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Originally posted by HighWiredSith:
Yeah, I know, a beloved character, sweet, innocent, pure...but in how many episodes does Kaylee get her feelings hurt? I mean seriously, you have to walk on eggshells around the girl. Jayne upsets her, Mal upsets her, the women at the part upset her, Simon upsets her and upsets her and upsets her...just about every show features someone hurting sweet little Kaylee's feelings. Maybe she ought to toughen up a little eh?

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Originally posted by Channain:
We'd have seen it develop, had the series continued. I suspect Kaylee's character development would have been as dramatic as Willow's in "Buffy."

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OK, maybe not. But Jayne's line about Kaylee wishing Simon was a gynocologist was flat out hilarious.

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Originally posted by LouGojira:

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OK, maybe not. But Jayne's line about Kaylee wishing Simon was a gynocologist was flat out hilarious.

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Yeah, I laughed at that myself. I don't understand why Mal got so ticked off about it, because he had called Inara a whore in introducing her to Shepherd Book just a little earlier...kind of a double-standard to me, unless he got mad over Jayne's words embarassing Kaylee...oh well, I'm probably analyzing it too deeply.

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Originally posted by BlackRabbit:
Kaylee always strikes me as a nice portrait of a rural female. A frontier child, you might say. She gives what she has openly and honestly. She speaks from her heart and isn't sophisticated in attempting to hide her intent or apologize for her actions. She's not "too cool to care" or subtly aloof like Inara. Kaylee doesn't have Zoe's emotional distance, nor Zoe's strength.

She's absolutely charming.

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Originally posted by AnimalMother:
In my opinion, Mal feels as if Kaylee is his little sister; he has moments throughout the series where he shows that kinda overprotective and caring side of him to Kaylee. The pilot episode had a lot of those moments; the Jayne-gynocologist thing obviously, when Kaylee gets shot and he's contemplating whether to run or not and then Kaylee lets out that serious cry in which he then decides to let Simon have his way so long as Kaylee gets medical attention, when Kaylee says shes feeling cold in the infirmary and Mal covers her with a blanket.... We all know Mal has that obligation towards his crew to protect them but it always seems like Kaylee gets most of that affection. He did make fun of her in Shindig with the dress thing but he quickly realized that it wasnt in his true nature to say something like that to Kaylee and obviously redeems himself and her feelings later in the episode.

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If Jewel Staite is even half as charming as the character of Kaylee in real life, her boyfriend or husband is seriously one lucky s.o.b.!

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Originally posted by HighWiredSmith
But it did get a little annoying, every time one of the male characters would say something to hurt her feelings the rest of the crew would give them these "you're just plain evil" looks….But her turn to the darkside moment with the reavers because she wanted to have sex was, well, just a little weird.

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Originally posted by StillShiny
If I may....Joss himself made this comparison. He said Kaylee was the heart, the sense of family for the crew. He said Kaylee was much like Willow was for Buffy….If Willow or Kaylee was afraid, Joss (the viewer) was afraid. If Kaylee or Willow said "this is a good person" the viewer (Joss) believed this was a good person.

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Looks like it's the right thread for my rant on Kaylee/Simon.

I started out loving Kaylee in the pilot: the strawberry, the parasole, the cheerfullness, 'That's my girl, that's my good girl' etc. - and I loved the sparkle between her and Simon: he was so uptight and arrogant there, but when he looked at her you could see there's more to him, and she brought it out.
I continued to like her in Train Job and Bushwacked, and it was fun to watch the sparkle between her and Simon grow. My admiration for her culminated in Shindig: oh, she was so sweet in her Cinderella dress, and winning the hearts of all those older gentlemen at the Party with mechanic talk - priceless.

But since Safe, since she started hitting on Simon heavily, my admiration went downhill. She appeared selfish and too demanding to me: it looked like she just wanted "a bite" out of the man (in her own words there) and didn't really care about him as a person or tried to understand him. All she cared for is to have her way with this good-looking fella, and she could get mightily mean with him when that desire couldn't be fullfilled as fast as she wanted.

That scene in the store in Safe: it was so obvious that Simon was at the end of his rope, he looked and felt at that time like a tired mother whose kid is having a tantrum in a public place and who's had a scene with her husband shortly before that (I believe mothers out here can emphasize...) Anyone with eyes could see that, but Kaylee didn't notice as she was too busy drooling over his looks. No wonder her comment about "having fun" provokes the outburst from him, and she lashes back with suprising meanness, without even trying to think why he would say such things. Gee, could it be that he is not the happiest or care-free-est guy in the world, could it be that something is eating at him - what would that be, eh? Does one have to be a smartie to figure it out? Kaylee's not stupid - so it looked like she just didn't care.

But it gets even worse in Jamestown: her trying to lecture him on error of his ways of being polite and cultured and gentlemanly. She wanted him to change for her: that's a big no-no in relationships. But moreover, she wanted him to change for the worse just because she was uncomfortable with him being a bit out of her league. The man lost everything, lost his old life with all that was dear for him, besides his wreck of a sister whom he also almost lost. Those manners, culture, principles - those are things which help him to hold it together, to remain himself in unfamiliar and often adverse circumstances.
There are stories out there since times of gold rushes, about people having to spend winter locked in some cabin, or being lost and having to treck out of the woods for weeks. My half-brother was a forester and now he is a hunter, and he's been in such situations. The guys who continue to shave regularly, to wash their clothes, to build up fire & cook hot meals even if they are starving and tired and that means more work - those guys have much better chance to get out of this alive and well than those who just let it go and sink down to primary state.
It's the same for Simon - keeping his refined manners really helps him to survive and remain whole, and it's very inconsiderate of Kaylee to try and kick it from under him.
And come on - her head wouldn't have exploded if she learned a bit about Egyptians. History is fun, expanding horizons is fun, learning something beyound the daily routine is fun as well.

Also that bit with her chiding him for getting beaten by Stitch makes me cringe. First of all: it was her fault for leaving him at that bar, where he was clearly out of place, for no practical purpose but out of spite for his awkward words. She left him there bewildered and hangover, and Stitch got him by suprise, OK? Plus this Stitch was thick as a bull: not only Simon hitting him with a bottle had no effect, but later Jayne throws a huge knife at him and this guy just ignores it and keeps fighting with a knife sticking out of his chest! Blaming Simon for loosing this fight is pretty silly, I don't know what she was thinking.

Then comes the Message, and it gets worse still. As already noted here, she gets mad at Simon for some awkward words but then falls for quite disgusting Tracy who wouldn't hesitate to shoot her.

Also all that stuff about him having to be happy on Serenity. Kaylee wants him to like Serenity just because she loves it, and she again doesn't care what he wants, what really makes him happy. She gets upset over him liking his old life at the hospital - if she cared for him she would take it into account instead, would be glad for this piece of insight into his character. If she cared for him and understood him she would really wish for his ordeal to be over someday, for him to be able to return to the work he loves.

It just - I don't know, she demands and demands - that he learned to like it on Serenity, that he says only the right words, that he be like everybody else and not stand out etc., - and she gives nothing back. Simon is remarkably strong fella but he's just not in a condition to give to her, he's totally spent with his care of River.
He could use some takin' instead, some support and understanding, that's why I enjoy his moments with Inara and Book - they both are very good to him, and they are also from his world.
I love the moment in Jamestown when Book offers to babysit River and give Simon couple of hours of freedom - as a mother of twins I can really appreciate how much that could mean. :)

Mind you, I liked Kaylee much more in the movie: there she was more mature and caring. That made the end when they made it up quite believable. But what I really missed in the movie is the some closing scene between Simon and River: after all, it was his quest to save her, and the quest really ended on Miranda: River was truly back. Some moment of happiness and rejoice between them, some moment of them being brother and sister as before, enjoying themselves, revelling in their geekiness and smartness - that would be really sweet and would put a good closure on everything, better than just going at it with Kaylee.

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Originally posted by msg:
Plus I just love watching her throw Simon so totally off guard.

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