Random Firefly/Serenity musing...
Oct. 28th, 2005 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenNot so random, seeing as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deepredbelle linked to a discussion on this subject at another person's LJ, but I've done some thinking about it and this is what I've come up with (WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG ESSAY! For true fans only!):
I am one of 'those,' in the camp of the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the question: "Did River's parents know what they were signing her up for when they sent her to the Academy?" As Firefly was cancelled too soon for the matter to be explored in more than one episode, it's pretty much up in the air. The only 'evidence' is prone to be interpreted according to how the 'yes' and 'no' camps read actor deliveries and character divulgence in the episode "Safe." So, let's begin, shall we?
First, the 'evidence.' In "Serenity," Simon describes the Academy's recruiting pitch as he, his parents, and River all perceived it. He describes what he knew of it as 'the most challenging, the most exciting,' program. Moreover, River, he says, wanted to go--"she wanted to learn." Later, in "The Train Job," when River asks to go home, Simon tells her they can't, and the reason is then revealed in flashbacks in "Safe." "Safe" brings Gabriel and Regan Tam (the parents, in case someone reading this didn't know) into the picture with their response to Simon's claims about River's letters and what they imply about the Academy. There is also a scene of confrontation between Simon and his father in which Gabriel says he refuses to bail Simon out of trouble if he continues to pursue the issue and gets arrested again. Neither parent appears in the rest of the series again, nor is there any mention of them by Simon or River.
That is all the canon representation of the Tams and what they knew about the Academy. Where I argue that they were blind as to the Academy's intentions lies solely within my interpretations of how lines were delivered and emotions conveyed. As I'm not Joss, and could not have easily predicted where an innocuous comment might lead a character years down the road (for very great example, Willow's comment about Vamp!Willow: "I'm all skanky, and I think I'm kinda gay"), I'll come right out and say this is all predicated on the past and not anything that might be revealed in the future (i.e. whenever I pick up the novelization).
Starting with "Serenity," I find there's a real sense of betrayal in Simon about what the family was promised the Academy would do for River and what they actually did. This is not surprising as it must have been quite a shock. Clearly, Simon, no matter how questionable the knowledge of the rest of the family, was not at all aware of what was happening until River's letters became increasingly bizarre. River was no better off and was just as in the dark. Simon says she wanted to go to the Academy, and the internet clips of River's interview on her first day show a bright, excited girl who is full of hope and promise and completely thrilled to get a chance to exercise her talents. Indeed, River does not turn against the idea of the Academy until we see the next interview in which the questioner tells her the tests they performed were necessary and River begs to be released to another program. If it was so awful and she knew of it, she wouldn't have wanted to go.
I dwell on River's knowledge more than Simon's not only because it's obvious Simon had no idea what the Academy was up to when it first came up in the Tam household, but also because River is, as is often said, supposed to be a genius. She may not always have been a psychic, but she is shown in "Safe" flashbacks to be both quick and clever in addition to being plain book-smart. She is able to scan Simon's homework to find the error with barely a glance, and, on top, when Gabriel overhears Simon cursing, she makes an excuse for him that wins more forgiveness from their father than the simple 'sorry' Simon manages. This is the only time River gets to take a measure of a person without her psychic abilities in both series and movie, and is the only basis for comparison between old River and post-Academy River besides the interview clip.
And the interview clip...wow, there is so much there. River talks of a boy in her class whom she knows to be jealous of her because she's young but in his graduate class for physics. When asked, she says he never told her as much, just that "people tell you things all the time without talking, the way they move, the way they aren't talking." The interviewer tells her she is very intuitive, and she jokes about Simon telling her she was born with a "third eye." This post-series, pre-movie, catch-you-up foreshadowing is important, but more still is what she says next. River confesses also that she's quite good at reading her brother in particular, continuing the trend of her uncanny insight as being especially good when applied to people with whom she is most familiar (contrasted to her appearance of uncertainty and unease while the interviewer outlines the Academy program).
So pre-Academy River is intuitive (supported, too, by statements made by Simon in "Objects in Space" and Serenity), and she is able to see best through secrets in a family member she is close to. If that's true, she wouldn't have much trouble discerning any misgivings or dark intentions her parents were aware of with concern as to the Academy. If she knew, she wouldn't be as happy as she seemed to be upon going to the Academy. And, given her abilities to read her close family members, if either of her parents knew, she would have some clue and her inherent intelligence could probably work out the rest.
What evidence is there that River is as close to her parents as she is to her brother? By inference, given the general air of happy family that the earliest flashback in "Safe" conveys, the same closeness exists between River and her father. He addresses both of his children as 'geniuses,' despite the fact River is something near to a decade younger than her brother and probably only five or six at the time (guessing here based on River's supposed age at the time of the series versus the date on the flashback--11 years previous). Gabriel Tam is quite accepting of River's silliness regarding dinosaurs as he is of her being a qualified smart person at a precocious age; he even teases her in the scene by withholding the 'dedicated source-box' (which I take to mean a portal or personal computer equivalent to access the Cortex, the internet equivalent of the Firefly universe) until she's older. It seems trivial, but his dismissal of her request definitely implies he's aware she'll want and earn the right to have one and that he's equally sure his wife will buy one for her as sure as she bought Simon one.
This last bit of information is of interest because it is one of only two references we're given for Regan Tam's regard for her children. She wants Simon to have the best, just as Gabriel says he deserves--"You're worth it." Although Regan never appears in that scene, there is the established text of playful one-upping between her and her husband where their children and their education is concerned. She wants them to succeed, and she'll step on her husband's reservations about what else Simon or River might get up to with unlimited access to the Cortex. It's an open-ended comment, suggesting that Regan could be sincere in her wishes for her children on their behalf or that she's most concerned (and how topical for today's world this is) about them doing well and honoring/earning merit for the family name (this has connections to Chinese practices regarding the treatment of boys, especially first-born sons, but I don't know enough about it to go into it here).
Like her husband, however, Regan is similarly indulgent but not naive about her daughter's playful side. When Regan does show up in "Safe," she is caring and reassuring of a paranoid, disturbed Simon. This is the first family enclave since River went to the Academy that we are privy to. Presumably, given how many letters Simon has from which to draw evidence, some time has passed. River's been gone long enough to get past the normal letters and no-letters stages of her time there (referred to by Simon in "Serenity") and onto a 'letters that make no sense' phase. Not enough time has passed, though, for Gabriel or Regan to be upset or worried, so I would put it at a year's time at most. Regan's first on-screen appearance is telling Simon that everything is all right. She promises Simon and River will be together and inseparable once more, and Gabriel makes a joke about how the two of them are so dependent upon one another.
There, in the middle of a disturbing fight, there is laughter and dismissal of concern. It would seem that the 'they knew!' camp pins most of their argument here. 'Why wouldn't they be curious if they didn't know?' Something Regan says supports the 'they knew' argument or seems to; when Simon asks why there are serious problems with River's communication skills, Regan says only that "It's one of her [River's] games." Why I believe that confers ignorance instead of complicity on Regan is because of what we'd seen come before in the first flashback. River has demonstrably odd ideas about games--in a war game, she mixes reality (the war between the Alliance and the Independents) and fantasy (dinosaurs as war animals) and macabre (cannabalism). She sees no disconnect between the real problems of war (supply shortages, troop isolation, superior numbers/force of the opposing side) with her invented ones. It all makes sense to River, and she doesn't care that Simon thinks it's stupid or impossible or odd. So when Simon presents something River sends to him as odd and full of meaning after we've seen her take all the meaning out of a very real, very horrific (based on Mal's experiences) event, it's not surprising that Regan thinks he's lost his head. She knows her daughter very well; she's presumably been around River more recently and longer than Simon due to his going away for school; so she is not wrong to assume that he's forgotten River's penchant for tricks and annoyance.
Regan's censure of her son that follows after Simon persists in his belief that the letters are code seems ominous, as does Gabriel's threats at the jail when he picks Simon up. I would argue that both are examples of the Tams' love for their son. They're certain that River is fine--they trust in the Alliance to a degree where they cannot fathom their government lying to them on this level--but it is Simon who worries them. Out of sight, out of mind, aware of River's flippancy, their daughter isn't around to distract them from their fear about Simon losing his mind. When Regan warns him about how his theories sound, she is quiet, fearful, and she tries to reason with him by mentioning how such talk would appear to those who don't know him so well, especially as regards to his peers and work colleagues. Though this coldly logical warning is made more so in contrast to Gabriel's comments--"Being a doctor means more to you than prestige, I know"--it is not necessarily an example of emotional, logical blackmail so much as it is an effective means of reaching through to Simon. As Jubal Early demonstrated (and Joss Whedon explicitly stated in his commentary on "Objects in Space"), sometimes logic is the only way to barter with Simon, whether it's for his own good or not.
What about Gabriel's threats in the prison when he bails Simon out? Again, it is damning that a father who'd been so close up until that point would make such a statement--"If you wind up here again or get mixed up in something worse, I will not come for you"--unless you understand the aforementioned tenet of parenting: whether they like it or not, it is up to a parent to do what is best for a child. I cannot say what assurances Gabriel and Regan had for River's well-being (except, as I said before, the idea that her letters seemed jokey--thus meaning she was in high spirits---and for her being not immediately around), but I sincerely believe that his threat to leave Simon to his fate was a last-ditch effort to try and corral dangerous behavior before the matter was out of his hands. Why? Because he came, first and foremost; he came to get Simon, implying he did care that he'd gotten into trouble. When he found out why, he was angry because he thought Simon didn't understand or wouldn't accept reality, but he did come to get his son nonetheless. Second, before threatening Simon, Gabriel makes it very clear how uncertain Simon's fate will be--parental intervention or no--if he keeps on his present course. That he takes the time to warn Simon before threatening him shows fatherly concern befor fatherly stern, which is important in reading the scene.
Lastly, after Gabriel puts his foot down, he shakes anger and humiliation and pride and asks, simply asks, if Simon is going to come home. Home, by implication, is Simon's family, is a place where he belongs and is loved and is still wanted, odd behavior and ideas aside. This last is the most concrete example of why I'm positive neither Gabriel nor Regan Tam had any idea what the Academy was doing to their daughter. On top of other inferred closeness, the end of this scene, which demonstrates familial bonds unaffected by friction or disagreement, says that the Tam family was close to a point where such betrayal of one of their own was not consciously possible. When Simon sneaks off to free River and severs ties with their parents, it's motivated primarily by the simple fact that to have contact with them is to risk invalidating his endeavors and his sacrifices by being caught. When he says to River, "We can't go home," I do not believe it has to do with their father's ire or their mother's fear. Home is denied to them by other factors--the warrants placed by the Alliance and the expected consequences of Simon's actions (implied incarceration and/or death for him, worse than that for River). Never once does he say they would not be welcome there, even though his petulant angsting in "Safe," when River suggests they could go back and she could get better and he could have his old life back, suggests that Simon may think that's the case. Simon, as we learn through the series, is a bit too quick to judge people (assuming Mal is anything like the Alliance drones; that Kaylee's joie-de-vivre is simplistic innocence; that Jayne is a friend). Fans should not assume, therefore, that because he is dubious of his parents' intentions, support, and love, that we should be, too.
deepredbelle linked to a discussion on this subject at another person's LJ, but I've done some thinking about it and this is what I've come up with (WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG ESSAY! For true fans only!):I am one of 'those,' in the camp of the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the question: "Did River's parents know what they were signing her up for when they sent her to the Academy?" As Firefly was cancelled too soon for the matter to be explored in more than one episode, it's pretty much up in the air. The only 'evidence' is prone to be interpreted according to how the 'yes' and 'no' camps read actor deliveries and character divulgence in the episode "Safe." So, let's begin, shall we?
First, the 'evidence.' In "Serenity," Simon describes the Academy's recruiting pitch as he, his parents, and River all perceived it. He describes what he knew of it as 'the most challenging, the most exciting,' program. Moreover, River, he says, wanted to go--"she wanted to learn." Later, in "The Train Job," when River asks to go home, Simon tells her they can't, and the reason is then revealed in flashbacks in "Safe." "Safe" brings Gabriel and Regan Tam (the parents, in case someone reading this didn't know) into the picture with their response to Simon's claims about River's letters and what they imply about the Academy. There is also a scene of confrontation between Simon and his father in which Gabriel says he refuses to bail Simon out of trouble if he continues to pursue the issue and gets arrested again. Neither parent appears in the rest of the series again, nor is there any mention of them by Simon or River.
That is all the canon representation of the Tams and what they knew about the Academy. Where I argue that they were blind as to the Academy's intentions lies solely within my interpretations of how lines were delivered and emotions conveyed. As I'm not Joss, and could not have easily predicted where an innocuous comment might lead a character years down the road (for very great example, Willow's comment about Vamp!Willow: "I'm all skanky, and I think I'm kinda gay"), I'll come right out and say this is all predicated on the past and not anything that might be revealed in the future (i.e. whenever I pick up the novelization).
Starting with "Serenity," I find there's a real sense of betrayal in Simon about what the family was promised the Academy would do for River and what they actually did. This is not surprising as it must have been quite a shock. Clearly, Simon, no matter how questionable the knowledge of the rest of the family, was not at all aware of what was happening until River's letters became increasingly bizarre. River was no better off and was just as in the dark. Simon says she wanted to go to the Academy, and the internet clips of River's interview on her first day show a bright, excited girl who is full of hope and promise and completely thrilled to get a chance to exercise her talents. Indeed, River does not turn against the idea of the Academy until we see the next interview in which the questioner tells her the tests they performed were necessary and River begs to be released to another program. If it was so awful and she knew of it, she wouldn't have wanted to go.
I dwell on River's knowledge more than Simon's not only because it's obvious Simon had no idea what the Academy was up to when it first came up in the Tam household, but also because River is, as is often said, supposed to be a genius. She may not always have been a psychic, but she is shown in "Safe" flashbacks to be both quick and clever in addition to being plain book-smart. She is able to scan Simon's homework to find the error with barely a glance, and, on top, when Gabriel overhears Simon cursing, she makes an excuse for him that wins more forgiveness from their father than the simple 'sorry' Simon manages. This is the only time River gets to take a measure of a person without her psychic abilities in both series and movie, and is the only basis for comparison between old River and post-Academy River besides the interview clip.
And the interview clip...wow, there is so much there. River talks of a boy in her class whom she knows to be jealous of her because she's young but in his graduate class for physics. When asked, she says he never told her as much, just that "people tell you things all the time without talking, the way they move, the way they aren't talking." The interviewer tells her she is very intuitive, and she jokes about Simon telling her she was born with a "third eye." This post-series, pre-movie, catch-you-up foreshadowing is important, but more still is what she says next. River confesses also that she's quite good at reading her brother in particular, continuing the trend of her uncanny insight as being especially good when applied to people with whom she is most familiar (contrasted to her appearance of uncertainty and unease while the interviewer outlines the Academy program).
So pre-Academy River is intuitive (supported, too, by statements made by Simon in "Objects in Space" and Serenity), and she is able to see best through secrets in a family member she is close to. If that's true, she wouldn't have much trouble discerning any misgivings or dark intentions her parents were aware of with concern as to the Academy. If she knew, she wouldn't be as happy as she seemed to be upon going to the Academy. And, given her abilities to read her close family members, if either of her parents knew, she would have some clue and her inherent intelligence could probably work out the rest.
What evidence is there that River is as close to her parents as she is to her brother? By inference, given the general air of happy family that the earliest flashback in "Safe" conveys, the same closeness exists between River and her father. He addresses both of his children as 'geniuses,' despite the fact River is something near to a decade younger than her brother and probably only five or six at the time (guessing here based on River's supposed age at the time of the series versus the date on the flashback--11 years previous). Gabriel Tam is quite accepting of River's silliness regarding dinosaurs as he is of her being a qualified smart person at a precocious age; he even teases her in the scene by withholding the 'dedicated source-box' (which I take to mean a portal or personal computer equivalent to access the Cortex, the internet equivalent of the Firefly universe) until she's older. It seems trivial, but his dismissal of her request definitely implies he's aware she'll want and earn the right to have one and that he's equally sure his wife will buy one for her as sure as she bought Simon one.
This last bit of information is of interest because it is one of only two references we're given for Regan Tam's regard for her children. She wants Simon to have the best, just as Gabriel says he deserves--"You're worth it." Although Regan never appears in that scene, there is the established text of playful one-upping between her and her husband where their children and their education is concerned. She wants them to succeed, and she'll step on her husband's reservations about what else Simon or River might get up to with unlimited access to the Cortex. It's an open-ended comment, suggesting that Regan could be sincere in her wishes for her children on their behalf or that she's most concerned (and how topical for today's world this is) about them doing well and honoring/earning merit for the family name (this has connections to Chinese practices regarding the treatment of boys, especially first-born sons, but I don't know enough about it to go into it here).
Like her husband, however, Regan is similarly indulgent but not naive about her daughter's playful side. When Regan does show up in "Safe," she is caring and reassuring of a paranoid, disturbed Simon. This is the first family enclave since River went to the Academy that we are privy to. Presumably, given how many letters Simon has from which to draw evidence, some time has passed. River's been gone long enough to get past the normal letters and no-letters stages of her time there (referred to by Simon in "Serenity") and onto a 'letters that make no sense' phase. Not enough time has passed, though, for Gabriel or Regan to be upset or worried, so I would put it at a year's time at most. Regan's first on-screen appearance is telling Simon that everything is all right. She promises Simon and River will be together and inseparable once more, and Gabriel makes a joke about how the two of them are so dependent upon one another.
There, in the middle of a disturbing fight, there is laughter and dismissal of concern. It would seem that the 'they knew!' camp pins most of their argument here. 'Why wouldn't they be curious if they didn't know?' Something Regan says supports the 'they knew' argument or seems to; when Simon asks why there are serious problems with River's communication skills, Regan says only that "It's one of her [River's] games." Why I believe that confers ignorance instead of complicity on Regan is because of what we'd seen come before in the first flashback. River has demonstrably odd ideas about games--in a war game, she mixes reality (the war between the Alliance and the Independents) and fantasy (dinosaurs as war animals) and macabre (cannabalism). She sees no disconnect between the real problems of war (supply shortages, troop isolation, superior numbers/force of the opposing side) with her invented ones. It all makes sense to River, and she doesn't care that Simon thinks it's stupid or impossible or odd. So when Simon presents something River sends to him as odd and full of meaning after we've seen her take all the meaning out of a very real, very horrific (based on Mal's experiences) event, it's not surprising that Regan thinks he's lost his head. She knows her daughter very well; she's presumably been around River more recently and longer than Simon due to his going away for school; so she is not wrong to assume that he's forgotten River's penchant for tricks and annoyance.
Regan's censure of her son that follows after Simon persists in his belief that the letters are code seems ominous, as does Gabriel's threats at the jail when he picks Simon up. I would argue that both are examples of the Tams' love for their son. They're certain that River is fine--they trust in the Alliance to a degree where they cannot fathom their government lying to them on this level--but it is Simon who worries them. Out of sight, out of mind, aware of River's flippancy, their daughter isn't around to distract them from their fear about Simon losing his mind. When Regan warns him about how his theories sound, she is quiet, fearful, and she tries to reason with him by mentioning how such talk would appear to those who don't know him so well, especially as regards to his peers and work colleagues. Though this coldly logical warning is made more so in contrast to Gabriel's comments--"Being a doctor means more to you than prestige, I know"--it is not necessarily an example of emotional, logical blackmail so much as it is an effective means of reaching through to Simon. As Jubal Early demonstrated (and Joss Whedon explicitly stated in his commentary on "Objects in Space"), sometimes logic is the only way to barter with Simon, whether it's for his own good or not.
What about Gabriel's threats in the prison when he bails Simon out? Again, it is damning that a father who'd been so close up until that point would make such a statement--"If you wind up here again or get mixed up in something worse, I will not come for you"--unless you understand the aforementioned tenet of parenting: whether they like it or not, it is up to a parent to do what is best for a child. I cannot say what assurances Gabriel and Regan had for River's well-being (except, as I said before, the idea that her letters seemed jokey--thus meaning she was in high spirits---and for her being not immediately around), but I sincerely believe that his threat to leave Simon to his fate was a last-ditch effort to try and corral dangerous behavior before the matter was out of his hands. Why? Because he came, first and foremost; he came to get Simon, implying he did care that he'd gotten into trouble. When he found out why, he was angry because he thought Simon didn't understand or wouldn't accept reality, but he did come to get his son nonetheless. Second, before threatening Simon, Gabriel makes it very clear how uncertain Simon's fate will be--parental intervention or no--if he keeps on his present course. That he takes the time to warn Simon before threatening him shows fatherly concern befor fatherly stern, which is important in reading the scene.
Lastly, after Gabriel puts his foot down, he shakes anger and humiliation and pride and asks, simply asks, if Simon is going to come home. Home, by implication, is Simon's family, is a place where he belongs and is loved and is still wanted, odd behavior and ideas aside. This last is the most concrete example of why I'm positive neither Gabriel nor Regan Tam had any idea what the Academy was doing to their daughter. On top of other inferred closeness, the end of this scene, which demonstrates familial bonds unaffected by friction or disagreement, says that the Tam family was close to a point where such betrayal of one of their own was not consciously possible. When Simon sneaks off to free River and severs ties with their parents, it's motivated primarily by the simple fact that to have contact with them is to risk invalidating his endeavors and his sacrifices by being caught. When he says to River, "We can't go home," I do not believe it has to do with their father's ire or their mother's fear. Home is denied to them by other factors--the warrants placed by the Alliance and the expected consequences of Simon's actions (implied incarceration and/or death for him, worse than that for River). Never once does he say they would not be welcome there, even though his petulant angsting in "Safe," when River suggests they could go back and she could get better and he could have his old life back, suggests that Simon may think that's the case. Simon, as we learn through the series, is a bit too quick to judge people (assuming Mal is anything like the Alliance drones; that Kaylee's joie-de-vivre is simplistic innocence; that Jayne is a friend). Fans should not assume, therefore, that because he is dubious of his parents' intentions, support, and love, that we should be, too.
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Date: 2005-10-29 01:37 am (UTC)BTW, where are these clips you mention? I hadn't heard about them.
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Date: 2005-10-29 06:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 05:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 06:19 am (UTC)All the released sessions are there. It's freeeeaky!