Direct link. :-)

Also, pretty.

Niels | May 25, 22:46 CET

Really odd. Still, any merchandise is good, I suppose.

CaptainB | May 25, 22:53 CET

I like that the statues are scaled with the figures.

I'd like them more if they were figures, of course...

Craig Oxbrow | May 25, 22:54 CET

But she's not washing Mal's tightpants *confused*.

Simon | May 25, 23:03 CET

It's very... well, Wonder Woman.

theonetruebix | May 25, 23:04 CET

I was thinking more Xena -esque Princess Warrior. Or Amazon Princess. She is one, just the other amazon kind.

kurya | May 25, 23:15 CET

Doesn't she use a bow in the film?

hitnrun017 | May 25, 23:25 CET

Eh. I'm not impressed. Any merchandise is good, I guess. But I won't be buying it.

leiasky | May 25, 23:25 CET

Hm. It's a nice statue, but of all the poses and costumes they could've chosen to represent the character, this is probably the last one I'd think of. Oh well. Still pretty.

RaisedByMongrels | May 25, 23:50 CET

Inara...or Xena?

MySerenity | May 25, 23:59 CET

Yeah, she looks way too Wonder Woman/Xena.

Not digging it.

UnpluggedCrazy | May 26, 00:22 CET

Doesn't she use a bow in the film?

No. And yes.

It depends on whether you're looking at a shot where they digitally replaced the bow with a bolt thrower, or a shot where they simply made the red bow black so you wouldn't notice it.

theonetruebix | May 26, 00:27 CET

Thanks for clearing that up theonetruebix!

hitnrun017 | May 26, 00:54 CET

Yeah. That worked well.

lexigeek | May 26, 01:27 CET

Wow. She's actually proportioned like a human being and not bending into some torturous pose. It may not necessarily be what I think of when I picture Inara, but I give them kudos for not Mary Jane-ing her at any rate.

Meltha | May 26, 01:38 CET

Inara wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit, and personally I think River needs an action figure (so far they only gave her a statue) and Zoe deserves an action figure. Okay, I would like to have ALL my BDHs have an action figure, but this one looks like they were making something else and decided to say it was Inara.

embers | May 26, 01:39 CET

And the eyebrows seem a little .... wild.

silvius | May 26, 02:16 CET

If they delay this statue as much as the River statue, we should see it by 2010.

mutt999 | May 26, 02:29 CET

"Inara wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit..."

It's a Princess Leia commemorative bikini top.

;P

Willowy | May 26, 02:35 CET

Simon wins best reply award (a potato. I'm cheap).

Hey, look - it's Wondies!

gossi | May 26, 02:36 CET

Gotta agree with the other thoughts. Not enough Amazon. NEEDS MORE AMAZON.

Jet Wolf | May 26, 03:03 CET

Based on what little I can see of her face, this mock doesn't inspire confidence.

Scotto | May 26, 03:48 CET

Actually, while I'm not entirely sold on the likeness to Morena (while I agree with Meltha that they've done well in avoiding "Adam Hughesing" the piece), I'm pretty sure that that really is her outfit from the battle with the Reavers in "Serenity".

LKW | May 26, 16:55 CET

I always wondered exactly why they didn't just have Inara use a bow and arrow in Serenity, after all it would have fit in nicely with the outdated weaponry the crew use, such as pistols whenever more high tech guns have been invented. It also seems reasonable that a companion would choose to use a classic, beautiful type of instrument which takes a lot of skill to master using.

I also remember around the time of Serenity's release, reading a review which I distinctly remember the critic had written something very like "At one point in the film, the crew resort to use of bow and arrow to defend themselves from attack from Reavers..." This was before I had seen the film, so it actually mislead me because it sounded like more than one person would have been using it, and the fact that the bow was changed in post production.

Does anyone know anything more about this? Had the reviewer seen one of the earlier versions of the film before all the effects were finished? I just thought it was quite a strange statement for the reviewer to make because it suggested to me that they were going to run out of ammo and be forced to shoot arrows instead, so I'm assuming their reviewer just somehow managed to get it very, very wrong.

Razor | May 27, 00:47 CET

"Inara wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit..."

She WAS almost caught dead in that outfit. :) By Reavers.

Come on. It's far more practical than any of her Companion gear (although notice it's the same pair of long-gaucho pants she wears on Miranda and the return to Haven (when she's in the gold-yellow-black kimono-style outfit). I mean do you think 'Nara would really risk her silks and brocades in a hardcore fight with Reavers? Of course she changed into sports-bra Xena leather.

Carmencita | May 27, 04:04 CET

Was she wearing the leather bra under the brocade cloth top embroidered with jewels that we see in the screencap?

[ edited by embers on 2007-05-27 01:47 ]

embers | May 27, 04:39 CET

Me too on the Diana/Xena more than Inara comment. This makes me appreciate *coughdesperatelywantcough* the River/Reavers statue even more. Oh, curse you lack of money, etc. ;-)

billz | May 27, 05:28 CET

It just seems odd to me to highlight something that was a last-minute fudge. They've taken pains to include such detail, but it is detail that only emphasizes the incongruity: she's wearing an arm guard as one would when shooting a bow and arrow, but would have no reason to wear when shooting a bolt-thrower (or so I would presume, having never personally shot a bolt-thrower). That, of course, is no biggie in the midst of all the action of the film, but to immortalize that in statue form seems just a bit odd.

It's not like her weapon was changed because they thought it suited her better. IIRC, it was because one of the training house scenes where she is shown using the bow and arrow earlier in the film was cut, thus making the weapon's appearance at the end out of context and a bit bizarre.

Point being, it seems a statue should somehow represent some kind of iconic character moment (e.g., River/Reavers), while this one seems to represent the vagaries of the film production process and evolution. Is the next statue to feature Wash's infamous grip on a non-existent yoke?



...But otherwise, it's kind of neat.

NoSadSeven | May 27, 11:44 CET

If that's the case, NoSadSeven...then why give her the bigger cousin to Chewbacca's bowcaster? The lovely - insert one's own tone of voice ;D - international poster has her using what looks to be Jayne's sidearm or something similar. I honestly would have preferred the bow and arrow, since English longbow archers were the scourge of early medieval warfare;)

And about the choice to immortalize Inara's part in the climatic showdown vs. another moment....other than the moment the audience first sees Inara in the film - when she is standing on the Training House's terrace to greet the Operative - is there another moment in the film that really is Inara's? I would have possibly offered up the scene after the crew's seen Dr. Caron's message where Mal comforts Inara...a survivor helping the newly lost start dealing with the truth.

BlueEyedBrigadier | May 27, 21:22 CET

NoSadSeven, I find that quite interesting. Couldn't Joss have added in a quick line from Inara about the bow so that it would make sense if the earlier training house scene was cut? Wouldn't her using it have made sense anyway, given the nature of the Fireflyverse where shapceships and horses are both forms of transport, where laserbeams still haven't made shotguns obselete?

In fact, wouldn't it make sense that Inara would own an almost ornamental weapon such as a bow as opposed to a fairly ordinary gun?

[ edited by Razor on 2007-05-27 19:55 ]

Razor | May 27, 22:54 CET

BEB, it's a good point that there weren't many Inara scenes to choose from. Personally, I'd be partial to the scene with Mal and the Op at the training house, where she lights the 'incense'. It's such a seemingly serene kind of action - all poised and spiritual, yet cunning and proactive, what with the flash-bombyness of it. Though, admittedly, I'm not sure how well it would translate to statue form...

I too think the bow and arrow would have been cool, but I harbor no ill feelings towards its replacement in the film, since they were constrained by the available footage. Whatever new weapon she was to hold had to be held and aimed and lined up the same as the bow and arrow.

Razor, I agree that it makes perfect sense for Inara to have such a weapon, but without anything to suggest it specifically in the later cuts of the movie, a test-audience's reaction to it is still "WTF?" So to avoid pulling people out of the moment, you want to do something, and I imagine the cost and hassle of a reshoot far exceeds the benefit of such a small detail - especially one that can just be CGI-ed out and replaced.

As I mentioned, I'm not so bothered by the replacement weapon itself, as by the elevated importance of that weapon as part of the statue. When I see the statue I think less about the character, and more about the needs and complexities of the film making process. But that's just me - I tend to get hung up on such things.

NoSadSeven | May 28, 11:36 CET

Whatever your thoughts on it, it's available for preorder at TFAW.com now.

C. A. Bridges | May 30, 00:59 CET