Ignoring our usual pacifist-violentist argument, I think arming the ship is going to be much harder than you’re thinking. Mal regularly puts off buying essential parts for Serenity’s engine until the last moment (or after, as “Out of Gas” makes clear), and as he is not a nincompoop I think we’re meant to assume that money is the reason. I see no reason to think that he can afford to buy missiles and cannon. Not to mention that doing so is going to get him immediately labeled a pirate by any Alliance cruiser that passes by them. In that case it won’t matter that he’s added armament; the cops will have more.
As to your primary point: as someone observed upthread, ethics become a lot harder to maintain when you’re living in anarchy, and that’s Serenity’s basic circumstance.
:: shrugs::
The Simon-Kaylee-River marriage would have tons of lesbian sex, as River would be the only one having sex with both spouses. Spices. Spodes.
Maybe Mal already knew that by failing Niska, the henchman was in for a painful and gruesome death at the hands of that sadistic evil-doer. So Mal, in fact, did said henchman a favor.
Do you mean ‘Kaylee’? I’m in no way uptight or prudish, but I can’t see River and Simon getting it on. I just can’t see either one of them even considering it.
Having said that, nope. Oh, I concede that in her crazier moments as seen above, River seemed to suggest it. But in her crazier moments she didn’t understand the implications of what she was saying, because she didn’t understand the distinctions between the different sort of love. And in any event, there was nothing from Simon’s end; it would have been inconceivable (heh) to him. You can absolutely adore someone–you can love someone more than you love anyone else in the world–without wanting to fuck them.
ETA: I misread your post at first, missing the word never. I see that we’re of the same mind. And I wrote River would be the only person doing both parties when I meant Kaylee. I blame Hephaestus.
I wasn’t suggesting having them out in the open. They’re smugglers, after all. It’s just silly that a space ship doesn’t have anything to attack with that doesn’t involve a gunman in a spacesuit. Even the Crazy Space Zombies ™ have their electronic grapple thingamajig.
C’mon. They manage to cobble together a perfectly serviceable air ambulance in one night, you’re trying to tell be they can’t make a simple slugthrower or rocketlauncher?
And actually, as far as I’m concerned, yes, Mal is a nincompoop with regards to the Port Compression Coil - note how many times, in advance, it’s brought up before OoG, and how Mal poo-poos Kaylee’s concerns. Hell, at one point, one was actually found and chucked by Wash. which wouldn’t have happened if everyone knew to look out for it…
True enough - but it’s worth noting that the Firefly setting doesn’t seem to have any magic scanning tech. Like I said, hidden weaponry is still a possibility.
They don’t live in anarchy. They live in Libertaria, looks like. Not the same thing.
And in their circumstances, sure, I can see letting the ethics slip. But it remains unethical, though.
I watched 2 episodes of Firefly: Mal is/was a jerk, Jayne is/was a jerk ass, I couldn’t stand either of them so I sent the discs back.
I don’t recall seeing that scene in the episodes I watched, but have seen it on YouTube before. Given the context, I can see why he did it. Would I do it? Maybe, I just don’t know.
Probably not.
Funny I didn’t vote because there was no “Simon, Wash, Mal* & Jayne*” 4-way option.
*Yes, I said they are jerks, but they are HOT jerks.
Yeah they are. There’s a scene with Mal and Wash all bare-chested and sweaty; the fact that they’re being tortured doesn’t make it ANY less hot! In fact, Wash yelling at Mal 'cause Mal’s threatening to sleep with Zoe…
Wash finds the coil and chucks it in “Ariel”, which is the episode right after “Out of Gas”. (It’s when they’re in the junkyard to get the medical shuttle as part of Simon’s cunning plan to rob the hospital.) In other words, Wash knows exactly what he’s doing–“Oh, great, one of these turns up now? Would have been real useful a month (week/standard time-interval/whatever) ago when we all almost rutting died!” Then he chucks it away in disgust, and, IIRC, actually hits the medical shuttle with it.
Of course all this lovely continuity was rather obscured at the time by the way FOX ran all the episodes in no particular order.
