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dangermousieWell, seeing that I am now only 3 episodes away from the end (sigh), I am going to engage in some random musing.
Mal is the reason I initially liked Firefly. No, it has nothing to do with looks, otherwise I'd be watching every soap in creation. What it does have to do with is that I have to have a POV character, a character I fall a little bit in love with for me truly to fall for the book/movie/show. I have certainly enjoyed plenty of entertainment without having such a character, but to go that extra step into "love" I have to have a character I can identify with, in some way, or to find fascinating. It is usually a man (but not always. In Buffy is was...well...Buffy), and there is usually only one (though once again, not always. In Hornblower it was both Horatio and Archie. And I am developing quite a similar feeling for Simon). And it almost always is the main character.
Well, if I had to be stuck on a falling-apart ship in a nasty place in the galaxy, I can't imagine a better captain than Mal.
What I find interesting about Mal is that he truly is an independent thinker, something that's a rarity in any world. He will never do something just because everyone views it as accepted or a society norm. He will do it only if he himself will evaluate it as right. Sometimes it leads to clashes: the whole society might think Companionship is nifty, but he thinks it's whoring, and the fact that that goes against prevalent thinking doesn't matter one way or another (Side question: do you think the Companion thing is a relatively new-fangled thing? Mal seems to be rather old-fashioned), and usually it leads to hardscrabble life, as he wouldn't be trying to be on the perimeter, staying out of Alliance way, if he could fit in, and give up his belief that Alliance is a bad thing, but I really like someone to whom individuality is so important, not for the sake of standing out, but just because that is how he is. I also like him because he sees people as people, completely independent of their role in society.
I also like the fact that he has a ruthless streak but he has his own intergity and is not a cagey person. If he says he doesn't have a plan, he doesn't. It's also rather interesting that he does run his ship like a sergeant, and that despite all the hard knocks and the infinite weariness with the Universe, he does have a certain tattered idealism left, and a very rigid and idyosyncratic code of honor. He only does acts that are Malum Prohibitum (bad because prohibited) and not Malum in se (bad in of themselves). He will smuggle, or still a laser gun from a rich Alliance officer, but when he realized he has stolen medicines the town needed, he returned them even though he knew what it would risk him with Niska. And he also shoots/kills someone only in self-defense or if they are threatening him with death. And of course he will do anything to protect his crew. I think he has tried to narrow the people/things in the world he cares about down to his crew, because that way he knows he can try to take care of them and protect them and save them and he doesn't have to hurt from losing anyone/anything, if his "caring" is limited to a small specific group of people (I think it's an aftermath of the war). He hasn't managed completely to stamp out his idealism, though, and that makes it even more interesting.
Basically, I like the fact that he is, underneath it all, a decent person. When I was watching War Stories, Niska was going on and on how Mal is extraodinary, but after the war, extraordinary people are out of place. He might be right, but it wasn't heroics that made Mal cross Niska in the first place, by returning those meds. It was simple human decency, the same decency that made Simon stop in the middle of smuggling his sister into a hospital and help a patient who was dying. You don't do these things because you are a Big Damn Hero (TM Mal), but because that is what a decent human being would do. (Niska, being a psycopath, cannot of course understand the distinction).
The scene where he almost ejects Jayne out of the airlock is pretty much emblematic of why I love the character. If Jayne wasn't in the opening credits, I'd be almost sure he was a goner, and I love a character who has that edge. It reminded me of the episode of Farscape where Crichton rescues Aeryn and the flunkie who was guarding her says "well, kill me then" and Crichton shoots him. He only wounds him, but for a moment you don't know if he's killed him or not, and that honest uncertainty, all bets are off, is truly wonderful. Clean-cut heroes don't do that, would never do that. But realistic characters might, and I like knowing that all bets are off. I like that he has no problem disposing of Jayne because he broke Mal's rather simple code and has no second thoughts, but what gives him pause is Jayne's request not to tell the others about what he did and what happened to him. It's customary to grant someone their last wish, but Mal won't lie for Jayne. He'll lie to anyone else, but he won't lie to his crew. And that I think is at least a chunk of why he changes his mind about Jayne, and I love that.
So I guess, yay Mal!
The above ties into the fact that when I look at the list of my all-time favorite shows, it goes like this:
1. Farscape
2. Firefly
3. BSG
Yes, BSG has slipped from second to third place. Before I get stoned by all the BSG-junkies on my list, let me explain.
Even though BSG has roughly the same amount of "important" characters as did Farscape at its largest or Firefly, somehow Firefly and Farscape seem more character-driven, and that is what I am a junkie for. Now, that might be an unfair comparison with Farscape that ended up being 92 hours long by the time it was done, but it's eminently fair to compare it to Firefly with its 15.
Maybe it's because we rarely see anyone on BSG outside their role (by the very nature of the show). We almost never see the Lee who is not CAG or Roslin advisor, Roslin who is not President, Starbuck who is not hotshot pilot. And that's fine, but I think it closes off many avenues for character exploration I am a sucker for. I think that is why I generally stay away from shows that are set in a medical setting, or law setting, or what have you. When characters are defined largely by their society roles, I don't have as much interest. BSG is extraordinarily well-written for me to get past that hurdle.
BSG is very intericately plotted and is more realistic than the other two. It has tighter arcs (Firefly only started to get one, and Farscape had insanely tight plotting in its multiparters, but its overall arcs were a bit looser). And it's better at worldbuidling than Firefly. But it lacks the wonderful off-the-wall humor of Farscape or verbal deftness of Firefly and I love those qualities. It has very good writing, but the dialogue, by its very nature, doesn't sparkle as much. It's appropriate for BSG to be very grim, as they are running from homicidal robots but I love me a good snark.
Most importantly, there isn't anyone on BSG who I have fallen in love with, the way I did with Crichton in Farscape and Mal (and lesser degree Simon) in Firefly. I really like Apollo and find him interesting, but I simply haven't seen enough of him to fall for him or not, and he is the front runner, in that context.
And this isn't related to anything above, but I wonder if Inara doesn't insist so rigidly on her perqs, because they are the only thing that separate her from a $2 whore. And I wonder if Book is an intelligence operative or similar (abbey makes a good cover). I wonder.
Mal is the reason I initially liked Firefly. No, it has nothing to do with looks, otherwise I'd be watching every soap in creation. What it does have to do with is that I have to have a POV character, a character I fall a little bit in love with for me truly to fall for the book/movie/show. I have certainly enjoyed plenty of entertainment without having such a character, but to go that extra step into "love" I have to have a character I can identify with, in some way, or to find fascinating. It is usually a man (but not always. In Buffy is was...well...Buffy), and there is usually only one (though once again, not always. In Hornblower it was both Horatio and Archie. And I am developing quite a similar feeling for Simon). And it almost always is the main character.
Well, if I had to be stuck on a falling-apart ship in a nasty place in the galaxy, I can't imagine a better captain than Mal.
What I find interesting about Mal is that he truly is an independent thinker, something that's a rarity in any world. He will never do something just because everyone views it as accepted or a society norm. He will do it only if he himself will evaluate it as right. Sometimes it leads to clashes: the whole society might think Companionship is nifty, but he thinks it's whoring, and the fact that that goes against prevalent thinking doesn't matter one way or another (Side question: do you think the Companion thing is a relatively new-fangled thing? Mal seems to be rather old-fashioned), and usually it leads to hardscrabble life, as he wouldn't be trying to be on the perimeter, staying out of Alliance way, if he could fit in, and give up his belief that Alliance is a bad thing, but I really like someone to whom individuality is so important, not for the sake of standing out, but just because that is how he is. I also like him because he sees people as people, completely independent of their role in society.
I also like the fact that he has a ruthless streak but he has his own intergity and is not a cagey person. If he says he doesn't have a plan, he doesn't. It's also rather interesting that he does run his ship like a sergeant, and that despite all the hard knocks and the infinite weariness with the Universe, he does have a certain tattered idealism left, and a very rigid and idyosyncratic code of honor. He only does acts that are Malum Prohibitum (bad because prohibited) and not Malum in se (bad in of themselves). He will smuggle, or still a laser gun from a rich Alliance officer, but when he realized he has stolen medicines the town needed, he returned them even though he knew what it would risk him with Niska. And he also shoots/kills someone only in self-defense or if they are threatening him with death. And of course he will do anything to protect his crew. I think he has tried to narrow the people/things in the world he cares about down to his crew, because that way he knows he can try to take care of them and protect them and save them and he doesn't have to hurt from losing anyone/anything, if his "caring" is limited to a small specific group of people (I think it's an aftermath of the war). He hasn't managed completely to stamp out his idealism, though, and that makes it even more interesting.
Basically, I like the fact that he is, underneath it all, a decent person. When I was watching War Stories, Niska was going on and on how Mal is extraodinary, but after the war, extraordinary people are out of place. He might be right, but it wasn't heroics that made Mal cross Niska in the first place, by returning those meds. It was simple human decency, the same decency that made Simon stop in the middle of smuggling his sister into a hospital and help a patient who was dying. You don't do these things because you are a Big Damn Hero (TM Mal), but because that is what a decent human being would do. (Niska, being a psycopath, cannot of course understand the distinction).
The scene where he almost ejects Jayne out of the airlock is pretty much emblematic of why I love the character. If Jayne wasn't in the opening credits, I'd be almost sure he was a goner, and I love a character who has that edge. It reminded me of the episode of Farscape where Crichton rescues Aeryn and the flunkie who was guarding her says "well, kill me then" and Crichton shoots him. He only wounds him, but for a moment you don't know if he's killed him or not, and that honest uncertainty, all bets are off, is truly wonderful. Clean-cut heroes don't do that, would never do that. But realistic characters might, and I like knowing that all bets are off. I like that he has no problem disposing of Jayne because he broke Mal's rather simple code and has no second thoughts, but what gives him pause is Jayne's request not to tell the others about what he did and what happened to him. It's customary to grant someone their last wish, but Mal won't lie for Jayne. He'll lie to anyone else, but he won't lie to his crew. And that I think is at least a chunk of why he changes his mind about Jayne, and I love that.
So I guess, yay Mal!
The above ties into the fact that when I look at the list of my all-time favorite shows, it goes like this:
1. Farscape
2. Firefly
3. BSG
Yes, BSG has slipped from second to third place. Before I get stoned by all the BSG-junkies on my list, let me explain.
Even though BSG has roughly the same amount of "important" characters as did Farscape at its largest or Firefly, somehow Firefly and Farscape seem more character-driven, and that is what I am a junkie for. Now, that might be an unfair comparison with Farscape that ended up being 92 hours long by the time it was done, but it's eminently fair to compare it to Firefly with its 15.
Maybe it's because we rarely see anyone on BSG outside their role (by the very nature of the show). We almost never see the Lee who is not CAG or Roslin advisor, Roslin who is not President, Starbuck who is not hotshot pilot. And that's fine, but I think it closes off many avenues for character exploration I am a sucker for. I think that is why I generally stay away from shows that are set in a medical setting, or law setting, or what have you. When characters are defined largely by their society roles, I don't have as much interest. BSG is extraordinarily well-written for me to get past that hurdle.
BSG is very intericately plotted and is more realistic than the other two. It has tighter arcs (Firefly only started to get one, and Farscape had insanely tight plotting in its multiparters, but its overall arcs were a bit looser). And it's better at worldbuidling than Firefly. But it lacks the wonderful off-the-wall humor of Farscape or verbal deftness of Firefly and I love those qualities. It has very good writing, but the dialogue, by its very nature, doesn't sparkle as much. It's appropriate for BSG to be very grim, as they are running from homicidal robots but I love me a good snark.
Most importantly, there isn't anyone on BSG who I have fallen in love with, the way I did with Crichton in Farscape and Mal (and lesser degree Simon) in Firefly. I really like Apollo and find him interesting, but I simply haven't seen enough of him to fall for him or not, and he is the front runner, in that context.
And this isn't related to anything above, but I wonder if Inara doesn't insist so rigidly on her perqs, because they are the only thing that separate her from a $2 whore. And I wonder if Book is an intelligence operative or similar (abbey makes a good cover). I wonder.
