Firefly Wednesday: Jaynestown
May. 8th, 2013 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
One of the few things I like about Mal is his relationship with Kaylee. He has a sort of older-brotherly or perhaps fatherly air toward her, in a gentle, caring, not-at-all-overbearing way. The scene in Jaynestown where Kaylee and Simon are hitting it off in the bar and Mal is all, "It's time to go!" Priceless.
Kaylee: But things are going well! (Significant Look at Simon. He's just told her that she's pretty, in his awkward Simon way. )
Mal: Oh. I...will leave you here to...look after Jayne, then?
Kaylee: (nodnodnod)
Of course, I think it says something about Mal that he is only capable of forming this relationship with the one person on his crew who not only would never question his authority, but views him with the trusting awe usually reserved for small children toward their parents: there's an earlier episode where Kaylee is all, "Cap'n said he'd take care of it," and it's clear that in her mind, when Mal has said he will do something, God himself could not stop him.
I think this child-like quality is both part of the reason I like Kaylee so much, and part of the reason that I have reservations about her relationship with Simon. Although oddly it does not bother me with regard to Kaylee/Inara. Possibly because Kaylee is never like, "INARA, your fancy-schmancy ways make me feel inadequate/feel like you think I'm inadequate, and therefore YOU SHOULD CHANGE."
Whereas this is one of the keynotes of her conversations with Simon. I feel like "I want you to change a lot!" is never a good starting point for a relationship.
Of course, Inara doesn't give the impression that she thinks she's better than other people, whereas Simon is so awkward that he totally gives that impression, even when he doesn't actually think that. (And I bet he does sometimes feel better than other people, although probably not better than Kaylee in particular.)
...And most of the rest of the episode is about Jayne. I must confess, I have never particularly cared about Jayne. In show, I find it baffling that Mal didn't think he needed to find his crew a tank who will actually be loyal.
On a more meta level, I find it exasperating that the show keeps flirting with the idea that Jayne will totes betray them, even though it is clear that the gods of the narrative will never allow Jayne to successfully betray anyone (and no one seems to hold his attempts against him, either). The show wants to have the frisson of danger that a possibly traitorous character can give, without actually dealing with the fact that this would be massively disruptive for ship camaraderie.
Kaylee: But things are going well! (Significant Look at Simon. He's just told her that she's pretty, in his awkward Simon way. )
Mal: Oh. I...will leave you here to...look after Jayne, then?
Kaylee: (nodnodnod)
Of course, I think it says something about Mal that he is only capable of forming this relationship with the one person on his crew who not only would never question his authority, but views him with the trusting awe usually reserved for small children toward their parents: there's an earlier episode where Kaylee is all, "Cap'n said he'd take care of it," and it's clear that in her mind, when Mal has said he will do something, God himself could not stop him.
I think this child-like quality is both part of the reason I like Kaylee so much, and part of the reason that I have reservations about her relationship with Simon. Although oddly it does not bother me with regard to Kaylee/Inara. Possibly because Kaylee is never like, "INARA, your fancy-schmancy ways make me feel inadequate/feel like you think I'm inadequate, and therefore YOU SHOULD CHANGE."
Whereas this is one of the keynotes of her conversations with Simon. I feel like "I want you to change a lot!" is never a good starting point for a relationship.
Of course, Inara doesn't give the impression that she thinks she's better than other people, whereas Simon is so awkward that he totally gives that impression, even when he doesn't actually think that. (And I bet he does sometimes feel better than other people, although probably not better than Kaylee in particular.)
...And most of the rest of the episode is about Jayne. I must confess, I have never particularly cared about Jayne. In show, I find it baffling that Mal didn't think he needed to find his crew a tank who will actually be loyal.
On a more meta level, I find it exasperating that the show keeps flirting with the idea that Jayne will totes betray them, even though it is clear that the gods of the narrative will never allow Jayne to successfully betray anyone (and no one seems to hold his attempts against him, either). The show wants to have the frisson of danger that a possibly traitorous character can give, without actually dealing with the fact that this would be massively disruptive for ship camaraderie.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-09 01:33 am (UTC)Which means he sometimes inadvertantly strays from that very narrow path, and I think Kaylee gets wayyyy too offended about that way too easily. It happens here, it happens in Safe, and it happens in The Message. Kaylee always presumes the best in everyone else, but when it comes to Simon, I think she thinks he's better than everyone else, and that he should act accordingly. Because he's from the Core, she expects him to be pretty and perfect, like Inara, and he's not, because he's not a trained Companion. And when he fails to live up to her expectations (and he will fail, because no man could live up to that expectation), Kaylee throws really childish fits.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-09 03:54 am (UTC)Never mind that he's in an environment that is totally strange and frightening to him, looking after his deeply wounded little sister, and generally has more issues than the New York Times.
It doesn't show her in a very good light.
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Date: 2013-05-09 06:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-09 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-09 06:30 pm (UTC)...actually, I was working on a Firefly story for Lishan that I got stuck on. Would you maybe be willing to help me figure out how to make it work sometime (all OCs, though).
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Date: 2013-05-09 09:07 pm (UTC)And sure, we can chat about your Firefly story. Not sure how much help I'll be as they're all OCs, but we'll see.
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Date: 2013-05-10 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-14 04:26 am (UTC)I love to randomly sing that. :D
The show wants to have the frisson of danger that a possibly traitorous character can give, without actually dealing with the fact that this would be massively disruptive for ship camaraderie.
Oh so true.
no subject
Date: 2013-05-14 01:02 pm (UTC)