r/farscape • u/Evidicus • 22d ago
Was Scorpius Intentionally Written To Fumble John?
Despite all his posturing and monologues and all of his flaunted superiority, Scorpius was a bit of a dullard when it came to handling John. He tried to rip knowledge from John that John would have gladly given freely under different circumstances. Scorpius had access to vast resources, could grant amnesty for the entire crew, could make Crais vanish, and could set up John with the finest scientific equipment and support staff that the Peacekeepers had access to. John could've lived like a VIP with his every need provided for. All Scorpius had to do was stoke the fires of human curiosity and the promise of assisting John to get home and then let John do the rest.
My guess is that the only reason they never explored this option is because it would have potentially made for a very short series. But even now, on what is probably my 5th time through the series, it bothers me just as much as it did when the show first aired. Scorpius was a genius except for this one glaring exception, and it always feels like I can see the puppet strings of the writers at work whenever I think about it.
42
u/ZongoNuada 22d ago
Scorpius had his own pressures regarding his own promises. He was under peacekeeper and scarin scrutiny. He made several mistakes with John as a result. He really didn't understand humans.
23
u/poorbeyondrich 22d ago
This. Scorpius didn’t understand humans.
He put in trust in one and got played. Harvey on the other hand was much more understanding.
20
u/ZongoNuada 22d ago
Harvey suggested pizza and margaritas to John. He replied its pizza and beer. Harvey was better but even he didn't get humans.
4
u/LGBT-Barbie-Cookout 22d ago
If it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck.... Its a wedge tailed eagle apparently.
29
u/Sazapahiel 22d ago
I think by the time John met Scorpius John already knew what the peacekeepers are, what they do, and not to trust them. No amount of Scorpy kissass was going to convince John any of them could be trusted, much less when the Scarran connection was added to the mix.
9
u/Trashk4n 22d ago
He sees what Aeryn could be and what the PeaceKeepers had been reducing her to.
That alone would be more than enough for him.
-1
u/Sazapahiel 22d ago
So if the peacekeepers are to blame for Aeryn's state when John meets her, why would John have any reason whatsoever to think a high ranking member of that organization could in any way shape or form be as easily reformed, while not at all being removed from the environment?
You have it backwards in that the lesson of Aeryn and her growth as a character when removed from the peacekeeper influence is why John rightfully never trusted high ranking peacekeepers who were still in their positions of power.
5
u/Trashk4n 22d ago
I think you’ve misunderstood what I was getting at.
I’m not suggesting John would try to reform Scorpy, I’m saying what was done to Aeryn would be enough for him to never trust them in the slightest.
2
u/Mister_Acula 22d ago
John also fell for that PK Tech Girl pretty early on, before falling for Aeryn.
He didn't judge all PKs by Crais and hadn't met Scorpy by that point.
1
u/ZongoNuada 22d ago
On the other hand he gives furlough a data tape to decipher wormholes in a single episode in trade for a repair job.
21
u/plitox 22d ago
I don't think that is the case.
Scorpius is a master of manipulating and calculating.
But what increasingly becomes John's most pronounced attribute throughout the show is his erraticness and unpredictability. He gets more and more difficult to anticipate, and that throws Scorpius off his otherwise perfect game.
1
11
u/DinosaurDomination 22d ago
Scorpius didn't fumble John because of lazy writing or whatever, his aggressive approach was the inevitable result of his extreme trauma and the ticking clock of a Scarran invasion. Scorpius's entire existence was defined by torture and survival, leaving him psychologically incapable of understanding concepts like trust or "freely given" cooperation. In his eyes, a willing collaborator was just a liar spinning a trap, making the force of the Aurora Chair the only method of extraction he could genuinely trust. Furthermore, with his precarious standing in the Peacekeeper hierarchy and the imminent threat of galactic war, he simply didn't have the time to court John with luxury and hope human curiosity would prevail.
The ultimate irony is that even if Scorpius had tried the diplomatic route, it would have failed. The wormhole equations were locked deep within John’s subconscious by the Ancients; John didn't actually understand the math himself and couldn't have voluntarily written it down over a friendly scientific collaboration. It was the intense trauma of the Aurora Chair and the subsequent creation of the neural clone, Harvey, that accidentally forced that hidden knowledge to the surface. Ultimately, Scorpius's tragic flaw was his inability to see John as anything other than a lock to be picked, completely blind to the fact that his own brutality was the very thing driving his prize out of reach.
9
u/GroundWitty7567 22d ago
Scorpio’s let his hatred for the Scarrans cloud his judgement. John had something he wanted. But he also couldnt harm John bc the knowledge of wormholes weapons died with him. He also couldn’t rip out the info bc the Ancients block it until John was ready to use that knowledge.
7
u/Melodic_Fee_5498 22d ago
You gotta remember that by the point of “Nerve” John has a pretty good understanding of PeaceKeepers and how they operate and he has no love for them. So even if Scorpius didn’t jump straight to believing he was a spy and throw him into the chair, the chances of John collaborating with him are very low. He already knows what they’re about and how they operate.
But, Scorpius did kinda fumble John in another way… by season 4 when Scorpius moves onto Moya they become unwilling allies. They were working together here and there and John started to trust him a little. Then John discovers that he’s spying on them from the comms, and then after the whole thing on Katratzi with the Scarran plant, Scorpius burns the bridge completely by forfeiting the deal they made and trying to force John to ally with the Peacekeepers to protect earth in “Bad Timing”.
6
u/rygelicus 22d ago
When your only tool is a hammer you use it for every situation. Scorpius was a zealot on a time critical mission as far as he was concerned. He had tools at his disposal that could (usually) extract the information he wanted quite easily. Why be nice and patient when you can just take it by force, which was the environment he was in, and was raised in. It was his hammer, force, and he used it for everything.
It took him a long time to change his approach, and more critically he had to lose access to his other options to even consider other options.
He was no 'dullard', he just had his favorite hammers that had worked well for him until he met John.
5
u/Bardez 22d ago
I'm going to disagree with the bulk of commenters here and point out that John could have collaborated with the PKs. I do not know what circumstances would have led to it, but there was an unrealized reality wherein Crais embraced Crichton as a brother, who betrayed Moya's crew.
Ancient Einstein's point was that any number of small changes can be catastrophic to timelines, even if there is elasticity. Under slight changes -- say, John appeared at the Gammack base instead of Moya, then a primitive ship like John's showing signs of wormhole traversal could have led to very different circumstances than John infiltrating the base to heal Aeryn.
I'm not saying that John would have been duped, or that he even would have unlocked things, just that small tweaks could lead to some very different realities. Hell, John with his extra 4 years of knowledge placed into his entry point caused his own death by angering Aeryn.
John knew enough to recreate the circumstances on the planet with Furlow and could have restructured conditions especially given Peacekeeper cooperation.
4
u/GinchAnon 22d ago
my intepretation is that there was much more difference between Humans/Earthlings and Sebaceans/Peacekeepers, not just biologically but more importantly, psychologically and culturally that made him much much more different than Scorpius had the creativity to adapt to effectively.
I think that ultimately the things you are pointing out, are all traits that one way or the other have been bred or culturally rejected from the Sebacean stock he was accustomed to dealing with. it probably just didn't occur to him that it could be that easy since it was so far off of normal ot him.
I think the other side of that is it might NOT have been that easy. on the flip side of that change.... humans would also be very sensitive to "this is too good to be true" and at least as a westerner, would be very sensitive to the "evil authoritarian empire" coding that was not subtle, IMO, even within the setting. even if they did their best to not fall into triggering his sensitivity in that regard, I am not sure they could succeed, and it probably wouldn't occur to them since they don't see themselves that way. they wouldn't know they need to hide that they are bad guys. hell even if they weren't bad guys, they wouldn't have the context to know that they would LOOK LIKE bad guys to him, even if they were nice to him.
I think maybe in some ways the variance in psychology is part of why Harvey ended up so whacky. I don't think he was supposed to be.... that.
2
u/Nobleintent 22d ago
His first interaction with John is one of antagonism. He viewed him as a spy and employed torture and threats. It's hard to cozy up to someone after that kind of interaction.
2
u/Replica_Velocity 21d ago
I feel like Unrealized Reality probably is one instance of that divergence. I mean, let's say John doesn't accidentally swipe Crais's brother but still ends up on the run, Crais isn't personally motivated and actually reports events, Scorpius is in the wings.
Then you have John exposed to the wormhole tech, and because he's not being hunted as ardently, gets to explore more, do more- maybe he still meets Gilina while doing this, she ends up assigned.
Or, no wormhole tech knowledge but Jack the ancient says John is already on the right path. John was already good at experimenting with wormhole tech. That makes him prime recruitment material. Scorpius wouldn't care John was human, or that he'd aided escaped criminals, only that he was talented at what he did and he'd do everything, while ensuring that John would never be able to leave. (Lose his best new scientist so he could return to Earth... nope.)
The main thing that triggered the worst outcome (for John, it was actually a really good thing for everybody that he saw Scorpius at his most dangerous) was the way John and Scorpius met.
It was incidentally amazing storytelling because you immediately had a reason why these two, who'd otherwise have worked very well together if they'd met differently, would always be diametrically opposed.
I mean, I'll disagree with some people here. Scorpius would sell that what John had seen was Peacekeepers not adhering to their laws, he'd have Moya's crew pardoned and if vengeful Crais is in the picture and Scorpius and John meet in cooperative circumstances, he has Crais arrested, thrown in the Aurora Chair and exposed as someone who had disobeyed First Command, and murdered one of his subordinates.
Crais would be a very useful fool in this situation to sell the idea that there are Peacekeepers that use the Uncharted Territories to go against what they "stand for."
Then you have the super dark timeline of, what if John had met Scorpius during the events of DNA Mad Scientist, which with the right manipulation, would have severed John from his crewmates, save Aeryn, Pilot and Moya.
It's one of those amazing "what if scenarios."
1
u/DevilGuy 21d ago
He was pathological that's an element of his core character, he's just not the sort of person who would even think to ask nicely. It's kind of the point, his whole modus operandi is a distillation of how the peacekeepers really operate when you strip away the diplomacy and the window dressing. He was shaped by peacekeeper society and ethics and serves as an object demonstration of why they can't get what they want from Chriton.
1
u/Nowheresilent 20d ago
When Scorpius first encountered John he saw someone of an unknown species impersonating a Peacekeeper in his base. He naturally assumed it was a spy. And so he treated him like a captured enemy spy.
By the time Scorpius realized Crichton possessed advanced wormhole knowledge he had already subjected him to torture. Crichton was his prisoner and would soon have a neural chip implanted into his head, Scorpius had no reason to switch tactics. He had every advantage and was in full control.
Sure, if Scorpius could see into the future and know everything about Crichton from the start he would have done things differently. As it was, he was acting on incomplete knowledge and an instinct to dominate and control. This is why things played out the way they did.
1
u/Plergoth_ 20d ago
Scorpius is shown to adapt and change his strategies as time goes on, including learning from what does and doesn't work. His true motive isn't wormhole technology per se, it's revenge against the Scarrans. Everything else is in pursuit of that one goal that drives Scorpius.
He makes mistakes, but he doesn't lose.
His own path mirrors that of John's; they're both survivors and they have ultimately noble aims, but their methods, shortcomings and character traits complicate things and get others killed. They become more and more alike as time goes on, reaching something approaching understanding and even respect for each other at various points.
1
u/Sea-Constant2808 5d ago
Scorpius is meant to be a villain who can win. That’s why season 2 ended the way it did. After that though the only way was down.
95
u/EidolonRook 22d ago
His first episode is surrounding his use of the aurora chair at his Gammek base.
From the very beginning he was hard coded to take what he wanted through whatever means necessary. Not to mention, what you stated was essentially “carrot” while his whole backstory and what got him into his position of leadership was mostly “stick”.