thirdblindmouse: Steph carries Cass in her arms. (Cass/Steph)
Third Mouse ([personal profile] thirdblindmouse) wrote in [personal profile] frayadjacent 2014-10-06 06:33 pm (UTC)

I love Aeryn Sun, and I love her journey (as far as I've seen; I think I'm behind you). Thinking about it now, the similarities between Farscape/Aeryn Sun and Xena extend beyond the stoic warrior woman that I initially identified when my best friend showed me this new show and character she'd fallen in love with. Aeryn's story and Xena both have large themes of reexamining and redefining how you're going to live your life, about internally and externally imposed points of no return and how you recognize them and where you go from there.

It pains me to hear you feel so meh about Aeryn/John, because it's one of the rocks of the show for me in a way that central het relationships never otherwise have been. I don't think she loves him just because she's the protagonist, but I agree that their relationship was not one born of comparing the alternatives. That's actually one of the things I love about it? It's not a typical romance by choice in an open romance market story. They were initially thrown together because of their apparent species. John instantly formed a strong attachment to Aeryn because she was the only other human-shaped figure in his desperately homesick and disoriented world, and Aeryn grew close to him because he was the only person in her exile who didn't look at her and see a Peacekeeper. In a normal life course, I don't think either of them would have chosen the other, but circumstance threw them together and something blossomed out of it that wasn't less real because of its constrained origins. As for what Aeryn sees and values in John, I thought the show made it clear that in her eyes he may not have been charming, he may not have been competent, but he saw and valued things in her that allowed her to change her life and grow in the ways you talk about in this post. One of the things that makes John and Aeryn different from many show-central het couples is that while he does have his own journey, their relationship is (at least at first, not sure about later) almost solely about her journey, not her journey as a reflection of his, not her journey as a complication for his, not her journey to being his girlfriend. He is there to give her hugs and make insightful comments, which is a role usually given to (usually female) love interests and sidekicks.

Oh, while we're talking about Aeryn Sun, can I squee about Aeryn Sun doing tech work? Aeryn had her place in the Peacekeepers, and she liked her place and enjoyed being good at it, but not all the ways it limited her horizon were matters of morality or perspective. She's so uncertain of herself when attempting tasks in areas she wasn't trained to even try her hand at, but she is so proud of herself when she succeeds, even though she was taught those kind of achievements were of lesser status.

Post a comment in response:

(will be screened)
(will be screened if not validated)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

If you are unable to use this captcha for any reason, please contact us by email at support@dreamwidth.org