#fringe things

my opinion of the show in (less than) 5 words: had flaws, still a fave!

if i approve of the ending: well you know considering how that whole arc went (s4/s5), yes, yes i do. walter’s final sacrifice and the restore to balance, the emotions, olivia getting her revenge = all good things so yeah, that finale was pretty good ngl

if i ever rewatch it: i’ve rewatched the show several times and seen some eps god-knows-how-many-times so… short answer: yuh-uh!

who my favourite character is: olivia dunham of course

who my least favourite character is: that windmark dude sure stank a lot

my favourite scene: this one’s tough to answer because there are so many different types of scenes i could pick as favourites. you know like visually perfect or emotional or powerful or just cute and funny? i don’t know honestly, but olivia using her powers always made me cry and yell so i’ll just pick those (vaguely)

my favourite romantic pairing: peter/olivia

THANK YOU!!

entrada

bad dreams

welcome to westfield

letters of transit

black blotter

(honourable mentions: jacksonville, brown betty, lysergic acid diethylamide, an enemy of fate, and those we’ve left behind, so many others tbh)

I watch it, I never really skip anything!  I think it’s a good episode, the bits with Peter and Lisa bonding are cute, and there’s some discussions of religion which I think add a lot of thematic depth to the show’s overall depiction on the religion/science debate.   

I haven’t actually!  Maybe I talk about her so much people are sick of it? But I’m gonna do both :D

Aeryn Sun

How I feel about this character: My number one favourite character of all time, the light of my life, my sun and stars, what more is there to say? I will love her until all the stars in the sky stop burning and collapse in upon themselves.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: John Crichton, obviously.  But I do like her with Velorek, Chiana/Aeryn is a nice crackship, and weirdly I’m quite invested in Aeryn/Dregon (from the Look at the Princess trilogy), I think he’s adorable.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: AERYN/PILOT OF COURSE

My unpopular opinion about this character: Pretty much everyone adores Aeryn unequivocably but... I do think a lot of the fandom reduces her arc to just rejecting her Peacekeeper background, I think she’s about a lot more than that.  I think that being a Peacekeeper is an inherent part of who she is and not something she needs to reject, and her growth is more about, as Velorek said, “learning to see beyond the box the Peacekeepers put her mind in” so that she can truly discover what it means.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I just wanted to have a chance to hear Claudia Black sing.  So I guess I wish Moya had landed on an Illusia-esque planet where all vocalisations came out in song ^^

my OTP: I’m sure you don’t need me to answer this

my cross over ship: this is more of a brot3 i guess but ever since I made that Firefly genderswap a while ago I’ve been desperate to see Aeryn, Xena and Zoe Washburne kicking ass together, how incredible would that be??

a headcanon fact: after D’Argo Sun Crichton John and Aeryn have a baby girl, who they call “Leslie Olivia Sun Crichton” after John’s mother and favourite sister (I assume Liv’s his favourite seeing as we never see Suze)

Olivia Dunham

How I feel about this character: I relate to Olivia so much.  I mean I guess the only thing I don’t relate to is I see her as a very tragic character and I don’t think of my own life as tragic at all?  But she’s so important to me because she’s close enough to my personality that when she does something wrong I think, that’s exactly what I would have done, and yet I can still aspire to be her.  

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Peter Bishop, Altlivia Dunham, Astrid in a crack-pairing sort of way, and I don’t hate Olivia/Lincoln, if there had been no Peter I probably would have shipped that.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Olivia/Etta are so important to me

My unpopular opinion about this character: Okay so pretty much all of the fandom are in love with Olivia’s season one speech about being emotional and how it helps her but I actually.... don’t really like it?  It’s always bugged me and I’m not sure why.  I think part of it is that I find the clashing between Broyles and Olivia really artificial seeing as I started with late-season one, and partly because I think it’s too open for Olivia who is extremely closed off about her emotions, and partly because it comes off as exposition, something the writers should be showing us about Olivia rather than telling us.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: More bonding with Astrid, I love their friendship but the writers put 0 effort into it and it annoys me very much, also I needed to see her with young Etta, even if it was just a ten second scene in the finale, I feel so robbed.

my OTP: Peter x Olivia

my cross over ship: I once read an Olivia Dunham/Lorelai Gilmore fic in German which was an unexpected pairing but I think I can see it tbh?

Oh my god anon, this is like asking me to choose between my children.  Both of these shows are so so dear to my heart, and I honestly think both of them fit you requirements?  Both of them have interesting characters with amazing growth arcs, both start off with mostly standalone episodes but develop complex arcs as you go along, and both worlds are wonderfully built.  I don’t think I can give you an answer as to which I think is better, but hopefully I can at least guide you towards which one might be better suited to you :)

FARSCAPE

Be assured, Farscape does get better after the first four episodes.  While I wouldn’t advise skipping anything, the general consensus is that it starts showing what a wonderful show it can be from episode 16 - 20, which is a run of five really good ones in a row.  

Farscape is, predictably, a lot more 90s than Fringe.  It has that mix of comedic and dramatic tone that you find in other shows of the era such as Buffy or Xena.  In terms of plots and structure, it is a descendant of Star Trek, but it has this irreverent tone, this way of subverting and deconstructing some of the hoary old tropes of the genre, which allows it to transcend the space operas that come before it.  It’s not so much a satire of classic scifi as a witty but loving homage.  It can be silly and weird as hell but it is also surprisingly mature in the way it handles romance, gender and sexuality, and its central theme of war.  

If you’ve found my blog through a love of any of the shows I mentioned above I’d go with Farscape.  In addition, if you’re a fan of Firefly, I think you NEED to watch Farscape.  It’s slower to get into than Firefly but I think if Firefly had had the opportunity of lasting 88 episodes, Farscape would have shown itself to be the more enduring and rewarding show.  It has all the adventure, beautiful team bonding, diverse characters and amazing worldbuilding of Firefly plus aliens, which make everything better.  

FRINGE

Fringe also, I think, changes a lot after the early episodes, I’m pretty sure like the entire creative team is swapped out by mid season two.  The early episodes are great, but the mystery arc they hint at in the first half of season one doesn’t really match up with the one they end up pursuing, and for me, Olivia Dunham as a protagonist doesn’t really gain depth until episodes 14 to 17 of season one.  

Early Fringe follows a procedural format, which is gradually shed to give a more or less completely serialized show by season five.  It’s more interesting than a cop show, definitely, but the structure is reminiscent so if you like that sort of show I think you’ll have a really good appreciation of Fringe.  It also received a lot of X-Files comparisons.  The central theme of Fringe is scientific ethics, and you’ve probably already realized that it’s set across parallel universes, and has actors portraying multiple characters, so if you’re into Orphan Black at all I think you’d love Fringe.  

I’d also go for Fringe if you’re into things like Battlestar Galactica or The 100, because it has a little bit of that grittiness and smoothness, but Fringe also has this really strong optimism and heart to it, it doesn’t have the cynicism the other shows have.  And it has more of a sense of humour to it, and it can go completely weird for an episode, it has this tradition of going very strange in the 19th episode of each season.  

CONCLUSION

The character I first fell in love with: olivia dunhamThe character I never expected to love as much as I do now: peter bishopThe character everyone else loves that I don’t: i love them all, except brandonate and sanford harris and god knows no one likes them.The character I love that everyone else hates: our!lincoln leeThe character I used to love but don’t any longer: hmmm let's say michael as in he was much more convincingly portrayed by the season one actor than the season five actorThe character I would totally smooch: altlivia dunhamThe character I’d want to be like: olivia dunham my *IDOL*The character I’d slap: brandonate, sanford harris A pairing that I love: peter/oliviaA pairing that I don’t: simon/etta, sorry guys but he was older than her dad in season five