And the "danse macabre" continues...
So Now BSG, because I have thought of that one!
The 4 others will come later, probably not until the week end.
There were so many deaths on BSG...even if we leave aside the attack of the colonies that almost destroyed the entire human race in the pilot!
The most heroic death
It could have been Helo's, but Helo didn't die on Caprica which was good, because the show wouldn't have been the same without him, and I adore Helo.
So I'd say either Kat who found the lost civil ship and got it out of the cloud in "The Passage"(never quite understood what was the deal and what they all did in that episode though), or the commander of The Pegasus after Cain, but before Lee, in "A Measure of Salvation"in season 2. I forgot his name. He was a bad commander, knew nothing about people, but he knew machines, and eventually he gave his life to fix the ship and save the day.
The most iconic death
Leoben being murdered by Kara, and coming back over and over, on New Caprica, at the beginning of season 3. It suits the infamous "it has happened before and it will happen again" he was so fond of, and it was so Sisyphus-like for Kara!
And it was Cylon iconic, given that their death was only a temporary thing...until they gave up on resurrection of course.
And Leoben being airlocked in season 1 was pretty iconic too!
But Zarek and Gaeta's deaths were iconic too, in a different way. I liked both characters, and even though they made wrong decisions, and did bad things, I liked that the show didn't paint them in black, as villains, but let us understand where they came from. And I liked that they were very dignified in the end, accepting their fate (although Tom would rather have won and obviously wasn't glad to be there!), facing death with open eyes. And Felix was relieved because suddenly, just before they fired on him, the pain in his amputated leg stopped. It was a powerful moment.
The most poetic death
Sam Anders' in the finale. The character was such a fool, and it took me a long time to "accept him", yet they gave him such a beautiful exit.
Turning him into another hybrid was genius - and I loved how he became the ship and how he gave the Colony's hybrid an orgasm before the Galactica literaly penetrated the Colony!-, and his speech on perfection from the flashbacks and his final leading the fleet into the sun was pure poetry. Farewell Sam.
PS: He even got the old Galactica theme from the 70's (it was very kitsch but it's all my childhood!).
The most tragic death
Ellen Tigh on New Caprica! How much I loved that scene!
To think that Ellen started as a sort of Helen of Troy in season 1 to become a sort of Lady Macbeth in season 2, and ended as just a woman in love (as Barbara Streisand sang it, and btw who remembers that annoyning and corny video clip of hers?) with her husband and ready to do anything to have him back. No matter that Ellen has been rebooted as a Final Five and came back eventually a bit wiser - but still very much the trouble maker, and Laura knew it since her "oh my gods it's Ellen Tigh" when she saw her getting out of Boomer's raptor( the way she said it had nothing to do with "Damnit the missing Fifth isn't dead actually" and everything with "Oh no she's back, mayhem on the way!").
Anyway, on New Caprica, Ellen's death was perfect.It was so Greek and I loved it when BSG embraced its Greekness! She drank her death as Socrates drank the hemlock, sentenced by the very one whom she loved above every thing, and it's even Saul who gave her the cup, and it was killing him. I just adored that couple.
The most cliched and tearjerking death
Kat's in "The Passage". It was a cliche for sure, but it worked and Kat was no longer that annoying nuggets but had grown on me so I cried buckets, and I am not ashamed of admitting to it. Even seeing Kat's picture on the wall of the fallen ones made me all teary afterwards.
The death the audience didn't really care about
Callie's? Tory's? I can't decide. Probably Callie.
The death that looks so real it makes you think of death in RL
Maybe Laura's sisters and father when they died on Caprica in a car accident, but we didn't know those characters so...
There was that woman whom Laura befriended during her treatment, the woman who was next bed, and was listening to Baltar's speech. And one day, the bed was just empty. She was gone.
Or perhaps all the pilots and skinjobs who were just casualities, just names voiced by the main characters, just numbers, like that Eight who wanted Saul to be next to her as she was dying, or that other Eight whose hand Athena could not take, and it's Sam who finally held it while she was passing.
Or Nathalie (one Six who was actually named) who died from her injuries after Athena shot her in "Guess what's coming to Dinner?". Her death was such a case of vita interrupta. She was just killed off while she was on her way, about to do something...
The most expected death
Laura Roslin of course. Not only an expected death but something everybody had been waiting for, had been prepared for. A delayed or postponed death, in a way.
To be honest, I feared that moment and how they would handle it. But as much as it took her 4 seasons and more than 5 years to die, her actual death in Bill's viper was quiet and quick, and EDJ didn't overplay the grief, so it turned out to be rather elegant. And, as usual, Bear McCreary's soundtrack was perfect.
The death that wasn't that much of a surprise but that turned out to happen quickly and in a "clean way":
I'll go with Billie who died because he was at the wrong time and in the wrong place. It was short and brutal. But not much suprising given that he was on the way in regards to Dee/Lee.
And Laura visiting his body at the morgue, that looked so real and so sad. MM played it well. Poor kid. *sniff*
The least expected death
Kara Thrace in "Maelstrom". Couldn't believe they would kill Starbuck before the end of season 3, knowing that a season 4 was on its way! Couldn't believe that the super sexy paint-preliminaries with Leoben would just remain a fantasy either!
As suicidal as she was, and despite her giving the Aurora figure to Adama as they parted ways, I just couldn't believe they would dare to do that. But they did, and then her storyline (and its resolution!) was one that divided the fans a lot.
The most shocking death
Dualla's in "Sometimes a Great Notion".
It wasn't so surprising given the whole Earth business and her reaction to it. And one of those annoying "previously ons" revealed before the episode even began that something was up with Dee. Still, the way it happened, how she went from humming a song that sounded like a lullaby to her putting a bullet in her head. Shocking. But that's what suicides usually are, that is a shock for those around who were watching but couldn't anticipate it, aren't they?
I think that Dee's suicide broke something in Gaeta, which, added to the leg stuff, led him to his dark and self-destructive path. But her death also brought Bill and Saul together, when the admiral tried to commit a suicide by proxy, and his Cylon best friend showed him he could still count on certain things, that the world wasn't completely meaningless.
The 4 others will come later, probably not until the week end.
There were so many deaths on BSG...even if we leave aside the attack of the colonies that almost destroyed the entire human race in the pilot!
The most heroic death
It could have been Helo's, but Helo didn't die on Caprica which was good, because the show wouldn't have been the same without him, and I adore Helo.
So I'd say either Kat who found the lost civil ship and got it out of the cloud in "The Passage"(never quite understood what was the deal and what they all did in that episode though), or the commander of The Pegasus after Cain, but before Lee, in "A Measure of Salvation"in season 2. I forgot his name. He was a bad commander, knew nothing about people, but he knew machines, and eventually he gave his life to fix the ship and save the day.
The most iconic death
Leoben being murdered by Kara, and coming back over and over, on New Caprica, at the beginning of season 3. It suits the infamous "it has happened before and it will happen again" he was so fond of, and it was so Sisyphus-like for Kara!
And it was Cylon iconic, given that their death was only a temporary thing...until they gave up on resurrection of course.
And Leoben being airlocked in season 1 was pretty iconic too!
But Zarek and Gaeta's deaths were iconic too, in a different way. I liked both characters, and even though they made wrong decisions, and did bad things, I liked that the show didn't paint them in black, as villains, but let us understand where they came from. And I liked that they were very dignified in the end, accepting their fate (although Tom would rather have won and obviously wasn't glad to be there!), facing death with open eyes. And Felix was relieved because suddenly, just before they fired on him, the pain in his amputated leg stopped. It was a powerful moment.
The most poetic death
Sam Anders' in the finale. The character was such a fool, and it took me a long time to "accept him", yet they gave him such a beautiful exit.
Turning him into another hybrid was genius - and I loved how he became the ship and how he gave the Colony's hybrid an orgasm before the Galactica literaly penetrated the Colony!-, and his speech on perfection from the flashbacks and his final leading the fleet into the sun was pure poetry. Farewell Sam.
PS: He even got the old Galactica theme from the 70's (it was very kitsch but it's all my childhood!).
The most tragic death
Ellen Tigh on New Caprica! How much I loved that scene!
To think that Ellen started as a sort of Helen of Troy in season 1 to become a sort of Lady Macbeth in season 2, and ended as just a woman in love (as Barbara Streisand sang it, and btw who remembers that annoyning and corny video clip of hers?) with her husband and ready to do anything to have him back. No matter that Ellen has been rebooted as a Final Five and came back eventually a bit wiser - but still very much the trouble maker, and Laura knew it since her "oh my gods it's Ellen Tigh" when she saw her getting out of Boomer's raptor( the way she said it had nothing to do with "Damnit the missing Fifth isn't dead actually" and everything with "Oh no she's back, mayhem on the way!").
Anyway, on New Caprica, Ellen's death was perfect.It was so Greek and I loved it when BSG embraced its Greekness! She drank her death as Socrates drank the hemlock, sentenced by the very one whom she loved above every thing, and it's even Saul who gave her the cup, and it was killing him. I just adored that couple.
The most cliched and tearjerking death
Kat's in "The Passage". It was a cliche for sure, but it worked and Kat was no longer that annoying nuggets but had grown on me so I cried buckets, and I am not ashamed of admitting to it. Even seeing Kat's picture on the wall of the fallen ones made me all teary afterwards.
The death the audience didn't really care about
Callie's? Tory's? I can't decide. Probably Callie.
The death that looks so real it makes you think of death in RL
Maybe Laura's sisters and father when they died on Caprica in a car accident, but we didn't know those characters so...
There was that woman whom Laura befriended during her treatment, the woman who was next bed, and was listening to Baltar's speech. And one day, the bed was just empty. She was gone.
Or perhaps all the pilots and skinjobs who were just casualities, just names voiced by the main characters, just numbers, like that Eight who wanted Saul to be next to her as she was dying, or that other Eight whose hand Athena could not take, and it's Sam who finally held it while she was passing.
Or Nathalie (one Six who was actually named) who died from her injuries after Athena shot her in "Guess what's coming to Dinner?". Her death was such a case of vita interrupta. She was just killed off while she was on her way, about to do something...
The most expected death
Laura Roslin of course. Not only an expected death but something everybody had been waiting for, had been prepared for. A delayed or postponed death, in a way.
To be honest, I feared that moment and how they would handle it. But as much as it took her 4 seasons and more than 5 years to die, her actual death in Bill's viper was quiet and quick, and EDJ didn't overplay the grief, so it turned out to be rather elegant. And, as usual, Bear McCreary's soundtrack was perfect.
The death that wasn't that much of a surprise but that turned out to happen quickly and in a "clean way":
I'll go with Billie who died because he was at the wrong time and in the wrong place. It was short and brutal. But not much suprising given that he was on the way in regards to Dee/Lee.
And Laura visiting his body at the morgue, that looked so real and so sad. MM played it well. Poor kid. *sniff*
The least expected death
Kara Thrace in "Maelstrom". Couldn't believe they would kill Starbuck before the end of season 3, knowing that a season 4 was on its way! Couldn't believe that the super sexy paint-preliminaries with Leoben would just remain a fantasy either!
As suicidal as she was, and despite her giving the Aurora figure to Adama as they parted ways, I just couldn't believe they would dare to do that. But they did, and then her storyline (and its resolution!) was one that divided the fans a lot.
The most shocking death
Dualla's in "Sometimes a Great Notion".
It wasn't so surprising given the whole Earth business and her reaction to it. And one of those annoying "previously ons" revealed before the episode even began that something was up with Dee. Still, the way it happened, how she went from humming a song that sounded like a lullaby to her putting a bullet in her head. Shocking. But that's what suicides usually are, that is a shock for those around who were watching but couldn't anticipate it, aren't they?
I think that Dee's suicide broke something in Gaeta, which, added to the leg stuff, led him to his dark and self-destructive path. But her death also brought Bill and Saul together, when the admiral tried to commit a suicide by proxy, and his Cylon best friend showed him he could still count on certain things, that the world wasn't completely meaningless.