I do think that the Companion concept could have made sense -- if it hadn't been exclusively linked to prostitution. If you really want to call someone "companion" and "ambassador", then why not make her, in fact, a cultural ambassador? A guild of cultural propagandists from the clean worlds, a chief vehicle for gossip and fashion trends out toward the fringes, a teacher of manners and style and etiquette for the young aspiring gentry. Such a job description could also involve sex (or it could not), but what it does do is provide a reason for a Companion to (a) travel (especially back and forth from center to fringes) and (b) be respected.

Also, it's nefarious, and I like nefarity. If just once someone had hired her saying "Thank goodness! I haven't had a decent game of whist in ages! ", then I think my idea could be plausibly wanked into canon; but if it's all about the booty call, then NSM. There's only so much socio-political function you can ascribe to a man following his dick, but train his children as petit-bourgeoisie, and you'll have him in the palm of your hand.

Can someone explain to me why a spoiler thread has limits on what can and cannot be discussed?

That seems bizarre and counter to what a spoiler thread is all about

I wouldn't call this willfully perverse, Fay. It should almost be in the FAQ for this discussion. It really doesn't make sense until you've explained why those last three episodes are being discussed here even though they're not too spoilery, and what's changed so that they've become more spoilery. (I still don't get it, but I don't need to know.)

Hi, le nubian. On W/X, because of your picture, I figured you named yourself for being African in origin. Now that I see you on a new board, I'm wondering if your name isn't really a pun on "le newbie one"?

Oh, I don't mind that. It's like Book's back story - I just believe that there is a reason, and that it would be an interesting reason.

Book isn't trying to earn a living, though. He is someone who ministers to the poor. From what I can see, Inara's "ministry" requires someone to pay her lots of money, and you just don't see a lot of those sorts of folks when you're on that kind of ship.

Yes, but they had been stopping at various quality ports where she *had* made contacts. She apparently chose to live out on the rim, and perhaps we'll get that backstory someday.

What Daniel said. The implication is that she's running away from something, same as the rest of them - not the law, but something. Plenty of people comment upon the fact that it's unusual to see a Companion out on the rim - she's got regulars she sees on the swankier planets, but clearly it's not usual for a Companion to be out there on this kind of ship. I presume that she has her reasons, and that the writers would have given us some more insight into her backstory and motivations if they'd not been stopped mid-season. Clearly YMMV on this one, though.

Le Nubian, I'm sorry for assuming that you read the main Firefly thread, and understood why there was any issue about where the UK folks could discuss the eps that were being aired. If you don't, then I can understand this being puzzling.

It really doesn't make sense until you've explained why those last three episodes are being discussed here even though they're not too spoilery, and what's changed so that they've become more spoilery. (I still don't get it, but I don't need to know.)

?

Man, I'm clearly being dim. I still don't get what you don't get, and I feel very stupid.

Nothing's changed to make them more spoilery. But the context of the discussion has changed, because the show is being aired in the UK. In the correct running order.

We've been discussing episodes as they air in the UK in the main thread, but now we're up to the unaired-in-the-US episode Trash we cannot continue to do so. (Well, okay, we could, but it would be shitty of us, since some of the US folks don't want to be spoiled for the unaired eps.)

That means we can't talk about those episodes anywhere but here.

But if we don't want to be spoiled for the other episodes that haven't yet been aired in the UK ( The Message, Heart of Gold and Objects In Space, to be aired in that order), we're kind of screwed, because this thread is the spoiler thread.

So it's either discuss in spoilerfont in the main thread, or else discuss it here and just hope not to be further spoiled. (I vote for the former, myself, but whatever's easiest.)

Fay,

thanks for the apology. I do not read the main threads in this forum, only the spoiler threads. I am vehemently against a limitation of what should be discussed in a spoiler thread. I would much rather a "UK thread" be created than to limit discussion here.

Noumenon, I'm actually not a newbie to this thread (or the forum). If you go WAY BACK, I've posted in here before. Around September or October. My nick comes from a musical group, Les Nubians.

I am vehemently against a limitation of what should be discussed in a spoiler thread. I would much rather a "UK thread" be created than to limit discussion here.

Well whether you are against the rules or not, they are the rules and if you want to change them, make your case in the Bureaucracy thread.

Daniel C. Jensen "Bureaucracy 2: Like Sartre, Only Longer" Jul 16, 2003 5:46:11 am PDT

okay, let me know what the rules are because in Buffy/Angel - nothing is off-limits in the spoiler thread.

maybe I need to unsubscribe from this thread totally.

BTW, the description for the thread is "spoilers for the current Firefly season. Anything goes."

That needs to be changed if there are limitations on discussion. I'm not trying to be difficult here, but I started reading this thread with one understanding, and it seems to me this understanding is being changed.

le nubian, I see your point-- but to create a new thread for just three weeks discussion (because, after 11th August, nothing will be spoilery for Brits t sob ) will make those people on the forum who are opposed to thread proliferation (and there are quite a number, whom you maybe haven't met if you don't read Bureaucracy) very annoyed. And to try and have discussions in whitefont in the main thread is not that easy. This is a very short term limit on discussion, for a strange and exceptional circumstance. Especially given that under normal rules, the last episode we will see (Objects In Space) we could already have been spoiled for in the main thread. I think I've mostly escaped, but only because people there have been kind enough to limit their discussion.

I realise it's awkward, and more than a little strange, but it's a) short term and b) a one-off. It's three weeks: we see The Message on 28th July, Heart of Gold on 4th August, and Objects In Space on 11th August. Please, hold off until then?

And we haven't really, in the midst of all this 'where shall we go?' had time and space to discuss Trash as much as I might have liked.

I assumed that the lack of respect for Inara's profession was an Alliance/Independent thing. Within Alliance society, Companions are respected; I imagine that the Independents may have picked up on the existance of 'legalised prostitutes' within Alliance society and used it as part of 'look, these people are bad and must be killed' propaganda. I don't see, in the crew's attitudes, disrespect for Inara as a person, but (with the exceptions of Wash, who has little to do with her; Simon, who is polite and kind as always; and River, who is a hard person to use as a measure of normal behaviour) the crew are rim worlders, Independants as far as they have politics, and they don't respect Inara's profession (though only Mal, and maybe Jayne, who doesn't respect much, really go as far as to show that).