I've had ENOUGH of this MAL/INARA tension bull by Ty

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

I've had ENOUGH of this MAL/INARA tension bull

POSTED BY: TY
UPDATED: Thursday, August 21, 2003 07:29
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VIEWED: 1966
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Thursday, August 7, 2003 10:32 AM

...and I'm obviously the only one! LOL, seriously, why must we see the same things over and over and over and over again played out in the realm of romance? Tension, turmoil, "game-playing", the whole 'he loves me, he loves me not' scenario?
OK GUYS, I'M DONE RANTING AND RAVING!!!! Sometimes I just get tired of seeing crap like that...I know so many people are damaged emotionally and one day, I'd like to watch a t.v. show or view a movie in which the people make healthy, emotional decisions and deal with living in an environment where the viewers can see, a level of emotional health can be acheived in life and there are interesting persons whom can be developed in t.v. or movies who aren't completely self-involved and self-destructive. AND NOW, I'M DONE RANTING!!!!

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Thursday, August 7, 2003 10:40 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I wonder if there's more behind the tension than that? Inara's reasons for being on Serenity are, well, obscure. Is she working for the Alliance? For a faction within the Alliance? For whichever resistance group sprang River? I think there's more to the story than what we've seen so far, even tho attraction definitely plays a part in it!

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Thursday, August 7, 2003 10:42 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Oh, and BTW I agree with you. Most scripted TV shows (and a lot of the "reality" ones!) are based on premises that would disappear with just a smidgen of honesty!

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Thursday, August 7, 2003 11:20 AM

Obscure....so the right adjective. I think every guy on Serenity probably has or has had some attraction to Inara but Mal, hey Joss, Tim, let that attraction stuff go!!! It just makes me so weary the back and forth that those characters go through. I had my fill out that in the late 80's in MOONLIGHTING.

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Thursday, August 7, 2003 11:42 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

and when they finally 'get together' the show goes POOF!

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Thursday, August 7, 2003 12:01 PM

FREMDFIRMA

I find it intensely amusing for my own reasons..

You see, my relationships have always kinda started that way, in fact, tons of em apparently do - it seems the folks who really care the most about each other... are among the LAST folks to realize it.

That is reality, often enough to make a believer outta me.

Just one more reason to like Firefly.

-Frem
die fux die

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Sunday, August 10, 2003 7:14 AM

TZEGHA

that's why we have Zoe and Wash!

At least the tension between Mal and Inara has valid reasons, and is not contrived like many tv show relationships. I don't think Cybyl and Bruce's characters (I'm only guessing, since I watched the show when I was like five) had the emotional scars and depth that Mal and Inara have.

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Sunday, August 10, 2003 2:55 PM

VETERAN

Don't squat with your spurs on.

Yeah it's a little contrived, but it is a TV show. The way I see it is both characters made very clear rules early on. Mal: I don't approve of shipboard romances. Inara: I will not be servicing you or any of your crew. And they're both too stubborn to be the first to cave in.

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Saturday, August 16, 2003 3:36 AM

CHANNAIN

i DO aim to misbehave

Quote:
Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, and BTW I agree with you. Most scripted TV shows (and a lot of the "reality" ones!) are based on premises that would disappear with just a smidgen of honesty!

honesty? you want to bring honesty to television? are you daft? don't you think the world has quite enough educational TV as it is? not to mention most British television (no offense to any of the UK denizens who might see this), but injecting honesty into scripted television would very easily wipe out most of their best programming from Dr. Who all the way to East Enders. and let's face it, if Mal and Inara had confessed their true feelings from the get go; if River had had a revelation right off the bat and told Simon exactly what happened, why, where, and by whom; if Book told all there was to know about the man behind the collar when he met Kaylee at the docks on Persephone - where would we all be right now?

here's a little honesty - the top headline on this site at the time of this posting is "Futerama makes a comeback." at first I honestly feared once again for this fandom - that another show could take center stage on the Firefly site. then i realized it's an illustration that, yes, a cancelled show can come back. regardless, i'll be honestly more at ease when that headline goes away.

“We three are the only ones in this place wearing brown. Means we’ve found something worth fighting for.
Something worth being more than alive for.”
Sarahetc

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Saturday, August 16, 2003 10:19 AM

TZEGHA

and in reality, I see plenty of people getting themselves into situations that could have been avoided with that smidgen of honesty.

I'll say it again, I think that these two have enough insecurities, hang-ups, and whatall to make their tension very much called for.

And how many people know themselves well enough, are self-aware enough, to be able to be 'honest' with someone?

I think that at the end of HofG

Select to view spoiler:

that Mal was trying to do just that, cut through all the bullshit, stop the WackFun Dance of Self-doubt and Loathing and just air their feelings, get it all out in the open. And like he said, he wouldn't hold her to whatever she may say, he wouldn't put any obligations on her for confessing her feelings, wouldn't take advantage of the knowledge that he is asking for. But she wouldn't hear it, for plenty of sound reasons, and threw his white flag back in his face.

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Saturday, August 16, 2003 1:56 PM

HKCAVALIER

Quote:
Originally posted by Ty:
...Sometimes I just get tired of seeing crap like that...I know so many people are damaged emotionally and one day, I'd like to watch a t.v. show or view a movie in which the people make healthy, emotional decisions and deal with living in an environment where the viewers can see, a level of emotional health can be acheived in life and there are interesting persons whom can be developed in t.v. or movies who aren't completely self-involved and self-destructive. AND NOW, I'M DONE RANTING!!!!

I just got finished watching "Heart of Gold" for the first time and it struck me in that episode particularly just what a psycho Mal Reynolds is. "Self-involved and self-destructive" indeed! But he's also one of the most noble and heroic psychos in fiction. He's what you might call...complex. After that episode it was perfectly clear to me why Inara can't go on hanging around, helping out when she can, waiting for him to kill himself selflessly for the latest lost cause on his roster. Inara has had a lot of psychological training. She knows exactly why, if she cares for herself at all, she should stay planets away from the likes of Mal Reynolds. This isn't just another episode of Seinfeld where everyone's just a cowardly baby who can't take responsibility for their feelings. Mal is a very courageous, very decent and very, very damaged guy and Inara loves him with all her heart (hijinks ensue). She loves him the way we love him, but we don't have to live with the guy.

Meanwhile, this show is absolutely filled to the rafters with people who "make healthy, emotional decisions and deal with living in an environment where the viewers can see a level of emotional health can be acheived in life." Just look at Wash and Zoe, a committed, passionate married couple who mannage to live outside of the stupid boy/girl rules and respect each other. How often do you see that on TV? or in real life, for that matter? And Simon is making healthy emotional decisions about River every five minutes! So he can't seem to "get" Miss Kaylee; that doesn't mean he's emotionally crippled, just shy and not a little foolish. And aside from the mysterious past, Book is a thoroughly decent and straight-talking man. I can see if Mal and Inara were the only thing going for the show (c.f: X Files, Moonlighting), I might be a little annoyed, but in the context of the other characters, to say nothing of the extreme conditions underwhich they mannage to eke out a life, Mal's and Inara's inability to let go and simply love each other is just utterly tragic.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Sunday, August 17, 2003 4:53 PM

JOHNNYREB

O.k., I purposefully avoided reading this post until now, because I've had it with relationship topics period. I'm up to my ears in chick-flicks and the Lifetime network, where EVERY man is a villain. But, now I must post.

The "Inara/Mal tension bull" is indeed nothing new. Shakespeare made it famous with his comedy "Much Ado About Nothing," a play where the characters Benedick and Beatrice are constantly at each other's throats. Everyone in the play knows that they are perfect for one another, except them. So, why did Joss and Tim chose the same premise for Firefly? We can only guess, but here are a few plausible reasons:

1. That's life! That sort of thing really happens, as attested by Fremdfirma. That is why the layman remembers Shakespeare's name, and not the name of John Bunyan, who wrote "Pilgirm's Progess." (A real snoozer, I'll tell you now.) Shakespeare's messages are just a relevent today as they were in the Elizabethan era, because he knew people and their problems.

2. Mal is, what is called, an anti-hero. He does not fit into the archtypal hero's mold well at all. Heroes are courageous, courteous, and chivalrous. They have a weakness that they need to overcome and usually do. They're fair, intelligent, and wise, and they usually get the girl in the end. This is a hero's archtype. Mal is an anti-hero because he runs from fights all the time (per Inara, Shindig); He's rude to others when he isn't calling Inara a whore; He's so arrogant that it is hard to tell what his weaknesses are; He'll rob from the rich to sell to the poor without blinking an eye; He IS intelligent; The jury's still out on wise; and finally, HE ISN'T GOING TO GET THE GIRL IN THE END! Or if he does, he will lose her just as quickly by any number of his "tragic flaws." He is an anti-hero, winning the girl is not in the cards for him.

3. Lastly, if Joss and Tim wrote about a well adjusted relationship that was only going to bloom, Firefly wouldn't have lasted as long as it did. (Well, maybe it would--Seventh Heaven is still on the air, urk.) Bottom line? Bad news sells. We like watching someone other than ourselves getting the short end of the stick, for a change.

I would love for Tim Minear to grace this thread and shed some light on this topic like he did on the other thread. Who better to illucidate than THE MAN himself? I have a feeling, though, that it would be more of a nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyaaaaaah kind of post, and we would be left with our theories and Tim Minear's taunts.

Viva Firefly!

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Thursday, August 21, 2003 7:29 AM

CHANNAIN

i DO aim to misbehave

Quote:
Originally posted by JOHNNYREB:
The "Inara/Mal tension bull" is indeed nothing new. Shakespeare made it famous with his comedy "Much Ado About Nothing," a play where the characters Benedick and Beatrice are constantly at each other's throats. Everyone in the play knows that they are perfect for one another, except them.

Thank you! At each other's throats because they're both attracted to each other but loathe to admit the weakness of it, or risk the humiliation of ultimate rejection. Mal has lost everything ("None of it means a damn thing.") and one suspects Inara has as well (as indicated by the melancholy in her eyes when she talked about her homeworld) and not everybody is emotionally stable enough to go out and get their emotions tromped on again. That kind of healing takes YEARS.

Quote:
Lastly, if Joss and Tim wrote about a well adjusted relationship that was only going to bloom, Firefly wouldn't have lasted as long as it did. (Well, maybe it would--Seventh Heaven is still on the air, urk.) Bottom line? Bad news sells. We like watching someone other than ourselves getting the short end of the stick, for a change.

And again urk! Then again, if you think about it too long, every nighttime drama is really just a soap opera in disguise. Ours just had spaceships.

Quote:
I would love for Tim Minear to grace this thread and shed some light on this topic like he did on the other thread. Who better to illucidate than THE MAN himself? I have a feeling, though, that it would be more of a nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-nyaaaaaah kind of post, and we would be left with our theories and Tim Minear's taunts.

Yes, but what fun it would be to speculate on his taunts and playfully bat our theories around?

“We three are the only ones in this place wearing brown.
Means we’ve found something worth fighting for.
Something worth being more than alive for.”
Sarahetc

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