Bond (Quantum/Solace) vs Mal Reynolds (Serenity)

[DrMckay]

Inspired by both the Ultimate Barfight Thread and the Bond Vs Bats thread, What would happen if, Instead of the Operative from Serenity, The Alliance Naval Intelligence Service dispatches James Bond to capture or kill River Tam, and hunt down the crew of Serenity.

This is Qos and Casino Royale Bond, With general knowledge of how the Alliance gov't works. His experiences and personality are analogous to the ones he had in the movies. He has the support of the Alliance Government, and is loyal-but doesn't know about Miranda.

on Mal's end, he must find out what's up with River, Attempt to elude the Alliance, Find out the secret of Miranda, and either kill or suborn Bond.

Who wins?

Also, Who would win in a straight-up fight between Bond and Mal? They're both mean brusing SOB's.

How 'bout a gunfight?

[charlemagne]

I voted "Mal blows Bond" (away) because I'm a fan.

Mal and Bond are both no bullshit - aim for the head - shoot first ask later types, so in a straight up gunfight the outcome would strongly depend on, well, luck? Whoever gets the first shot would be the winner.

A straight up fist fight, well I really don't know who's the meaner fighter of those two. Mal's advantage could be that he really can take a lot of abuse, but so can Bond. I'd say it also depends on who gets to jump who.

As for the story of the movie 'Serenity' with Bond replacing the Operative: would it really change that much? Ok, Bond wouldn't use a silly sword. The only other change I can think of would be the end fight between Mal and Operativebond: I don't think Bond would go for fancy "disable his nervecentre" kung fu, but be more like "let's put a bullet in his head", so Mal could be fucked there.

[Samuel]

You give Bond control over a fleet? Have we ever seen Bond display any leadership skills? I don't know if he can organize things like the Operative did- he isn't an operative, he is a ... uh a Bond.

[DrMckay]

As per the Operative, he has authority over the commanders. and full alliance resources. (The Bond with resources being the most important part.) This is partly to compare the characters' strengths and weaknesses, partly to give Bond an adversary as ruthless and trigger-happy as he is.


On a different note, what would happen if he tried to seduce Inara? Saffron?

[Thanas]

Can Mal rely on his crew? If so, Bond is pretty much screwed. Telepathy and insane combat skills beat him anytime.

In the end though, it really doesn't matter as far as the plot of Serenity is concerned. The only time I can think of something being different is that Bond likely would have a better shot at hand-to-hand combat than the operative has, but as far as the plot goes, that would only matter at the end.

[Peptuck]

Bond is a lot more no-nonsense than the Operative. What got the Operative his ass handed to him was his sense of honor. The majority of the story plays out as usual, but Bond probably manages to kill Mal in the final confrontation between them in the power station, since he won't use the seppuku trick and instead would just kill Mal outright.

Of course, after Bond kills Mal, there's a 99% chance that he gets utterly and completely obliterated by a slightly miffed River, but them's the breaks.

Alternately, this being Bond, who is not a completely ideologically-blinded psychopath like the Operative, might actually look into the Miranda thing, trailing Mal instead of antagonizing him needlessly. That'll lead to some interesting revelations....

[loomer]

Mal wins for one simple reason and one only - He's got the hair power.

We all know that whichever character has better hair will always win, and since it isn't Sean Connery Bond (and his anti-hair accent, even though he had hair at the time), Mal wins.

On a serious note, voted Mal because I'm a fan, but I have to agree with Pep and Charlemagne's points.

[NecronLord]

You give Bond control over a fleet? Have we ever seen Bond display any leadership skills?

All versions of Bond have the Royal Navy rank of Commander, presumably in all cases this was from (MI6 does not issue such ranks) experience in the Navy. The novels' Bond earnt his commission as a commander in the Royal Navy Reserve during WW2. Seemingly working his way up from a rating - as he had no prior experience, and lied about his age, I find it hard to imagine him being commissioned immediately, though he had sufficiently arisotcratic background to suppose it's possible - too.

As such, he is certainly qualified to handle ships, though of course, space ships are different, the Operative hardly did anything impressive in that regard either, nor anything to indicate that he had equivalent or greater leadership experience.

[Crazedwraith]

Some how I don't think Jame Bond is going to order his men to start killing everyone down to children in sight just to give his target no ground to go to. Bond's a hard man but he's not a monster. Hi job is to protect civvies. So people thinking it'll all go down the same way a the film are very much mistaken.

[Ryushikaze]

Major differences in the film I see- the confrontation in the companion headquarters, I still think Mal and Inara scarper, but it takes a little longer to get Bond diverted so they can run.

Book and his outpost live- Bond will kill people, but he does not indiscriminately slaughter. At worst, he will rough up and capture Book, though I doubt he'd go so far as to kill him unless Book gave him reason to kill him.

The end of the movie entirely- When bond learns what HAPPENED on that planet, he will freak out. It goes against pretty much everything he holds as a value. He might even turn sides and start assisting Mal et. al after seeing that.
It's always been a point that Bond is loyal to a certain set of ideals that MI6 espouses, and does not view the world in quite a 'us and them, god and country' sort of worldview.

[The Guid]

First of all his encounter with Inara ends differently - Bond isn't exactly immune to the charms of ladies and Inara can manipulate with the best of them. Advantage Reynolds.

Then, as pointed out, Bond doesn't have the ruthlessness of either the Operative or indeed of Reynolds, not to randomers. Bond only is really cruel to people who are the ringleaders, not the peons. Again, advantage Reynolds.

River. Advantage Reynolds.

Over all I see this going Mal's way.