There is nothing left to see.
So. Serenity. I've seen it three times now. My short review is this: Oh. My. God.
However, I can't not ramble incoherently about this movie. So we here go. By the way, I'm writing and posting this before I read anyone else's thoughts. I'm definitely perusing my flist tomorrow and jumping into many a Serenity discussion.
( Warning: major gushing and spoilers abound. )
I too believe that Mal's "You think I care?" was directed at himself... but so was his "I don't kill children." remark.
I believe that when he was on Serenity, looking at the screen, seeing that the Operative had killed everyone they had ever turned to for shelter, he was asking himself if HE should just kill River. It was his thoughts of killing River that caused him to state that he doesn't kill children, not necessarily what the Operative had said to him.
River even had the same thought... "Bullet to the brainpan, squish." Her and Mal are parallels.
Earlier you remarked on how Mal shot the man who was begging them to take him with them, to spare him what the Reavers would do to him. That wasn't out of hardness, but an act of mercy.
Mal had already decided to go to war, but he didn't know which way to play out his hand. He could kill River in an act of mercy, sparing everyone else's lives, or he could fight. I think his interal struggle was this... does he take the begging man with them, or does he shoot him in the heart to spare him.
Case in point...
Zoe: "In times of war, we leave no man behind."
Mal:"Maybe that's why we lost."
Knowing what the Operative will do to get to River Tam, Mal's most likely thinking that if he spares River, they'll lose... again. He saw no way around it, without losing everyone he loves, until the Operative told him he wasn't a Reaver. That's when the idea occured to him that maybe there was another way to ge to the truth.
When Mal was talking to River on the bridge, he states that he believes she's worthy of his care. He believes that she's a person, full and whole, despite what the Alliance had turned her into, which is why it was likely so hard for him to come to terms with the fact that he may have to kill her.
Mercy is mercy and Mal has no problem killing to grant it, but he had already started to care for her and in fact, love her. The very actions you stated before... calling her little one, holding her hand, helping her back onto the mule, show that.
He could have left her in the Maidenhead... (Jayne: "Why did you bring her back?"), but he didn't, he could have shot her to spare her, but he didn't, he could have done a great many things, but he didn't. Why? Because he had already connected with her because he saw the Alliance had taken something so personal from her, as they did to him.
When Simon brought River onto Serenity... her care was put upon Mal without his consent... it's the same way Mal saw the Alliance, that he was put upon. But when Mal carried River back onto Serenity from the Maidenhead, it was by his own choice. He'd taken a stand of sorts... his actions stated that Serenity was now River's shelter, and she was in his care.
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I do like your theory that the guy he shot is symbolic of his later relationship with River. After Book's death and his rediscovery of belief, Mal chooses not to leave the victim behind, shooting them to spare them future pain. He instead chooses to let them on the mule (or in River's case, Serenity) and fight for and with them. Very interesting and something that hadn't occurred to me.
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This is how I see it, when the man came running out to the mule, begging to be taken with them, Mal said loud and clear, "Get back in the vault."
Mal had already given him a way to live, he had already made sure that the man would be safe from the Reaver's, but the man didn't want it, he was trying to put himself and his care upon Mal... unasked.
The man's own actions caused him to be taken by the Reaver's, not Mal's decision not to take him. True Mal pushed the man off the mule, but the man was never asked onto the mule in the first place. Mal has always been very protective of his crew and stated that there was 4 to the mule (just as he did about 4 to a shuttle in the Firefly episode Out of Gas, when HE stayed back to die alone.)
Mal stated that 5 people would be too heavy for the mule, none of them would have made it, and he puts his crew before anyone else.
Zoe said they could have dropped the money to take the man, but Mal stated that if they dropped the money, they wouldn't be in the black flying, or eating, meaning they wouldn't have been able to survive.
It's all about choices, and the man made the wrong one by not getting into the vault with the other "survivors", and that shouldn't be put on Mal.
The man made the wrong choice and Mal could have let the man get eaten alive and raped to death by the Reaver's, but Mal made a choice to not let that happen, it was HIS sense of mercy.
Leaving the man to die wasn't Mal's act of mercy because he didn't leave him to die, he left him with a way to survive by locking himself inside the vault. Mal's act of mercy was in not letting the man's choice to refuse his assurance of survival result in his being devoured by the Reavers.
~Cherokee
http://www.myspace.com/chenoda
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I'm not judging him. I honestly have no earthly idea what I would do in such a situation. I'm just pointing out that, at this point, he isn't solely concerned with right and wrong. He's surviving. And I love that about him. Watching him transform during the movie was amazing, and if he'd saved that guy, it wouldn't have had the same impact.
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