Question for YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN. by reginaroadie

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Question for YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN.

POSTED BY: REGINAROADIE
UPDATED: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 13:41
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Sunday, November 27, 2005 9:06 PM

Hey all

By Tuesday, I should have my 20 page essay done, and by Friday, I'll be done with this semester of college, thus being able to focus on completing YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN by the end of the year.

I was wondering if maybe some of you could give me some feedback or suggestions as to how I could write for Simon for a specific scene.

For Chapter 6, I had this interaction in mind between Simon and Regan. It's early morning, and Simon is giving Regan a shot of morphine and leaving some pills for her to take to prolong the effects of the morphine. And during all this, Regan asks a simple question.

"Were we that bad as parents?"

The reason she asks this is because of a comment in the wedding video. In the video Simon said that Serenity had become more of a home to him than his real home ever was. And this is heartbreaking for Regan, and to a similar extent Gabriel. She wonders if he would say that still even if what had happened never happened.

The main thing that I want to touch on this is wondering if that blanket statement happened to be true. In most of these fanfics, Gabriel and Regan ae always portrayed as either clueless at best and horrid at worse. As these shallow, bourgeoise individuals concerned more for their social status thatn their children. And I think this is just lazy writing. I mean, come on. They're their parents, for chrissake's. These are the two poeple who created them. Who nurtured them and raised them to be the people that they are. The whole thing with the Academy, I'm hypothesizing, is an error in judgement. A tragic mistake, done out of love for their youngest. Should that wipe out and destroy the last twenty odd years of family bonding? I think as a parent, it would be crushing to hear one of you kids say to you "You and mom/dad sucked as a family, so I'm going to call these people whom I've known for two years as my real family." as well as incredibly unfair. The Tam's were never abusive. They never hit them or treated them so bad that they ran the risk of their kids being taken into foster care. They genuinely loved Simon and River.

So why should their life before Serenity be disregarded? Was there truly nothing in the past that was worthwhile? Would you be saying that we didn't matter if River never went to the Academy? Because of this one thing, did I forever fail you as a mother? These are the questions that Regan has been driving herself mad over and wants to know from Simon before she dies.

What I'd like for you guys to help me out with is what Simon would say in response to this. Would he say that Gabriel and Regan are still family to them? Would this be true or a complete lie? Just how do you think he would react to this very complex dilemma in regards to his two families?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"YES!!!I'm a man posessed by many demons....Polite demons that would open the door for a lady carrying too many parcels...BUT DEMONS NONETHELESS!!!! Yes. I have walked along the path of evil many times, it's a twisting, curving path that..actually leads to a charming plot garden, BUT BEYOND THAT EVIL!!!"

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Tuesday, November 29, 2005 1:41 PM

LVS2READ

I can't believe no one has responded to your question! You raise some valid points, though, so I thought I'd give you my 2 cents, for what they're worth. This could take awhile...

As fans we only have a few examples of Gabriel and Regan Tam's relationship with their children: the three flashback scenes in "Safe," all of which are seen from Simon's POV.

SPOILER ALERT (I'm hoping the spoiler is hidden and can be seen by highlighting below with the mouse.)

Select to view spoiler:

In the first scene Simon and River are young children. Gabriel is trying to be stern, but is undermined by Regan buying Simon the gadget he wants, thereby making them appear indulgent.

In the second scene, Simon is trying to express his concerns about River; but instead of listening--really listening--to him, they express concern for his mental state and his career before IMHO belittling him about missing his little sister. Granted Gabriel does admit that if River was in danger, they'd be right beside Simon. But then he justs let's the subject drop with the weak excuse that government schools "don't allow visitors."

In the third, and final, flashback Gabriel is livid that he's had to bail Simon out of jail. He seems to be mostly concerned about Simon's reputation and politics. Maybe he knows something that Simon doesn't when he says "This is about our lives", and "This isn't something you want to do." But since we see this only from Simon's POV, we can't be sure. Then, too, in one breath Gabriel tells Simon "We love you," and in practically the next one "...I will not come for you."

So, are the Tams Sr. indulgent, clueless, scared, or uncaring? That's what's so fun about FanFic, we can interpret them as we so desire!

As for me, I see them as being indulgent of their children when they were young, but becoming overwhelmed, and maybe a little bit in awe of them, as they grew older. I also think they may have been somewhat remote and undemonstrative, witness Simon's awkwardness around Kaylee. We know that the Tams are wealthy, and many times people with that much wealth have layers of servants between themselves and their children, making it easier for parents to only see their children when they so desire. While we don't know for a fact that this is the case with the Tams, it is not beyond the realm of possibility.

You say that the Tams were not abusive since they didn't hit their children or do anything else that would have caught the eye of Child Protective Services. Unfortunately, there are many types of abuse, not all of them physical. IMHO, not realizing that your daughter, who hasn't misspelled a word since she was three, is now writing letters riddled with misspelled words, shows signs of neglect. How could a parent not know that about their child? And then there's the whole belittling instead of listening thing. Granted Simon was an adult by then, but how long had that been going on? I could probably come up with some other examples, but I'm sure you get my point.

I think Simon is an idealistic, and probably indulged, young man who did what he thought he had to do to protect his sister, and by doing so grew as a person, becoming more aware of the people around him and how his interactions with them affected his world.

At the time of your story, if I remember right, he still has a lot of anger towards his parents, especially his father, but he has also found love with Kaylee. Will that love allow him to forgive his parents, or at least his mother? Will he be able to talk with them adult to adult, not parent to child? I don't know. It's your story. Run with it!

Hope the last week of this semester goes well for you. I look forward to reading the next chapter of YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN.

"I love my captain."

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