Well, who doesn't have a sibling that they've had to rescue from a secret government research facility and are therefore doomed to care for while on the run for the rest of their days?

t crickets

Dammit, sumi. You've blown my cover. Now I'll never be able to come back here.

t sniff

Bye, everybody.

I also thought that Simon was simply repressed and also an upper-class guy in an entirely different social situation than what he was used to. He didn't always know what to say to Kaylee because he had probably never met anyone like her before. He always seemed most comfortable talking to Inara, because they came from similar worlds.

Maysa is me. The reason he appears so repressed is because he's surrounded by people who are comfortable in their lives (which makes it much easier for them to interact with each other on a more intimate level) while he is himself extremely uncomfortable at more or less all times. Where I think a lot of people have started to draw certain conclusions from this is in the comparison between him and the others; stick him in a show based on Osiris and I'm thinking there'd be less of a gay vibe about him.

And all this without bringing up how he's the sole male cast member who defies typical notions of masculinity pretty much without cease. Even Wash gets in more macho bits than he does.

And all this without bringing up how he's the sole male cast member who defies typical notions of masculinity pretty much without cease. Even Wash gets in more macho bits than he does.

Yeah, I never thought about it like that before. Simon's bravery comes from a more traditionally feminine place - sacrifice. He's basically River's caretaker, and you don't usually see male tv characters in that kind of role.

Beautifully put, Maysa.

I've never seen him in anything other than Firefly.

Check out the remake of Brian's Song. Sean plays Brian Piccolo to Mekhi Phifer's Gale Sayers. Apart from the jock thing of everybody showering together and patting each other's fannies, nothin' gay about those two.

I thought Simon was repressed but straight.

Maher, on the other hand is gay.

I get that plot-wise the writers (and actor) intended for the former to be true, but the city slicker Western stereotype shares enough distinguishing characteristics with modern gay identity that Sean hasn't been able to sell me on Kaylee being more Simon's type than Jayne is. I never saw that Ryan Caulfield show - maybe he succeeded in butching it up as a police officer?

Isn't Brian's Song basically about the intense bond of affection that developed between two teammates from different sides of the tracks and how one was the chief source of emotional comfort for the other as he slid into a lingering terminal illness?

Yeah, not holding my breath for that to be the role that break's Sean's string of ambiguously gay-seeming characters, regardless of the actual facts of the story.

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