How old is Inara?

How old is Inara?

For the most part, when writing Firefly fanfics, I go with the age of the actors portraying the characters.
This would put the ages of the characters as:
Book 57
Jayne 40
Zoe 33
Mal 31
Wash 31
Simon (27)
Inara (23)
River (21)
Kaylee 20

We know that, despite Summer Glau's age, River is specifically said to be 17 at the start of the series.
From the episode "Safe," Simon is about 7 or 8 years older than River, which makes him 24 or 25.
Screen information in the BDM states that Mal was born in 2468, making him 49 at the time of the series -- which I find completely unbelievable. He does not look like a 49 year old man, and he sure as heck doesn't act like one. So I go with Fillion's age and put him in his early 30's.

But the question that nags at me is Inara's age. Sure, we could just go with Morena Baccarin's age and call her 23, but to my mind she has too much history to have started Companioning at -- well, some reasonable age (18? 21?) -- and then to have left her House at age 22 (she's already been on board Serenity for 8 months when we first meet her) for a life of a free-lancer. Corroborating this is that Nandi (portrayed by an actress who was 33) seems to be Inara's contemporary, or close to it, and she is specifically said to be "in early thirties" in the script of Heart of Gold.

So I say that Inara, though she has a youthful appearance (very handy for a woman whose professional reputation depends, in part, upon not appearing to be old), is in fact older than 23...*much* older.

How old do you think Inara really is?

ebfiddler987 wrote:How old is Inara?

For the most part, when writing Firefly fanfics, I go with the age of the actors portraying the characters.
This would put the ages of the characters as:
Book 57
Jayne 40
Zoe 33
Mal 31
Wash 31
Simon (27)
Inara (23)
River (21)
Kaylee 20

How old do you think Inara really is?

i always think 'mid 20s'; which can be an illusory time for couples, domestically speaking. but, more generally, i go by actor age give or take a little, like River as you point out. i try to factor in the effects of environment and personal circumstance and then i go *hand wave, hand wave* people age different on different worlds in the future! and just never mention age at all, LOL!

Inara's birthday is written in the Blue Ray extras for the movie. She's 29, unless all companions lie about their age after they're 29.

The rest are really close according to the blue ray stuff. Kaylee is about twenty and I think Simon was supposed to be about 25.

For Mal, I go with the explanation at the Alliance did a crap job at putting in his personal information when they forced him to register with them at their prisoner camps. They spelled his name wrong and juxtaposed the last two numbers in his birth year (which, if you switch them, is much closer to Nathans age at the time of filming).

Bytemite wrote:Inara's birthday is written in the Blue Ray extras for the movie. She's 29, unless all companions lie about their age after they're 29.

That's excellent information. I am of the opinion that NO Companion is officially older than 29.

Bytemite wrote: For Mal, I go with the explanation at the Alliance did a crap job at putting in his personal information when they forced him to register with them at their prisoner camps. They spelled his name wrong and juxtaposed the last two numbers in his birth year.

Again, I just love this explanation. Leave it to a big bureaucracy to screw up the records.

Bytemite wrote: For Mal, I go with the explanation at the Alliance did a crap job at putting in his personal information when they forced him to register with them at their prisoner camps. They spelled his name wrong and juxtaposed the last two numbers in his birth year.

maybe that entry was c/o someone we know...