Mal's father by Steamer

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Mal's father

POSTED BY: STEAMER
UPDATED: Thursday, June 25, 2009 19:43
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009 3:14 PM

Has there been any discussion on him in threads gone past? And if not, are there any thoughts, theories, canon sources/information on the elder Reynolds? Like, did he die when Mal was a tadpole, did he leave his wife (or did his wife leave him), did he serve in the war? Did Mal know him at all, whether by acquaintance or reputation? Was he a rancher from the cradle to the grave? Does Mal have any half-siblings thanks to him?

Go.

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:29 PM

PHOENIXROSE

You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.

I think the only canon we have about Mal's life before Serenity comes from Our Mrs. Reynolds and the brief backstory in the Visual Companion. He only talked about his mother, "and about forty hands," as being his family growing up. His father was never mentioned there, so he probably wasn't around. Probably didn't fight in the war, unless he was career military, as he would have been getting on in years at that point. Probably wasn't a rancher, since he wasn't around on the ranch where Mal grew up, though I suppose there might have been a divorce and Ma Reynolds took half the ranch. Hmmm, we don't know much about her, either, actually. Don't even know her name. Anyway... um... Maybe he was around? I always thought of him as having died, but that's probably much too easy and convenient for a Joss Whedon show, now that I think of it. However, the Visual Companion does appear to say that the entire world was destroyed by the end of the war, so if Pa Reynolds had been alive when Mal was a kid, he would be dead by the time of our show unless he'd left the planet entirely.
...There's never mention of siblings, either. The only characters we're sure have siblings are Simon, River, and Jayne. If Mal had siblings, they would also be blowed up unless they hadn't stayed on Shadow. The only real mention of Zoe's childhood didn't actually make it to the show (I still take it as canon that she mainly grew up in the black, on a ship) and made no mention of siblings. Wash has also made no mention of siblings, we only know that his world was thickly polluted. Kaylee works for her daddy and needs to talk to her folks about leaving planetside, but there's no other real mention of her family. Inara and Book are both all mysterious. In a way it's kind of odd, but in a way it kind of makes sense because the show was about the family you make and chose as much as the family you're born to.

[/sig]

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 2:29 AM

BROWNCOAT1

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

I've always thought we didn't know much about Mal's father because he really had no role to play in Joss's mind. He didn't raise Mal as it appears that job was left to his mother and the forty hands on the ranch. It is most likely Mal knows nothing of him and Joss never gave us any background on him because he decided it was not needed.

My guess is something happened either before Mal was born or shortly after. Mal's dad either died or took off and so had no role in his development.

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:15 AM

EVILDINOSAUR

Thinking of the fathers from other Joss series, he seems to write them as a challenge that needs to be overcome. At least that's how it seemed to me when I think of Buffy's father and Angel's father.

I think if Mal's father ever did come into the picture, he would be a "bad guy". I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Mal's father is some sort of commander in the alliance.

"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:31 AM

AGENTROUKA

Quote:
Originally posted by EvilDinosaur:
Thinking of the fathers from other Joss series, he seems to write them as a challenge that needs to be overcome. At least that's how it seemed to me when I think of Buffy's father and Angel's father.

I think if Mal's father ever did come into the picture, he would be a "bad guy". I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Mal's father is some sort of commander in the alliance.

"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."

Yeah, Joss IS decidedly weird about fathers. He's like the anti-Disney.

I agree that Mal's father would have likely played a problematic, potentially villainous role for Mal, but probably nothing as contrived as being part of th actual Alliance. I figured it to be more about parental abandonment, contrasting him with Mal's paternal relationship toward his cew and examining his antagonistic relationship with men in general.

But mainy it's like PhoenixRose says, we actually know nothing.

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 8:04 AM

MASTERJACKRYERSON

I wish we knew more about everyone's past. Some more than others(*cough*Book*cough*). But it still would have been interesting to know what kind of life they all had come from...

Yet another reason the series should come back. Even though Joss would probably never explain their pasts...

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 8:15 AM

BYTEMITE

The Serenity RPG manual says that Mal's mother taught him how to dance, and that the ranch foreman taught him how to use a gun.

It sounds like Ma Reynold's probably had the Foreman running the ranch while she took care of the finances. Perhaps Shadow had a faux-nobility like Persephone, and surely a ranch large enough to have forty hands is probably well enough off for it's owners to be considered that... But I think that suggests Ma Reynold's wasn't actually from Shadow, but rather the Core.

So I think that perhaps Mal's father is/was a very affluent man somewhere. And I think he likely treated his wife poorly, and that this may have shaped Mal's prejudices against rich men with coreworld manners (read: Inara's clients).

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:11 PM

BRINGITBACK

My theory..

Mal's father was executed by the alliance for conspiracy when Mal was very young...probably passing along his browncoat, guns and what-not...leaving Mal's mother and field hands to raise him.
I picture an incredibly noble and gentle man with integrity, but with a strong connection to the independance military.
After Mal's death, the alliance then sentence Mal's mother to the same fate, destroy the ranch and kill the aids who try and defend themselves.
This sequence of events plants the seed for the evil that is the alliance in Mal's mind and influences his crusade in the war.
After the war he has no family to turn to and purchases Serenity.

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Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:27 PM

STEAMER

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
So I think that perhaps Mal's father is a very affluent man somewhere. And I think he likely treated his wife poorly, and that this may have shaped Mal's prejudices against rich men with coreworld manners (read: Inara's clients).

You know, I was thinking almost the exact same thing not long ago. Wondering if Mal's father was, as you say, a highly affluent and powerful man. I don't know that he treated his wife poorly, though, because I got to wondering, what if they never even married? What if they had an affair that was streamlined by his wealth and power? He sure wouldn't be the first - hell, he wouldn't be one of the first billion. Then by the time Mal was born, it's quite possible that his father had exited the picture, perhaps wanting to remain incognito.

And if it was just a brief fling, was it an extramarital affair for Papa Reynolds, or was he just 'playing the field', as it were?

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With my brain."
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Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:43 PM

BYTEMITE

I like when an aspect of backstory helps to explain why the character acts the way they do.

There's three ways you could take the options you present.

You could use the "playing the field" card to show Mal's distrust towards men and their intentions towards women...

You could show why Mal is as traditional as he is, because I see him as the kind of person who thinks of marriage as meaning something. Having a mother who was on the outside of a marriage might make him think that marriage is an important part of a secure relationship. (Another complaint he might have about Inara's clients).

Or it could be a reflection in Mal's eyes of the extravagances and selfishness of rich core men. Of course, you could also have it go that way with the "playing the field," in that Mal might think they all act like playboys.

In fact... In regards to your incognito father comment, I'd been toying with the idea that Mal's mother might have been a companion, and she was burned by it.

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