The Bene Gesserit Seamstresses of the 'Verse

[trinityvixen]

A link kindly provided to me by linaerys about the class conflict in Firefly/Serenity has been eating my brain for the past twenty minutes because, being bored as nuts around work, I am doing nothing but thinking on a plot bunny I plucked from my brain last week and how to work it out. It's not what the article itself talks about that I've been considering

Comments

[londonkds]

few men or women who can control their bodies to the point where they can infect a rapist with a crippling, incurable STD that was stored in the victim's body for just such a purpose

Tim Minear made remarks at an event recently which hint that that was *exactly* what was going on when Inara was toying with a hypodermic when threatened with Reavers in the pilot.

[trinityvixen]

I've heard about this 'missing episode' plot device, and frankly, I'm glad it isn't canon. Even if Tim and Joss think it should have been, the whole sketch of the episode was so irredeemably repugnant that I couldn't hardly imagine still watching and liking the show afterwards. Part of the reason Firefly retains the fans and keeps them devoted is the way it managed to exist without making any serious missteps, but this must be attributed as much to the natural talent of the authors as to the fact it was cancelled before the ideas could run afoul of the audience.

On the one hand, I don't have a problem with Inara's syringe containing such a poison--I hardly think the twin imperatives of Companions, which seem to be hedonism and altruism, would be in sync with suicide, even suicide to prevent a violent death. On the other, ugh the idea that Inara being gang-raped by Reavers? What were they thinking?

[londonkds]

I have the same reaction to that proposed episode.

[trinityvixen]

Honestly, while irrevocably ruining a character on the show would have been within the reality of the 'verse being a not-so-happy place to live, it could have been done more tactfully. Plus, maybe it's just me, but it seems like an unconscious punishment of the sexually liberated woman. Maybe that's reading too much into it, seeing as Kaylee is fairly liberated, too, but Inara is the only one on the series who makes no compromises in her sexual partners--she is utterly in control of her every encounter, and it seems that this proposed episode which targets her is almost a condemnation of that.

[malfeasanceses]

Wait, wait. Sorry for the years-later comment (I've been going through old Metafandom links), but-

On the other, ugh the idea that Inara being gang-raped by Reavers? What were they thinking?

I'd heard about the identity of the hypodermic. But there was a proposed episode about it being used like that? There really was? Can you tell me more about it? Holy crap.

[trinityvixen]

The contents of the hypo would have been revealed in a prospective episode that was never even scripted, only plotted out. After yet another snit about one thing or another, Inara and Mal would separate in bad spirits from one another. Inara would then encounter Reavers, shoot herself up with the hypo, and what Reavers generally do would happen. Except they would not kill her, they'd rape her. When Mal and co. caught up to her, they would find her surrounded by dead Reavers. The only thing I remember specifically is that Mal, after having called her (again) something nasty, would come to her after her horrible ordeal and take her hand and kiss it like a proper lady, showing his respect for her integrity and what she was capable of surviving.

[malfeasanceses]

Aaaaaack. Thanks for responding. & I'm very glad that never made it to the screen.

[trinityvixen]

You're welcome & you and me both...