BSG: A Measure of Salvation.

[beccatoria]

Hi guys. In about three hours (less than now...) I have to start my very long journey to the US for ten days. So I will be internet AWOL for the next ten days and still haven't caught up on half the email I should have or read half the awesome LJ posts. Hopefully I'll start getting caught up when I get back. Until then, BSG!

Comments

[projectcyborg]

I love your analysis of the genocide issue. yes yes yes. they didn't seem very interested in giving the idea a chance, in forcing us to give the idea a chance. it would have been much better if they'd actually done it and seen how the cylons reacted/retaliated, or at least took the presidential order seriously and investigated how it got sabotaged. but no, they have to move on to their next plot arc. *eyeroll*

but I find it very interesting that we have such different takes on Three. I've been completely fascinated by her since the beginning (and not just because she's Xena! -- though that doesn't hurt). I see your point, and I can understand the controversy over her character, and why she might come across as less than complex. but I'm so drawn to her apparent authority among the cylon (I make a parallel between her and Roslin, which you probably hate). her willingness to manipulate humans and do evil, but without any of the trappings that Leoben (religion) or Cavil (skepticism) or Six (sex/love) hang on it. I do like this baseship arc, though better continuity re: Three's relationship with Hera and Caprica's relationship with Gaius and Boomer's relationship with Hera AND Caprica would certainly make it better. and I hope they don't character assassinate Three by having her go all gaga over Gaius' declaration of love. I'm happy with the Three/Caprica relationship though, which is interestingly troubled, going back to Downloaded. anyway, this may all just be me trying to rationalize the HOT.

[beccatoria]

it would have been much better if they'd actually done it and seen how the cylons reacted/retaliated

Yes, very much so. If the cylons were literally fighting for their species survival as well, it would shed a new and interesting light on their actions and the way we judge them, as regardless of "who started it" they'd be more understandably desperate, as a species on the verge of extinction. Lots of chances for good confusion of boundries.

I see your point, and I can understand the controversy over her character, and why she might come across as less than complex.

See, actually I do think she's complex. That's why I'm interested in her. I find her deeply complicated (this not conflicting with having a fairly straight forward controlling personality; in fact, that makes it all the more interesting when that personality is thrown into crisis), I'm just not sure how to read her. It's the basic problem I have with the basestar subplot (which again, I love) - it's skimming. I have these glimpses of amazing depth, but they sketch over stuff like Hera, and why Gaius is now sleeping with both Caprica and Three - how did that occur?

I just don't have a handle on Three yet, and I find that frustrating. Like, they're afraid to show too much (or too strapped for time) and so things like Caprica are getting short shrift and so is Three, really. It's just that it's superficially easier to show her and not go into that background - just have her be, "the nuts cylon," or "the crazy cylon," or "the vindictive cylon." I don't know, maybe I'm not making any sense. I just feel they keep giving her these tantalising hints of deep, deep development and conflict (the scene with the Oracle, the scene where Gaius says he loves her, the scene where she gets herself shot in the head) but I can't tell where it's going. It's just beyond my reach and that's frustrating.

Actually, while on vacation, I discovered a song I feel TOTALLY captures the character. But that might just be me. It's "The Future," by Leonard Cohen (I'll probably upload it to YouSendIt in my next BSG post) and it's not fair because now I want to vid it, and it's a) FAR too long so I'd need to work out how to cut it and b) I don't have time to vid anything right now, and I have a Lee/Laura vid in the works... GRR!

[projectcyborg]

I listened to your Three song! I'm not very music enabled, but it was both lyrical and brutal and I can see how it would be inspiring. yay! in thinking about this, I realized how much Three I'm writing in the foreseeable future. two out of the three stories I have left in the epic are Three POV (Final Cut / Downloaded), and so are two more of the seven drabbles I'm doing. Three immersion!

BSG has been doing a LOT of "skimming" since late S.2 -- it's exasperating. the web of narratives has been growing and growing, and I feel like they've surpassed the point where they can actually do justice to that complexity within the limitations of the form. it is frustrating, because they got themselves into it -- S.3 is narratively irresponsible: they keep going for these big bombastic beats, without leaving time to actually work through their implications for the various characters.