah, now that I think on it I agree. =)

Re: Mal vs. Inara

[mgsmurf.livejournal.com]

Most of that was probably my own ramblings on how you'd balance M/I ending and M/R starting, because you make a good point that Mal wouldn't be one to give up on M/I easily. Maybe someday I'll figure it out.

Oh, and gen fic would be even better than M/R or M/I.

Mal's Wash, I think you meant.
Yeah, was at work and got a little tongue tied, obviously.

[spikedru-basic.livejournal.com]

In terms of the Serenity scenes as they stand, we know Mal knows Inara has said (in the capture) the Mal doesn't know what he wants. Does she still think that? Does he now know what he wants? Back in Out of Gas he was thinking "none of it means a gorram thing" - in light of the events of the film, does he still think that?

Inara is deliberately nice to him in the wave, to indicate it is a trap, and he picks up on that and correctly inteprets it. They banter in the temple, but it's only when he thinks she is undermining him that they really fight. Now either I was distracted by all the pretty, but I'm fairly sure they barely talk to each other again until that final scene in the passageway. So this is going to be their first attempt at having a civil conversation where they both mean it: can you really see it going well? ;)

So maybe have them start badly (like in the "I think I preferred it when you were using your wiles" scene in ..er....that episode), end up toe to toe fighting and then have Mal grin and say it's good to have her back?

I like your analysis of why she was part of his hard shell being ripped off - if we assume the fun Mal from early episodes is a cover for the dark Mal underneath - but maybe she can be part of him really putting himself back together?

Mal vs. Inara

[jedibuttercup]

> I like your analysis of why she was part of his hard shell being ripped off - if we assume the fun Mal from early episodes is a cover for the dark Mal underneath - but maybe she can be part of him really putting himself back together?

Maybe so. I've seen on various forums comments about how Inara could fill the conscience/counselor type role for Mal now that Book is no more, provided the sexual tension between them is dealt with. There isn't any room for a M/I romance in the story I'm writing, but I hope to work on moving her into that advisor-friendship role, after they get the bomb she just dropped out of the way.