De är mycket mer än bara prostituerade.
Från Firefly Wikia :
Registered Companions are culturally well-educated with training in a number of areas, including psychology, music, fencing, and languages, as well as unarmed martial arts. On the "core" planets, Companions were typically trained from a very young age.
Det här är inte orealistiskt : Jämför med den verkliga oiran , japanska courtesans some av vilka hade ganska hög status i samhället, utan tvekan mycket mer än en bandit, smugglare och "småtyv" som Malcolm Reynolds skulle ha haft:
Compared to yūjo (prostitutes), whose primary attraction was their sexual favors, courtesans were first and foremost entertainers. In order to become an oiran, a woman had to be educated in a range of skills, including the traditional arts of sadō (Japanese tea ceremony), ikebana (flower arranging), and calligraphy. Oiran also learned to play the koto, shakuhachi, tsuzumi (hand drum), and shamisen. Clients also expected them to be well-read and able to converse and write with wit and elegance.
Within the pleasure quarters, courtesans' prestige was based on their beauty, character, education, and artistic ability, rather than their birth.
The highest rank of courtesan was the tayū (太夫?), followed by the kōshi (格子?). Unlike a common prostitute, the tayū had sufficient prestige to refuse clients. Her high status also made a tayū extremely pricey—a tayū's fee for one evening was between one ryo and one ryo three bu, well beyond a laborer's monthly wage and comparable to a shop assistant's annual salary.
Med tanke på likheterna mellan ovannämnda beskrivning av oiran och några av vad Inara berättar om Companions - även om specifika som te ceremonin - verkar det troligt att Joss Whedon medvetet grundade Companion-systemet på det verkliga livet. Men jag har ännu inte hittat något kanoniskt för att bekräfta detta, så jag har ställt en fråga om att den ska hitta ut.