Mal-adapted Plans by Bytemite

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Mal-adapted Plans

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POSTED BY: BYTEMITE
UPDATED: Thursday, April 14, 2011 03:32
SHORT URL: http://bit.ly/eVJdqe
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Monday, April 11, 2011 4:24 AM

So, just for fun, and all due respect to the captain here...

Do you think Mal is a strategic genius, is he making it up as he goes, do his plans work through sheer force of will, or is it only through the intervention of more level heads that Mal pulls off whatever he's attempting?

All of the above is possibly a viable answer, but for the sake of discussion, pick the one you think best describes what we're looking at most of the time.

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Monday, April 11, 2011 6:07 AM

BLUEEYEDBRIGADIER

Quote:
Originally posted by Bytemite:
So, just for fun, and all due respect to the captain here...

Do you think Mal is a strategic genius, is he making it up as he goes, do his plans work through sheer force of will, or is it only through the intervention of more level heads that Mal pulls off whatever he's attempting?

All of the above is possibly a viable answer, but for the sake of discussion, pick the one you think best describes what we're looking at most of the time.

Hmm...rather tough question, I think. His plans don't go smoothly at all from what we get to see in the series, comics and film...but I think Mal is a decent strategist. Let's go to the highlights:

1) He knows to have Inara as a back-up for the Lassiter Job in "Trash" because Saffron is gonna find a way to screw them out of the take;

2) He knows how to scare Jayne straight in "Ariel" via the airlock session;

3) He kept Wash occupied via sexual innuendo while they're being tortured in "War Stories" due to Wash having a different level of experience with such things

4) He outfoxes The Operative 2-3 times in the BDM (the pulse beacon in his pocket, the Reaver armada as "back-up" and being basically immune to the nerve strike (though that one is sheer luck mostly).

"The revenge of the beaten comes in refusing to fall." -- Mal, in "The Losing Side - Chapter 45" by jetflair

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Monday, April 11, 2011 6:28 AM

MYOWNKNIGHT

I think that while he can plan ahead, he knows that they never go as planned, so for the most part he has a loose plan of how things should happen (get in, grab it, get out.) and only through sheer force of will and badassness do they get from point A to point B.

"I don't wanna rain on your crazy parade, buddy. But I don't think we can fix this thing."

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Monday, April 11, 2011 6:37 AM

BYTEMITE

Fun one though!

I think that Mal is smarter than some might give him credit for, barring a few things that he seems to be selectively oblivious about. He appears to be a master of the unexpected and unpredictable, which itself IS a viable strategy.

He's also very genre savvy. Part of the reason I like Mal is that he's often saying what I'm thinking. One of the best early examples I can point out is Mal's reaction in the pilot, just after they finish talking to Patience.

But! I also think Mal has some of the worst plans I've ever seen, and this is often highlighted by his crew. Not just that they seem to go wrong with alarmingly clockwork regularity, but that the plans THEMSELVES sometimes are questionable, if not outright insane.

Quote:
Zoe: Captain'll come up with a plan.
Kaylee: That's good, right?
Zoe: It's possible you're not remembering some of his previous plans.

In a future episode, I fully imagine Mal coming up with one where the entire crew jaw drops on hearing it, and Simon asks, "Do you listen to yourself, when you come up with these ideas, or is it an unconscious game of mad libs?"

Playing devils advocate here:

1) He knows to have Inara as a back-up for the Lassiter Job in "Trash" because Saffron is gonna find a way to screw them out of the take;

--Do we know that HE'S the one who came up with that? Obviously he didn't expect to be ditched naked in a desert, it seems more like his "all according to plan" and bravado is just him trying to save face.

2) He knows how to scare Jayne straight in "Ariel" via the airlock session;

--Not sure that's a "plan" per se, or that he didn't know he was going to spare Jayne until Jayne gave him a reason.

3) He kept Wash occupied via sexual innuendo while they're being tortured in "War Stories" due to Wash having a different level of experience with such things

--Also not sure that's a plan more than the only option he had at the time.

4) He outfoxes The Operative 2-3 times in the BDM (the pulse beacon in his pocket, the Reaver armada as "back-up" and being basically immune to the nerve strike

--THOSE are plans. But even the Pulse Beacon wasn't a GOOD plan, as his plan pretty much ended at "keep the Operative from finding Serenity" and didn't include "how do I get myself and Inara out of this, so that they don't take us captive, torture us to try to get me to reveal the whereabouts of the ship, and force the crew to come after me and give up River after all we went through anyway."

The Reaver Armada was a better plan... Though horrific, and also not fully thought out. But it's hard not to give a guy credit for finding an entire other armed fleet to pit against the one ambushing him.

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Monday, April 11, 2011 2:22 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I like MyOwnKnight's answer, all of the above in certain combinations, get an outline but shove through and think on your feet if ... who am I kidding ... when it doesn't work.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, April 11, 2011 4:15 PM

BYTEMITE

Yeah, I think it's mostly improv. Doesn't make it any less impressive to see, though. :)

Quote:
Mal: This is all part of our new plan.
Kaylee: How exactly is—
Mal: Still workin' the details.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011 12:19 AM

FREMDFIRMA

"Every plan gets fouled up as soon as the enemy arrives - that's why he's called the enemy!"
-Maurice, from the Belisarius series by David Drake.

I think Mal is, in part by virtue of military command, a zen master of the Indy Ploy.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IndyPloy
Jack Sparrow and Mr Jones do it with more flair, but Mal gets it done, indeed.

You couldn't call it Xanatos Speed Chess, since Mal is a bit (ok, more than a bit) on the dense/stubborn side, and tends to push through on an existing plan when maybe that's not such a good idea any longer - he's got a history of that sorta thing, don't ya know.

Zoe on the other hand, can and has pulled off that gambit, particularly in the ep: War Stories.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosSpeedChess
(her initial entry/recon survey is exactly this)

-Frem

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011 4:18 AM

BYTEMITE

Interesting thoughts about Zoe, I could see that.

Maybe the success of the crew is dependent on a number of different planning styles that come together.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011 4:43 PM

THEHAPPYTRADER

I like this thread, wish I noticed it earlier but am a mite short on time so my short answer is Mal is a terrible strategist but a brilliant improviser.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011 4:59 PM

BYTEMITE

Hee!

We need more people voting for the other side of the equation now, though.

I want to see discussions, enlightenment on plot points I missed illustrating how Mal had something more planned out than I gave him credit for.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 8:07 AM

BROWNCOAT1

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

Quote:
Originally posted by myownknight:
I think that while he can plan ahead, he knows that they never go as planned, so for the most part he has a loose plan of how things should happen (get in, grab it, get out.) and only through sheer force of will and badassness do they get from point A to point B.

Agreed.

Mal just seems to have a run of bad luck, granted a run that's been going for awhile now. I do think MyOwnKnight is on to something though in that Mal knows that no plan survives contact with the enemy so he keeps the plan fluid, making changes as needed, but to most it may appear like he is just making it up as he goes along.

__________________________________________
Holding the line since December '02!

X.O. / Battalion O.I.C.

http://76thbattalion.homestead.com/index.html

http://76thbattalion.proboards.com

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:33 AM

BYTEMITE

Hmm, interesting. So, loose planning. He has an end goal in mind, and certain important steps or alternative options along the way.

Maybe. Episode discussion or examples?

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 2:30 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

I think that no one can deny that Mal is a fast thinker, which honestly, I would define as part of being a good strategist. If one has a strategy that looks fool proof but goes wrong somewhere along the way, his/her worth as a strategist is put into question if a new adjustment can't be made to salvage the plan.

But that being said it seems like Inara bails Mal out a lot, two examples, In the Train Job Inara has to rescue Mal and Zoe. In Jaynestown Inara inadvertantly influences Fess to stand up for himself and what he believes, thus leading him to lift the landlock on Serenity at the end of the episode.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 3:39 PM

BYTEMITE

And on that note, we also don't know if in Trash if Mal came up with using Inara as a backup, or Inara did and she mentioned it to Mal.

We know Mal at least knew about the backup plan, because on seeing Inara he knows that she waited around for Saffron and that they have the Lassiter.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 4:37 PM

FREMDFIRMA

Inaras doing, certainly.

Mal wouldn't have included her in the plan out of a combination of not wanting to incriminate/implicate her, a certain sorta-subconscious chauvanistic boneheaded protectiveness, not wanting to drag her into his problems, yadda-yadda, basically Mal being Mal, you know ?

Only Inara woulda marched right up to him and it woulda gone like this -
"You know you can't trust her!"
"Don't plan to trust her, but might as well make her useful"
"(whatever chinese is for idiot-moron)! last time she almost stole your ship!"
"Well, you have any ideas you're working on ?"
"As a matter of fact, I do."
"Uuuuh,... oh... okay...."

And she would have just run him completely over about it, like she usually does.

<--Knows THAT dynamic a leeetle tooo well, yessss...

-Frem

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 5:14 PM

CYBERSNARK

Also, Inara's little ba'slan shev'la just doesn't feel like a Mal plan: he's not one for sneaking around and setting traps for others to walk into on their own. He seems to prefer his schemes out in the open, where his opponents can see him coming ("you will be awake, you will be facing me, and you will be armed").

Inara, OTOH, is clearly a chessmaster. She knows how to think three moves ahead, and she won't make a move unless her opponent is already vulnerable.

His original pre-Inara plan would likely have been for Serenity to just hide out nearby (somehow) and follow the garbage scow directly.

Mal's more of a tactician than a strategist, I think. Tactics is about what you do in the heat of battle, while strategy is more about what happens before and after the actual bloodletting.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 5:18 PM

BYTEMITE

Ha! Frem, Cybersnark, I gotta say, I love that. Perfect characterization.

Also, chinese for stupid idiot: "ben dan" or "sha gua." Inara would probably go for ben dan, as it applies more to out and out stupidity, whereas sha gua is more silliness and foolishness and I believe can be used affectionately.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 5:47 PM

CHRISISALL

IMO Mal makes it up as he goes, but, unbeknownst to him, he's best under pressure. That's when he really performs! Otherwise, he's like to take jobs shuttling around bobbly-headed doll thingies to make coin.
Han makes better plans, and Indy has more sheer determination, but Mal has grit, TRUE GRIT!

The laughing Chrisisall

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 5:55 PM

BYTEMITE

Ha, I hear that.

There's something interesting about the Wobbley-headed Doll caper though. Katesfriend pointed it out to me once.

So, Mal maybe kinda possibly has some PTSD, you know? But it's subtle.

So subtle, that the only job Mal is willing to take on after his escape from Niska and near brush with death is transporting innocuous and not very high selling dolls. So subtle, that Inara, a trained companion, may or may not recognize the source of Mal's hesitation, but she has to confront him anyway.

That scene where Mal is fighting with Inara in Trash takes on a new and interesting layer if you interpret it that Inara is really concerned about Mal, but is able to get him functioning again in the only way he'll accept, by getting him fighting again.

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 7:31 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

If Mal has PTSD (up for debate depending on who you ask/how you're defining it) then he's had it a long time, I don't think it would be new after Niska, however the incident with Niska could have caused a flairup.

Anyways, I agree that Inara is a chess master type, she and Mal together, along with being really amusingly dysfunctional, can come up with some pretty interesting plans.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 9:00 PM

JOURNEY

In the words of Myles Vorkosigan, the sometimes Admiral Naismith, "Forward momentum." Mal is no where near the genius that Myles is at manipulation; he takes the blunt approach instead (Shindig, anyone?). But both characters do have that ability to get themselves into (and out of) situations simply by not standing still and not giving up.

Dinozombies!

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Thursday, April 14, 2011 3:32 AM

BYTEMITE

Yeah, this was the flare up kind we were thinking about. Mal doesn't exactly live by routine, but the way he manages is that he figures he can go out on these jobs and into the cold uncaring verse and so long as he can make it back to Serenity, he'll be okay. Serenity is his big safe zone, it's where he unwinds and is able to take his time settling back down.

But with Niska, he didn't manage to make it back, and he also pulled in Wash with him. His usual way of coping with the stress of his lifestyle was disrupted. Plus, Mal's trigger is probably more having lost so many people in the past than it is violence. So, putting Wash in danger and disruption of the usual calm down equals flare up.

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