Talk:Jayne Cobb

"Better offer" quote

I have a question regarding this line: He works for whoever will pay the most and he himself has said that his loyalty to Mal would only last until he received a better offer. Isn't what he said that it would be "interesting" when he receives a better offer? Xanfan 21:16, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Well, I'm no good for a verbatim quote, but here's the basic idea:

Mal: Why didn't you turn on me?

Jayne: Money wasn't good enough.

Mal: What happens when it is?

Jayne: Well, that will be an interesting day.

Sounds to me as if by "interesting" he means he would be willing to kill Mal (perchance relating to Wash's definition of interesting from Serenity (the movie, not the episode)) -- Masterzora 08:10, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Merge between Jayne Cobb articles

The following edit history is from the original Jayne Cobb article:

• (cur) (last) 15:36, 24 June 2005 (UTC) Brian Kendig (merge into other article)
• (cur) (last) 15:28, 8 June 2005 (UTC) Pd THOR (+ {{mergewith)
• (cur) (last) 01:59, 18 September 2004 (UTC) Goplat m (fmt, sp)
• (cur) (last) 01:48, 3 September 2004 (UTC) 4.152.165.228
• (cur) (last) 01:48, 3 September 2004 (UTC) 4.152.165.228

— Jeff Q (talk) 03:57, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

Requested move

As I'd suggested at Talk:Firefly (television series)#Unnecessary disambiguation for character articles, I've requested that this article, currently titled "Jayne Cobb (Firefly character)", be moved to "Jayne Cobb", because WP policy prefers undisambiguated names when there is (and is likely to be) only one such name. I couldn't do it myself because both articles already had an edit history. The short-name version had been merged with the long-name one, but the former's edit history had not been posted on this talk page. I've remedied that, so I'm hoping the move will proceed swiftly. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 04:19, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

I just came across the correct template to formally announce the page move that I've requested, which I've posted at the top of the page. I ask readers to post their votes below to determine if any consensus exists to move this page. (I only ask that folks vote specifically on the page move, and not use this vote as a referedum on the perceived worthiness of TV-show character articles in general.) ~ Jeff Q (talk) 17:36, 14 August 2005 (UTC)

This article has been renamed after the result of a move request. Dragons flight 07:04, August 21, 2005 (UTC)

Loyalty

Although often represented as a strict mercenary, Jayne has his own code of honor. He is loyal to his employer as long as he is being paid well.

Surely his actions in "Ariel" contradict or at least call for an amendment to this phrase. By giving up the doctor and his sister, Cobb betrays the wishes of Reynolds, suggesting at the least that his loyalty to his employer does not extend to protecting his employers interests unless expressly ordered to. - Hayter 12:44, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

If you'll recall from the ending of that episode, Jayne had to be told flat out that by turning on Simon and River he was also turning on Mal. If that didn't occur to him before, he wouldn't have seen the attempt to turn the Tams in as disloyalty to Mal. In fact, it had been pretty well established Jayne thought they were going to bring trouble, so he may well have believed he was doing his boss a favor -- one he thought Mal didn't know he needed done. Anyway, that's my take. 24.178.126.182 01:05, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

An interesting take, but that would still require an amendment to the phrase regarding his interpretation of what loyalty is. Clearly it doesn't mean following instructions to the letter, but rather acting to the betterment of his employer, whether the employer wishes it or not. -Hayter 10:31, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm gonna have to agree with the anon on this one. If you remember the end of "Ariel", Jayne and Mal are arguing about it. (Note:this probably isn't verbatim)

Jayne: I didn't turn on you!

Mal: You turn on any of my crew, you turn on me! But since you can't seem to get that through your head...

Yeah, that's probably way off wording-wise, but it's dead on in spirit. Jayne didn't see that he was turning on Mal in any way. In fact, he tried to atone for the fact by buying the crew apples after he realized that he did in fact turn on Mal. -- Masterzora 08:24, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

I think this whole bit in the article about him saying that the money wasn't good enough refers to something else, not the part where he sees Mal in his sniper sights. It refers to where the federal agent was going to attempt to bribe Jayne to set him free (even though he managed to escape himself). I think the bit in the episode where he spys Mal in his sights and smiles is for comedy effect. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.3.206.254 (talk) 19:42, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

"The Two Jayne Cobbs"

It seems to me that in the origional pilot "Serenity" (not to be confused with the movie of the same name) Jayne was being set up to be an honorable (or at least completly loyal to Mal) character albit a crude and possibly bloodthirsty one. I'm thinking that the FOX people didn't like that and wanted a more straight-forward mercenary character and had his character changed for their reworked "vision". This interpretation, if true, would neatly fix the contraversies mentioned about this character being, or not being, loyal to Mal and I think there is sufficient evidence to add a "The Two Jayne Cobbs" subsection to the article. Does anyone object (or want to do it themselves to save me the hassle)? I'll probably add this in a week or two if no objections are raised here, and nobody else does it first. LittleBrother

I disagree. Aside from the fact that it could be called original research, I don't see a huge difference between the pilot Cobb and the character shown throughout the rest of the series. I don't think you'll find there's a huge controversy about it - I just feel the article in its current form needs to be re-written concerning his loyalty, as it was clearly not complete. - Hayter 15:02, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup

I think this page is in need of some clean up. The info needs to be organize into sections and not be one long paragraph, which is a little chaotic. For an example of what I think it should be more like, see Malcolm Reynolds. JQF 00:23, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

thanks! Will tackle it :-) -plange 01:04, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Doubts about his fearlessness

The article currently says Jayne doesn't have many fears. I don't see that at all. He is frequently shown as the big tough guy who's actually very afraid, and Malcolm is the fearless one. For instance:

• He is more overtly afraid of Reavers than anyone else on the ship
• He was very fearful about being on the Jaynestown planet until he discovered that they worship hom
• He is afraid of River and wants to get rid of the Tams as soon as possible
• He is afraid the crew would find out about his treachery on their trip to Ariel

It's easy to confuse his combat skills and macho demeanor for fearlessness, but I think that's a mistake. If you doubt that these are examples of fear, consider how Mal would behave in each case. --Doradus 13:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Jayne as "girl's name"

There is at least one mention of this in the series ("Well, Jayne ain't no girl!") and I've heard some discussion about this in relation to the old "Boy Named Sue" song, but I always figured it was a reference to "Jayne's Defense Weekly", a military periodical. Is this work mentioning here? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.212.175.249 (talk) 15:42, 21 February 2007 (UTC).

Except the military publication is spelled Jane's.--68.102.156.139 07:07, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

… and unsourced analysis, including fan comparisons to other popular media, is original research, which is not proper article content. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 14:15, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Indeed.--68.102.156.139 04:50, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Romantic life

Should we add a paragraph on Jayne's romantic life in his 'personality' section? By that I mean his willingness to take Saffron as a wife if Mal truly didn't want her (willing to make a fair trade), and that woman he spent the night with in "Jaynestown"? Mooyah 05:29, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think there's enough to actually comment on; outside those two examples, there's nothing (though there's also the whore in "Heart of Gold"). At most, all we can say is "Jayne is straight", which is hardly encyclopedic. EVula // talk // ☯ // 15:09, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

Although it might constitute OR, we could say that he doesn't greatly value females not part of the crew, taking them for granted, whether they be whores, Saffron, girl in Jaynestown, etc. Mooyah 17:51, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

"Doesn't value" is a pretty wide open and nebulous term; he obviously attaches some value to them. Not as much as the ones on the crew, but that's primarily because those females have a direct impact on his life in general; you could make the argument that hardly anybody on Serenity values non-crew as much as crew members (see Mal pushing the guy off the mule in the movie, for example, or Mal's overall attitude towards the Tams in "Safe" for a different take on the same argument). EVula // talk // ☯ // 18:06, 17 April 2007 (UTC)