Felix Gaeta
Character Demographics:
Fandom: BSG
Name: Felix Gaeta
Age: 27
Physical Appearance: 5'10" Dark hair and perpetually exhausted eyes. He's typically clean-shaven but for the occasional sideburns and he has a tendency to cut his hair before it gets to the point where it curls; lately he hasn't done much of that. He has both legs intact.
Education: Very well-educated, Felix studied genetics in university, in fact only joining the military to pay off student loans.
Occupation: Rank//Lieutenant Junior grade (Tactical Officer on the Battlestar Galactica)
Significant Other: Most recently, he was with Hoshi. However, his past crushes have included Gaius Baltar. His brief relationship with a duplicitous Eight on New Caprica was among his worst decisions.
Sexual Preference: Bisexual.
Birthday: April 3rd
Character Biography:
History: On the one hand, Felix should have had the perfect life. Brilliant from childhood, Felix went through numerous phases. Architecture when he was eight, which turned into later fascinations of medicine, engineering, and photography, culminating in his great love; Science. A relatively wealthy household ought to have made entrance into that sort of world easy.
He attended university to study genetics, only joining the military in order to pay for his education. Serving on a Battlestar soon became a personal goal. Until they came.
In the light of the Cylon attack, Felix managed to remain unwaveringly selfish, ruled by personal ambition to do the job right. He fears things being “his” fault and will go to great lengths to do them correctly for fear of being put to blame, but that doesn’t make him a bad person (outwardly). He does his job, all professionalism.
Felix is terrible when it comes to convincingly hiding his emotions. His deep appreciation for Gaius Baltar is obvious without saying, as he idolizes the man’s genius. (I thought I was good at science. Then I met you.) The first signs of their partnership appeared when Felix exonerated Baltar of initial suspicions of betraying the human race, finding that the information was doctored. He later worked with Baltar on the Cylon detector, thanks to his experience in science and genetics. He remained at Baltar’s side all throughout the debacle on New Caprica, in title only the Chief of Staff, but in practice the true actuator behind Baltar’s drunken puppet administration.
On New Caprica, Felix wore many masks. What he’d like you to believe: Just a man fearing for his life, doing what he could in the administration to minimize damage. What he actually was: Feeding anonymous information to the resistance factions around New Caprica. On a sadder note, Gaeta’s naiveté may have cost the lives of more people than he intended. His relationship with a Number Eight model Cylon, whom he believed was rescuing people out of the prisons, later turned out to be a ruse for her to get names of civilians possibly helping the resistance.
After New Caprica, Felix was never the same. Alienated by his shipmates for supposedly siding with Gaius Baltar and the Cylons, Felix became a bitter version of himself. He knew what he’d done, and that it hadn’t made a difference. When he was tried in a secret court, nearly executed for that apparent treason, Felix didn’t seem to care.
He lost his leg when Kara Thrace took the Demetrius on a trip to find Earth. The crew attempted to imprison her, thinking she'd gone unstable and had become untrustworthy. Anders, in an attempt to prevent this, shot Gaeta in the leg to prevent him from jumping the ship, despite the fact that Gaeta was only trying to follow orders. The wound was too badly infected to be saved when they finally got to Galactica, and Doctor Cottle was forced to amputate.
Drug addictions were not in his M.O. but after the loss of his leg, Gaeta became a shadow of himself. He went back to work, far too early, only to be dismissed by Col. Tigh. On an ensuing Raptor mission gone awry, Gaeta discovers that the Eight ("Sweet" Eight) he'd thought had been helping him rescue people from the prisons on New Caprica had actually been using the lists to kill members of the Resistance. As the oxygen supply in the Raptor dwindled, she began killing off members of the Raptor's crew while Gaeta was asleep, only to say that it wasn't her fault when he awoke. When he discovers this, he snaps, killing her. Hoshi and Racetrack find the ship before Gaeta has a chance to kill himself.
Gaeta appears in Aternaville two nights later.
Personality in seven words or less: Idealistic, trusting, empathetic, encouraging, friendly, loyal, dedicated
How Others Perceive Your Character: Baltar has called Gaeta an idealist, saying that “there’s nothing wrong with [that]” though Gaeta suspects he was being coddled. Despite Baltar’s utter dismissiveness of him, Gaeta still idolizes the man as a brilliant scientist. Up until what happened on New Caprica, Gaeta was rather well-liked by most everyone on the crew, though usually not noticed enough to be any serious concern.
Afterwards, everything changed. Gaeta was seen as a traitor for working in Baltar’s administration despite the fact that he was only trying to help get it out of Cylon. But even at the release of that information, Gaeta was never looked at the same way. Learning the truth about the Eight finally shatters him.
Beliefs, Convictions, Morals: He believes, with all his soul, in doing the Right Thing. However, his tendency to overanalyze often brings him to solutions in a very black and white sense. He often does not understand the consequences of his actions, and that not everyone has your best interests at heart.
Reason(s) for Escaping to Canada: Woke up there. Post-Face of the Enemy webseries, pre-season 4 mutiny
Their DHAs [Dreams, Hopes, and Aspirations] for Canada: Find absolution for the things he’s done and the things he hasn’t.
Twenty-Questions for the Characters:
1. What turns them on: A good sense of humor.
2. What turns them off: Laziness.
3. Would they see a shrink: I don’t buy into that crap.
4. Worst Childhood experience: Think I saw a dog get hit by a car when I was five. Gruesome
5. Favorite Film: (he laughs) Oh, anything directed by Saurus. He’s a genius. [Equate to Francis Ford Coppola]
6. Favorite Song: Tough one. I’m a big fan of piano music.
7. Favorite Word: Assimilate has a nice ring to it.
8. Least Favorite Word: Never much liked “disassemble”
9. Favorite Curse Word: Frak. (He laughs)
10. Best gift ever received: Oh. Tough one…my ma always sends me socks for my birthday when I’m away. It’s annoying but…I don’t think I could be happy without it.
11. Sound or Noise they hate: Squeaking glass.
12. Sound or Noise they love: … (he smiles dreamily) The ocean.
13. Do they know the answer to 64 million dollar question: Probably.
14. [Complete the sentence] ... All the world's a stage... and…someone’s picking up the film rights to the show?
15. Did Yoko Ono really break up the Fab Four: I’m sorry?
16. Chuck Norris or Bruce Lee: Knew a kid named Bruce Lee in high school.
17. Half full or half empty: (raises eyebrows) …Really.
18. Coke or Pepsi: That means nothing to me.
19. If they were a Jellybean flavor, which one: Oooh, grape is fantastic.
20. And, finally, if Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? You know what would be even funnier? If Heaven didn’t exist. … sorry, that was bitter of me.