Meta: Was Hoshi a Good Idea?
I got bored during naptime, and I hate waiting for an episode. So I metaed on the inclusion of Hoshi as Gaeta's lover. Spoilers up to Islanded in a Stream of Stars.
For three and a half seasons, Felix Gaeta had absolutely no mention of a love life. No past flames, no one night hook ups even mentioned in passing, and not even a casual compliment that could be taken as sexual interest, either in anyone or in himself. In fact, the best Gaeta gets is an adlibbed line about porn, and some subtextual attraction to Gaius Baltar, put there by the actor himself.
Then Face of the Enemy hit, and all of a sudden we have Hoshi.
I'm not going to touch the is-Felix-gay-or-bi issue, because it doesn't matter so much. The principle point of this meta is not "Was it a good idea to make Felix Gaeta gay?", but "Was it a good idea to give Felix Gaeta a love interest at all?" Particularly in the tacked on way that he got it.
In a lot of ways, I very pleased to see Gaeta and Hoshi together. I love Gaeta, so I like even the smallest indication that he had some happiness. And yes, I've been convinced ever since I did my rewatch that Gaeta is gay and has had a thing for Baltar for a long time. And there are numerous reasons confirmation of his orientation makes me happy, from a gay character who is defined by things other than his sexuality to the simple fact I was right. And with the little we've seen of Hoshi so far, I quite like the character.
However, there are a lot of ways it just didn't work for me. Not just Hoshi, but any love interest. How? Let's have fun and make a list.
1.) The isolation is destroyed.
See, this is a big thing here. After we see Gaeta nearly executed by the Circle and shunned by the entire crew, we're left with a very angry man whose life begins to fall away piece by piece. He's drinking alone in The Woman King, although he's social when spoken to. In He That Believeth in Me, the hostilities that have always been present between him and Starbuck flare into something that can no longer be hidden or ignored, especially when he becomes her navigator. On the Demetrius mission, when he's shot in the leg, Helo basically tells him that his wife's life is worth more than his. When he loses his leg, the show takes great pains to show him very much alone in the infirmary. Then Dee- the best friend he's got left- commits suicide. To add complete insult to injury, Lee Adama coldly brushes by him without a word when he's standing outside the morgue door, waiting to grieve.
Gaeta is not completely alone. We do see Hoshi hug him in Revelations, which makes sense. Given their professional relationship, absolutely no set up for a friendship is required. Gaeta seems to trust Narcho above his other mutineers. And Tom Zarek does actually treat him with a compassion and physicality that implies some sort of familiarity, which makes sense given that they must have known each other on New Caprica. But these relationships are never given any real weight. Which is fine. On a ship the size of Galactica, Gaeta wouldn't be completely isolated, but there's a difference between coworkers and casual friends versus intimates.
While it's questionable if Gaeta loved Hoshi, I think it's safe to say that they were close enough that Hoshi loved Gaeta, or was very aware that he was well on his way there. (Personally, I favor the interpretation that they were headed towards loving each other and cared deeply about each other, but weren't to the point of love yet.) But regardless, the signs of intimacy are there in the webisodes. The kiss they exchanged was comfortable and familiar. They know each other's minds and stances well enough that they don't have to finish their sentences. Hoshi knows how much pain Gaeta is in. Gaeta seems to know that Hoshi is having some reservations about him taking the morpha. Hoshi cuts off his protest and calms any fears he's having about leaving Galactica. They are certainly a monogamous and assumedly faithful couple: Hoshi assures Gaeta he'll be waiting, and Gaeta makes it a point to tell the Eight he has someone before he kisses her to aid with the projection. (Don't get me started on that part of it.) Racetrack tells us that it took them long enough to get together, which implies that they were 1.) a couple that seemed happy, and 2.) a couple that everyone could see their mutual attraction. My point is that this was not a casual hook up to either of them.
So, where was Hoshi during all this? Where was he when Gaeta lost his leg? Where was he during Baltar's trial? The truth is those questions can easily be fanwanked away, by virtue of the fact that when Gaeta is not around, Hoshi does his job. That's not so much the issue here. What is the issue is part of the driving force behind the darkness welling up in Gaeta is his isolation, and the fact that no one gives a shit as his life falls away. Putting a boyfriend into the mix via a webisode retcon changes that.
2.) Speaking of retcons….
Because the love interest was added in later, there's no reference whatsoever to it in the show. Sure, you can read meanings into glances, but if the actors had known, they could have done so much more.
Originally, Gaeta's lover was supposed to be Narcho. But with either Narcho or Hoshi, you're left with scenes that are frustrating. With Hoshi, it would be great if we had some fall out when Gaeta orders him taken to the brig. I mean, I get why Gaeta did that, from a deductive point of view. Hoshi was safe in the brig, not only from the violence, but also from having to make a decision. No matter who won in the end, Adama or Gaeta, Hoshi didn't side with either. He couldn't be accused of treason by either, and while it didn't place him above suspicion, it certainly strengthened his case. But it would have been nice to see some indication of that. With Narcho, Gaeta essentially would have asked his lover to execute Adama (and Roslin, but that one didn't seem to bother Narcho half as much). A request like that really requires fall out, don't you think?
It's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't find these scenarios unbelievable. But it can be distracting. An excellent example: that final scene with Baltar. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was thinking- just a little bit- "Baltar? Why didn't he ask to see Hoshi?"
That final scene was right. It should have been Baltar that Gaeta spent those moments with, and it was incredibly, amazingly powerful. That's why I'm questioning if the love interest aspect should have been added in at all. Because Gaeta had a lover that clearly meant something to him and searched all of space for him, there is that nagging thought of "What about Hoshi?" (Although it would have been even worse with Narcho, because at least with Hoshi Gaeta already said is goodbye in the webisode.) Sure, again, you can imagine that maybe Gaeta asked Baltar to pass along a message, or that he did have a few minutes with Hoshi as well, or that he asked to see Hoshi and Hoshi refused, or whatever. But that thought still lingers, and it's a little annoying from a story-telling perspective.
3.) No closure.
It's been bugging me that we've not heard Gaeta's name or seen his picture from a single character since he died. But I wonder if it would bother me so much if Hoshi had not been elevated to lover status?
There are very few people left who cared about Felix Gaeta in any sort of capacity. Baltar did, and we got his resolution. Tigh and Adama… the wounds are too raw, although I'd love to see one of them even acknowledge it. (Although I can't believe Adama wasn't thinking about Gaeta when he took those Admiral pins off and held them in his shaking hand.) Helo deserves to feel angry and bitter and betrayed- I do not begrudge Helo that at all. Starbuck and Felix never got along anyway. The other characters that Felix might have exchanged non Dradis-contact dialogue with are mostly dead.
But then you throw in Hoshi. Before, when Hoshi was just a friend, it made sense, because he was also such a minor character that you never would expect to see a reaction. But now that he's a lover… well, frankly, you do. Especially given the fact it would be interesting. On the one hand, Hoshi clearly loved Gaeta. On the other, Gaeta committed mutiny- something Hoshi may very well be angry about, given the fact he's also a military man. But regardless, he's a big part in Gaeta's life.
When Cally died, her death echoed for three episodes. When Dee died, she at least got the half-episode for people to mourn her. The deaths are coming faster, so I don't expect them to be as resonant, but some mention in the aftermath would be nice. However, despite my love for him, I'm not feeling so bitter over Tom Zarek not getting any mourners. Why?
The answer is simple. There's no one left alive that I care about that truly cared about Tom. There's no one left to really grieve him. He and Lee… that's another meta right there about how that relationship doesn't work for me, but suffice to say I don't think Lee truly cared about him. And Laura's just been looking for reasons to flush him out the airlock through most of the series. In fact, given the way they treated each other, you might almost make an argument that Tom could have died with the person who cared about him the most. Okay, okay, that's my personal bias talking, but the point is that we don't know any personal friends of Tom Zarek. I'm sure there were people grieving him, but we've never met those characters, so we don't feel the lack.
But we've met Hoshi. We've seen Hoshi and Gaeta together. And as a result, this lack of any sort of response from Hoshi sticks out. It wouldn't so much if they'd left them as friends, although if they'd kept Hoshi's role in the webisodes, it still would some. But again, it's distracting. A simple shot of Hoshi tacking up Gaeta's picture, or a shot of him reacting as he took the Dradis station would go a long way towards acknowledging this.
Now, I'm writing this right now because I'm bored in the hours before Daybreak I. Maybe we will see Hoshi tack up Gaeta's picture, or we will see something that can be passed off for memory and reaction and I can shut up about this. I hope so. But that's part of what's bothering me about this, is the lack of closure for another character.
So, if I ran the world, what would I do? Good question. There are really two very different answers:
1.) I would have included a love life for Gaeta earlier.
Because Gaeta is a minor character (as is Hoshi), this could have been written in minimum time. They work together. They both seem like nice guys. They obviously have professional interests, and really, we know very little about either of their private lives. No set up would have been required for them to be together. A shot of them waking up together or drinking together in Joe's Bar would not have been out of place, because there's no history to deal with for either of them.
Now, I don't necessarily blame Ron and his cohorts of writers for not doing this. There are people in this life that can survive for years without a romantic relationship, and there's no reason why they shouldn't have characters that are like that. Gaeta made sense as a character who didn't have a significant other. Too involved with work, too in love with Baltar, too broken afterwards… then the isolation being played up… yeah. It worked with him. So, I'm not going to begrudge them a lack of foresight. If they could change things, I'd tell them to go back and add Gaeta in as a more prominent character in Bastille Day, and start developing his relationship with Zarek earlier. (Why? Because with Gaeta-Zarek, they accomplished what they wanted to do with Zarek-Lee, but didn't have the inclination to turn Lee that dark and let him make some of the decisions that Gaeta made. I still stand by my same-man-at-different-ends-of-his-life theory for Gaeta and Zarek, and Gaeta basically serving as a way to show how Zarek had become what he did. Aheam.)
2.) Don't include sex- at all- in the webisodes.
A male lover got added in to the webisodes for two reasons: it was boring just to focus on the Raptor, and Jane Espenson felt that a lot of fans had identified Gaeta as gay, and having him sleep with an Eight was a slap in the face to them. I actually agree with Espenson, by the way, because him sleeping with the Eight added very little to the plot. You could have had him reach the exact same conclusions without the sex. If it had added, then fine. But just tacking on the sex for no reason? Yeah, that's broaching slap territory.
But that's really my point, in a way. Would Gaeta have been just as betrayed by the Eight if they'd never slept together? Absolutely. She had at least one of the lists before they slept together. Okay, the sex probably cemented the bond, but I'd point out that he still went and did a lot of other Resistance work without her, so it didn't cement it that hard. Could Hoshi have gone searching for Gaeta without being in love with him? Absolutely. One of my friends goes missing like that, I'd go searching for them. Sexual relationships didn't have to be included.
In the not-quite-the-end-because-Daybreak-still-hasn't-aired, I'm still of two minds about the inclusion of a love interest for Gaeta. It's certainly given me plenty to fic about, but from an attempted objective point of view, I can't help but wonder if it weakened the story a little more than strengthening it.
Thoughts?
For three and a half seasons, Felix Gaeta had absolutely no mention of a love life. No past flames, no one night hook ups even mentioned in passing, and not even a casual compliment that could be taken as sexual interest, either in anyone or in himself. In fact, the best Gaeta gets is an adlibbed line about porn, and some subtextual attraction to Gaius Baltar, put there by the actor himself.
Then Face of the Enemy hit, and all of a sudden we have Hoshi.
I'm not going to touch the is-Felix-gay-or-bi issue, because it doesn't matter so much. The principle point of this meta is not "Was it a good idea to make Felix Gaeta gay?", but "Was it a good idea to give Felix Gaeta a love interest at all?" Particularly in the tacked on way that he got it.
In a lot of ways, I very pleased to see Gaeta and Hoshi together. I love Gaeta, so I like even the smallest indication that he had some happiness. And yes, I've been convinced ever since I did my rewatch that Gaeta is gay and has had a thing for Baltar for a long time. And there are numerous reasons confirmation of his orientation makes me happy, from a gay character who is defined by things other than his sexuality to the simple fact I was right. And with the little we've seen of Hoshi so far, I quite like the character.
However, there are a lot of ways it just didn't work for me. Not just Hoshi, but any love interest. How? Let's have fun and make a list.
1.) The isolation is destroyed.
See, this is a big thing here. After we see Gaeta nearly executed by the Circle and shunned by the entire crew, we're left with a very angry man whose life begins to fall away piece by piece. He's drinking alone in The Woman King, although he's social when spoken to. In He That Believeth in Me, the hostilities that have always been present between him and Starbuck flare into something that can no longer be hidden or ignored, especially when he becomes her navigator. On the Demetrius mission, when he's shot in the leg, Helo basically tells him that his wife's life is worth more than his. When he loses his leg, the show takes great pains to show him very much alone in the infirmary. Then Dee- the best friend he's got left- commits suicide. To add complete insult to injury, Lee Adama coldly brushes by him without a word when he's standing outside the morgue door, waiting to grieve.
Gaeta is not completely alone. We do see Hoshi hug him in Revelations, which makes sense. Given their professional relationship, absolutely no set up for a friendship is required. Gaeta seems to trust Narcho above his other mutineers. And Tom Zarek does actually treat him with a compassion and physicality that implies some sort of familiarity, which makes sense given that they must have known each other on New Caprica. But these relationships are never given any real weight. Which is fine. On a ship the size of Galactica, Gaeta wouldn't be completely isolated, but there's a difference between coworkers and casual friends versus intimates.
While it's questionable if Gaeta loved Hoshi, I think it's safe to say that they were close enough that Hoshi loved Gaeta, or was very aware that he was well on his way there. (Personally, I favor the interpretation that they were headed towards loving each other and cared deeply about each other, but weren't to the point of love yet.) But regardless, the signs of intimacy are there in the webisodes. The kiss they exchanged was comfortable and familiar. They know each other's minds and stances well enough that they don't have to finish their sentences. Hoshi knows how much pain Gaeta is in. Gaeta seems to know that Hoshi is having some reservations about him taking the morpha. Hoshi cuts off his protest and calms any fears he's having about leaving Galactica. They are certainly a monogamous and assumedly faithful couple: Hoshi assures Gaeta he'll be waiting, and Gaeta makes it a point to tell the Eight he has someone before he kisses her to aid with the projection. (Don't get me started on that part of it.) Racetrack tells us that it took them long enough to get together, which implies that they were 1.) a couple that seemed happy, and 2.) a couple that everyone could see their mutual attraction. My point is that this was not a casual hook up to either of them.
So, where was Hoshi during all this? Where was he when Gaeta lost his leg? Where was he during Baltar's trial? The truth is those questions can easily be fanwanked away, by virtue of the fact that when Gaeta is not around, Hoshi does his job. That's not so much the issue here. What is the issue is part of the driving force behind the darkness welling up in Gaeta is his isolation, and the fact that no one gives a shit as his life falls away. Putting a boyfriend into the mix via a webisode retcon changes that.
2.) Speaking of retcons….
Because the love interest was added in later, there's no reference whatsoever to it in the show. Sure, you can read meanings into glances, but if the actors had known, they could have done so much more.
Originally, Gaeta's lover was supposed to be Narcho. But with either Narcho or Hoshi, you're left with scenes that are frustrating. With Hoshi, it would be great if we had some fall out when Gaeta orders him taken to the brig. I mean, I get why Gaeta did that, from a deductive point of view. Hoshi was safe in the brig, not only from the violence, but also from having to make a decision. No matter who won in the end, Adama or Gaeta, Hoshi didn't side with either. He couldn't be accused of treason by either, and while it didn't place him above suspicion, it certainly strengthened his case. But it would have been nice to see some indication of that. With Narcho, Gaeta essentially would have asked his lover to execute Adama (and Roslin, but that one didn't seem to bother Narcho half as much). A request like that really requires fall out, don't you think?
It's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't find these scenarios unbelievable. But it can be distracting. An excellent example: that final scene with Baltar. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was thinking- just a little bit- "Baltar? Why didn't he ask to see Hoshi?"
That final scene was right. It should have been Baltar that Gaeta spent those moments with, and it was incredibly, amazingly powerful. That's why I'm questioning if the love interest aspect should have been added in at all. Because Gaeta had a lover that clearly meant something to him and searched all of space for him, there is that nagging thought of "What about Hoshi?" (Although it would have been even worse with Narcho, because at least with Hoshi Gaeta already said is goodbye in the webisode.) Sure, again, you can imagine that maybe Gaeta asked Baltar to pass along a message, or that he did have a few minutes with Hoshi as well, or that he asked to see Hoshi and Hoshi refused, or whatever. But that thought still lingers, and it's a little annoying from a story-telling perspective.
3.) No closure.
It's been bugging me that we've not heard Gaeta's name or seen his picture from a single character since he died. But I wonder if it would bother me so much if Hoshi had not been elevated to lover status?
There are very few people left who cared about Felix Gaeta in any sort of capacity. Baltar did, and we got his resolution. Tigh and Adama… the wounds are too raw, although I'd love to see one of them even acknowledge it. (Although I can't believe Adama wasn't thinking about Gaeta when he took those Admiral pins off and held them in his shaking hand.) Helo deserves to feel angry and bitter and betrayed- I do not begrudge Helo that at all. Starbuck and Felix never got along anyway. The other characters that Felix might have exchanged non Dradis-contact dialogue with are mostly dead.
But then you throw in Hoshi. Before, when Hoshi was just a friend, it made sense, because he was also such a minor character that you never would expect to see a reaction. But now that he's a lover… well, frankly, you do. Especially given the fact it would be interesting. On the one hand, Hoshi clearly loved Gaeta. On the other, Gaeta committed mutiny- something Hoshi may very well be angry about, given the fact he's also a military man. But regardless, he's a big part in Gaeta's life.
When Cally died, her death echoed for three episodes. When Dee died, she at least got the half-episode for people to mourn her. The deaths are coming faster, so I don't expect them to be as resonant, but some mention in the aftermath would be nice. However, despite my love for him, I'm not feeling so bitter over Tom Zarek not getting any mourners. Why?
The answer is simple. There's no one left alive that I care about that truly cared about Tom. There's no one left to really grieve him. He and Lee… that's another meta right there about how that relationship doesn't work for me, but suffice to say I don't think Lee truly cared about him. And Laura's just been looking for reasons to flush him out the airlock through most of the series. In fact, given the way they treated each other, you might almost make an argument that Tom could have died with the person who cared about him the most. Okay, okay, that's my personal bias talking, but the point is that we don't know any personal friends of Tom Zarek. I'm sure there were people grieving him, but we've never met those characters, so we don't feel the lack.
But we've met Hoshi. We've seen Hoshi and Gaeta together. And as a result, this lack of any sort of response from Hoshi sticks out. It wouldn't so much if they'd left them as friends, although if they'd kept Hoshi's role in the webisodes, it still would some. But again, it's distracting. A simple shot of Hoshi tacking up Gaeta's picture, or a shot of him reacting as he took the Dradis station would go a long way towards acknowledging this.
Now, I'm writing this right now because I'm bored in the hours before Daybreak I. Maybe we will see Hoshi tack up Gaeta's picture, or we will see something that can be passed off for memory and reaction and I can shut up about this. I hope so. But that's part of what's bothering me about this, is the lack of closure for another character.
So, if I ran the world, what would I do? Good question. There are really two very different answers:
1.) I would have included a love life for Gaeta earlier.
Because Gaeta is a minor character (as is Hoshi), this could have been written in minimum time. They work together. They both seem like nice guys. They obviously have professional interests, and really, we know very little about either of their private lives. No set up would have been required for them to be together. A shot of them waking up together or drinking together in Joe's Bar would not have been out of place, because there's no history to deal with for either of them.
Now, I don't necessarily blame Ron and his cohorts of writers for not doing this. There are people in this life that can survive for years without a romantic relationship, and there's no reason why they shouldn't have characters that are like that. Gaeta made sense as a character who didn't have a significant other. Too involved with work, too in love with Baltar, too broken afterwards… then the isolation being played up… yeah. It worked with him. So, I'm not going to begrudge them a lack of foresight. If they could change things, I'd tell them to go back and add Gaeta in as a more prominent character in Bastille Day, and start developing his relationship with Zarek earlier. (Why? Because with Gaeta-Zarek, they accomplished what they wanted to do with Zarek-Lee, but didn't have the inclination to turn Lee that dark and let him make some of the decisions that Gaeta made. I still stand by my same-man-at-different-ends-of-his-life theory for Gaeta and Zarek, and Gaeta basically serving as a way to show how Zarek had become what he did. Aheam.)
2.) Don't include sex- at all- in the webisodes.
A male lover got added in to the webisodes for two reasons: it was boring just to focus on the Raptor, and Jane Espenson felt that a lot of fans had identified Gaeta as gay, and having him sleep with an Eight was a slap in the face to them. I actually agree with Espenson, by the way, because him sleeping with the Eight added very little to the plot. You could have had him reach the exact same conclusions without the sex. If it had added, then fine. But just tacking on the sex for no reason? Yeah, that's broaching slap territory.
But that's really my point, in a way. Would Gaeta have been just as betrayed by the Eight if they'd never slept together? Absolutely. She had at least one of the lists before they slept together. Okay, the sex probably cemented the bond, but I'd point out that he still went and did a lot of other Resistance work without her, so it didn't cement it that hard. Could Hoshi have gone searching for Gaeta without being in love with him? Absolutely. One of my friends goes missing like that, I'd go searching for them. Sexual relationships didn't have to be included.
In the not-quite-the-end-because-Daybreak-still-hasn't-aired, I'm still of two minds about the inclusion of a love interest for Gaeta. It's certainly given me plenty to fic about, but from an attempted objective point of view, I can't help but wonder if it weakened the story a little more than strengthening it.
Thoughts?