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jedibuttercupI 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?
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?
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Date: 2005-11-08 03:35 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2005-11-27 09:43 pm (UTC)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.