Nathan and Reddit

Hey everyone, just got back from a camping trip.

Nathan's been posting stuff on reddit, answering questions. One thing that caught my eye was that he said he'd trained as a teacher, and I thought "so that's how you guys got that "English teacher" vibe from Mal.

Also apparently more Inara secret news will be revealed in November, when the Science Channel airs it's Firefly reunion Comic Con documentary.

Thanks to Platonist for the tip.

Durr, Byte, post a link for the people.


http://www.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/xl3ih/this_is_a_test/

Thanks for the link, Byte. I tend to read all the interviews, chats, etc., with Nathan in them, as a way of gathering more material to use for Mal in my fics. It was some interview or other that I saw or read, where Nathan talked about how both his parents were English teachers, and how he was intending to be a teacher, before he got his acting break, that made me decide that Mal's Ma had come to Shadow to be an English teacher. I also gave Mal a throwaway line about having once considered being a teacher himself, in Expectations, for the same reason. I also took Nathan's comment about "using a Jedi mind trick" in a recent interview, and had Mal use the same line in dialog with Book in the scene in Chapter 4 of What Begins With an Apple. One reason I watch Castle regularly is to collect gestures or habits or ways of moving, or occasionally lines, and incorporate them into Mal in my fics. This Reddit AMA thing has a bunch of gems to mine, as did the recent Comic Con panel.

Yeah, me too. It's amazing how many different things can be fodder for a fic idea.

Nathan is such a star wars fan. He actually has one of those lightsabers that light from the base up and have motion sensitive sounds. I think his is one of those purple ones Samuel L. Jacksons character was using.

I wonder if Mal has any hidden fanboy qualities or eccentricities. Maybe he's really into old Earth-that-Was serials...

Bytemite wrote:Durr, Byte, post a link for the people.


http://www.reddit.com/r/Denver/comments/xl3ih/this_is_a_test/

ebfiddler987 wrote:Thanks for the link, Byte. I tend to read all the interviews, chats, etc., with Nathan in them, as a way of gathering more material to use for Mal in my fics.

god yes; i must have mined the very dust out of the dvd commentaries by now, for instance - and White Noise ii has proved handy more than once.
not for dialogue so much as pointers and backstory notions (true for Alan too.) and tone.
what made me howl with laughter, when i caught this the other day, was that Nathan had posted to the Denver page (r/denver??) and carried on being charming and funny and erudite and IN THE WRONG PLACE the whole time regardless. the man IS mal.

as for Star Wars; you've reminded me of a constant i fall back on; early comic in the seventies - first additional Jedi to the cannon was Don Wan Kehotay (or thereabouts)...
something about tilting at windows that is so very Mal - though he would prefer to be thought of as a certain Corellian smuggler i'm sure...

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Don-Wan_Kihotay

the story he was in, sort of a 'the magnificent seven' in space set up - big influence on a lot of people...
anyway, shades of this character turn up in my fics in Mal, Book and others.

wytchcroft wrote:Star Wars; you've reminded me of a constant i fall back on; early comic in the seventies - first additional Jedi to the cannon was Don Wan Kehotay (or thereabouts)...

Don Wan Kihotay! I must check this out!

wytchcroft wrote:god yes; i must have mined the very dust out of the dvd commentaries by now, for instance - and White Noise ii has proved handy more than once.
not for dialogue so much as pointers and backstory notions (true for Alan too.) and tone.

I'll have to check out White Noise ii, that's one I haven't watched. Slither and the one about the pies (name has slipped my mind)... even the bit parts in Saving Private Ryan and Blast from the Past are fodder. Alan voiced a dodo bird on Ice Age; thanks to my kids, I get to watch that one a lot.

wytchcroft wrote:
what made me howl with laughter, when i caught this the other day, was that Nathan had posted to the Denver page (r/denver??) and carried on being charming and funny and erudite and IN THE WRONG PLACE the whole time regardless. the man IS mal.

You are SO right.

ebfiddler987 wrote:

wytchcroft wrote:Star Wars; you've reminded me of a constant i fall back on; early comic in the seventies - first additional Jedi to the cannon was Don Wan Kehotay (or thereabouts)...

Don Wan Kihotay! I must check this out!

Clever Name... Fits pretty well in the star wars universe. Well, if you're going to have asian life energy themes and mystical samurai knights, you can't go wrong with a Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai spoof.

ebfiddler987 wrote:

wytchcroft wrote:
what made me howl with laughter, when i caught this the other day, was that Nathan had posted to the Denver page (r/denver??) and carried on being charming and funny and erudite and IN THE WRONG PLACE the whole time regardless. the man IS mal.

You are SO right.

It's like if he stumbled into a gay bar, and then decided to try the karaoke machine anyway.

And then did a impressive rendition of Cher.

Bytemite wrote:It's like if he stumbled into a gay bar, and then decided to try the karaoke machine anyway.

And then did a impressive rendition of Cher.

He also does Mimi from Rent REALLY well.

Bytemite wrote:

ebfiddler987 wrote:

wytchcroft wrote:Star Wars; you've reminded me of a constant i fall back on; early comic in the seventies - first additional Jedi to the cannon was Don Wan Kehotay (or thereabouts)...

Don Wan Kihotay! I must check this out!

Clever Name... Fits pretty well in the star wars universe. Well, if you're going to have asian life energy themes and mystical samurai knights, you can't go wrong with a Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai spoof.

LOL. hello H.O.G.

ebfiddler987 wrote:

wytchcroft wrote:god yes; i must have mined the very dust out of the dvd commentaries by now, for instance - and White Noise ii has proved handy more than once.
not for dialogue so much as pointers and backstory notions (true for Alan too.) and tone.

I'll have to check out White Noise ii, that's one I haven't watched. Slither and the one about the pies (name has slipped my mind)... even the bit parts in Saving Private Ryan and Blast from the Past are fodder. Alan voiced a dodo bird on Ice Age; thanks to my kids, I get to watch that one a lot.

Waitress. Good hearted movie. He wears a brown coat in that one too, LOL, though not as obviously as the jacket and the in-jokes in whitenoise ii. Not sure i can recommend it as a film though Nate's good in it. It's a guilty pleasure.

All helps the characterisation pot to cook nicely though.

for the others, it starts to get tricky - i often have to substitute (ala Don Wan the psudo Jedi).
e.g. Bogart as pretend priest in The left hand of God (handily set in China)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX5LIv6HDTs
and the Duke (not John Wayne) disguised as a Friar in Measure for Measure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlQy5Xf9bY
all helpful for Book.

getting the culture blend is something else; Inara and the guild always seem one part turn of the century New Orleans (myth) and one part Curse of the Golden Flower.
and ok, rambling now.

wytchcroft wrote:

Bytemite wrote:

ebfiddler987 wrote:

wytchcroft wrote:Star Wars; you've reminded me of a constant i fall back on; early comic in the seventies - first additional Jedi to the cannon was Don Wan Kehotay (or thereabouts)...

Don Wan Kihotay! I must check this out!

Clever Name... Fits pretty well in the star wars universe. Well, if you're going to have asian life energy themes and mystical samurai knights, you can't go wrong with a Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai spoof.

LOL. hello H.O.G.

Huh. Yeah, actually, there were only seven at the Heart of Gold because Kaylee and Wash got stuck on the ship. On the other hand, no pregnancy in the Magnificent Seven.

part turn of the century New Orleans

That's... Vaguely alarming. New Orleans has never exactly been considered "wholesome" in any time frame, but late 19th early 20th century was particularly bad. Slavery was still practiced in all but name by hiring blacks on as servants, very two-tiered system, there were some voodoo sacrifice cults then living in the french quarter slums. The outward representation of Victorian manners, but with all kinds of seedy activities and intrigues and superstitions and debaucheries behind closed doors.

One particularly bad example I heard of was the wealthy family of sadists who cannibalized and tortured their servants. It's no coincidence that HP Lovecraft set some of his horror stories in turn of the century New Orleans.

Curse of the Golden Flower.

Oh. Oh, this does not end well.

wytchcroft wrote:
Waitress. Good hearted movie.

Interjecting a month later... but... Ugh, I did not like Waitress at all. The pies were cute, but the movie was basically about everyone cheating on their significant others and how okay that was. In addition to one of the worst PG-Only make out scenes ever (that kissing scene between Nathan and what's her name was ridiculous), I couldn't get over the fact that every time he's with her, he's cheating on his wife. Maybe I'm coming from a different perspective though *shrug*

Not that I'm writing right now, or have been in forever, but I find the idea of watching Nathan's other work to incorporate it into Firefly fics interesting, as it was something that I actually avoided, for fear of diluting Mal's true character.

Granted, there are definite Mal-isms that are a part of Nathan's make up, but I always worried that, with the ever-increasing amount of time separating Firefly and Nathan's recent projects, that the line between what was Mal, what is Nathan, and what are Nathan's other characters, would blur into something that was none of the above...

Does anyone else have that worry? Is it relevant any more, with the above mentioned ever-increasing amount of time since Firefly aired? Is it just me?

2x2 wrote:I find the idea of watching Nathan's other work to incorporate it into Firefly fics interesting, as it was something that I actually avoided, for fear of diluting Mal's true character.

Granted, there are definite Mal-isms that are a part of Nathan's make up, but I always worried that, with the ever-increasing amount of time separating Firefly and Nathan's recent projects, that the line between what was Mal, what is Nathan, and what are Nathan's other characters, would blur into something that was none of the above...

Does anyone else have that worry? Is it relevant any more, with the above mentioned ever-increasing amount of time since Firefly aired? Is it just me?

I agree that there's a need to exercise good judgment as to whether Nathan is playing to a Firefly audience, a Castle audience, or just being himself when he's being interviewed. I tend to use physical mannerisms from Nathan's other work, rather than his lines or ways of expression, because Nathan playing Castle, for example, is *not* Nathan playing Mal, and Mal is not Castle, and doesn't behave like him. But I have borrowed some of Castle's mannerisms on occasion--ways of moving, facial expressions, etc.--and written them into my stories. Usually just a little detail to provide a fuller view of a scene. Also, you made an interesting point there, 2x2, because although I watch and listen to recent interviews, the ones I make the most use of are the DVD commentaries and things that were printed in the Visual Companions, and so more contemporaneous with the series itself.

ebfiddler987 wrote:I agree that there's a need to exercise good judgment as to whether Nathan is playing to a Firefly audience, a Castle audience, or just being himself when he's being interviewed. I tend to use physical mannerisms from Nathan's other work, rather than his lines or ways of expression, because Nathan playing Castle, for example, is *not* Nathan playing Mal, and Mal is not Castle, and doesn't behave like him. But I have borrowed some of Castle's mannerisms on occasion--ways of moving, facial expressions, etc.--and written them into my stories. Usually just a little detail to provide a fuller view of a scene. Also, you made an interesting point there, 2x2, because although I watch and listen to recent interviews, the ones I make the most use of are the DVD commentaries and things that were printed in the Visual Companions, and so more contemporaneous with the series itself.

There are definitely instances on Castle when you can see hints of Mal peek through; his more serious or angry moods are when I see it most, so yes, I could see using that.

I think I became a bit paranoid of the whole idea of 'losing the character' because I worried it was happening to me with Inara, after so many discussions and fanfics and round robins and such, my idea of Inara had/has evolved from what it started at, and sometimes when I took a step back I was afraid that I had crossed a line between what was really Inara and what was the Inara I had created in my head. Of course, to tell certain stories, you have to make guesses on what the character will do, which in turn forms your overall view of them. It's just if the ideas that come after canon start to influence my ideas more than the real ideas of who Inara is that stem from canon, that's when it gets worrisome.

If that makes sense at all LOL

2x2 wrote:

wytchcroft wrote:
Waitress. Good hearted movie.

Interjecting a month later... but... Ugh, I did not like Waitress at all. The pies were cute, but the movie was basically about everyone cheating on their significant others and how okay that was. In addition to one of the worst PG-Only make out scenes ever (that kissing scene between Nathan and what's her name was ridiculous), I couldn't get over the fact that every time he's with her, he's cheating on his wife. Maybe I'm coming from a different perspective though *shrug*

Well, at least they both seemed to make the right choice in the end. And hey, Nathan has to find ways so he isn't always shoehorned into the smarm king role. Even if he does jokingly put on the smarm to spectacular effect.

Does anyone else have that worry?

People write Castle/Firefly cross overs with Kate Beckett replacing Inara as the love interest. Yeah...

I don't know why people would deliberately channel other characters into their portrayals of a different character. I mean, a shout out or a reference to the other roles is fine, but the point of all these characters is they aren't the same person even IF the same person plays them.

2x2 wrote:I think I became a bit paranoid of the whole idea of 'losing the character' because I worried it was happening to me with Inara, after so many discussions and fanfics and round robins and such, my idea of Inara had/has evolved from what it started at, and sometimes when I took a step back I was afraid that I had crossed a line between what was really Inara and what was the Inara I had created in my head. Of course, to tell certain stories, you have to make guesses on what the character will do, which in turn forms your overall view of them. It's just if the ideas that come after canon start to influence my ideas more than the real ideas of who Inara is that stem from canon, that's when it gets worrisome.

If that makes sense at all LOL

Oh, it totally makes sense. The stories I write are mostly in a series, and so the characters have been gradually evolving as I go along. I get to the point where I sometimes say, "Oh, Mal wouldn't do that" or "Zoe would do such and such" and then I think, wait a minute, that's what my version of Mal wouldn't do, but Mal as he is in the series might do that. So I think I'm in the same position as you -- sometimes wondering if I've wandered too far off-canon. Maybe someone reading my later stories would come in and think that I'm totally off-base in my characterizations, lol.

Bytemite wrote:People write Castle/Firefly cross overs with Kate Beckett replacing Inara as the love interest. Yeah...

Yeah, I don't get that. I do sometimes read Castle/Firefly crossovers, just because they are (or can be) ridiculously funny, but it's not really a genre I can take very seriously. And the love interest thing--well, Mal would always choose Inara over Kate Beckett. And Castle would always choose Beckett over Inara. They aren't the same person, they just look a lot alike. And Nathan Fillion happens to look a lot like both of them!

I don't really get Firefly/Castle crossovers either... not that I've read any of them. And I certainly couldn't imagine Becket replacing Inara! I'm not a huge fan of crossovers period really...

I did read one story once, it wasn't exactly a crossover, but I recall that Nathan had somehow switched places with Mal, and I remember the first time Nathan saw Inara, and realized that this was not Morena, but INARA SERRA, registered companion, and how intimidating she was, and what a set Mal must have to go toe to toe with her all the time hehehe I don't remember who wrote it though or anything much else about, just that larger than life wow moment when he first sees Inara...

Oh now, that sounds funny. I don't think I've encountered that fic.