Rating the minor characters by shambleau

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Rating the minor characters

POSTED BY: SHAMBLEAU
UPDATED: Monday, January 12, 2004 04:00
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Saturday, January 10, 2004 10:03 AM

First, the ones with major roles.

1. Nandi. A fully lived-in character, beautifully brought to life and sexy as hell.

2. Tracy. A guy whose charm is only equaled by his rotten judgement. Woodward brought out the lostness, the pathos and the carelessness of other people that define Tracy. Great job.

3. Early. It takes repeated viewings to see that the guy's crazy as a loon from the start, which is a tribute to Richard Brooks. When I first saw the ep, I was uneasy about the guy, didn't quite know what to make of him, since, yeah, bad guy, but in an odd way. A one-of-a-kind villain.

4. Badger. A fun little weasel. "Sad little king" indeed.

5.SafYoBridge. Interesting take on a con-woman with a crazy side, a common affliction of Firefly villains. I put her above Niska because the character is slightly less cliched.

6. Niska. Well-acted villain, but in the too-much-traveled, sadistic European mode.

7. Inara's customer in Shindig. Can't remember his name, which says something about the performance.

8.. Rance Burgess. Cliched AND badly acted. Worst of the villains, in the wrong way.

Minor Characters

1. The sheriff in TTJ. Could have been a cliche. Wasn't. A shrewd, decent guy realized in just a few scenes.

2. Bester. Even fewer lines, and a great comic performance.

3.The Alliance commander in Bushwhacked. Although I didn't buy that this guy would let Mal and the crew go, it was a wonderful performance nonetheless.

4. The other captain in OOG. Mal without the conscience. I'd love to see him again.

Anybody got any others?

shambleau

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 12:48 PM

MANIACNUMBERONE

who's SafYoBridge?

oh wait... I thought better of that question.

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 1:19 PM

SHAMBLEAU

Aaargh!

I forgot Patience! One tough old bird, but I think it'd be fun to have a drink with her, as long as, you know, I was paying. She should be number one on the minor characters list.

The Blue Hand guys were effectively scary, so they should be listed. And Crow. All stereotypical, though.

And I'd add the corrupt Alliance cop of The Message to the list. Probably next-to-last, though, after Crow. Well-acted, but been done and done.

Which is one thing I'm noticing as I write this up. The villains seem to be stock figures too often. Patience and Early are more nuanced and they're at or near the top of my lists. Firefly hadn't come up with a great continuing villain by the time it came to an end.

Oh, and some very very small roles that made an impression with almost no lines: the female deputy in TTJ, the nurse who sent Mal and the others to the morgue in Ariel, the old guy who helped Kaylee with the socialite bitches in Shindig, and Rance Burgess's wife.

shambleau

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 1:26 PM

SLOWSMURF

Firefly really wasn't written, like buffy or angel, to HAVE continuing villians.

Randomly coming across(or ending up in circumstances to) a person a few times is understandable, but more than that is just becoming rediculous. Especially since if nothing else it'd be a stretch as to why the villian continued to live.

And I feel stupid, I'm just drawing a blank as to who "Crow" is?

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 1:42 PM

SAINT JAYNE

Quote:
Originally posted by SlowSmurf:
I'm just drawing a blank as to who "Crow" is?

Why, Crow's the best darn engine cleaner in the 'Verse! Got oily build-up in your engines? Let them eat Crow.

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 2:09 PM

SLOWSMURF

That really didn't help lol.

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 3:15 PM

SERENITYVALLEY

Crow's the guy from Serenity. Niska's henchman guy right?

And Inara's client in Shindig is Atherton Wing. I remember that b/c of "Can I call you Ath?" and when his name appears, it sort of looks like Atherton Wind.

Personally, my list would go:
Badger
Tracey
Early

Hey, what about Lawrence Dobson?

http://www.simple-assault.com/Firefly.htm

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 3:41 PM

KAYLEESSTRAWBERRY

I loved seeing that other crew in Out of Gas. It made the void of space seem less empty, to see other crews out there. Speaking of which, there's Monty and his crew as well. I'd love to see either one of them come back: the Out of Gas crew as a foil, and/or Monty's crew as temporary partners.

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 9:10 PM

SEVENPERCENT

Quote:
Originally posted by SlowSmurf:

Randomly coming across(or ending up in circumstances to) a person a few times is understandable, but more than that is just becoming rediculous. Especially since if nothing else it'd be a stretch as to why the villian continued to live.

Depends how big that character's story arc is, I think- Niska is the one villain I could see running into quite a bit- He's a major force in the dark side of what Mal does (smuggling, salvage, etc) and where Mal does it, and it's established that Mal crossed him and got away with it (twice even) - He's the type that would return again and again until he had what he felt was owed him (Serenity's crew on stakes) - I could see him turning up, assuming a one season story-arc, maybe 4 times without it being overkill; maybe 6 or seven times over a two season arc- A char. like SaffYo, it might be nice to see her every season or two in a show-

Niska ranks first on my major minors list, I would say, followed by Early, then by SaffYo- On the minor minors list Patience and Badger-
And I agree that the Officer in Message was a cardboard char., as someone in an earlier thread said-

He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.

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Saturday, January 10, 2004 10:47 PM

SPIKEANDJEZEBEL

I rewatched "Ariel" today, and noticed that the actress who plays a nurse in the hospital (when Simon saves the live of the dying patient) is the same actress who plays Xander's real estate agent in "The Replacement" in season 5 of Buffy.

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Sunday, January 11, 2004 3:04 PM

LADYJAYNE

Quote:
3. Early...A one-of-a-kind villain.

Um, not really. He's pretty much a textbook template of a clinically diagnosed sociopath. I can name three guys off the top of my head from the prison I worked in that he reminded me of. The writers did do some good research on him, though. They have the profile down cold.

--Kala

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Sunday, January 11, 2004 10:23 PM

REDKOMMIE

I liked Early (Now I am checking this as I type this, but isn't that one of the Asst-DAs from Law and Order?). If he surived (IF very BIG IF) he would be quite a problem for our boys and girls.

Niska is someone I would see causing a problem every once and a while (Not a very graceful loser).

SafYoBridge is another one I see always causing trouble for Mal.

Badger (as in the fan-fic run-on I saw) would make a great betrayer if he ever found out what Serenity had onboard (Rivers and Simon).

Womack. He has the connections to keep an eye on the people who made him lose alot of money and he wouldn't be ALL too happy about it. If Mal and crew ever go to The Silverhold Colonies they will find themselves in trouble.

The Blue Hands of course will return again and again.

For those wondering why I am saying things the way I am its only my mind working in Story Mode :p

Now on the cliches, I think Joss and company were looking to try to capture some of the wrestern 1860-1870's and such feelings. (The way the people were and such.)

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Monday, January 12, 2004 4:00 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

SlowSmurf & SevenPercent touched on a good point. I could see Niska popping up from time to time as he is a major player in the smuggling/dirty dealing business in the rim. He seems to have his hand in a lot of things, and it is obvious that he harbors a grudge.

I could see Saffron/Yolanda/Bridgette showing up from time to time as she makes for a cool villian. After "Trash" she would be harboring some resentment toward Mal & crew so I have no doubt she would be out for some payback.

Early I could see showing back up. He is a loon, he wants the bounty on Simon & River, and he also seems to be the type to not be so easily thwarted.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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