Much better now

[itsallovernow]

I renamed the clothing piece Kaleidoscope, and sent it to Kansas, the discovered that crankygrrl had comments for me that didn't make it through the fiberoptic jungle of the internet. I think I'm pleased with it, although the first section, which I switched to be Zhaan POV (thanks to a very clever suggestion by Cranky, is still weak. The piece is tied together by a linear time line and a theme. There is very little narrative structure. I'm not sure it was a succes, but it was fun. I'll send it to Leviathan later today, depending on whether or not I can restrain myself from further changes.

raithen found a site that tells you about your personality based upon your name. I ended up with the opposite results than she did. My real name produced some accurate, and some blatantly inaccurate analysis, but my screen name was bang on. Which is odd as I've always felt that my given name suited me.

I'd love to be a happy fangirl right now, trying out a few new shows like MI-5. I love spy stuff, especially clever British spy stuff, but it's on Tuesday which is my dance night and I could barely remember to tape Buffy. The odds are low that I'll remember to tape something I've never watched before.

So instead, I watched part of VH-1's 200 greatest pop icons. I love list shows. I'll watch anything with lists. But I had to turn it off when they included Shania Twain. My tolerance for junk is only so high. I watched a little Naked Chef, who is still cute, although strangely swollen, and then gave in and watched Say Anything on DVD.

M. was in his room but came out to watch this with me. LLoyd Dobbler ruined all of the girls who were adolescents when this came out. My little teenage romantic heart still goes pitterpatter when he holds the boombox over his head. And I adopted his employment views completely. Never again will I buy, sell or process anything. Much as I love John Cusak in other roles, he's always gonna be Lloyd. For some reason, watching this just put me in a much better mood than I have been in the last couple of weeks.

And because I totally neglected to talk about it on Monday, (although I think that everyone who is still new to the show is either ahead, or behind or elsewhere), .

There is so much to love about this episode. It starts off with Robinson Crusoe John, bearded and drunk on homemade hooch with wormhole equations scrawled all over the ship. He's even got a new friend, and then a ship ricochets into this isolation and his quiet life is over. He's no longer the stranger in a strange land. Yes, he's alone on a dying ship. Yes, the people in his head are constructs, but are much more real than the people he's meeting. But he's fearless, and brave and crazy and we realize immediately that this is a different man. This is the one who lived, and who survived when everything he loved disappeared.

My favorite moments are his interaction with Rygel, asking if Aeryn had said anything before she left, while Rygel holds Sikozu's severed hand and tries to get John to see reason, and of course the lamb to the slaughter scene (but they may just be the lovely, shiny ass shots), but it so beautifully blatant. John's always been the goat tied to the stake, the bait for every bad guy in the universe, why not make the concept literal.

And finally, at the end. Aeryn tells him new is good and he says he's not gonna come there anymore, to that place in his head where his vision of her lives. That it just makes him sad, and that just killed me. So he's got part of his crew back, a new girl who's smarter than he is (and has really cool hair), and is forced back into his life on the run. But wormholes are dancing in front of his eyes, and if he can't have Aeryn, he can still harness something in this universe.

M. loves this episode and loves the 1812 Overature. He bought a CD with this piece on it, and we were deluged by cannons for months. He would watch it late at night so I'd shoot awake in bed, hearing music and explosions and wouldn't be able to go to sleep until I figured out where in the ep. he was.

Comments

[spoonishly.livejournal.com]

I love Crichton Kicks to death! I think John looks so cute with the longer curly hair and the beard.

Oh, the ass shots and then the swiveling of the hips was just hilarious.

I think one of my favorite, visually, moments is how we, the audience, watch as Chiana's eyes go white and she goes into a vision, temporarily blinding herself.

I adore CK and can't wait for DVD quality of it!

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

It's got layer upon layer in it. I see something new everytime I watch it. And now that M. finally hooked the PS2 up to the speakers, I'll be able to see it in ultraprettiness and hear it in surround sound. I really, really love technology sometimes.

[kernezelda]

Much as I love CK, the goat-scene is not one I like. It's uncomfortable to watch, like the scene in WSS:FA when John is seducing the nurse. Those two disturb me far more than LAMST's vomit, than the blood vow in Prayer, than Crichton's bomb.
It's a reduction of John to nothing but meat, selling himself/FS (to the audience, or the Sci-Fi channel), no hope or optimism left, just desperation and desolation.
I could be reading this askew, of course, but those two scenes I find depressing and too bleak.
We've seen things stolen from John - his mind, his body, his identity - seen him used against his will, but this is the first time I felt like John was using himself.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I think - in part - what I liked about it was that realization, that he has to use everything to survive. Did it make me happy to see him as the sacrificial lamb? Not particularly. But he was a changed man by this point, and survival comes with risks (and yeah, ratings come with shiny, leather clad behinds), but I also see it as a taunt. The kind of, come on, show me what you got craziness that he's had since the end of Season 1. At least he cares enough to risk something.

But I definitely see you're point. It is distrubing to see him reduced to using himself, his physical self, as a prize.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Much as I love CK, the goat-scene is not one I like. It's uncomfortable to watch, like the scene in WSS:FA when John is seducing the nurse.

I found the goat scene slightly uncomfortable myself, and I think some of my laughter when I see it is to relieve that tension. I feel embarrassed for the character. He's been bait before, but there's a debased shuffling gaiety to it that's new and unpleasant despite his ability to crack a good joke.

The nurse scene fascinates me, though. There's a feel to it of Riki-tiki-tavi facing off with the snake, it's pure negotiation and manipulation wearing the clothes of seduction and the only sex there (and the characters know it) has to do with each of them getting off on the dangerous dance of who's really frelling whom.

John playing the shell game with Grayza in WSS:HTK is the same kind of scene; only Grayza doesn't get it that the game is a distraction, she has to tear her eyes away from the cups. OTOH, the nurse sees through the facade so well that she's just phoning-in the seduction role.

It's very Maltese Falcon, IMO, and I'm intrigued by Crichton's growing ability to function duplicitously. Sam Spade knew how both worlds worked and it's a damned thin line to balance on, keeping your integrity while moving through the underworld.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Ooh, very intriguing. I think Crichton started to understand how all this worked in LGM (I could maybe make a case for LATP, but since I'm hiding from that ep right now, we'll just ignore it). He traded himself for Jothee, for freedom for his friends because he thought there was no other choice, and from that point on, has always known that somehow, somewhere, there's always another option - doesn't mean better, just means other.

In WWL, he's again forced into the role and looks for something to save him. He's again a willing sacrifice, but Grayza thinks she's gaining something. By TF, he's learned to play two sides of himself - the returning hero and the alien, trying to desperately balance both sides, and by the time we get to WSS:FA, he understands the game, how to be two people, how to lie and finagle and do it all with coldness and clarity, and I love the Riki-Tiki-Tavi analogy with the nurse. They both know it's a game, a dangerous fake, both trying to gain something they want.

[brynnmck.livejournal.com]

Firstly, "Crichton Kicks" is where my sneaky Farscape obsession, which had been stalking me and lurking in tall grasses, leapt out and knocked me flat on my ass. I don't know what it was, exactly, but something about the visions of Aeryn, and the new/old Leviathan, and that incredibly powerful final image of him writing on the wall, whistling along with 1812, then going into the full overture... gah. I fell HARD. I'm a sucker for a good epic.

Oddly enough, I just found the "goat" scene hilarious, though I agree in that it's a very appropriate analogy for John's position in the series as a whole. I guess that's why it didn't offend me; it was too silly to be really sexy (though this may be because I'm more of an arm girl than an ass girl, even leather-clad ass), so I didn't feel like he was being objectified. Mostly I just saw it as another extension of Ben's willingness to make an utter fool out of himself. myrtleneunice and I talk often about how John is really the butt-monkey of the universe, and for me this was just another example of that, and of the way he just throws himself headlong into these crazy-ass plans.

Interesting to hear other points of view, though.

Also, I just ran right over to Leviathan and checked out your new fic, and enjoyed it thoroughly (in a sad kind of way). I've never given too much thought to the clothing on Farscape (other than the evolution of Aeryn's hair), but reading your fic, it really is a perfect lens for the characters' changes, particularly John. Ending with him selecting his weapon was especially powerful. And you have the other characters down perfectly as well--I particularly enjoyed Chiana, and her conspiracy with Rygel. Excellent, excellent stuff, as your stuff always is.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Ahh, thank you. Did you get the version with or without quotation marks:) The placement of the pieces had a lot to do with excellent suggestions from my beta readers who were a lot better at seeing the big picture than I was. I get a little to literal minded and cannon obsessed:)

I'm glad that CK tipped you over the edge. FS is definitely a fun obsession. There's always layers of meaning to decipher, an epic story to get involved with, much gratuitous silliness, pretty, pretty people, a little science, a lot of violence, great love stories, and consequences. It always makes me think, and how much media makes you do that?