Darker Mal in Serenity by BrownBug

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Darker Mal in Serenity

POSTED BY: BROWNBUG
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 18:02
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:39 PM

You know in my eagerness to accept and and love Serenity I never really took in how different Mal's character is in it. all the other characters remain untouched yet his profile is much much darker. The inflections of joviality have largely gone except for brief moments...

Has it ever been officially explained ? I know Joss has said that Serenity is essentslly a different beast and I se ehow it serves the narrative by Mal being a man pushed too far who finds a cause, but it just feels like one hell of a character shift.

a) Is it because Joss was pissed about being cancelled and the darkness came out through Mal?

b) did joss decide to undo the "make Mal funnier" requests of Fox?

c) has something happened to Mal in the verse between series end and th movie?

just wondering guv'nor

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:49 PM

DESKTOPHIPPIE

Well, the movie covered a story he had been saving for future episodes of Firefly, so it assumed that things had happened in the meantime.

It's mostly that Mal lost even more since the show ended - Inara left and so did Book, and both were connections to some part of himself he lost during the battle of Serenity valley. Also, things were pretty bad. Mal was still scrounging for work and times were getting tough for the crew - tougher than they'd been in a long time. Hence Mal's desperation to hold on to the loot they'd stolen at the beginning of the movie.

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:59 PM

PENGUIN

I agree with what the lady said. Joss had to change Mal in the series to be a little less dark to appease the network. He had no pressure to do so with the movie.

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 1:28 PM

ZZETTA13

I agree with everyone. Mal does seem a bit darker in the BDM but there are still some old Mal moments.

Mal to Jayne " You wanna run this ship?"

Jayne " Yes!! Do a sight bettern you!"

Mal " Well.....ya can't!"

Z

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 2:28 PM

THEONETRUEBIX

The real reason is that the character needed an arc from the start of the film to the end.

As for an in-story explanation, I suspect (personally) that the new three-issue comic later this year will help explain it. Allegedly, it's about the crew taking on a job so lucrative they could retire, but the stress starts to pull the crew apart.

Combine that with Inara and Book leaving, and I think that will end up creating the darker Mal of the start of the movie.

-----

In the Portland of Oregon, Birthplace of the Global Charity Screenings Movement
PDX Browncoats, Film Action Oregon, and The Portland Mercury
present
Can't Stop The Serenity - Portland OR USA
June 22 & 23 @ the Hollywood Theatre
To Benefit Equality Now and the Women's Film Initiative
http://serenitynow.pdxbrowncoats.com/

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 2:32 PM

BROWNBUG

yeh i also getthe sense that heand simon have fellout one too many tiimes and that ther prescence is stopping them getting jobs. as time went by this would cause more and more conflict.

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 2:58 PM

NCBROWNCOAT

Quote:
Originally posted by Penguin:
I agree with what the lady said. Joss had to change Mal in the series to be a little less dark to appease the network. He had no pressure to do so with the movie.

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

Penguin,
I think you and Desktop have it right. I was thinking on this subject right after Drive ended last night. Alex Tully in a way seems to be an ancestor of the Dark Mal that Joss and Tim had to change after the pilot.

And we got Dark Mal back in the BDM. But more importantly I think at the very end, when Inara answers that she's not sure if she wants to go back to the Training House he lets just a crack of hope in despite all that happened in the movie.

http://fireflyfaninnc.livejournal.com/

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 3:59 PM

GROTZ

Remember also, a lot of the lighter side of Mal, was cut and is in dvd extra. I would love to see an extended version of Serenity with all the cut scenes and more Joss-y jabbering dialog.

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Never kiss'em on the mouth.

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 4:10 PM

THEONETRUEBIX

Quote:
Originally posted by Grotz:
I would love to see an extended version of Serenity with all the cut scenes and more Joss-y jabbering dialog.

Of course, you won't. ;)

-----

In the Portland of Oregon, Birthplace of the Global Charity Screenings Movement
PDX Browncoats, Film Action Oregon, and The Portland Mercury
present
Can't Stop The Serenity - Portland OR USA
June 22 & 23 @ the Hollywood Theatre
To Benefit Equality Now and the Women's Film Initiative
http://serenitynow.pdxbrowncoats.com/

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 4:21 PM

GHOULFISH

I also think Mal was a little "darker" because he had more problems - alliance, reavers, assasin, River ....

He just had more stuff to be pissed at

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 5:29 PM

SIGMANUNKI

I gather that Universal gave Joss free reign whereas Joss caved to all of F*X's "notes". So, he turned Mal back to what he wanted Mal to be in the first place. Whether this was a good decision or not is up to debate.

But, I think that the explanation given was that beyond the series things went in a downward spiral. And somewhere near the bottom is where we re-joined our crew.

I think that there may be some more explanation in the comic. But, I haven't read it. I mean, I own it, but from what I got in the first few pages, I just stopped. Though I know this opinion will be unpopular, I *really* didn't like what I got from it.

C'est la vie.

----
I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007 6:02 PM

ARIANE

The only direct attempt at explanation that I heard Joss make in the commentary was that Mal has lost Book and Inara, both of whom grounded him somewhat. "He's in a dark place," were Joss's words, I think.

He's also pretty desperate, and having more of those intimacy issues with the crew (to borrow Wash's explanation). It's gotten to the point where Kaylee is openly telling Jayne that she thinks the captain will eventually push them all away. He's having trouble providing for them and keeping them safe, and it seems to me that their faith in his leadership has become a burden and a worry. He can't run a smuggling operation with fugies on board, but neither can he run from being needed by the broken little bird who crawled out of a box in his cargo bay. He's got no answers, and so he almost resents the people who keep looking to him to fix everything.

I also think Mal has put all his faith in Serenity. "What he's got now is the ship. The ship and us on it." To some extent he's looking to them to make him whole, and when it looks like things are going to fall apart... well, there goes his world yet *again.* Sounds like enough to push him to some pretty ugly extremes.

(For anybody interested, Virtual Firefly does an incredibly good job of detailing his descent into that dark place. They connect some really shiny dots in that regard.)

Anyway, that's my best guess.

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