Just Joined the Ranks ...

[fiat_knox]

... of the lucky people, Browncoats and just ordinary fans, who now own the series Firefly. I bought the entire series on DVD last night. Cost me, but this is definitely something for which I have found a use for money.

Are you sure Joss Whedon never played Marc Miller / GDW's Traveller at all? Because I get the most uncannily nostalgic vibe from it all ...

nyghtshayde, as long as I've got this thing on DVD, you'll never be far away from my thoughts. I mean, you never were far away from my thoughts, but ... you see my point. :)

And a belated Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, hon.

Comments

Muahahaha...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

...we now own your soul. *evil grin* Now that you have the series, you have a chance to watch it all and get attached to the characters. Then see the movie. :D

Seriously, have you started watching it yet? Which characters do you like so far? It's hard for me to have a favorite...but I do know my least favorite is Inara and I still like her to a degree.

Don't know if Joss ever played Traveller, but we're playing it now and it's a Firefly-esque type thing. Game setting, of course, but personalities are very Firefly. Though Jeff and I will eventually get the actual Firefly roleplaying game book.

Which ones?

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

Well, I can see the social dynamics of the crew.

There's that thing between Wash and Zoe, Zoe and Mal which was exploited in War Stories - and it wasn't lost on me that Zoe chose Wash over Mal without hesitation when presented with the choice (although it could as easily be the soldier in her thinking "Rescue the civvies first").

There was that relationship between Kaylee and Simon that almost happened, and of course the relationship between Mal and Inara, virtually right from the outset. She chose Mal from the moment she saw him, likely as not, and while she clearly stated in Out of Gas that neither Mal nor any other members of Serenity were to be her clients, she did not explicitly state that she wasn't open to having Mal become her, erm, "indentured man," so to speak.

And of course, Mal completely missed the point that she was telling him, by not telling him, that he was welcome to her arms, and her bed, but as a lover, not as a client. Tragic that she never actually said it out loud to him, because he, like most guys I know, wouldn't know a subtle hint if you dropped it on their heads wrapped around a housebrick.

I like Book, but they could have done a lote more with him than give him a "frizzy hair" episode. Like maybe if the series had not been canned, they could have explored why he left his secret former life behind and became a man of the cloth in the first place. What horrible event could possibly shaken his belief in the world to cause him to go off and seek God?

I love that the crew can't even begin to imagine that River is a psionic character - nor Simon realise that his folks had sold River to Blue Sun ("Thanks for giving us a spare, Mr and Mrs Tam. We were going to take your son, as arranged, but you've given us a daughter who's much more promising, so we'll take her instead. Here's your payment and a bonus"). It takes outsiders to figure out what River is, and they only see it through the filter of their own experiences (qv the villagers in Safe seeing her as a good old fashioned Biblical witch).

I looove Kaylee! She is so sweet! You just have to squeeze her and give her a flower just to see her smile! The actress has the sweetest smile I have ever seen. At the end, you just want her to find happiness with Simon, or anybody for that matter. Oh, and man-hungry - tell me about it ... ;) Compared to Kaylee, Inara's just totally outclassed. Inara's all about restraint and politeness, the art of the courtesan and the geisha, that subtle dance of courtesy and seduction - and Kaylee's just getting it on, grabbing whatever ass she can, living in the moment, like everybody else.

Jayne makes me laugh out loud, when he isn't doing something that makes you just want to slap him around.

Simon is the very archetype of the guy out of his depth. He hasn't got Clue One about what Blue Sun have done to River. And River's trying to explain things to them, but her words come out as gibberish, so I can understand completely where she comes from.

Book came to life when River explained that she was fixing his Bible. :) I don't think he'll ever forgive her for deconstructing his faith. Okay, have faith, she's saying: but open your eyes and see what exactly it is you're supposed to be having faith in.

Whom would I go out to the pub with? Erm, none of them. It's either business (Inara) or it'll end up in a fight (Mal, Jayne), or they'd be even more socially awkward than me (Book, Simon, Zoe and Wash together), or it'd be ... well, there'd be a special Hell for it if I took advantage of them (River, Kaylee)

Which would I date? Kaylee. Inara, I wouldn't go near. River is ... it'd be so wrong, on so many levels.

Who's the absolute favourite of them all? Well ... I'd think that together, they all form a complete whole, all of them being there for one another. I'd not want to pick a favourite, because my favourite is when they are all together (that time in Heart of Gold when all nine are walking up to the whorehouse is a powerful image, very poignant).

Re: Which ones?

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

Wash and Zoe are married. That's one of the biggest things I love about the show. A married couple that isn't perfect, that has their ups and downs, but when the shit hits the fan, they love each other with a passion that outshines the ass-end of Serenity. Jeff and I identify heavily with Wash and Zoe for that very reason. That and as Wash so poetically says in Our Mrs. Reynolds, "Not many people get Zoe and me." That is sooooooooo Jeff and me. I'm the dominant one. He's the goofy sweetheart. And people think I'm horrible to him because I'm a bitch. So yeah. Heavy identification there. I also identify heavily with Mal. He's got a ship to run and he may love his crew, but he can't go soft on them in a crisis because he has to be a tough bastard to pull them all together and get them to snap out of it and use their strengths. I like that. I relate to that.

I like Inara, but she's not someone I'd be chummy with, you know? She's cold, she's a businesswoman and she's extremely fucking snobby. I don't like the elitest fucking attitude that she has and even when she gets along with Zoe and Kaylee, I get more of a sense that she somewhat looks down on them. Not maliciously...just like she's superior to them.

I adore Jayne. I can't describe in words how much I love him. I don't know what it is...maybe it's because he's big and dumb and cuddly. And Vera!!! He named his fucking gun!

Wash, naturally, I love.

I love Book, too, and I can tell you that at this juncture, we still don't know much about him. The movie doesn't explain much more. But there are supposed to be two more movies to finish it all out. You need to see the movie now.

It's hard to pick a favorite really. They all blend together so well. Like a gaming group that's played for years with each other and have learned how to work as a team. Smooth and perfect.

I like Simon a lot, and he does get a little better in the movie towards "getting a clue." Actually...no. Can't say yet because it'll spoil stuff. But you'll like some of the dynamics between him and Kaylee in that.

River is a mystery...a mystery that gets better explained in the movie. Can't say anymore than that because...well, I can't.

Awesome series. Awesome movie. My only piece of advice about the movie? Take some tissues with you. You'll need them. *evil grin*

Inara's Attitude

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

Actually, the fact that the 'verse has creatures like Inara means that the gulf between men and women is likely to have widened in the five hundred years or so between us and Firefly.

Inara's profession of Companion has many elements in common with the sort of historical professional women in the real world who were courtesans, geisha and Victorian adventuresses. They were independent, learned and witty at a time when men treated women like, well, property. Chattels, who weren 't meant to be educated, or even to speak in male company.

Men had wives, sure - but likely they also had frequent dalliances with the Inaras of history which polite society kind of ignored, because pre-Suffrage, it was the fashion for the men of influence to be seen in their company, not the other way around.

I know it very likely sounds like a disgusting situation to you - it does to me - but that's how things were back then, when people didn't know any better and there was less questioning of The Way Things Were.

And if the 'verse of Firefly has the likes of Inara, then it means that things are heading back towards those barbaric days. In the core, people have to earn their rights: out on the borders, people are too busy trying to survive to see tomorrow to care about rights.

Still, if I were a citizen of that time, I wouldn't bid for Inara's attention. I'd be too busy looking for a far less snobby woman to have fun with.

Re: Inara's Attitude

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

I have absolutely no problem with Inara's profession. It's her attitude that gets on my nerve. I like Nandi so much more than Inara because Nandi did essentially the same thing and was a more down to earth character. She was real, she was practical and she didn't mind getting her hands dirty. She also didn't have a problem being up front with Mal about anything. And the thing is that I do like Inara. She's just my least favorite character. She's not someone I'd care to hang out with on a regular basis. I prefer Zoe and Kaylee because of their personalities.

One thing ...

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

As originally written, Traveller never had a prostitute character class (Rogues, yes. Whores, no), and didn't even mention sex, let alone concepts such as marriage, dating, families, etc. It might have been the influence of the Puritanical press in the late Seventies / early Eighties. Still, shame Marc Miller never got the idea to write a Traveller supplement on the subject of gettin' it on Out There.

It'd have been a must-have book.

Re: One thing ...

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Shelly initially wanted to play an Inara type character but they didn't have a "companion" type class. She's playing as close as she gets (without the "whorin'") by playing a noble. None of us know that she's a noble and she's the one that owns the ship. I captain it, she owns it. Mine and Jeff's characters are married. Syrus is our doctor sort with amnesia. Charles was our Jayne-esque type character, but currently he's at home in Houston, healing from mono, and learning to deal with type 2 diabetes. So when he gets back, he'll have his character back. We don't have anyone playing a Kaylee-type or a Zoe type. I'm pretty much a cross between Zoe and Mal, so that's pretty well covered. And we don't have a River because John wasn't allowing anyone to play a psychic. But it's all fun.

Sweetness

[fiat-knox.livejournal.com]

Have hilarious fun with the game, hon.

The best part of the old Traveller, where characters served aboard little clunker ships like Far Traders and Free Traders a la Serenity, was all the different cargoes, the trading, the horse trading, all of it.

Hope you don't get the Turd Run.

"So they need twenty metric tonnes of what on Brigantia in a hurry?"

"It's rich in potassium and nitrates. They need it and, like, now, and they're gonna pay top cred for -"

"I don't care about top cred. Our atmo filters are on their last legs, and if they pack up while we're carrying twenty metric tonnes of horse gosa in the cargo hold, we're all gonna be living in our EVA suits the whole week!"

Re: Sweetness

[wolf-heart9.livejournal.com]

We haven't gotten the shit run yet. Though it's been an option and Shelly as owner didn't want to take it aboard. She's got cargo for us and I'm going to use my Underworld Connections and Fence Stolen Goods to find us even more profitable cargo. :) We did, however, get awesome renown the last time we played because I ordered us into the orbit of a gas giant to rescue, or attempt a rescue, a crew. We managed to get salvage, a data disk to find out what's up with the crew (though we're going to have to have it translated by someone who knows Ursa as the captain of that ship was Ursan. The crew sadly died, but we did everything we could to save them. Seriously though...reputations.

Now I'm going to find us a job with someone like Niska. Fuck.