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wytchcroft) wrote2009-01-27 02:49 am
Let's shine a light on Nandi... (Thanks people! YOU RULE!)
So...
...i'm trying to clear my head and start from scratch about Nandi and see if the story i have in mind is right for her. Sometimes they don't fit the characters i hope they will - or that inspire them in the first place... Inara's done that to me - and Book - and River too.
So... my primary question is about time;
How much time between the Guild and the palais de tin foil in Heart of Gold.
I'm interested in where the girls came from - were they on the planet already - or did they come with Nandi? (yeah yeah, that's the ears on my plot bunny sticking up)...
The Dulcimer story;
I don't buy it, too neat and too funny, so what incident(s) caused Nandi to detach from the life of a Companion?
And lastly of course Nandi herself.
Who is she, what is her character and when did it chrystalize into the Nandi of HOG (Oh and there's the bunny's whiskers!)?
So - a lot of questions... I'd like to thrash em out on someone's lj age but shoot, everyone's disappeared!
Advice would be shiny!
Discussion would be the thing that comes after shiny!!:)
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Time, time, time. When Mal suggests they all run, Nandi tells him 'it took her years to cut this piece of territory from other men's hands, to build this business up from nothing. It's who I am, and it's my home...'
So, years implies a significant ammount of time. The series is set five years after the war, so I would think that she must have left the Guild around that time, or shortly thereafter to give her the 'years' she's spent getting the Heart of Gold to where it is at this point. She also tells Mal she 'was gone long before' Inara left Sihnon, and if we assume that Inara has recently left Sihnon when she rents Mal's shuttle, which was 8 months before the beginning of the series, (which puts the war only 4 years and a few months from done) then I would think this lends weight to Nandi leaving shortly after the war, so that those 'years' could exist between then and now.
Why she ended up on the moon where the HoG is, I have no idea, but I believe the girls were all already there; Nandi tells Mal she 'trucked out to the border, learned to say ain't, and came looking for work. Found this place. ... It was a dung heap, run by a pig who had half the girls strung out on drops. There's no Guild out here, they let the men run the houses and they don't ask for references. We didn't get along.'
So basically, I think she came here, found the conditions the girls were working in deplorable, and went about changing that - how exactly she did that would make a good story too ;o) Grit, determination, hard work, and an iron will I'd bet, not to mention a keen business sense and her talent for readin' folk. But I digress :o)
The Dulcimer Incident, I think, was a last straw sort of thing. She tells Mal that she realized then that 'a Companion's life might be a little too constricting', but I think it's more likely that she'd been feeling that way for some time. I think she chafed under the structure of the Guild, I think she's too independent and willful, too impatient to sit through the day to day 'monotony' of training and practicing. I think she began to feel dissatisfied within the confines of that structure, until she reached a breaking point. I think, like Mal, she balks under 'oppressive' authority, and she has that same natural-born-leader characteristic that Mal has, and the same protectiveness of her 'family'. To me that speaks of a certain confidence of self - whether she obtained that after leaving the Guild, or if it was something she possessed already (and was why she felt so confined within the Guild) could be debated, but I think I tend toward the latter. Or a combination of the two. Those characteristics must have been somewhat present in her before leaving, but she may have been 'forged' and 'tempered' into the woman she is now through her struggle to wrest control of the Heart of Gold from the men of the moon.
I do like the idea of her entering the Guild at a slightly older age, I think that's highly plausible.
As to the shunning, I would think that Nandi obviously had to do something more than just smashing a dulcimer. There are a multitude of possibilities there: an extreme 'tantrum', destruction of property, screaming, yelling? Something political, related to the War? to her beliefs and background? Publicly embarrassing the Guild? It would have to be something pretty big to result in a shunning I would think - or... here's a thought. Maybe when she took up work as a whore, using her Guild taught skills, maybe *that's* why she's been shunned, for taking the 'trade secrets' outside the Guild, lowering to that standard, shaming the Guild that way, that sort of thing... hmm. Actually, I kind of like that idea, for my own personal take on Nandi and the Guild. I'm going to have to think on that some more.
Great discussion! I love Nandi *SO*, and now I've got a new idea to think about!!! Yay! Thanks, darlin'!
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Seems we're all agreed about the time fatcor, shiny!:)
What you say about disatisfatcion is really interesting! And I mean, she reinvents herself from top to toe, she's not living the life of an ex-pat Companion, that would be Sheydra possibly - not Nandi.
As for what you say about her finding the women and it being a good story etc - well, watch my bunny jump!!:)
hee hee - thanks so much your reply, there's a lot to ponder on actually... :):)
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Hmm, I don't know. I think her response, what she says about a 'true companion never stops practicing', is too real to be made up. I've always thought that the dulcimer incident was probably real, but basically the lightest, simplest, and easiest version she could tell someone, without going into all the real details. But of course, it's open to interpretation :o)
she's not living the life of an ex-pat Companion, that would be Sheydra possibly - not Nandi.
Yeah, exactly.
As for what you say about her finding the women and it being a good story etc - well, watch my bunny jump!!:)
Yay! Colour me excited! :oD
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there's a lot in that remark - a lot...
and i agree about 'simplest way to tell it' etc.
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I wonder though, if the whole Guild shunned Nandi, or if only Inara was ordered to... due to their association, or something... just pondering...
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also, 'knowing' Inara was ordered - well, how does she know? Isn't she actually asking Inara the question - in the typical roundabout way of Companions??? i think that one is open for speculation. Did someone TELL Nandi after the event? Was Inara there for the shunning??? hmmm...
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Was Inara there for the shunning???
Oooh, gosh! What a fic *that* would be!! I never really thought of there being an acutal 'shunning' as an 'event'... Wow, that could be *very* interesting... hmmm...
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:D
Yay! Colour me excited! :oD
Re: Yay! Colour me excited! :oD
Re: You *are* the Quisatz Haderach!!
yeah but only you can frakking spell it!:):)
Re: You *are* the Quisatz Haderach!!
Re: You *are* the Quisatz Haderach!!
Re: You *are* the Quisatz Haderach!!
Re: You *are* the Quisatz Haderach!!
Re: You *are* the Quisatz Haderach!!
Re: You *are* the Quisatz Haderach!!
Re: You *are* the Quisatz Haderach!!
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Don't want the wrath of the frizzy on me!
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*runs away*
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-- hey, now. Where did you go??
Here's a related question
how many companions were spies in the war do you think???
none? some? lots?
It's never mentioned but attitudes could be explained by exploring the idea.
maybe...
Re: Here's a related question
I could definately see some of them using knowledge gleaned during appointments for political manouvering or gain, I think that could be a large part of the Guild's powerbase really, but I'm unsure of how that would really play into wartime espionage...
Do you have theories? Evidence? Ideas?
Re: Here's a related question
and i can see Companions being used as spies in various ways; pretending to be whores, gathering info - spying on the alliance officers collecting gossip and so forth, on plans, rivalries, character and so on.
i've never given it much thought before but there are possibilities if you look at the Civil War and the disputed neutrality of the new Orleans bordellos, and France during WW2 and so on.
Re: Here's a related question
I would think it would be easier to just pay off real whores for information, than try to integrate a Companion undercover at some bordello...
It's an interesting idea, definatly, but i think the situation is different from the Civil War in that the Companion's Guild is much more tied to the Alliance, and it is in their best interest for the Alliance to continue to be in power, so I don't see that they would be playing both sides... of course, there could always be a few rogue elements, so who knows. I wouldn't say it's impossible :o)
I definatley think that there certainly would be information collected, especially for political leverage for the Guild to use, I'm just not convinced about the spying ;o)
Of course, that's where your brilliant storytelling comes in and you convince me ;oD
LOL!:)
as for 'ambassador' - the connotations could just be in Mal's head - i was thinking of a Browncoat nic-name, i'm not sure Book would be clued into that.
But really i was just sifting mind mud - and like i said, you help pan the gold!:D
Re: LOL!:)
Damn, there goes my angle on some 'convince me fic' ;o)
Re: LOL!:)