Jace Whedon's Firefly
Dec. 7th, 2011 12:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jessara40kSo, I'm working on the story where Terese realises that Kim's acting more like a pleasure slave than Tonio does. Kim refers to watching Firefly for the first time in one of the early scenes, and I realised that it's quite different in their world.
First it wasn't screwed by the network and lasted at least 3 seasons. The season arc of the last season was the plot of the movie.
Second, the writers followed through on making Companions hugely respected and respectable. Inara was a dark skinned Japanese-equivalent woman, and yes she did have some people who treated her like an escort while she was travelling, but after those encounters she was often seen making a report to the Guild and she brushed the issue that caused Mal to duel 'for her honour' off as the price of travelling the outer worlds.
Simon and River were mixed north asian and european, one of them looked more asian and the other looked more european, I'm not sure which was which.
The outer worlds were still heavily white, with some racial mixing, but not that much - at least the ones the Firefly crew visited, but when the crew ventured into the Core Worlds they couldn't blend in very well, because just about anyone with any authority was asian.
Zoe was a gladiator, as tall as Jayne and stronger than him - I don't know if the actress was a gladiator, or a transwoman who decided she could never pass as a fragile flower and went for the gladiator look. She was a little bit more condescending towards Wash, and a lot more protective of him, and she wasn't above trying to use her height to intimidate Mal when they had an argument. It never worked.
Mal is a much more interesting character in this version. He's the captain, and he conveys his authority very well, but he codes very consort in a lot of ways. When Mal and Zoe were in that mining camp he cuddled up to her and she acted protective over him, and during the retrieval he was the one Inara treated as having been led astray. He seemed confused about the 'consort gifting' episode, and flustered by how strongly his 'new consort' came on. Inara made all the running in their courtship.
Book was still very spiritual, but it wasn't a Christianity analogue - Christianity is a cult in this world. I don't know what the spirituality he represented was, and I don't think the creators knew at the start of the show. I have a feeling they worked with the actor to create something based on the traditions he felt most comfortable with.
First it wasn't screwed by the network and lasted at least 3 seasons. The season arc of the last season was the plot of the movie.
Second, the writers followed through on making Companions hugely respected and respectable. Inara was a dark skinned Japanese-equivalent woman, and yes she did have some people who treated her like an escort while she was travelling, but after those encounters she was often seen making a report to the Guild and she brushed the issue that caused Mal to duel 'for her honour' off as the price of travelling the outer worlds.
Simon and River were mixed north asian and european, one of them looked more asian and the other looked more european, I'm not sure which was which.
The outer worlds were still heavily white, with some racial mixing, but not that much - at least the ones the Firefly crew visited, but when the crew ventured into the Core Worlds they couldn't blend in very well, because just about anyone with any authority was asian.
Zoe was a gladiator, as tall as Jayne and stronger than him - I don't know if the actress was a gladiator, or a transwoman who decided she could never pass as a fragile flower and went for the gladiator look. She was a little bit more condescending towards Wash, and a lot more protective of him, and she wasn't above trying to use her height to intimidate Mal when they had an argument. It never worked.
Mal is a much more interesting character in this version. He's the captain, and he conveys his authority very well, but he codes very consort in a lot of ways. When Mal and Zoe were in that mining camp he cuddled up to her and she acted protective over him, and during the retrieval he was the one Inara treated as having been led astray. He seemed confused about the 'consort gifting' episode, and flustered by how strongly his 'new consort' came on. Inara made all the running in their courtship.
Book was still very spiritual, but it wasn't a Christianity analogue - Christianity is a cult in this world. I don't know what the spirituality he represented was, and I don't think the creators knew at the start of the show. I have a feeling they worked with the actor to create something based on the traditions he felt most comfortable with.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-07 04:34 pm (UTC)Interesting indeed--can't wait to see the new story! I do love that world and wish that there was much more to read of it. :D
no subject
Date: 2011-12-08 10:51 am (UTC)Mal and Zoe still have an officer/NCO dynamic, but it's more fluid.
I gave Inara the change of race partly to make her look more like a taller, more beautiful version of Terese and partly because in an asian dominated future asian looks will be the standard of beauty. One thing that helped in writing Companions as respected was that the Terenevs and some other prominant Families do take their companions/pleasure slaves as consort often enough for people to accept companion as meaning low-born beauty treated as a potential consort by a member of the highest Families and treated as a near-equal by the Families. While in our world, companion doesn't have that sort of resonance/history, but the role they had Inara play was all too clearly high class whore.
As for the Core worlds, once I started thinking about the programme I realised that the whitewashed cast on the Rim made logical sense, but it turned the asian influences into appropriation and accessories once they went into the Core.