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Originally posted by j6ngo1977:
However Mal cannot bring himself to kill a defenseles human being anymore than you and I could.

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Originally posted by j6ngo1977:
That is true. What am I saying? How can I forget Mal pushing a bad guy into Serenities engine. FOrget everything I said . LOL

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Originally posted by FollowMal:

Which one do you believe, DonCoat? That it's Mal's redemption that makes him spare The Operative, or is it the worst punishment The Operative can face, and Mal knows it?

I'd be interested in your opinion....

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Originally posted by DonCoat:

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Originally posted by FollowMal:

Once he'd made that decision, he could no longer (by his own code of ethics) murder the helpless Operative. He may also have been thinking that he might need him to call off the pursuit, but that didn't seem to be at the front of his mind just then.

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It seems apparent to me that whether or not Mal was thinking about needing the Operative to call off Alliance pursuit, his decision not to kill him saved the lives of his crew. Even with her back turned and all those rifles on her, River would have taken down a significant part of that squad, but all those wounded crew members in the line of fire would have been toast.
It's a well established action movie cliche' that a bad guy like the Operative always gets killed by the hero in the end. Perhaps Joss wanted to show that killing has consequences, not always forseen, and like Jayne said, Thinkin' on revenge ain't always in your best interests.

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Originally posted by otma:

It seems apparent to me that whether or not Mal was thinking about needing the Operative to call off Alliance pursuit, his decision not to kill him saved the lives of his crew. Even with her back turned and all those rifles on her, River would have taken down a significant part of that squad, but all those wounded crew members in the line of fire would have been toast.

It's a well established action movie cliche' that a bad guy like the Operative always gets killed by the hero in the end. Perhaps Joss wanted to show that killing has consequences, not always forseen, and like Jayne said, Thinkin' on revenge ain't always in your best interests.

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