Update

[alixtii]

Well, I'm at school. My classes sound like they're going to be really interesting, and I'm very excited. Time to make my last semester as an undergraduate count. Getting moved in, of course, is always a chore; I'm not quite completely unpacked.

Flist was at skip=425, but I caught up. Haven't read all the fic yet, though, although I've most of it that was written by my flist. If I missed omething, feel free to drop a comment (not that I really think anyone will).

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Happy belated birthday to jadedcynic! Hope you had a great day, Bri, and thanks for all the work you do in fandom. Also metafandom is listed as having a birthday, so I think it'd be an excellent opportunity to repeat how much I love it and give a big thank you to the editors.

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Statler and Waldorf continue to be oh-so slashy, and in a meta way at that. Although, aren't they canonically in-laws?

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This article at the Chronicle of Higher Education made me think. It's mostly about Facebook, but Livejournal could fit in the rubric of what is talking about just as easily. (Or more easily--personally I've found LJ to be far more addictive than Facebook.) It recognizes that changing technology has changed higher education, and acknowledges that the fact has both pros and cons, but I think it sort of shortchanges the pro-sides. Sure, maybe we haven't learned what is quite the best way to utilize technology in higher education, but that doesn't mean that we never will, or that our choices are as simple as deciding whether to spend money on faculty or technology. (And as a potential-future-faculty, I don't see that as an easy choice either.) Sometimes once Pandora has opened her box, however, the best plan isn't to see how well one can shield oneself from the miseries so much as embrace them until finally at last one finds Hope.

And that's enough of that tortured classical analogy.

But I think "ego-casting" is here to stay, and I'll probably have more on it later. I think there's a fanthropology post in there somewhere.

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I finished watching Firefly and rewatched Serenity, both with and without Joss' commentary. I stand behind my earlier comments: Serenity is the best action-adventure movie I've ever seen, but a lot of us didn't want an action-adventure movie. We wanted more Firefly. We wanted cozy domesticity, and moral complexity, and existential themes, a nd genre-bending, and a lot of other things that a major motion picture just can't supply. And while I can't fault Joss for making the best use of the media he was working in--indeed, I would have faulted him if he hadn't--that doesn't keep me from missing Firefly and wishing we had more. The deleted scenes help, in that they have a more TV feel to them (which is why they were cut)--but they're not canon. (Not that I want more canon, per se. As a fanfic writer I have all the canon I need. I want more Summer Glau playing River and Jewel Staite playing Kaylee, because their performances are the one thing that fanfic just can't provide and I miss.)

On re-watching, it seemed pretty clear to me that Simon realizes that he is Kaylee's de facto boyfriend. And he falls into that role without much fuss--he takes her out on dates, gets drunk with her and calls her pretty, is randomly in her bedroom, and spends more time with her than anyone else besides River. Someone who was crass would say that he had all the duties of being a boyfriend without any of the benefits. (Those people are stupid and do not share my understanding of relationships, but is a particularly vivid way of describing their relationship in canon.)

So why doesn't Simon kiss her? I can think of any number of reasons. He knows that she'll still be there tomorrow, so he doesn't have to make the decision today. He's afraid he can't divide his attention between her and River. She's so far from his fantasy of what a woman should be, and he can't give that up. He's afraid of hurting her. Deep down, he knows that he doesn't love her. He's afraid of the commitment. He's secretly having an affair with River. Whatever.

None of the reasons he might hold for not pursuing a romantic relationship in the series negate his choice to pursue one in Serenity. While Joss doesn't give us much information to go on as to what changes his mind, I found the change of mind itself perfectly believable. He could have believed they were going to die, so he told Kaylee what she wanted to do. He could have been emboldened by the moment. He could have fallen in love with her in that moment (which IMO would be pretty superficial, especially after spending so much time with her those 8 months, but I'm just saying that--contra wisdomeagle and others--that I find the movie's Simon/Kaylee believable, if not ideal). He could have finally given up on his fantasy. His relationship with River changed in some way, perhaps because she is "saner" (Joss's words, I believe, and a strange case of trying to eat your cake and have it too). Some of these options are more likely than others, but canon gives us room for any of them, and I think most are plausible and consistent with Simon's character.

Inara, on the other hand, isn't as clear as Kaylee with her signals. I'm not sure if she knows what she wants herself, and I certainly can't figure it out, and so neither can Mal. And since he can't figure out what she wants, he can't decide for himself if he wants to geive it to her.