The thread for our Pin-Up Girl for the Frontal Assault.

It's hard to talk about anything other than Jacob's brilliant recap at the moment. I can't think of anyone better to do a character analysis on our beloved fuck-ups. To wit:

That is so true, the idea that she's still empty. Beautifully put. Reading the recap, I recalled Buffy's Becoming, Pt. II, when Angelus is taunting Buffy, "No friends, no weapons, no hope. Take all that away and what's left?" Buffy's response, punctuated with a ninja-style sword grab: "Me."

Also, I loved the initial inklings of vulnerability that we got from Aeryn in the first season. She looks so confused when it happens. This episode and The Flax come to mind, all culminating with Nerve/Hidden Memory, when she decides that there is no way in hell she's going to be without Crichton.


Excellent.

Yay! An Aeryn thread! I'm beyond excited to have a Farscape forum with character threads and more.


I absolutely thought of that exact same scene. I thought about it a couple of times as Jacob described John's facets slowly being stripped away. And the voice description is priceless and perfect.

Not to mention the "painfully sexy" comment of Aeryn's morning after clothing.

Jacob loves Aeryn about as much as I do.

I love Aeryn! I remember watching the commentary on Exodus from Genesis (my favourite episode) and Brian Henson, at the exact moment of a close-up on poor, hurting Aeryn saying "THIS is when John falls in love with her" and thinking I totally got that.

My fav commentary moment though was Claudia Black in the one where they sort of go to Earth, and she's saying that it is really amusing because this one Australian soldier guy is actually totally from New Zealand! And there is this silence for a minute and Ben Browder cautiously chimes in that he does not think the American dvd watchers will really notice. And then she totally starts riffing ont he kiwi accent, and I nearly died laughing. I lived in NZ for a year and she totally has the accent spot on and it was the funniest thing ever. "Pins and Pincils! My name is Matthew and I am from Taranaki!" HEE! Funniest commentary ever.

Oh, and the hair...I would die to have hair like that. It is so unfair that people get to have hair like that and that I am not among those people.

So may Farscape threads now that it has it's own forum! How will I keep track?

Aw, where's the love for the Fabulous Officer Sun? She can't fall onto page 2!

So my ex got me into Farscape recently and due to his generosity I was able to watch all four seasons and the mini in about a month's time (one week per season....yeah I guess you could say I liked it!).

At any rate, he had an inkling that I might like Aeryn considering my love for kick ass tough female characters with serious attitude (Xena, WW, Zoe on Firefly, Madeline from La Femme Nikita, etc....) and he wasn't wrong. It was love at first sight!

She had me the moment she came down from the ceiling carrying that huge gun and screamed "ON THE GROUND, NOW!"

But she also had some of the best lines and sometimes the humor of the situation was in that she wasn't the main focus of the scene but something said or done off the main section of the screen:

For example in Kansas when she's watching Sesame Street and she has the very funny "This girl is slow", but then when the scene shifts and it's focussing on D'Argo I believe, in the background you have Aeryn saying, "Again with the cookie monster".

I just about fell out of my chair.

And then of course the obvious ones:

"She gives me a woody"
"Yes, John, it's fine, but it's just not top priority right now"
"I don't need your emotions"
"Sharshe it!"
"I've killed men for less"

She's truly fabulous.

But what amazes me even more is how incredibly talented Claudia Black is. When Rygel is in her and she says, "Just shoot the damn gun, you blue assed bitch!" the look on her face immediately afterwards made me BELIEVE it WAS Rygel. And in Unrealized Realities, I remember looking at Chianna and saying, "Something about her face is different. It's more angular somehow"....and it took me almost the entire episode to realize it was Claudia Black (and to be fair it was mostly because my ex had told me she impersonated Chianna later in the season and did an amazing job and I finally put two and two together). But she nailed the voice, the manerisms, the tics, everything. It was amazing!

And in John Quixote, Southern Fried Aeryn? comedy gold right there.

But for me the best indication of how amazing CB is as an actress was in the mini when John "died". This is in no way a slam on Gigi as an actress, rather a statement of how incredible CB is but when D'Argo died and Chianna reacted I felt really sad for her. But when John "died" and Aeryn screamed, wailed even, I ACHED with her. It was like I really truly felt her agony. And that was due to the immense talents of Claudia.

Wow that was long for my first ever post in the Farscape thread/forums. But I couldn't let my girl fall off the first page!

Claudia Black rocks and is my reason for watching Farscape. She had me at the intro to A Bug's Life, when she held the big frelling gun on the very handsome PK Larraq. Who can forget "I can handle big..."

One episode that just made me hurt was The Choice. I wasn't crying--oh, no I'll save that for Hallmark commercials. Rather, I felt an ache in my gut at the pain I was witnessing in that episode. The commentary on that one is all Claudia and she mentions how she chose to underplay vs overplay the grief. The instinct was right on.

I wish I could see her in something other than SG1 but I'll take CB where I can get her :)

Love the character and the actor.

Aeryn Sun is one of the best characters on television. SHe had the potential to be such a one note stereotype and they really managed to turn her into more.

I loved the Aeryn was strong and vulnerable and nothing really compromised that. She could be in love and still kick ass (how many Charrids did she kill in IP?) she could be a mother and still kick ass (PKW), she could be grieving and still stroll onto her old home and blow it up (or in). They allowed her to be soft, caring, compassionate gave her all sort of emotions to play with. And yet never took away her stength.

Farscape was great in that it let characters be complex and have what seem to be conflicting emotions.

My Favorite Aeryn scenes: are SOD when she does the strip tease, falls through the hole and then just goes on with the mission as if its business as usual. And I loved almost everysingle one of her one liners sometimes she could be funnier than Crichton. For pure emotion I loved her dealing with her mother in Relativity. Such pain but she is still a soldier doing what she had to do. That was what Claudia Black did so well made her human (wants her mother's love and approval) and alien (knows she has to die) at the same time.

"Its the hat."
"Jealous D'Argo we're the only ones who don't hear voices?"

So many more

Any one have any favorite Aeryn Scenes?

Where's the "voices" comment from? I remember that being hilariously dark but I can't figure out which episode it's in

Just watched Picture if You Will - love the moment when she's explaining to Rygel why she shot Kyvan:

"Pilot said to follow Zhaan's orders without question."
"What? Nobody asked me to help!"
"Of course not, since when have you followed orders?"

I loved the episode The Way We Weren't. The entire episode was really good but the last scene with her and Pilot was awesome. "Take the journey with me". Its hard to believe she was acting with a puppet.

On a funny note I loved the bit where she is watching Sesame Street, its just so cute.

I love Aeryn, though she did get painfully thin near the end. She was so beautiful and fleshed out (not that she wasn't still beautiful) near the beginning.

I don't think there's a chick on any Sci-Fi show (including Firefly and BSG) that kicks nearly as much ass as Aeryn.

Aeryn really interests me. I love binary symbolism, and there was a line in the commentary where one of them points out that as Aeryn got 'lighter' (i.e. more human) John got more 'dark.' That is delicious to me. I think some of Aeryn's scenes in S1 were oddly played (a bit too cartoonish in the premiere, and DNA Mad Scientist as not as fabulous as I thought it would be) but I am enjoying the portrayal in S2. I loved her frustration in Mind the Baby when the others would not listen to her, and she snapped. She believes she is doing the right thing, and that's good enough for her. But her perception of what is right is, like always, and with all people, inherently limited. when she was a peacekeeper, for exampke when she killed the first pilot of Moya, she believed THAT was the right thing. 'It seemed like a good idea at the time' is a hollow defense when it if offered to the injured party, but that's really what it boiled down to. The others spoke of her making the choice to go along with horrible things when she was a soldier, but the word 'choice' implies a cognition of option that I don't think PK Aeryn had. It implies that one recognizes more than one option and willfully selects one. Aeryn was conditioned for one purpose in life. Even if she admitted there were other options available to her, she would have no idea what those options were. it would be like if I said to you "describe to me a colour so alien that we don't have it on this world." You couldn't do it. You could recombine elements that you know into new or different combinations (that's what fiction is, after all) but it would be just that, new combinations. She was bred to be a soldier. What options could there possibly be except a) follow orders or b) do not follow orders? There could be different outcomes, perhaps, of choosing option A or option B. She proved this when she was contaminated, and managed banishment as an alternative to death. So, she can conceive of different options within the frame of reference of choice A or choice B. BUT...she would not be able to conceive of an option C. At least, not while she was still under peacekeeper brainwashing :) That's what makes her post-PK evolution so interesting to me---because they are basically saying "Now, there is ONLY option C. Adapt!" And she's just going "um...."

I have such a girlcrush on Aeryn. No, I want to be Aeryn.

I just rewatched all of Season 1 and my favorite scene from that year was in "The Flax" where Aeryn & John have just gotten carried away, impending death y'know, and she's on top of him ripping her clothes off and suddenly - "Someone's docking?!" Claudia gets an amazing mix of emotions into two words: she's startled, she's relieved, but also she's furious at whoever's interrupting the moment. I replayed it several times just for the laugh.

LOL--don't even get me started on that! ;)



Different Destinations, before everything really goes south. I think it's ep 3.5. I'm such a geek.

Favorite Aeryn moments...hmm. I love the scene where Zhaan has given Aeryn her life and Aeryn steps out of the pod with Qualta blade blazing. I also love the scene from Vitas Mortis whe she's running in slo mo with the big frelling gun. I pretty much love every scene that involves her shooting something.

As for comedy, the "I'm a guy. A guy? Guys dream about this sort of thing!" from Out of their minds, every stupid, cheesy scene in Meltdown, the Suns and Lovers unzipping the jacket only to fall through the floor and the freakiness of Won't Get Fooled Again.

Dramatic scenes: DNAMS where aeryn finally admits to John that she didn't want to get left behind, all of The choice, all of TWWW...Season of Death..Die, Me Dichotomy...

Okay, just about every scene with Aeryn...I told you all I had a girl crush, and I wasn't kidding. :D

I've been buying the Best of Season One sets for a bunch of libraries, but until today I never noticed the description (taken from the case):



Good gawd.

Aeryn's arc is one of the best on Farscape. In fact it takes seeing the entire series and the miniseries to really understand it ( for me - I am slow). As we discover in PKW ( the miniseries)The Peacekeepers were originally supposed to be the protectors of the peacemakers - and after she ends up on Moya she becomes just that -she protects everyone,especially John. We do see her hard corrupted side too - the murderer in The Way We Weren't and the heartless soldier with Gilina in PK TechGirl. Part of her arc is becoming what a Peacekeeper soldier is supposed to be really - truly a peacemaker and protector.

It takes meeting John - the original chosen peacekeeper species - to help her become what she originally should have been.

No, I am not profound, but I try.

Plus are we supposed to use spoiler bars at all? Are we to assume everyone has seen the entire series and the mini?

Good gawd is right. One thing Aeryn isn't is volatile. Intense and suppressed - yes. Volatile... no.


Officersun524 is right. The line: "Feeling left out, D'Argo? We're the only ones who don't have voices in our heads." is from ...Different Destinations.

And who says Aeryn doesn't have a sense of humour!?! Hilariously dark is a good description.

I'm guessing not, ellenrose. Of course, I really love that people use them sometimes because I've been reluctant to venture out of the newbie thread for fear of fucking myself with seeing the really big spoilery stuff. But I think the 'official' position of TWoP is on the side of no black bars. Kind of a "poster beware" system as the show has been out for quite a while. They take no pity on us late bloomers. <g>

More topically speaking: am I the only one who looks at Aeryn and sometimes thinks, "Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft? Ah, no." Especially when her hair is in a braid. Not that I think its a very fair comparison to Lara. Because Aeryn is a way better character, more kickass and has just *more* than Croft could ever hope. But I see the phenotypic/stylistic similarities.

eta-Firecracker1, ita. I love her humor. She funny lady.

Dd you see the season 3 two-parter yet where they go to this planet and she has this awesome kick-ass 'I Capture the Castle' leather coat? Seriously, it is like the best tv coat ever. She and this coat could go start their own show together. They could start their own planet. They could open a hotel on the planet and I would go visit it. I have, as they say, a girl-crush on Aeryn. And on the coat. Seriously, the ep is worth watching just for that. It is truly a g-d of coats.

I believe that coat was, or is, up for sale.

I agree about Aeryn being funny. I hate when people descibe Aeryn as not having a sense of humor. John has his pop culture refrences. But for out and out but sense of humor it is Aeryn Sun IMHO. Well, at least in that dry sarcastic way that I love so much. And she always was even in the early episodes. "He can barely function in the present." Like Couch Baron said in his recap, Who knew she was a recaper? She could be.

edited because it turns out "mpt" isn't a word. Who knew?

Does anyone know where I can hear the commentary of Claudia making fun of the New Zealand accent. I am from NZ and would love to hear it but the DVD's here didn't have it. Any help would be appriciated. Thanks.

I believe it was in A Human Reaction. She points out that a lot of the "Australian" guys are actually from New Zeland and Ben Browder says most of the audience wasn't going to notice that. Then she makes fun of the accent differance. It was funny and cute.

Aww, that sounds so cute. I really need to buy the rest of the Starbursts and catch up on all the new commentaries (especially the ones with Ben & Claudia).

Is the commentary only on the Starburst editions? What are they, does that magazine put them out? Starburst cost's $25 an issue or something like that here so I don't buy it and only know of one place they sell it.

The Starburst Edition commentaries everyone is talking about are re-issued DVD's that ADV is putting out for Farscape.

I believe the Starburst Magazine is from the UK and an seperate entity entirely.

Sadly, the Starburst DVDs are only available in Region 1 - so people from Regions 2 or 4 need to use a regionfree DVD player to view them.

Here ya go :)

CB: Kind of amusing that they do this whole thing of Crichton being in Australia, and the main guy who's interrogating you is actually from New Zealand.

BB: I don't think that the American audience really notices the difference.

CB: Well the clue is when you say 'fish and chips.'

BB Ah, fush and chips.

CB Pins and pincils.

BB Pehns and pehnciils!

CB [kiwi accent] That's excellent!

BB [Kiwi accent]: Noice!

CB [still Kiwi accent]: Hello! How are you?

BB Good!

CB My name's Matthew, and I'm from Taranaki...

BB: In Australia, they say "Beihng", not "Ben." It's "Beihng." "Ah, Beihng!"

CB: Beihng!

BB: Anyway, uh, back to the story!

Thanks for the transcript

Something interesting. Maybe a bit OT, but when has that stopped me :) Anyway, I was reading a trashy mystery my sister sent me, and the main character is an avid twelve-stepper for various things. And she has thing thing where whenever people arounbd her say they are 'fine' she always points out that in twelve-stepper speak, 'fine' stands for 'f---ed up, insecure, neurotic and emotional.' I'm not sure if Rockne and co knew this or intended it to apply to any of their characters, but for Aeryn is really fits. I was having this discussion with one of my beta readers about a fanfic I am writing, and she kept telling me Aeryn is all closed and repressed. And to a degree, she is, but honestly, she has such a poor understanding (early on) of her emotions (or of emotions in general) that even when she thinks she's hiding something, she's pretty transparent. John certainly seems to develop an instinct very early on for when he needs to tread carefully with her. She's this big bad girl, but underneath it all, she IS very emotional. Re-watching my dvds, I keep thinking of that twelve-stepper 'f---ed up, insecure, neurotic, emotional' whenever Aeryn says she's 'fine.'

Absolutely. Just look at what rises to the surface in the episode "Twice Shy". Scorpy said that Aeryn "wills herself... against emotions. Like any good soldier." Once that trait was harvested... she was exactly what you describe as fine: 'f*cked up, insecure, neurotic, emotional.'

And very very pretty. Claudia Black is just stunning.

My favourite episode for Aeryn has to be The Choice. CB has an amazing ability to convey alot with very little. One scene in particular is when Aeryn is sitting on a windowsill, half hanging over a very long drop, drinking a beer. Even if someone just accidently stumbles onto this scene while channel hopping, they would immediately know that either something is very wrong in this woman's life, or something has recently gone very wrong.

Plus, that's the only time I can remember seeing her in a dress (in reality that is) and, well, she is very very pretty.

Her commentary for that scene is funny too, because Claudia's all, "Whoa, that's a lot of leg!" It's true, and such legs! And she's chuckling about it -- it's cute.

I can't remember if they ever say what that blue stuff is that she's drinking. Romulan Ale? That's what it looks like :P

Oh, and I just remembered one other time that Aeryn wears a dress: A Human Reaction. That flowery sundress thing. I like the Choices dress better. But honestly, I prefer Aeryn in kickass leather.

I'll just keep editing ;) Of course she wears a beautiful wedding dress in Dog with Two Bones. Are there any other dresses? That sacklike thing in The Locket is kind of a dress, but that hardly counts...

Damnit, I'm really missing the audio commentaries. From what I hear Claudia is a smart, funny person right? Really should get the starburst editions.

Pretty sure it is fellip nectar. And lots of it. Lots and lots of fellip nectar.

Numbing her grief with intoxicants. Poor Aeryn.

Oh, right, of course!

"Fellip's a creature on Tarsus, and they get the nectar..."

"Don't tell me where it comes from, Aeryn, just drink the beer."

Heh. Funny how "alien" beverages are often that funky Powerade blue, huh? Yuck...

It was amazing how they managed to navigate and chart a character arch where she remained so real. In lesser hands, one of these two mistakes would have happened: they would have make her to tough and brilliant to be true, or her learning to love and developing layers would have taken away her strength and independence.
Neither mistake happened with Aeryn, due to the combined quality work of the writers and Claudia Black.
The problem I have with Farscape is overcoming the need to pick a favorite character. I just about get my mind made up and then Chiana or Scorpius or John has a scene and I feel myself rethinking. Then I realized I don’t have to pick a favorite. But it was always Aeryn that was my default favorite that the others were luring me away from.
But I am completely smitten with Aeryn.
The thing is you could learn something about human behavior, relationships and yourself when watching her. It’s a life long effort to try and find the balance between strength and vulnerability. Real personal strength as opposed to strength that is just hiding fear. The balance between relating to someone because you care about them versus what they fulfill in you. The balance between letting some one in because your strong enough to be in a relationship, yet no losing yourself and being used in the process.
All that comes across with Aeryn in Claudia’s performances. Plus, the lady just has her head on straight, a lot more than anyone could expect her to, considering all she’s been through.
The short of it is, Aeryn makes the choice to allow her pain to teach and strengthen her rather than own or break her.
Aeryn is smart as hell and yet when it comes to some things she can be blind. But she owns herself and when she discovers she has given some part of herself away to someone else unworthy of it, she reclaims it. By Claudia underplaying her Aeryn’s pain and Aeryn denying it’s there, she adds another whole layer to the suffering.
The subtly of it makes it work. How her sense of humor just under the surface that spills over on rare occasions. In The Flax episode when John asks her “You are the female of your species, right?” The look on her face is at once stoic and yet speaking volumes. The little head movement like she is about to lung at him with a ghost of a smile straining her face muscles. Then her real smile when he isn’t looking. VERY funny and yet a serious comment on Farscape’s role reversals and denouncing the traditional stereotypes of those roles. All in the space of a few seconds, one line, and her reaction to it.

The thing that Farscape understands is no one person is just one thing at any time, and Aeryn shows this better than anyone.
And she is sexy as she can be, too. Had me the second she took of the flight helmet and gave ‘that look” in the first episode.

Just imagine what a fantastic child John and Aeryn had with D'Argo and the others if they had more children. Rockne speculated on them having THREE of them. With Johns brilliance and fortitude along with Aeryns brilliance and stoickness, with all the traits these two have together any child of theirs would be a fantastic person, they would have to be, they could not lose. Hey look at the closing scene of TPKW D'Argo was a couple of days old and he seemed to understand mom and dad when they said "this is your playground" the editors photoshoped in a look of awe on D'Argo's face.

garymarcella says:

Yeah, but then they grow up to be teenagers, and let me tell you, Mom and Dad will need all of that brilliance, fortitude and stoicism, trust me on this:

"NO! You may not get a Heppel oil implant! I don't care if they are new and improved and don't shorten your life span!!!"

"NO! You may not get a union tattoo! I don't care if it is little because you're going steady!"

"If you don't stop right now, I got an Aurora Chair with your name on it!!!"

"What is wrong ... with you children!!"

:)

Yes, Farscape does Gender Role Reversals better than any other show on TV.

Aeryn does take on the traditional male role of protecting John, and yet the writers always made sure that she was entirely female.

John takes on the traditional female role (always wanting to talk) and yet the writers didn't miss a step with his character either - cause John Crichton was definitely male. *thud*

Very good writing by very smart people who knew how to put together ideas without being (as TWoP vernacular would have it) anvilicious.

Brilliant work.

LPL I realize your remarks were "tongue in cheek" but I am 53 years old with two grown children 27, and 29, boy and girl respectively, and while I in no way compare myself to the characters in Farscape my children inheirited the best characteristics of my wife and myself and really seem to have eliminated most of our weak ones. Time will be the true test but my children have the best of both of us, can Aeryn and John's children do any less?? ;-)

Adult children aren't teens, GM. I'm sure you had your fair share of fun during all the terrible teens...

"I got an Aurora Chair with your name on it!" I shall have to use that on my lippy 11 year old.

I think that D'Argo would be the most interesting of John and Aeryn's children, as the eldest would get the undivided attention of all on board.

Or should this go in Universe is your Playground thread?

Sorry not a lick of trouble from either of them. I credit my wife for that more than me she is a super woman. My kids were both angels from Day 1 till now. As the Aussies say No worries none zippo perfect kids, teens, and adults.

The Skull, you hit the nail on the head. Claudia's performances. I too have Aeryn as my default favorite. Every character on the show has something I admire or even despise but which fascinates me. Every actor is good. But Claudia somehow hits even higher in a cast of great actors.

You described the scene at the end of "The Flax". What Claudia Black does with Aeryn's character is to portray a lot without appearing to do a lot. I started watching part 1 of Infinite Possibilities and there's a walking/talking corridor scene between John and Aeryn where they're talking about John returning to earth and not wanting to alone. It struck me again, even though I wasn't watching one of the "showcase" eps like "The Choice" how fantastic she is. Not to say Ben's a slouch but, geez, there's just something about Claudia Black.

Anyway, fangirling through it here, I think Claudia's portrayal of Aeryn is so perfect it's like they found Aeryn Sun walking the streets of Sydney and convinced her to do the show.

Can I join in on the Aeryn love? She is also my default favorite. I think everyone on the show was wonderfuly complex and well acted. And Ben Browder had the tought job of making such a potentialy stereotypical character and making him come to life. But in the end its always Aeryn.

Awesome anaylsis, Skull.



I remember an interview with I think Rockne O'Bannon, maybe DK, where he said that had anyone else played Aeryn she would be a marshmellow by now, i.e. around Season 2. I also remember the commentary for EFH where Brian Henson, who directed, thought that Aeryn's big smile at the end was a mistake. But at the time he didn't know how much CB could communicate with a look. And I think that says a lot about how much Claudia Black brought to the character of Aeryn Sun. IMHO SHe made made Aeryn Sun. She has the great ability to portray thoughts and emotions without saying a word. Or even shedding a tear. It would have been so easy to make Aeryn a cliche espically in the begining when you could see that they didn't have a firm grip on the character. But they refused at every turn.



I also love how they can also reverse them back. Sometimes John is the big protector (Nerve/WSS) and Aeryn pushes him to talk (BOD). But then before you can say a word they switch back. Its like,sometimes, on farscape there are no assigned gender roles. John and Aeryn are two impossibly pretty people who become who they need to be at any given time. Sometimes they need to be soft and caring. Sometimes they need to be strong and fight. Sometimes both at the same time (I think Aeryn in LGM is this crazy combonation of mother and kick ass soldier which makes me think a season with her being a mom wouldn't have been boring, at all). But regardless, same rules apply to both.

I'll add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of Aeryn Sun.

On this:



I think this very true and why she had such a remarkable journey as a character. It is really rare that a character is allowed to do that in a television show and it is the reason why Aeryn flew right to the front of pack for me right in the first season. It was in "Hidden Memory" when Aeryn left Crais in the Aurora Chair - she not only gave Crais the heave-ho in that moment, but the Peacekeepers as a whole. In that first year, she was able to see that what she was born and bred to do, the only thing she ever really knew, was not something she liked. She was able to step away from all of that and could see that the PKs actually kind of suck, and that they weren't who she wanted to be.

That must have been an incredibly difficult thing for someone to do. Not just because she had to throw away the only thing she knew and loved, but she didn't have anything to fall back on, there was no safety net. She was still homeless and lost for a good while before she finally decided for good that her "home" was with Crichton.



I completely agree and I think this goes hand in hand with the gender reversal thing mentioned above. It is rare that it is the female who has no fear in areas like battle and taking physical risks, but is afraid to put her heart on the line - while John is the opposite. They both make progress on their individual journies and end up meeting in the middle and often switch roles, but it is rare that a female character starts out where Aeryn did and isn't written as a cold, ball-busting hard ass. Aeryn was always more complex than that.

And I've watched far too many female characters start out strong and then devolve in to a simpering mess once they get a romantic interest. That never happened with Aeryn. She always kept a clear view of who John was - one of my favorite moments was in season four in "I shrink, Therefore I am" when the bounty hunters who had imprisoned everyone on Moya except John talk about how John had eluded capture, and one of them remarked that John must be "brilliant" - Aeryn hears this and responds by rolling her eyes. She's deeply in love with him, but she knows he's flying by the seat of his pants.

For that the writers get kudos, but I agree that Claudia Black gets huge amounts of credit for that as well. She was too smart to play Aeryn any other way - she knew that Aeryn was more complex than just a gun-toting bad ass, and she knew that Aeryn would never turn into a pile of mush who would just gaze at John with starry eyes. How I wish more actresses would make that choice, and how I wish more television writers would allow them too. The closest I've seen someone else come to this is Kyra Sedgewick on The Closer (a show I would recommend to those who like a complex female character who kicks ass at her job, but is not quite as confident when it comes to matters of the heart).

Okay, enough rambling. Long story short - Aeryn is awesome.

masked_spangler:



Yes! Revel in the shallow-ness.

I have no words. This is the woman who made it to number one on my uni "I'm Not Gay, But..." list (we were allowed five).

From the PKW thread, pertaining to whether Aeryn knew Grayza had raped John:



Two traits that Aeryn demonstrates fairly consistently throughout the series, especially where John is concerned, are fierce protectiveness (examples abound) and not a little jealousy (Matala, Gilina, Katralla...). I'm not sure we need to see those reactions as our own cultural constructs rather than the way the writers chose to highlight Aeryn's core personal characteristics. Given the combination of the two, I can see her jonesing pretty bad for a reckoning. Not necessarily losing emotional control and flipping out - she's too smart for that - but you'd still expect a very strong reaction toward Grayza if she knew. We saw only the tiniest hint of that.

This is a good point--you would think John would be pretty upset about Chiana's rape. Or, alternately, John didn't realize she'd been raped. I don't think it strange that he didn't seek vengeance, though, given that it was on another world and they couldn't go there so easily and then they quickly got involved with other things. But it makes me wonder: why did the writers decide to go so stealth about Chiana's rape? Have TPTB ever talked about that?

Not that I know of. But it makes sense for Chiana's character not to talk about it - she does like to portray herself as tough and independant. The only time she does talk about the rape is to John and very briefly even then.

So ummmmmm.... I dunno. But I kinda like the way the writers et al respected the audience enough to trust us to be able to pick up the clues of what was going on.



Yes. But again. Aeryn didn't kill Scorpy - who tortured and abused and terrorised John repeatedly. So why would it be different for Grayza? Except for OUR perception of how heinous the rape is for John.

At no point am I dismissing the implications of rape - for either Chiana or John. And I would have liked to have seen the rapists have their comeupance - in as gory and unpleasant manner as possible.

But TPTB didn't go there - with either Chiana's rape or John's.

And Scorpy is still alive and kicking. Neither Aeryn nor D'Argo has seen fit to eliminate him.

It can be argued that John's encounters with Scorpy involve elements of sexual torture, and while rape is a complete violation of an individuals personal integrity, Scorpy implanted a neuro-chip into John's brain that drove John insane. Which is at least as big a violation of personal integrity.

So.... why would Aeryn's response be different? Except that we - the audience - want it to be? Which isn't a terribly good reason.

Because Grayza is female. And quite possibly the mother of another little Crichton.

I don't think Aeryn deliberately decided not to kill Scorpy. I think it's more a lack of opportunity. I mean, first and foremost, Scorpy had to remain a character on the show, because He Is Awesome, so the writers never would have had him killed off. Second, Scorpy had to remain a viable villain, and killing him off would show that he was vulnerable, so for that reason they wouldn't have had him temporarily killed off and then revived, either. But, speaking within the context of the show, had Aeryn run into Scorpius on the ice planet, I think she'd have killed him, as would D'Argo. I think any of them would have killed him on the Royal Planet, so the writers carefully arranged to keep that opportunity away from them--Aeryn was indisposed, D'Argo deferred killing Scorpius to give John the pleasure ('Scorpius is still alive, but he won't be when you leave this room'), and John, of course, was neurologically incapable of killing him. All of them wanted him dead in Liars, Guns, and Money, and tried their damnedest. In season 3, they thought Crais had killed Scorpius at the beginning of the season, and didn't learn till Incubator that he was still alive. By the end of the season, they were at a stalemate, unable to kill him because of the Yensch bracelets. The writers (in the commentary) said that they wanted, at that point, to have the two men reach a point of mutual respect, so that they could then have them in the position that John wouldn't kill Scorpius on sight, and would allow him to stay on the ship, in season 4. So, yeah, John refrained from killing Scorpius at the end of Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, but John had seemingly taken everything away from Scorpius and his thirst for revenge was sated. He did refrain from killing him in What Was Lost, and I guess the whys of that are debatable. Maybe it WAS an issue of him now respecting Scorpius and/or not wanting to execute an unarmed man by shooting him in the back. Maybe he thought Grayza was the common enemy and didn't want to eliminate a potential ally. Maybe he just didn't want to do what Grayza was asking him to do. Maybe he thought it was a trap. In any case, he didn't shed tears when he thought Scorpy was dead. For most of season 4 he and the others let Scorpy live because of his promise, but didn't mind leaving him to the Scarrans' tender mercies, till Harvey came back.