Meeting 1 (08/03/99)

This meeting of the Aeryn Sun Interpretation Society and and Widow's and Orphan's Emergency Beer Fund will now come to order. I will now repeat our motto. " It is a capital mistake to theorize in advance of data. " Yeah, sure.

I still can't figure our Aeryn or the PK, but that obviously won't stop me. We have a suggestion that Aeryn is the moral equivalent of Worf ( MEOW?) and that the PK are the Klingons by other means, a warrior society. Good as far as it goes. Take a representative cross section of professional soldiers from contemporary societies and I think you would get some similar personality types. But Aeryn and Worf are obviously different people. Worf, although orphaned as a child and later disgraced as a Klingon, functioned successfully in his chosen (Federation) society. Aeryn is one lost puppy. It took twenty plus years to change the Klingons from the villain of the week to a society, granted an imaginary one, with laws, customs, goals, and dreams. What about the PKs?

On the other hand the term professional soldiers covers a lot of ground. I've always felt the PK were the high end of the warfare feeding chain, but perhaps not. Are they a Galactic third world army? Look at places like Sierra Leone, Liberia, or Cambodia. Better yet, lets not look. It's depressing. But you have corrupt generals doing their own thing, selling off whatever is handy to buy weapons for an army which is well enough disciplined, trained and motivated for the job at hand. Is this what the PK really is?

But even considering the PK a warrior society doesn't give us much of a handle on them. Consider warrior societies from the Samurai, to the Sikhs, to the Cossacks, to the Mamelukes, to the Masai, to the Zulu, and all the way on to the Dog Soldiers and back again to the Taliban. A whole lot of very different societies. I can see Aeryn as a PK ronin. Ronin were the masterless Samurai of feudal Japan. ( All she needs is 46 more and she's got a great movie, trivia buffs.) Her Lord, Crais-san the Useless, has regretably not made her a ronin by ascending the dragon, but by dismissing her. We have some brief hints in PK Tech Girl that the PKs may have a strict caste or class system, so once she is out, there is NO place for her to go. However, she still has the PK Bushido code to follow as she knows no other Way. Makes some vague sense, but it's probably just hot dren.

Now here is a suggestion to explain Aeryn that will curl your hair. Aeryn thinks she's dead. Not as bizarre as it sounds. People who have been in heavy combat sometimes compensate by considering themselves to be already dead. As you might understand, this takes a lot of the pressure off. They function in combat well enough, if somewhat dangerously to themselves and anyone in range, but their interpersonal relationships reek. They might do little things like walk into a firefight while blind and display little interest in going home to the World (of Earth). Sound familiar? The correct psychobabble term for this is having a foreshortened sense of the future, foreshortened to about nada. Aeryn is, according to her biography, the Hard Corps type. We don't know how old she is, but I would guess she is no 19 cycle old snuffy just out of the PK Parris Island, so she could well have seen way too much, all day long. Fortunately, Aeryn displays little other evidence of being ready for the rubber room, but his could explain her a little, or not.

Also, it appears we will get a new and improved villain next season. If this is the end of Crais as we know it, I vote that Aeryn gets to terminate him with extreme prejudice. Aeryn and Crais mano a mano. Pistols for two and coffee for one. Do you feel lucky today, punk?

And so on to Jeremiah Crichton. Not a great episode, but a necessary one. This is an ensemble cast show that needs a group of well defined personalities to make it work. Of course, there are those of us that would happily watch three hours a week of Aeryn Sun doing the manual of arms.

The episode was Rygel's chance. At the start of the season, he was an obnoxious windbag, and those were his good qualities. In The Flax, he was able to put his qualities (?)to good use. I didn't like him gambling with Staanz's whereabouts, though. A properly paranoid pirate would have made sure that Rygel told the truth. But we have seen Rygel as he sees himself in Jeremiah Crichton. Rygel the Magnificent, going amidst his humble subjects, those lesser breeds without the law, spreading Truth, Justice and beers on the house. The fact that the little swine really believes this makes Rygel more interesting, if not more cuddly.

D'Argo. A few thousand posts back he was a(nother) Worf wannabe. Now, I see, yes, that great American icon, The Duke. Really. Think of John Wayne in "The Searchers". Talk about cutting off one arm out of four. For God sakes, The Duke wanted to waste Natalie Wood! So think an edgy John Wayne. In D'Argo you get a guy who, if he's for you, isn't going to back down this side of Hell and may take you with him. There is a Spanish saying that has been used to describe The Duke, (and others). Feo, fuerte y formal. Ugly, strong, and dignified. That's D'Argo. (UCSBdad to Anthony Simcoe: I swear. I mean the makeup is ugly, Big Guy.)

Pilot. A little nastier than we thought? Oh, was that the loud alarm I accidently hit?. What's next, "I'm sorry Zhaan. I seem to have ordered a DRD to put superglue in your food squares. Must be my bad arm."

Zhaan. Well, so much for the happy, hippy priestess. She could get a little strange as well as cold. Now if she puts her tongue in your ear, she may be trying to suck your brain out.

John. No More Mister Nice Guy! I do love the beard though. It looked just like my daughter's favorite Teddy Bear. One thing. Did he say he's had aliens (plural) down his pants?

And so back to Aeryn Sun. Aeryn was hurt when John said he was sick of her, but she appears to have had time to figure out that "human nonsense" might be offensive. When asked if she wanted to keep looking for John, she said yes with no hesitation. But then again, she immediately qualified that by saying, we'll keep looking for a while. And then suggested to D'argo that John may have met his destiny without them. Maybe she can live without JC. But when D'Argo said he would continue until she said different, and she said nothing, implying.....what? Then she misses John for his scientific skills? See what I mean. We can't get a straight answer out of her. But those of you in the anti-JC+AS camp, (of which I am not one at all) cheer up. This should slow down the relationship. I do hope Aeryn practices some serious rudeness on JC for a few episodes before forgiving him. It might do the boy some good to consider what he's missing right there in front of him.

And after all of this, what do we have? Questions. Will Rygel find a Hyneerian babe? Is the term Hyneerian babe an oxymoron? Will D'Argo start saying things like, " The good Lord willing and the crick don't rise, Pilgrim". Is Zhaan the only follicly challenged Delvian female? Why is Pilot doing talking to all those DRDs? Wait a minute, where is my daughters Teddy Bear, John? And is Aeryn (blush) experienced? Does she have a father? A mother? A husband? A lover? And most importantly, does she have a sister?

DAMFINO.

Aeryn Sun Interpretation Society and Widow's and Orphan's Emergency Beer Fund