Mal. Bad in the Latin.

We need another heading in the Character Discussion forum - Mal's mother. Wherever she was from, I think she was a bee-yutch.

Or emotionally inaccessible / inept at parenting, probably one of those.

Mal and dancing:
Of course there was dancing! You live in a rural place like that, you make your own entertainment. You're too far from town to go there except once in a while. Lots of the local people play musical instruments, and from time to time this rural community that Mal grew up in got together for a shindig -- a band of local musicians with fiddles and guitars (like the theme song), and they danced. I always imagine it as something like square dancing, independent-style (each square does its own dance and the musicians stop playing when all the squares have finished). Mal learned lots of figures and steps. He knew the dance he and Inara did at the Shindig on Persephone because it was a formalized version of a square dance done on Shadow. (You should just see the way they used to do it on Shadow! A lot more stompin' and leg-slappin', and the formal handing of the partner was replaced with a swing. Whooping was also tolerated.)

And yes, this is all just my head canon here.

(Headcanon warning)
I'm with Gilliebeans, regarding educational opportunities on Shadow. In my headcanon, the only post-secondary education available on Shadow was the Ag School. As the son and heir of a prosperous rancher, Mal of course attended Ag School, to prepare for his eventual position running the family ranch. A lot of his classes were correspondence courses, but sometimes he went to Shadow's principal city (which is a lot like a smaller version of Calgary, Alberta) to attend Ag School and take his exams. The War intervened before he graduated.

BTW, I was reading some QMx material today that I got in the mail, and the Alliance attacked Shadow in 2506, right around the beginning of the war.

ebfiddler987 wrote:Mal and dancing:
Of course there was dancing! You live in a rural place like that, you make your own entertainment. You're too far from town to go there except once in a while. Lots of the local people play musical instruments, and from time to time this rural community that Mal grew up in got together for a shindig -- a band of local musicians with fiddles and guitars (like the theme song), and they danced. I always imagine it as something like square dancing, independent-style (each square does its own dance and the musicians stop playing when all the squares have finished). Mal learned lots of figures and steps. He knew the dance he and Inara did at the Shindig on Persephone because it was a formalized version of a square dance done on Shadow. (You should just see the way they used to do it on Shadow! A lot more stompin' and leg-slappin', and the formal handing of the partner was replaced with a swing. Whooping was also tolerated.)

And yes, this is all just my head canon here.

I like your head canon!

Bytemite wrote:BTW, I was reading some QMx material today that I got in the mail, and the Alliance attacked Shadow in 2506, right around the beginning of the war.

Just to be clear, is that RP or canon?

QMx works with the writers a lot to come up with this stuff, Tim Minear wrote the forward for the Atlas I read it from. So, it's probably canon.

It's kind of nice to have it resolved, there was some discussion about whether it was early in the war, or if it was at the end to force a surrender.

Is there any evidence one way or the other, in canon, that the early attack on Shadow was what rendered it uninhabitable?

I have my headcanon.

Well, I'd have to double check the resource, it's so new that I haven't exactly memorized it, but I do seem to recall the phrase "end the war early" and chemical and radiological devastation was mentioned.

Rats. In my headcanon, the bombing of Shadow happened at the end of the War. I think I'll still stick with that, as it works better with the long-term plot arcs.

Yeah, I think there's a chapter in Eidolon that I never quite managed to change over, where Zoe's talking about the Antlion and how it was used on Shadow before the bombing. And I'm pretty sure in that chapter I had her say that it's only been used once since the end of the war or something like that.

I have some really specific and well-developed ideas about the destruction of Shadow in my headcanon. It's central to my long-term plot arc, so I'm not going to change it just to conform with this source.

It's interesting, Malcolm comes from MLKM, the a hebrew title for David that means "our king." Reynolds also means "king."

So is his name just a reference to David and Goliath, or is there more to Mal than he seems? The core does seem to have some sort of aristocracy or nobility or something, along the lines of what Britain has.

Bytemite wrote:It's interesting, Malcolm comes from MLKM, the a hebrew title for David that means "our king." Reynolds also means "king."

So is his name just a reference to David and Goliath, or is there more to Mal than he seems?

wow - i... did not know that. Gives me a new perspective and then some. I always assumed that it was just from Bad Faith in Sartrean terms. (mauvaise foi)

I always assumed that it was just from Bad Faith in Sartrean terms. (mauvaise foi)

Not familiar with that. Could be another layer of meaning?

But, near as I can tell, the word malkam in hebrew is "our king" or looking in other places it means "their king." It didn't just refer to David, but it can.

If you say it milkam, or drop the last 'm' you have "malik" "melek" or"molech" then you're actually talking about ammonite deities. But I think Joss would have intended the "king" meaning for malcolm, if this is a correct interpretation, and not a reference to molech.

Bytemite wrote:

I always assumed that it was just from Bad Faith in Sartrean terms. (mauvaise foi)

Not familiar with that. Could be another layer of meaning?

But, near as I can tell, the word malkam in hebrew is "our king" or looking in other places it means "their king." It didn't just refer to David, but it can.

If you say it milkam, or drop the last 'm' you have "malik" "melek" or"molech" then you're actually talking about ammonite deities. But I think Joss would have intended the "king" meaning for malcolm, if this is a correct interpretation, and not a reference to molech.

i remember once mapping the crew & Serenity to the spheres of the Qabbalistic tree of life - something i wouldn't do now, but suddenly it does seem less far fetched, Again i say; wow - and i will view Malcolm from Macbeth in a new way also!

Bad Faith in Sartre equates roughly with doing the right thing for the wrong reason (and vice versa); common in many Joss 'heroes'. And yes that includes Faith and her Bad self (natch, groan etc).

I think in Macbeth that might be coincidence, as Malcolm succeeding Duncan is historical.

Although...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_III_of_Scotland

"Malcolm's second wife, Saint Margaret of Scotland, was later beatified and is Scotland's only royal saint. However, Malcolm himself gained no reputation for piety. "

*snort giggle laugh* Oh that's not symbolic at ALL.

Bytemite wrote:
"Malcolm's second wife, Saint Margaret of Scotland, was later beatified and is Scotland's only royal saint. However, Malcolm himself gained no reputation for piety. "

*snort giggle laugh* Oh that's not symbolic at ALL.

B'waaaaaaa! well, that made my day.

and (as the owl is a baker's daughter) i'm wondering; is there a fic out there somewhere with Serenity transporting a bunch of shabby thesps??? (no Trek episodes need apply). Again, i can see Badger as an impresario...

I really like the meanings in Hebrew that Bytemite dug up, and the 'mauvaise foi' was new to me! Personally, I always leaned toward the Gaelic meaning of the name (it could be just that most of the Malcolms I know derive their name from Scottish sources...and I even know a guy who goes by 'Mal'!). 'Malcolm' in its Gaelic form is 'Calum' which means "dove" with heavy overtones of "dove of peace." I always enjoyed the irony of that one.

ebfiddler987 wrote: 'Malcolm' in its Gaelic form is 'Calum' which means "dove" with heavy overtones of "dove of peace." I always enjoyed the irony of that one.

so not only our placid and quiet living captain but - holy BSG Batman!
and on the off-chance that your pal is Leoben Conoy, any chance of an autograph??

read this essay a ways back in the when and found again;
http://www.soulfulspike.com/aspects_of_mal.htm
yes i am still lurking among many a vacated web-ste*. anyhow, it's an interesting piece -
maybe one of you shiny people wrote it?!

*never was a member there - but boy can i lurk!

This is awesome! What an interesting essay! Thanks for the link, wytch.

you're very welcome

I do know that Nathan once said that he thinks all the characters represent some aspect of Mal's personality that he's either lost/is not in touch with or can't express very well.

i ilke that Mal comes from Shadow and at the end of the BDM shadow is where/how the Operative winds up.