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dangermousieSo. It was the Self-Inflicted Wounds two-parter tonight.
Yeah.
I am kinda verklempt. And that was it for tonight because if I made a trio with Different Destinations, there'd be some serious wrist-slitting.
Lengthy meta behind cut.
SIW is an ep I don't like as much as I should, all things considered. Maybe it's too much technobabble, or a bit of an odd pacing (it should have been a one-and-a-half parter, if there is such a thing, not a two parter).
This said, Zhaaaaaaaaaaan. *wails* It makes sense from story point (nothing is for free, life for a life) and from behind the scenes point as poor Virginia Hey was getting ill from the make-up, but still...wail!
Non-Zhaan stuff out of the way first:
I get totally annoyed with the crew in this one when they blame Crichton for what happened. Zhaan gets a pass because she is dying, but I want to smack the rest of them silly. How is this Crichton's fault? How? It's just the Moyans' rotten luck. Pilot was the one who stopped the ship when they saw a wormhole, and they were there for a millisecond only before the pathfinders' ship crashed into them. They wouldn't have time to get out of the way regardless of anything, even Pilot stopping.
And yeah, he trusted the aliens. But hey, even without wormholes, John is often too trusting, this is about the last spark of it. And considered abandoning ship but so did they all! But any 'selfishness' is certainly taumatized out of him with this.
But then the crew doesn't really believe it's Crichton's fault: if they did, his throat would be ripped out. It's just a convenient target for frustrations. And hello, Crichton? Would take it and ask for more. So this ep ends with Crichton enjoying his favorite game: guilt and self-blame for something not really his fault.
Harvey! Beginning of such brilliant, brilliant Harvey scenes!
And I loved the brief guy-to-guy discussion between D'Argo and John: what if you try your best and it's not enough? That is something everyone on board Moya is familiar with.
And John and Aeryn? Work so in unison. Heck, Aeryn is beginning to develop her own unworthiness issues as her convo with Zhaan shows. (I love the bit where Zhaan highlights similarities between them. She forgot to add 'we love insane men' to the list though).
Jool? God, I'd forgotten how irritating she was when she first joined. I ended up liking her by the end, but seriously, I want to strangle her. Crichton is being amazingly patient with her evn when she tries to off him (probably out of obligation/guilt) but argh. I love Chiana's smackdown of her. And Zhaan's. But I like her around because I love seeing nasty things happen to her. Some relief from the darkness of S3: bad things happening to someone you actually don't like.
Chiana is wonderful too: so young, so brave, so scared. Yet so unwilling to abandon Moya. Crying to Zhaan about it. What a difference from season 1, when she was all for getting off at the least sign of trouble and Moya be damned. But they do have a bond, don't they?
Other things? I love Stark in these eps. From his subtle manipulation of Rygel (by telling him Pilot likes him) from his snarking (when Rygel says he didn't vote for staying or leaving Moya. Rygel makes me want to choke him in these eps) that yeah, Rygel voted because 'I was your proxy.' Heh.
And the bit with Jool, when the snitty bitch is having her little hissy fit and he flips on her because they are all dead, and his love is dead. And he tells her he will show her something that will make her weep forever. Stark can be scary!
Oh, and the bits with Zhaan, from his seeing her look at her ravaged face in the mirror, and he is silent behind the door, and crying. To her trying to prepare him and his refusal. To the end, when he runs around like a trapped animal trying to get to her. To when he helps her cross-over. Ohhhh, my lovely secondary ship. I love the bit at the end when Aeryn wants to know why he isn't flipping and he is, in a contained way, and tells her it's because Zhaan was so at peace (and of course, death is what he knows best). But of course, his 'dealing' is temporary and comes and goes, as he admits to her (and see him crazed in DD).
I posted this in a reply to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lizamanynames, but it really is about SIW so I copy it here: Zhaan and Stark are very yin-yang "because in SIW he tells her he has a darkness 'which frightens lovers away' but he is amazingly good despite it, and she is, after all, the good peaceful spiritual being who is, at the same time, had serious darkness and overcame madness. They are more similar than it appears."
I love Zhaan in this ep so much. She is scared yet brave, determined yet frail. And her farewell is lovely. I love how she hits exactly the hidden thing in each of her crewmates (D'Argo's sensitivity, John's innocence).
And of course, the ep ends with John and Harvey, dressed in funeral attire. And even Harvey blames John! WTF!!!!!! Am so mad. And ends with John throwing his bottle at the screen, shattering it.
Grrrr.
John is NOT selfish. He has a few things he would give anything for (AERYN. AERYN. AERYN) but that is true for anyone who is not a saint. Moyans have certainly done a lot of unforgivable things when their wishes were strong. Remember D'Argo, Zhaan and Rygel hacking off Pilot's arm for a chance at the map? Remember Chi and her stealing and thus unleashing the virus that leads to the Gammack Base and everything else etc? (Aeryn is rather exempt because she's been brought up to not want anything). Remember Moya's irrationality about Talyn? Their desires lead to anything from sheer irresponsibility and badcatastrophes because of recklessness to predetermined badness.
John is obsessed with going home and wormholes (though even now, I think he is too damaged for Earth already, and not as much as with Aeryn). But I am sorry, comparing him with the actions above? Are you kidding? Considering giving up the ship? Wanting to check out wormholes for a second but not even having a chance to before the collision? (It's not like they were parked there for an hour and that's how they got hit).
Seriously, the guy has enough self-loathing. He does not need any more. Lay off, the guy is already broken.
Next? Different Destinations, and then the joy of two Crichtons: double your character, double your pain.
And some pretty caps, once again, courtesy of Farscape-Caps.
Zhaan seeing her deterioration:
Stark observing her:
Ambiguous Neeala:
OTP!
Zhaan and Stark coping. Or not:
Annoying Jool. Who will soon get cool:
OTP!
Oh John:
Stark's freak out:
Pretty:
Ehhh, I am too lazy to caption:
Yeah.
I am kinda verklempt. And that was it for tonight because if I made a trio with Different Destinations, there'd be some serious wrist-slitting.
Lengthy meta behind cut.
SIW is an ep I don't like as much as I should, all things considered. Maybe it's too much technobabble, or a bit of an odd pacing (it should have been a one-and-a-half parter, if there is such a thing, not a two parter).
This said, Zhaaaaaaaaaaan. *wails* It makes sense from story point (nothing is for free, life for a life) and from behind the scenes point as poor Virginia Hey was getting ill from the make-up, but still...wail!
Non-Zhaan stuff out of the way first:
I get totally annoyed with the crew in this one when they blame Crichton for what happened. Zhaan gets a pass because she is dying, but I want to smack the rest of them silly. How is this Crichton's fault? How? It's just the Moyans' rotten luck. Pilot was the one who stopped the ship when they saw a wormhole, and they were there for a millisecond only before the pathfinders' ship crashed into them. They wouldn't have time to get out of the way regardless of anything, even Pilot stopping.
And yeah, he trusted the aliens. But hey, even without wormholes, John is often too trusting, this is about the last spark of it. And considered abandoning ship but so did they all! But any 'selfishness' is certainly taumatized out of him with this.
But then the crew doesn't really believe it's Crichton's fault: if they did, his throat would be ripped out. It's just a convenient target for frustrations. And hello, Crichton? Would take it and ask for more. So this ep ends with Crichton enjoying his favorite game: guilt and self-blame for something not really his fault.
Harvey! Beginning of such brilliant, brilliant Harvey scenes!
And I loved the brief guy-to-guy discussion between D'Argo and John: what if you try your best and it's not enough? That is something everyone on board Moya is familiar with.
And John and Aeryn? Work so in unison. Heck, Aeryn is beginning to develop her own unworthiness issues as her convo with Zhaan shows. (I love the bit where Zhaan highlights similarities between them. She forgot to add 'we love insane men' to the list though).
Jool? God, I'd forgotten how irritating she was when she first joined. I ended up liking her by the end, but seriously, I want to strangle her. Crichton is being amazingly patient with her evn when she tries to off him (probably out of obligation/guilt) but argh. I love Chiana's smackdown of her. And Zhaan's. But I like her around because I love seeing nasty things happen to her. Some relief from the darkness of S3: bad things happening to someone you actually don't like.
Chiana is wonderful too: so young, so brave, so scared. Yet so unwilling to abandon Moya. Crying to Zhaan about it. What a difference from season 1, when she was all for getting off at the least sign of trouble and Moya be damned. But they do have a bond, don't they?
Other things? I love Stark in these eps. From his subtle manipulation of Rygel (by telling him Pilot likes him) from his snarking (when Rygel says he didn't vote for staying or leaving Moya. Rygel makes me want to choke him in these eps) that yeah, Rygel voted because 'I was your proxy.' Heh.
And the bit with Jool, when the snitty bitch is having her little hissy fit and he flips on her because they are all dead, and his love is dead. And he tells her he will show her something that will make her weep forever. Stark can be scary!
Oh, and the bits with Zhaan, from his seeing her look at her ravaged face in the mirror, and he is silent behind the door, and crying. To her trying to prepare him and his refusal. To the end, when he runs around like a trapped animal trying to get to her. To when he helps her cross-over. Ohhhh, my lovely secondary ship. I love the bit at the end when Aeryn wants to know why he isn't flipping and he is, in a contained way, and tells her it's because Zhaan was so at peace (and of course, death is what he knows best). But of course, his 'dealing' is temporary and comes and goes, as he admits to her (and see him crazed in DD).
I posted this in a reply to
lizamanynames, but it really is about SIW so I copy it here: Zhaan and Stark are very yin-yang "because in SIW he tells her he has a darkness 'which frightens lovers away' but he is amazingly good despite it, and she is, after all, the good peaceful spiritual being who is, at the same time, had serious darkness and overcame madness. They are more similar than it appears."I love Zhaan in this ep so much. She is scared yet brave, determined yet frail. And her farewell is lovely. I love how she hits exactly the hidden thing in each of her crewmates (D'Argo's sensitivity, John's innocence).
And of course, the ep ends with John and Harvey, dressed in funeral attire. And even Harvey blames John! WTF!!!!!! Am so mad. And ends with John throwing his bottle at the screen, shattering it.
Grrrr.
John is NOT selfish. He has a few things he would give anything for (AERYN. AERYN. AERYN) but that is true for anyone who is not a saint. Moyans have certainly done a lot of unforgivable things when their wishes were strong. Remember D'Argo, Zhaan and Rygel hacking off Pilot's arm for a chance at the map? Remember Chi and her stealing and thus unleashing the virus that leads to the Gammack Base and everything else etc? (Aeryn is rather exempt because she's been brought up to not want anything). Remember Moya's irrationality about Talyn? Their desires lead to anything from sheer irresponsibility and badcatastrophes because of recklessness to predetermined badness.
John is obsessed with going home and wormholes (though even now, I think he is too damaged for Earth already, and not as much as with Aeryn). But I am sorry, comparing him with the actions above? Are you kidding? Considering giving up the ship? Wanting to check out wormholes for a second but not even having a chance to before the collision? (It's not like they were parked there for an hour and that's how they got hit).
Seriously, the guy has enough self-loathing. He does not need any more. Lay off, the guy is already broken.
Next? Different Destinations, and then the joy of two Crichtons: double your character, double your pain.
And some pretty caps, once again, courtesy of Farscape-Caps.
Zhaan seeing her deterioration:
Stark observing her:
Ambiguous Neeala:
OTP!
Zhaan and Stark coping. Or not:
Annoying Jool. Who will soon get cool:
OTP!
Oh John:
Stark's freak out:
Pretty:
Ehhh, I am too lazy to caption:
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-12 08:41 am (UTC)also, my favourite 'suicidal. - test pilot!' exchange.
also, I geniunely like Jool. she's arrogant and irritating and selfish, but not bad, and I always see her as a youngest of the group - and for an almost-child in scary and dangerous situation she isn't half bad. and she makes a great bantering partner to Chiana.
(and they've killed her in PKW and I'm still bitter)
but ahhh, Zhaan, poor Zhaan. I missed her so much in further episodes. she's probably scarier than all of them put together, because she can justify her violence to herself and wrap it into holiness, but she was also this stable centre of crew - and they lack it so hard in 4th season. and just... I love her so much.
on rewatching - or, rather, watching you rewatching - do you want to shake A&J and scream at then 'just get it on, you don't have much time as much as do? because it's their last chance to get it before things go complicated and then just screwed, and they're missing it - out of fear and guilt and God-knows-what, while you know that 'eat me' is just an ep away, and then everything falls apart.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-12 01:52 pm (UTC)Oh yes. Seriously, just because he is there and available, doesn't mean you should do it! If you think about it, they subconsciously know, I think, that they can do it to him. Can you imagine the uselessness or the harm if they tried doing it to D'Argo or Aeryn or Rygel? But that's the thing: John is a leader but he is someone who also has a masichist streak a mile wide.
also, my favourite 'suicidal. - test pilot!' exchange.
I love that one so much! And that's the thing that I always forget watching early S1 Crichton, his eyes open in wonder: it took a certain kind of person to get himself in the position to get into a wormhole even if unknowingly. He might be gentle and sweet and scientific when the thing starts, but it takes a certain kind of insanity and reckless bravery to go up in space flying basically an assmbled kit plane that you devised by yourself to test a completely random theory! Much much much more insane and risk-taking than his Dad who after all followed proper established plane procedures devised by others when he went.
Makes me think of one of my favorite books, 'The Right Stuff' by Tom Wolfe, about the astronauts involved in the inception of space program in the US. Before getting into it, he discusses test pilots and adrenaline junkiness a lot...
And then there is the scientific crazy curiousity that got him up there in the first, proving that he can be obsessive enough to not care about risk when he is really into it.
So of course, John is thus more fitted to adjust...
I geniunely like Jool. she's arrogant and irritating and selfish
I like Jool, and she does grow up. Mainly, I think, I am always a bit sympathetic to her from the start, because I know that if I ended up in an unknown part of the world with lunatics, I'd be a lot more likely to be whiny like Jool and not awesome like John (John is a realistic person, but he is alsoa hero, even if not a cardboard cutout one).
probably scarier than all of them put together, because she can justify her violence to herself and wrap it into holiness,
I loved Zhaan but yes, she totally scared me. It's the calmness and the ability to do the most extreme things at the same time: she never apologized for Pilot's arm after all. She is a Priest who became one through overcoming insanity! I love her, but she is scary and unstable (seriously, I can see why she gravitates to Stark). But she is also loving and nurturing and very kind.
And I agree, she wouldn't have let the situation get the way it did in S4. Part of the reason John is so unhinged is there is no calmness center for him...he is the most grown-up and functional left (which is a scary scary thing) except for Aeryn and obviously...
do you want to shake A&J and scream at then 'just get it on, you don't have much time as much as do
Oh yes. They have this brief window. But then what would happen if they did and Eat Me came? It would be even more wrenching.
They are so close to it, even now. I mean, Aeryn basically jumped into John's arms shortly after they got onto Talyn, as soon as she didn't have two Johns in front of her...
no subject
Date: 2007-10-12 06:56 pm (UTC)it's sad that even with Zhaan dying it's kind of last 'okay' episode - because next is DD where things don't work out (John sitting with Aeryn in the end, completely hollow - it nearly breaks my heart every time I watch), and then the whole doppleganger business that completely creeps me out in it's wrongness. and when it stops creeping me out and gets okay, we get, well, Icarus Abides, and arrrrgh. really, at least start of 4th season has some randomly funny eps, like the Avenging Angel, but whole 3rd is just unbearable.
it's funny how much you can love something so heartwrenching, isn't it?