Grayza is a manipulator.
Embedded video below – click to view.
Last of the character study series.
Text Transcript:
There are two things we can say about Commandant Grayza.
No, not those two things. Get your mind out of the gutter.
One, is that Grayza is a manipulator hungry for power and two, is that Grayza wants peace with the Scarrans. How do these two things fit together?
Grayza is a villain. Crais was Farscape’s first villain, followed by Scorpius. It’s not coincidence that she bursts on the scene just before Scorpius loses his command and Crais loses his life. She then swaps roles with Scorpius as he had two seasons earlier with Crais, Commandant Cleavage now taking on the Get Crichton at All Costs mission.
As I’ve set forth in previous videos, Farscape is brilliant at giving their characters, including their villains, depth and back story that explain their feelings and motivations. It doesn’t do that for Grayza for whatever reason. It’s Sikozu who gives us the only insight into the Commandant.
So that’s how Grayza manipulates people. We see her use her artificial skill to use Crichton and then to use Braca. Why she does it is never explained, though we can guess it is simply her lust for power. We don’t know who she previously manipulated to reach her rank of commandant, but we know she has a reputation for it.
Even the Scarrans know her reputation.
Unlike Crais and Scorpius, Grayza is never brought beyond a stereotype. She’d fit right in with the archaic femme fatale sci-fi clichés of the 1960s. You could argue that because she is the one in power, is Grayza playing a part usually reserved for men, but that just makes her a Lady Macbeth to my mind.
So why peace with the Scarrans? We never hear her inner dialogue. To rise in rank within the Peacekeepers?
Perhaps that’s all there is to it, if her statement to Aeryn is to be believed.
We know why Scorpius wants to stop the Scarrans. a position to which Crais comes around. Despite their flaws, those two had a moral motivation for their opposition to the Scarrans. If Grayza has any moral compass, it remains well hidden. Her lack of morality is confirmed when she murders Grand Chancellor Maryk, the father of her fetus.
As for the Scarrans, she has absolutely zero plan on how to defeat them. Even Wile E. Coyote had a plan. Without a plan and with only ambition, Grayza is nowhere.
Crichton forces peace and neither she nor the Scarrans win. It is, at best, an uneasy truce. Gayza seem more unhappy that Scorpius was proven correct than any happiness at peace.
Perhaps the unjust cancellation of the show prevented the Farscape writers from expanding on Grayza. But we see no indication of it in either Peacekeeper Wars or the comics. I won’t give away specifics in the comics, because you should buy and read them, but Grayza plays a significant role in them, but without any back story or character exposition. Nevertheless do not be surprised if Grayza and her child reappear in the revival.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel.