Mal's father

In canon, we're not given much to go on...just that Mal was raised by his mother on a ranch on Shadow, with his father being conspicuous by his absence.

What's your headcanon on Mal's father? Is he dead? Living but absent? What's his story?

ebfiddler987 wrote:In canon, we're not given much to go on...just that Mal was raised by his mother on a ranch on Shadow, with his father being conspicuous by his absence.

What's your headcanon on Mal's father? Is he dead? Living but absent? What's his story?

i can see Wash with his dinosaurs right now - "But no, Mal, I AM your father!"
"Nooooooooooooooo...! "
(maybe i've seen 'Spaceballs' too many times)

But seriously, this is a good question you bring up. I mean, i've never considered it much, and for why?
i guess the Whedonverse has conditioned me. Buffy, Faith, Echo/Caroline et al the absent father or worse e.g. Tara, numerous guest characters on Angel. Very few positive dads, Connor's eventual foster family, Dan in Roseanne, that's about it.
In F.F. Simon and River's is ambiguous at best and no mention made much of any other character's. Kaylee's is vague.
But i suppose that's a story staple from fairy-tales on down. And i know some folks give Joss a hard time for his dysfunctional famiiy set-ups and apparent/supposed lack of positive father figures (But that's a thread rant doesn't ever seem to end pretty and i rarely join it).

All of which waffle means - i will go and think on it some!!! LOL.

ps; i do note however; Mal and Book.
This doesn't fit the usual mould for surrogate Father/Son relationships in genre fiction.
I don't think we can deduce much from it - not in the same way as Buffy/Giles, Echo/Boyd whatever.
Nor does Mal seem to have the issues that Wesley or Angel struggle with - testament to Mal's mother maybe or just that Mal lost his father too early.

wytchcroft wrote:i can see Wash with his dinosaurs right now - "But no, Mal, I AM your father!"
"Nooooooooooooooo...! "

Hahahaha

wytchcroft wrote:some folks give Joss a hard time for his dysfunctional famiiy set-ups

Hmm...not much mention is made of relatives of any of the main characters. Kaylee goes and asks her folks before joining the crew; Wash mentions his "old man" once in the script (I think it might have been cut from the aired version); Mal mentions his mother; Jayne has his mother and Mattie. The only family members we actually meet are the Tams, and they're definitely a mixed bag.
On the other hand, the 9 characters make up their own family of seemingly dysfunctional misfits, who are, somehow, functional.

In my headcanon, Mal's father was the rancher from Shadow, Mal's ma was a schoolteacher from the Core who fell in love with life on Shadow and stayed. Mal's father died when Mal was very young, and his ma stayed and ran the ranch. Don't want to say specifically how he died, since it's a spoiler for my fic (eventually. if I ever get that far!).

I'm with everyone else. Mal's father was out of the picture early. And probably not in a good way, because Mal has issues with men a mile wide. I don't see him having a father figure replacement, growing up. His mother appears to have remained single, which would also explain Mal's relationship... difficulties. And clearly Mal has created himself an artificial family scenario that utterly centers around himself as the dad he never had.

To me his earlier relationship with God plays into that, too. He didn't need his father if he had God, the ultimate father, to take his place, but that guy, too, abandoned him. Splat! It's almost as if it could only have ended this way, he projected so much onto that faith.

I'm kind of sad now that we never got to have a conversation between Mal and Book that touched on these subjects. Book stepped into that vacuum and was greeted with all the dormant resentment and longing that entailed.


... Must now head to the Mal's Ma thread...

I think Mal's father was killed or died. I do agree that Mal has some resentment towards other men and shows favouritism to women, but I'm not sure there has to be an abusive or neglectful relationship to account for that. Absentee dad via death would also leave Mal without too much guidance about how to act in a relationship, projecting dad-issues onto faith and his crew, and building a father role for himself. In young men, it seems more like they admire irresponsible dads than they resent them, and I don't really see Mal acting to emulate that or make a deadbeat dad proud by proxy. And while Mal can be abusive, I think that's more his darkness after the war rather than manifesting lessons his dad taught him.

What we know for sure is that one of his two parents was also probably wealthy and the other wasn't, and that the ranch overseer tried to step in as a father figure for Mal.

Bytemite wrote:What we know for sure is ... that the ranch overseer tried to step in as a father figure for Mal.

Oh, is this in canon somewhere? I must have missed that!

Agent Rouka wrote:I'm with everyone else. Mal's father was out of the picture early. And probably not in a good way, because Mal has issues with men a mile wide. I don't see him having a father figure replacement, growing up. His mother appears to have remained single, which would also explain Mal's relationship... difficulties. And clearly Mal has created himself an artificial family scenario that utterly centers around himself as the dad he never had.

Oh, well said! I also think his mother remained single, and my headcanon backstory has a "not in a good way" end for Mal's father, who is dead in my headcanon.

Agent Rouka wrote:To me his earlier relationship with God plays into that, too. He didn't need his father if he had God, the ultimate father, to take his place, but that guy, too, abandoned him. Splat! It's almost as if it could only have ended this way, he projected so much onto that faith.

I'm kind of sad now that we never got to have a conversation between Mal and Book that touched on these subjects. Book stepped into that vacuum and was greeted with all the dormant resentment and longing that entailed.

Oh, this is very interesting indeed. I was just writing some background notes on Mal's family, and discussing his parents' religious views. Very, very interesting. I would love to read that conversation between Mal and Book on these subjects...any chance of persuading you to write it, Rouka? (even if just something brief for the Fanfic Sandbox or Rapid-Fire)

Bytemite wrote:Absentee dad via death would also leave Mal without too much guidance about how to act in a relationship, projecting dad-issues onto faith and his crew, and building a father role for himself.

^Agree with that.

ebfiddler987 wrote:

Bytemite wrote:What we know for sure is ... that the ranch overseer tried to step in as a father figure for Mal.

Oh, is this in canon somewhere? I must have missed that!

RPG manual in Mal's bio. Which also suggests the wealthy ranch and the classical education and dance stuff.

ebfiddler987 wrote:

Agent Rouka wrote:To me his earlier relationship with God plays into that, too. He didn't need his father if he had God, the ultimate father, to take his place, but that guy, too, abandoned him. Splat! It's almost as if it could only have ended this way, he projected so much onto that faith.

I'm kind of sad now that we never got to have a conversation between Mal and Book that touched on these subjects. Book stepped into that vacuum and was greeted with all the dormant resentment and longing that entailed.

Oh, this is very interesting indeed. I was just writing some background notes on Mal's family, and discussing his parents' religious views. Very, very interesting. I would love to read that conversation between Mal and Book on these subjects...any chance of persuading you to write it, Rouka? (even if just something brief for the Fanfic Sandbox or Rapid-Fire)

doubly ditto'd and definitely an interesting thread...