Astrid Farnsworth
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Astrid Farnsworth |
| Occupation: | FBI Agent |
| Relationships: | |
| Fandom: | Fringe |
| Other: | Played by actor Jasika Nicole |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Astrid Farnsworth is a regular supporting character in the television series Fringe. She is a junior FBI agent, and serves as an aid and babysitter to Walter Bishop. Fans generally look upon Astrid favourably, and agree that she needs more to do in canon.
I want more Astrid so much! They have been getting more of her in, mostly as a foil to Walter, but I want more of her herself. "What Lies Below" gives me the most hope, because it has Astrid POV scenes, even if they are still mostly about Walter; "Snakehead" and "Johari Window" have a lot of Astrid, but they are entirely about Walter, and mostly from Walter's POV. [1]
Midway through season three, one fan noted how little time had been spent developing Astrid.
She gets one, maybe two episodes per season that, while neither about her nor featuring her heavily, manage to make explicit use of the skills she actually trained for. The rest of the time she does miscellaneous lab work which while important is rarely if ever given more than a mention, or she drives Walter around/picks up food for him/babysits him and any other children that end up in the lab. She’s been in the field a total of twice, both times because she happened to be needed to drive Walter there and back. For all other cases she remains in the lab even when Walter goes out in the field. [2]
Actress Jasika Nicole touches upon this issue in an interview, saying that:
Astrid’s lack of backstory has been a sensitive spot for me, and a lot of her fans, for a while now. I am ecstatic to have been a part of the Fringe team from the very beginning, but I have fallen in love with Astrid and I want to see so much more of her. At the same time, it is important for me as an actor to recognize that Fringe is not about Astrid’s character, and that she is on the show to support the bigger story of the three main characters. I have talked with the writers about what I could expect from Astrid in this fourth season, and while they admitted that they will not be exploring her backstory, they did say that there would be an Astrid-centric episode, and more importantly, that her relationships with the other characters was going to be different in this new Peter-less reality. I can only hope that if Astrid doesn’t get much more to do this season, her own spinoff, Farnsworth P. I. will debut on Fox in the next few years to extremely high praise. And John Noble will guest star. [3]
Canon
Astrid went to Haverford where she majored in linguistics and music and minored in computer science. Astrid's completely plausible and realistic comments on topics like linguistics (equating learning Latin with studying linguistics, for example) are an ongoing source of amusement, especially to fans who actually did take classes from that linguistics department, of whom there are a number in fandom.
Relationships
Astrid is paired with Olivia Dunham by femslash fans. Het pairings include Astrid/Walter Bishop and Astrid/Peter Bishop.
Fan Reactions & Meta
Notable Fanfic
- Help Wanted, by Rheanna
Resources
- Astrid Farnsworth tag at the AO3.
- primary universe Astrid Farnsworth character entry at Fringepedia (canon resource)
- parallel universe Astrid Farnsworth character entry at Fringepedia (canon resource)
References
- ^ "Fringe 2x09-2x14: Brief notes". Retrieved August 23, 2010.
- ^ "On the relentless marginalization of Astrid Farnsworth". Archived from the original on 2011-09-21. Retrieved March 12, 2011.
- ^ "Persephone Pioneers: Jasika Nicole". Archived from the original on 2021-02-12. Retrieved August 30, 2011.