Women of Farscape #3 - Chiana

[nymeria_dw]

CHIANA

In the beginning, young Chiana seems destined to the role of the outsider, the off-key note: her arrival aboard Moya happens in the middle of the first season and her presence acts as a ripple passing through the fragile balance that is taking hold among the Leviathan's inhabitants.

Chiana is a rebel, running away from the oppressive Nebari government and its imposition of rigid rules that even contemplate brainwashing of its citizens. Since her escape, she's been living a hand-to-mouth existence and her instincts are tightly focused on survival, while her principles are quite flexible.

More than anything else she is a study in contradictions: her slight, juvenile appearance leads people to underestimate her because it hides the crafty experience she's gained through a life on the edge. These contradictions are also plain in the way she moves, with sudden and almost disarticulate gestures that match her speech pattern, that is breathy, fast and full of stops and repetitions, as the outward expression of a mind riddled by conflicting thoughts and emotions that make her interaction with the outside world quite unpredictable.

So it's hardly surprising that the Moyans have some trouble in trusting her, particularly so when she seems unwilling to contribute to everyone's survival: in THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS we see her trying to escape from the dangerous situation they are in, and we can sympathize with her companions' annoyance, but we also understand that this flight reaction is nothing more than the product of her former life, where Chiana certainly survived by being fast on her feet and not trusting anyone but herself.  It will be only thanks to her life on Moya, and the family that's being slowly created there, that she will learn how to depend on others.

It would be too easy to label Chiana as self-centered and egotist or, worse, as an unrepentant tralk, as some commentators did. Easy and wrong, because she is instead a very complex person, one that is revealed little by little and that always manages to surprise – both the viewers and her traveling companions.   With the latter she creates, with time, a fierce bond of love and loyalty that grows as the ties between them all become stronger. We could say that Chiana is the emblem of the complex synergies aboard Moya: as the group initially works together for simple expediency and only later grows into a real family, so the young Nebari's stay with them morphs from a temporary measure, just a stop along the way while waiting for a better opportunity, to a progressive integration with this group of people, until she becomes an essential part of the family she learns to count on for survival, and love.

This does not mean, however, that Chiana completely changes her attitude or behavior: indeed some her most radical sides keep appearing like glitches in an unstable mechanism, as we can observe in her relationship with D'Argo. Once they become lovers the Luxan sees in Chiana the chance to restore the family that circumstances stole from him and dreams of a quiet and peaceful life. A terrifying prospect for the Nebari, since she resents every limitation – be it true or imagined – to her own personal freedom; and that's why she decides to destroy their relationship in the most devastating way, betraying D'Argo with his own son Jothee.   It's curious that Chiana would consider the dramatic shattering of her love story with D'Argo as the lesser evil, if compared to a conventional, probably boring life, but we must keep in mind that her past – and the oppressive atmosphere of the Nebari worlds – plays a key role in this: Chiana is a free spirit, a creature that does not bear well a cage, no matter how sweet or gilded. 

Her refusal to accept the conventional often places her in the position of offering an unexpected point of view and therefore different and revealing considerations, as she does in THE WAY WE WEREN'T. With the exception of Crichton, the Moyans all agree on condemning Aeryn's past actions and it's only Chiana's voice that brings them down from their moral high ground, reminding them that Aeryn's role as a soldier did entail brutality and violence; she does this with clarity and bitter sarcasm that reveal a maturity well beyond her young age.   

Chiana's character, while growing in depth and responsibility, does take on an increasingly tragic streak that is tied to a series of traumatic losses: her carefree youth comes to an end when she's forced to part company with her brother Nerri, the only person she has a strong emotional bond with, and until that moment the very center of her world.  Zhaan's death again marks a turning point, because it finally stresses how Chiana has become an integral part of Moya's family and how the loss of this pivotal and irreplaceable figure will affect her. And last but not least, D'Argo: once he breaks their relationship after the fling with Jothee, Chiana understands the importance that the Luxan had in her life, and after they manage to seal the breach - thus revealing the Nebari's further emotional growth – D'Argo dies heroically, leaving her once again adrift. 

The last scenes where we see her, in PEACEKEEPER WARS, show us the extent of her evolution through her decision to carry on D'Argo's dream to live on Hyneria as a farmer: accepting her dead lover's legacy and making it her goal she proves how the past experiences have changed and matured her, although something of the "old" Chiana peeks through the cracks when she ironically comments on these changes. It's a pity that this particular scene is available to us viewers only as deleted footage, because it would have better defined Chiana's character and its progresses, while at the same time stressing the contradictory spirit that still dwells at her core, making her so elusive, mysterious and fascinating.

Comments

[nebari-rebel.livejournal.com]

I loved this =D

The way you spoke of her effect on the others, her reaction to them and theirs to her, brought this (very old) quote from space.com to mind:

Chiana as catalyst

It may or may not have been planned, but Chiana's personality and skills prove crucial for setting the tone of the last third of the season. At first, she's a new face at the table, an outsider who points out to the others that they are a group, more used to each other than anyone else.

Her ability to sneak or lie her way into situations establishes her value to the family, and her usually unstated wish not to be alone makes her receptive to joining them.

She's the most singular, chaotic and outrageous of Moya's family -- learning to love and accept her means learning to love everybody else. As the one furthest on the outside, she binds the family tighter together the closer she comes to them.

Dramatically, she's the last to arrive because she has to be. And Chiana probably wouldn't have it any other way.

Early Chiana is a pain in the ass, but she isn't used to trusting, isn't used to being given something with nothing but a good and helpful attitude in return. That the others are patient, albeit frustrated, with her as she tests their limits and pushes them away in an attempt to see if they mean what they say, makes me love them all the more. Especially when she reverts this behavior after Nerri's "death", and after her rape.

I love how you point out she is a study in contradictions; it is one of the things I love the most about her, because (for me at least) she is contradictory but never ceases to be Chi. Somehow she can be at once selfish and selfless, violent and gentle, innocent and vulgar.

I also love your take on why she slept with Jothee - phrasing the farm life in terms of a gilded cage is brilliant. She did not - as delusional as it sounds - want to lose D'Argo. She only wanted to loosen the bonds he was placing on her before it was too late. I have heard so many times that she acted out of immaturity, but that gives no thought to her past and what she is fleeing from. If she panics here it is due more to her childhood than to childishness...thank you for mentioning that aspect :)

[nymeria-55.livejournal.com]

Confession: I was holding my breath waiting for you to read this...
Now I can let it go, in relief, since I seem not to have upset our resident Chiana expert! ;-)

Jokes aside, she is such a fascinating character, that studying her was a great experience.



she is contradictory but never ceases to be Chi. Somehow she can be at once selfish and selfless, violent and gentle, innocent and vulgar

Agreed. And she is like this - IMHO - because she doesn't perceive attitudes as "good" and "bad", those are terms that have little or no meaning to her. For someone so... thirsty for experiences, everything must be tasted at least once, and savored in all its flavors.

There is an innocence in her approach to life that puzzles others only because they seem to have lost that ability.
Indeed she is NOT childish, but she has retained that childhood way of looking at the world: without preconceptions or prejudices, just a like a child opening its eyes for the first time, hungry for experience.


Thank you for stopping by!!

[nebari-rebel.livejournal.com]

Confession: I was holding my breath waiting for you to read this...
Now I can let it go, in relief, since I seem not to have upset our resident Chiana expert! ;-)

I feel like an overly protective ogre LOL

Your portrayal of Chi or thoughts on her have never upset me; even if we don't see eye to eye on something, you respect her character, and that's what matters. Everything else just makes for fun discussions, and I enjoy seeing different points of view or aspects that I may not have considered :)

There is an innocence in her approach to life that puzzles others only because they seem to have lost that ability.
Indeed she is NOT childish, but she has retained that childhood way of looking at the world: without preconceptions or prejudices, just a like a child opening its eyes for the first time, hungry for experience.

I love this so much, thank you :)

[nymeria-55.livejournal.com]

I feel like an overly protective ogre

ROTFL! No, you're not! I was not worried that you would come after me with a blunt object, but that I could not pay justice to the character. There is so much more - in any of them - than meets the eye, that exploring them is an adventure both exhilarating and scary.

Thank you so much for touching on the subject of respect: it is indeed my foremost thought because these creatures are - first of all - someone else's intellectual work, and getting them "wrong" would be like painting mustaches on Mona Lisa's face ;-)

As for discussions, there is nothing else I enjoy so much as chatting about Farscape: having different points of view just makes it more fun!