(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Got a bit accomplished today, including a hair cut. This is major deal - since I tend to get a hair cut once a year. The last time was in September 2009. It's really short, shaggy bob. Hard to describe, but looks good on me and I like it. Been procrastinating for about forever. I hate getting haircuts - because I rarely like them and it involves me sitting and staring at myself in a huge unflattering mirror for an hour. Gotten in the habit of just closing my eyes and letting them cut. This one turned out well - I think. Plus the cost has skyrocketed. I remember when a haircut was 10-20 dollars, 40 tops. Now? $70 plus tip. No wonder I put it off.

The problem with most, actually all tv shows, that have a romantic interest develop amongst lead characters - is the unwritten rule that it is boring to put the leads together and kills the sexual tension, so we must keep them apart or show them almost having sex. This results in all sorts of annoying ways of keeping the two leads apart. (Several of which I already mentioned in a prior post and won't bore you with repeating). While the Aeryn Sun/Crichton romance actually keeps the characters apart in a way that is innovative and organic to their characters during the majority of the first four seasons - ie, they come from literally two different worlds, and don't completely understand each other (star-crossed to the max), during the 4th season - they reach a point in which it does NOT make sense, feels incredibly contrived and you want to kick the writers in the butt for doing it.

When S4 starts - John Crichton is obsessing over Aeryn. Every character from Noranti to D'ARgo, heck even Rygel - tells Crichton that he has to let Aeryn go. She's left him (this Crichton, who never went to Talyn) twice. When she comes back - she brings Scorpius who has saved her from the Living Death at least temporarily. But she also comes back with a secret - she doesn't know if the child is John's or someone she recreated with in an early cycle, prior to meeting John. Plus he learns that while she was away she was busy playing vigilante/assassin on some planet and never made it far enough to determine if the child was his or to take it to the stage in which she would give birth to it. Sebastian's can carry an embryo in gestation for up to 7 cycles - it takes surgeon to activate it. So, he tells her that while he can trust her with his life, he can't trust her with his heart - because she doesn't trust him. So she works to win back that trust, by staying, by waiting, by learning English, by supporting him and trusting him. Basically by loving him without requesting anything back. John meanwhile is drugging himself to forget her. She eventually finds out and confronts him on it in the less than stellar episode Twice Shy (What is it with sci-fi shows and spider creatures? Arachnaphobes everywhere wish to know? I really wish they'd find another monster to play with. The monster of that episode is well an arachnoid.) Anyhow, when she confronts him and tells him that she's done everything he asked, and he's cheating - and he has to start playing fair and stop taking these drugs to shut his emotions off, he says he's doing it to fool Scorpius.
Because if Scorpius, who is residing on Moya at the moment via Aeryn, would use Crichton's love for Aeryn and the baby to control him. Oookay. I'd buy that, except a)why does Crichton think Scorpius bothered to save Aeryn in the first place? Out of the kindness of his heart? b) Scorpius isn't stupid...he has eyes and Crichton/Aeryn steam up the screen. Everyone else sees it, why couldn't Scorpius? In short John, it's not working. You're just hurting yourself.
c) Scorpius doesn't have to do anything - when he has Graza and the Scarrens out there to do it for him.

I just don't quite buy the whole I'm still taking poppers to forget all about you so I can fool Scorpie line. Prefered the - I'm taking them to try and move on because we can't be together and I can't quite trust you because you brought Scorpie on board, and now I'm addicted to them and can't stop. That makes more sense. But I guess I can see why they chose not to go that route. Not that the poppers were working that well anyhow. Actually, not sure the whole popper bit totally works.

Other than that - the love story works for me.

Sigh. Running out of Sat. There seems to be a cardinal rule in life - Saturdays are the shortest days of the week and Monday's are the longest.

Comments

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's possible that Crichton may not even be admitting to himself how traumatic his experience with Grayza was (or at least can't bring himself to tell Aeryn about it, which any clearing of the air between them would require). My own reading of a lot of Series 4 is that they're both suffering from post-traumatic stress, to which they react in different ways.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Interesting. And that works. They could have made that clearer in Twice Shy - although thinking back over that episode, they do sort of examine the idea of post traumatic stress through metaphor. There's a deleted scene - where Aeryn begs Noranti for poppers, something to turn off her emotions - so she isn't vulnerable, isn't filled with anxiety.
And John goes from being optimistic, to defeatest - negative. Plus in Constellation of Doubt - the earth psychologist in the Earth documentary states that John Crichton is exhibiting all the classic signs of severe post-traumatic stress syndrom. Crichton is always on guard.

Farscape's central theme is how violence is destructive. How it tears pieces away from you.

And it is notable that Crichton refuses to take the poppers until he is forced to allow himself to be raped by Graza again, in order for D'Argo and Skisousa to free them all from the Peacekeepers. The only way to get out of her grasp - is to take the popper - which he does. And after that point, he continues to take them - this is way before Aeryn returns.

I'm guessing you are correct he can't quite tell Aeryn about it, anyone actually, even D'Argo. He says as much in his journal in the episode Terra Firma. Any more than Aeryn can talk about her time away from him - as assassin and how Scorpius saved her from the Living Death or for that matter what happened with the other John or with her mother. To talk about it - involves reliving it, focusing on it. And in some cases it is better to let it go and move on.

But I also agree with selenak below in that Twice Shy could have been better done. That said, it's the only major weakness I see in Farscape, and I guess that's saying something - all things considered.

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I got such a horrible haircut a few years back that I had a embargo and didn't go near the salon for ages.

Which made me look even worse. So for the past year I've worn the headband of fail. My gray, curly hair has stuck out behind my ears in unattractive lumps.

Today I let the nice lady give me a shorter curly bob - long overdue. Luckily for me - the price is still $21 or I'd have hesitated and kept the mangy look.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

This hair style - the one I got yesterday, is surprisingly flattering. My hair tends to be pretty curly if short, long - it flattens out. Also the sprinkling of gray blends in - making it like I got a frost job or highlights, providing texture. So - it was definitely worth the 75-80 bucks (that includes tip).

But I've had bad luck in the past. A series of unflattering helmet bobs.
Also for a bit what they call the Rachel. The last two - though, have worked. Got them at the same place, but two different stylists - both young and speak English with heavy accents.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I loathe "Twice Shy", and the "must fool Scorpius" line is one of the most stupid and lazy ever to insult a tv audience. One of the reasons why I'm so glad Farscape had The Peacekeeper Wars to wrap things up is that otherwise, I'd have finished the show seriously disliking the main couple, or rather the way they were written in the fourth season. Gratitious angst instead of character-driven angst, and then a "oops, I didn't mean it!" solution. Bah. Also in s1-3 Aeryn had relationships and issues other than John Crichton, in s4 she exists solely as his love interest. Double bah.

On the bright side, re: s4, I did love Kansas and Terra Firma, which are among my favourite FS episodes, and I also liked Sikozu and her relationship with Scorpius a lot. Oh, and Noranti. And some of the John and Scorpius scenes. It's not a season I wish away entirely, but almost anything to do with Aeryn and the J/A relationship I wish had been written differently.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I loathe "Twice Shy", and the "must fool Scorpius" line is one of the most stupid and lazy ever to insult a tv audience.

Yep. I dislike this episode more than Jeremiah Crichton in some respects, and wish they'd done a commentary for it. I checked - none of the commentaries address the whole popper bit or that poor writing choice. The closest they come - is an off-topic comment Claudia Black makes in the commentary for one of the episodes in S3 - about how furious Aeryn was at Crichton for drugging himself.

They could have made it work. I'd say the early cancellation caused the problem - but they didn't know they were being cancelled until Bad Timing. Crichton's increasing paranoia, his fear that his emotions and desires for Aeryn - are resulting in others deaths, along with the dull obsessions wormholes to get home/and having Aeryn, all of which are aggravated by the push-pull with Scorpie. In Don Quixote - they get across that Crichton's focus on Aeryn and getting home is clouding his judgement, people have died for or because of him. He thinks Aeryn is the princess in that episode, when it is Zhan - of course this is from Stark's pov - Zhan died to bring back Aeryn for Crichton.
So guilt. It makes sense Crichton is taking the poppers to quell his feelings. That he feels he can't have Aeryn or Earth.
Aeryn - she's lost all ties to her world and what she was, she went off to try and recapture them, it doesn't work - all it re-emphasizes is she needs Crichton - so when she comes back, she
too is a bit desperate and obsessive. She needs Crichton and wants, possibly to go with him to Earth - as she'd planned on doing with the other Crichton. But he's pushing her away. They've traded places. In S3, she cuts herself off and he has to work his way towards her, in S4, he cuts himself off (ironically for many of the same reasons she did in S3), and she has to work her way towards him. That works. And I was enjoying it up to Twice Shy and that interaction - I'm doing it still to fool Scorpie? That does not work. It took me out of the story. I thought, uhm, okay, no.
Also, all of a sudden they are back together - no conversation over their issues. Green-eyed Monster and Relativity along with Dog with Two Bones did this brilliantly. Whoever wrote Twice Shy? I'd like to kick. Also, probably doesn't help that I loathe their monster, outside of being mildly offensive, I'm afraid of spiders. (also what is it with sci-fi and fantasy and women as spiders motif?)

But as you state - on the bright side there's the brilliant Unrealized Reality, Kansas, Terra Firma and Constellation of Doubt arc. I'm also quite fond of Promises and Hot to Katrazi - La Bomba. And Bad Timing works with the Peace Keeper Wars wrapup. (I don't think Bad Timing would work well without it.)

When I first saw Farscape - I felt Aeryn had capitulated to Crichton - because of Twice Shy. But now? Not so much. She actually stays her own person. And in the commentary to Kansas - they state that Aeryn had to catch up to him, he had spent four years in her world, learned her culture, by going to Earth and learning English - she's provided the chance to catch up to him, to understand his world - find out what he's been hiding.
Kansas in some respects is Crichton's Relativity. She learns about his relationship with his parents, his mother. So that works.
I don't know why they felt the need to circle it all back to Scorpius in Twice Shy - unless they wanted to add dramatic emphasis to Crichton's decision to trust Scorpie in Prayer/Fetal Attraction and get him to aid him in the rescue of Aeryn in return for Wormholes. (In short undoing everything he said he was doing in Twice Shy. ) Also zeroing back to John Quixote's themes. If so, they could have done it better - as written it doesn't work.
(It's actually one of the few things that doesn't work in that series which is saying something, considering.)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, oursin above has an interesting take on this - that almost, not quite, but almost makes Twice Shy work for me. Her comment gets back to the central theme of the series - which is how destructive violence or settling or accomplishing things through violent force is. How damaged people become. Both Crichton and Aeryn are suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. And deal with it in different ways. The series consistently examines how violence doesn't resolve anything and often makes everything worse. It may well be the most anti-violence sci-fi series that I've seen.

Note - Crichton starts taking the poppers when Graza is raping/torturing him in order to get the upper hand and have control.