Ah.

In the case of the slop comment, I think it was less about niceties on Serenity and more about she was calling Mal out on his promise that they'd get some fresh/real food at a market on this stop planetside, and he broke his word.

You notice even Kaylee was disappointed, she really wanted steak. So if even Kaylee was complaining, I don't think it was particularly about conditions on the ship, but rather Mal's choices.

Hmm. Point about Zoe. Perhaps she's kind of inconsistent in the series as well.

I guess the way I saw it, is that I think sometimes Kaylee can be JUST as inappropriate as Jayne, she just tends to pull it off without offending anyone because she's often too cute to get mad at. But sometimes, like when she talks to Mal about something that needs batteries, or when she's too blunt about private things (like with Zoe here), she gets a reaction like "whoa, too much information" or "you shouldn't be talking like that."

With Jayne, I guess I see a difference between Simon promising never to physically harm him, and Simon promising never to humiliate him with things said in confidence. Perhaps Jayne's mere existence and the amount of annoyance he causes in Simon is sufficient to justify Simon getting him back on an emotional level, but NOT injuring or killing Jayne.

I think the log shows that Zack is trying to get a hang of the characters, and I also think he's showing improvement.

The slop comment bothered me, because we never see Inara complain about the food, or the ship, or the lack of any of the niceties on Serenty. She criticizes Mal for his behavour, but not 'life aboard Serenity'.

Zoe is private people with Alliance interrogators, but let's not forget she's the same woman who said "I need this man to tear all of my clothes off" It just didn't seem to fit to me, especially with Kaylee saying it. Now, if JAYNE had said it, that would be something else completely, and yeah, I could totally see 'the look' coming from Zoe for that.

And the Simon thing, I couldn't just go with it. Simon, despite Jayne turning them into the Alliance, stays true to his oath and tells Jayne that if he's on the operating table, he's safe. I can't see him - at least, not without some serious provocation - announcing that to the crew.

But, that's my take on it all. It just didn't feel right for me. Other people may not have a problem with it, and that's (wrong!) er... fine, that's fine ;)

And I remember reading that log, yes :)

Hmm, I didn't mind the slop thing, or Zoe glaring at them. Zoe says in Bushwhacked tha she and Wash are private people, which is obviously not true with Wash, but seems to be true with Zoe.

I did question the thing with Simon a little, but then I decided to just go with it - maybe it's okay since the crew is pretty much family, so it would be like a brother pranking another brother? Besides, it's a small ship, it's not like Book and Kaylee didn't already have some idea, and word would have gotten around anyway.

Here's the link, it's pretty funny.

http://www.darkhorse.com/Blog/159/malcolm-reynolds-captains-log

The word bubble thing, yeah, that was obviously Kaylee speaking, but my problem was with Inara calling the food slop, for one thing, with Simon telling everyone that Jayne had a venereal disease, for another, and with Zoe giving Kaylee a glare about the 'sex look' comment... none of those things were in character, IMO.

Do you have a link to that post?

Well, maybe the plotting isn't the best, but in Better Days at least I really liked the premise, and I've liked the dialogue in all of them.

Downtime has it's faults, though the main problems are with Inara's writing, but part of that was that in one seen the speech bubbles are drawn wrong (one was supposed to be pointing at Kaylee instead of INara).

Inara's actually written quite a bit better in a joke-slash-character study that Zack posted on Dark Horse's website.

I have not particularly enjoyed the comics. I don't find them all that well written, and sometimes downright cheesy (I won't even go into the art). And I flat out hated that online one, Downtime. It was, IMO, extremely out of character for most of them. It does not give me hope about the new comic, considering it will also be written by Zack. But, what choice do I have? At least the cover art is gorgeous, by far the best so far.

So much of the Shepherd's motivations seem to me to be trying to teach others so they don't follow in his footsteps - lack of belief-wise and the dark and violent past he was involved in.

To that end he focuses on trying to preach to Jayne a lot, but also to Mal, who is a little more able to understand some of the higher end concepts that Book wants to impart. I think Book might have had a lot of angles he was trying to work to bring Mal back into believing. Trying to get Mal to at least show more respect, if not be so emotionally hard, towards the people he cares about might have been one of those angles. Inara would have just happened to be a particularly strong angle in that regard.

The Zoe pregnancy thing threw me a little too - I both thought it was too obvious a resolution for Joss, and I also thought it was too happy! Maybe Joss is softening up? I hope so, because maybe he won't have the heart to kill off any other characters.

I enjoy the writing and dialogue in the comics, though I agree that sometimes the art is hit or miss. But I'm really excited about the new post-movie Mal comic coming out in the spring. :)

Well, I reread the comic, and I still can't really say your idea works for me, but... I'd be more than happy to read a fic trying to convince me otherwise, were you to write one ;)

On a comics related note, I finally got to reading Float Out as well - I had *no* idea that the Zoe pregnancy was 'canon' in the comics! I thought it was mostly accepted 'fanon' Learn something new everyday.

I just wish the comics were *better* :/

Actually he both left and SAID he was leaving more after Inara left, possibly because he realized Mal was going to sink even lower, which ties into the whole "If I stay I'll stop caring about violence too" thing.

I don't know, that Shepherd's pretty sneaky. He might have an inkling that reconciling with Inara would do more for Mal's bad temper than just about anything else.

Hmm, I dunno. That seems to ascribe a lot of forethought to Book and I don't recall it being that well planned - I haven't read it in a long while, but, didn't Book basically decide he had to leave after hitting Mal? You think that was all pre planned?

In fact, I wonder if Book decided to leave Serenity in the same system for a reason. Was Book trying to give the crew a reason to stay near Inara and a port of call nearby as well? Book does kind of call the captain on his bad behaviour towards Inara in Those Left Behind, and this is his subtle way of manuevering Mal into trying to make amends.

Well, that, and that also makes it a little farther away from Miranda than a good many of the worlds in Blue Sun. Mal would be concerned about Inara getting caught in a Reaver raid... Though on the other hand, it seems like he might be hanging around in case she might need him.

I'm only speculating, but it makes sense to me that the capitol planet would be the most core like, and for the training house to be in close proximity to that 'core-ness'
I also think that, having it deeper into the system than Serenity's usual haunt makes sense too, as I am inclined to think that Mal wouldn't be too keen on being too close to the world Inara left Serenity for on a regular basis.

Yeah! There's lots of good reasons for Burnet.

I've heard Meridian might be a little more "core-world" in feel due to being the capital as well, which might make more sense in why Sheydra might have decided to go there.

hmm I can't seem to find my Firefly RPG book at the moment, so I'm not sure there.

But according to the system to system travel times listed in the Atlas to the Verse, events in the film would pretty much have to be occurring in Blue Sun as the shortest travel time listed to another system is 14 weeks (to White Star) and 15 weeks to Georgia.

I like the idea of Burnet, as it orbits Meridian, the Blue Sun capitol and the most densely populated planet in the system. It's also much farther into the system than Haven, where Serenity tends to hang out.

Does the new version of the role playing book have more planetary information? I have the old version, it only covers about 12 planets or so.

I've been thinking about getting the Atlas, but I bought the new version of Better Days for myself for Christmas instead. Maybe sometime next year.

Another thing I found out: apparently "Burnet" is the name of a flower.

Do you have the Atlas of the Verse? You might be able to get a good idea of travel times from the New Canaan route that could help in narrowing it down. The Role Playing book may also have expanded info on the planets in the region, though it's been a while since I looked at it, so I don't know for sure. I'll try to have a look at them when I get home and let you know if I find anything relevant. :)

Burnet could be a punny name considering the use of incense (and in one case, exploding incense).

Yeah, I pretty much agree there, though some of the options in the other systems are so tempting. There's not too many good planet names for the training house available in Blue Sun.

I ought to pick up the Atlas of the Verse at some point, and see if it might contain more information.

Burnet doesn't really have any preconceptions with it, and it's in orbit around the more developed capital of the system.

Glynis also doesn't have any preconceptions.

Nakula (also around Dragon's Egg) might make sense as I see it's the name of a Hindu hero that was compared at the time to the Hindu god of love.

I like Perth still but maybe that reference is too specific.

My own opinion is that the Training House is in the Blue Sun System, but I really don't have any evidence to support that, beyond the rather flimsy notion I hold that most of the BDM takes place in the Blue Sun System because of the time frame. (If they were going back and forth to places in other systems, it would take longer, and the majority of the action in the movie takes place over a matter of days.)

Can't say I follow.

So the reason I post this, anyone spot any references or shout-outs in any of the listed planet names, beyond the ones with very obvious names, that might make a moon a more likely place for the training house?