Zhaan was the character that promoted the show. Everyone knew Farscape as the sci-fi with the blue lady.

I don't understand the Zhaan hatred. She was one of my favorite characters from the beginning and I thought Virginia Hey did a fantastic job of being both weirdly alien and humanly approachable. Probably the best on the show, although I also adored Gigi Edgley and Anthony Simcoe.

These are, of course, fighting words.

I'm on the episode Zhaan dies.
S03e04
I really was indifferent to Zhaan up until about the end of season 2 and season 3. As the last few episodes I began to hate her more and more. Her character is such a beep The concept that you guys mention is interesting to some degree, but frankly they don't pull it off with her at all imo.
Her battle with the "dark" side is quite pathetic and feels more like spats of childish tantrums. Not that this isn't common with many characters on the show, but she is the worst of all I think because of what her character is supposed to be. She almost felt like she was ready to take any chance she could to get revenge, or sacrifice someone for the smallest things, but this had nothing to do with her darkness as it was much more petty than that in most cases. She became very judgmental towards the end of her run, and it was completely hypocritical as she had so many bouts of crazy contradiction. She would decide that someone deserved to die, and then later act as if she was the beacon of all that was great and that she was sacrificing so much for everyone.
Then say petty beep to other characters about little mistakes they made as if she were perfect. The episode she died for instance she had a line to John that was rage inducing. At one point there was something wrong with Moya that might cut Pilot off from the rest of the ship. John on his way to try and prevent this he was attacked by the wormhole snake and couldn't get there in time. Zhaan says to him right after this "Your excuses have once again cost him, John" like he was always letting Pilot down, when John is the least selfish of them all for the vast majority of the show when it comes to looking out for the benefit of others on the ship. I still don't see how none of them really felt any guilt for attacking Pilot and cutting off his arm for something as little as a MAP. She had that in her history well before she was broken again and open to the darkness too. That was when she was at her "best" and most pure after raising her Priestess level from reflection while a prisoner. It's not like her crime was one of darkness either. Then she had the nerve to drop a line like that on John who was one of those that didn't' attack Pilot?
Then later the rest of them made an actual effort, and did get Pilot back to connection with Moya, while Zhaanprayed. She acted as if her "prayer" made the difference while everyone else actually did the work. I was so tired of her by this point that when I realized that she was going to die/sacrifice herself I was glad.
She felt incredibly inconsistent as a character. I didn't see any battle with darkness. I saw her as incredibly immature and emotional in all those instances. It wasn't a battle of desire for darkness. It was a battle of being an emotional child, which made the point of her character completely asinine at how often she had such childish emotional outbursts. There was no real inner struggle when these instances arose. It was a situation where she just caved into regular emotions.
Chiana of course is immature too and a pretty deplorable character most times. She isn't a hypocrite on the level that Zhaan was to me, however. D'Argo is a bit more of a dick as well than even she is based on him giving up his crew mates a couple times to escape some trouble himself (like telling that alien looking for something that was fighting Scorpy that Chiana had the info they needed, when she never did, and he knew it just so he could get out of the fight he was in. Then Chiana ended up getting tortured because of it WTF? lol). D'Argo's "rage" is a species trait of course, but he had some silly angst moments.
Take my AIDS, please!

Jool immediately sets herself up as one of the most unlikable characters on any show ever. I hope she has some value if she is staying on, but man she has no redeeming qualities. That screaming as a trait is enough to drive anyone crazy, and it was done so many times in this 2 part episode that you wanted to smassh the television. Beyond that even she had nothing of value to add either. She was an entitled brat and selfish. XD
Stark was OK for a bit, but seemed like his character went over the top really quickly after he was "dispersed". He became much more wild and obnoxious when he returned. A lot of yelling and his relationship with Zhaan was ugh.
Take my AIDS, please!

I'm with you. I like Zhaan. I even liked Stark, although sometimes I laughed at him when I shouldn't.
Chiana is my least favorite character. She's so immature. I'm almost through Season 2 and I'm still on the fence with her. She's likeable, but seems like she could and would go off the rails on a whim at any given moment.
Edited: I have now gotten to Jool. OMG. Can't stand her at all. I thought Stark was annoying at times, but that scream. Ouch. And the whining.
I'm cool, you're cool, we're cool, thank you, good night!-My Science Project

I was very glad when she was eventually killed off.
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Zhaan has probably the most interesting backstory of the group. I really like the theme of her having to balance her faith as a sort of alien Buddhist with her past of killing people in the resistance against Peacekeeper occupiers on her planet, something that probably has some real life parallels to conflicts like China/Tibet. I'd love to find some official Farscape expanded universe stories that explore this past, or even fanfiction.
When I dreamed of Broadway, I never pictured the elk antlers.

I guess it's all a matter of opinion. I like the complexity and intense sensuality of her character. The fact that she is both a healer and a killer fascinates me. OTOH, the character that totally gets on my nerves is Chiana. I find her to be annoying and obnoxious. (Then againI'm only 3/4 of the way through season 1. Maybe she gets better.) I also find D'Argo to be very wooden and one dimensional, like a Klingon.
Love isn't what you say or how you feel, it's what you do. (The Last Kiss)

Actually, her character is one of the best on the show. Crichton, on the other hand, has become pretty annoying, way too larger than life and eager to sacrifice everyone of his friends on the quest to save Aeryn. I just could not bare to watch him in Season 4.

The body make-up was toxic is also what I heard.
This is what it says on Rotten Tomatoes:
She left the show after three years because she wanted to grow her hair and eyebrows again (she was required to shave both for the role), and also for health reasons as the blue makeup took a toll on her well-being and caused her kidneys to bleed and set off a chain of health issues
Esther: My name was in the Bible!
Fred: Yeah, Samson slew the Philistines with your jaw-bone!

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She left the show in season 3. Episode 4 was her last I think. I just watched it.
She said she left because she was tired of shaving her head and eyebrows everyday for 3 years. That is understandable.

I, personally, found Zhaan the most interesting character, and I liked Rygel because he was pretty silly. Yet, it seems like many people on this board hate Rygel. Anyways, Zhaan was quite interesting and I was very upset when she died. Her makeup was phenomenal and I liked her background. I guess some people don't care for spiritual characters that sometimes fight their anger and inner turmoil.

I liked Zhaanat first.
By the end of series two I liked her much less, though.
I don't think Hey was a particularly good actress, but maybe she just struggled through all that makeup.
"they should give nicole kidman an oscar for being able to show any emotion after THAT much botox".

Her character kind of annoyed me as well.

I felt they were leading her down a dark path and then decided abruptly not to. At of all the characters, her development was the most erratic.

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I hated her as well to the point where I would skip scenes with her.
That said, I loved everyone else and it is one of my wife's and my favorite shows.

The blue make-up was supposedly toxic to Virginia and that's why she left.
I know she was just a puppet but she put her hand right up my heart!

Funnily Virgina Hey was probably the most committed actor out of the lot. She constantly shaved her hair and eyebrows for the make-up required, and even faced kidney issues with again the make-up which
unfortunately made her leave in the end but she does return
.
She was definitely much more tolerable than Stark.

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You (might) like her character in the second season. One thing I like about the show is that the characters actually evolve during the show (and become like a family).
If not, you (fortunately) have other characters to enjoy.
Well, I've got news for you pal, you ain't leadin' but two things: Jack and sh*t and Jack left town

I absolutely love the showit's fast becoming one of my favorites. But I just can't stand the way her character is written, which is unfortunate since I love every other character.
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