Companion (Firefly)

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Inara Serra, a Registered Companion from Firefly
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Inara Serra, a Registered Companion from Firefly

In the television series Firefly and its feature film sequel Serenity, a Companion is a skilled, well-educated and well-respected member of a guild of professional courtesans/entertainers, somewhat similar to geisha, though with more obvious focus on sexual matters. While they do frequently engage in a form of state-sanctioned prostitution, they are nonetheless treated with a great deal of respect and deference from nearly everyone (as seen in several episodes, including "The Train Job"), though non-guild prostitutes (as seen in the Firefly episode "Heart of Gold") are generally treated in the reverse, even if they are former Guild members.

Inara Serra, one of the central protagonists of Firefly, is a licensed Companion, and Companions, the nature of the Companion profession, and the Guild, all feature prominently in the series.

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[edit] Training

Registered Companions are culturally well-educated with training in a number of areas, including psychology (as indicated by the exchange between Inara and Saffron, and comments from Inara later in the episode as well, in "Our Mrs. Reynolds"), music (as mentioned by Nandi in "Heart of Gold"), and fencing (as seen in the episode "Shindig"), as well as possibly unarmed martial arts (indicated in the film Serenity)

As revealed in material from the Serenity DVD and from the shooting script featured in Serenity: The Official Visual Companion, in the "core" planets they are typically trained from a very young age.[1]

[edit] Guild rules and Companion customs

Relatively little is known about the Companion Guild's rules and practices, or the customs of Companions, though a few details have been revealed or implied in various Firefly episodes:

  • A Companion is allowed to choose her own clients (stated by Inara to Kaylee in the Firefly episode "Serenity", and shown as Inara goes through her messages on her shuttle's touch-screen computer in "Shindig").
  • A Companion must have a yearly physical examination in order to keep her license (as seen in the episode "Ariel").
  • A customer who behaves badly enough can receive a "black mark in the Companion registry", stopping them from hiring registered Companions in the future (mentioned by Inara in the episode "Shindig").
  • A form of the tea ceremony is a part of the traditional opening to a meeting between a Companion and her client (featured in the episode "Jaynestown"), a probable allusion to the practices of geisha.
  • A Companion may and frequently does also provide a form of psychotherapy for her clients (also seen in "Jaynestown")
  • Trainees on border planets seem to begin their training at an older age than those on the "core" planets (as mentioned in the original shooting script and deleted scenes for the feature film Serenity; Inara says of the trainees and her own training that "[Inara] started [her] training at twelve").[1]
  • Trainees come from good families and the training houses have high academic standards.[1]

While the Companion Guild is in many ways a working company of skilled artisans, it also would appear to be a kind of religious sect. Heads of Companion houses are called "priestesses", and Inara's house is called "Madrassa", a term for an Islamic religious school. There are heavy religious overtones to many Guild practices, such as the use of incense, a focus on contemplation, and a cloistered lifestyle.

Additionally, not once in the series, including the comics and feature film, has there been a male registered Companion shown or mentioned. What this means or whether or not it even has any significance, however, has never been made clear in canon, and no statement has ever been made by Whedon or Minear in regards to it.

[edit] Characters in Firefly and Serenity who received Companion training

As mentioned above, Inara Serra is a licensed Companion. However, she is not the only character to be featured in the series who is, was, or received training to become a Companion. Although most are not currently licensed Companions, several minor characters are known or thought to have received Companion training:

  • Nandi, featured in the episode "Heart of Gold", was trained as a Companion. During her training, after a stressful incident with a dulcimer, she chose to strike out on her own outside of the Guild's sway and took control of a whorehouse on a border planet.
  • The femme fatale (her true name is unknown, though she is known by several aliases throughout the show, including Saffron) featured in the episodes "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Trash" was firmly thought by Inara to have received Companion training.
  • Several background characters at the Companion Training House in Serenity are, of course, in training to become Companions, and at least one older woman at the house (Sheydra), a teacher of theirs, was likely a registered Companion as well.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Whedon, Serenity: The Official Visual Companion, 82.

[edit] References

The Firefly series
Episodes Serenity | The Train Job | Bushwhacked | Shindig | Safe | Our Mrs. Reynolds | Jaynestown
Out of Gas | Ariel | War Stories | Trash | The Message | Heart of Gold | Objects in Space
Spin-offs R. Tam sessions | Serenity: Those Left Behind | Serenity
Characters Derrial Book | Jayne Cobb | Kaylee Frye | Malcolm Reynolds | Inara Serra
River Tam | Simon Tam | Hoban Washburne | Zoe Washburne | Minor characters
Terminology Moons and planets | The Alliance | Blue Sun | Unification War | Serenity
Reaver | Browncoat | Firefly slang | Companion
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