Good and complex questions. Let me see if I can do them justice.
If you had to pick a single character from the ensemble to hold up as a primary protagonist for the show, who would you say it is? That's a really tough question. I don't believe the show actually has a primary protagonist, seeing as how it's the epitome of "ensemble." Every highlighted character has a bright and shining moment as well as a moment of complete and utter failure. The sentimentalist in me wants to pinpoint Laura as the primary protagonist, because it's her goal from the moment she takes office to the moment she dies to protect humanity, and that's what's accomplished during the course of the show. If I want to play devil's advocate, though, I can say that it's the Borg collective Cylons in general who are the primary protagonists: they direct the action, they're in control, they even know the outcome. If I have to narrow it down to Angels Six and Baltar I could, but it would be against my better judgment. They become more of a Greek chorus over the course
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The sentimentalist in me wants to pinpoint Laura as the primary protagonist, because it's her goal from the moment she takes office to the moment she dies to protect humanity, and that's what's accomplished during the course of the show.
I like that reasoning. I think she'd be a good choice.
Maybe the primary protagonist is the ship itself, Galactica. It is the single most consistent entity of all.
Heh! A good point.
I'm actually going to give my personal award for most consistent characterization to Tom Zarek, he who never changes even though we all really want him to.
Good call! Zarek is very consistent. I think he's kind of a pleasure to watch. After New Caprica you get just a tiny bit hopeful that he might become an actual friend instead of just an enemy of the enemy, but he never changes his stripes.
I wish I could discount the first half of Season Four, because they really screwed the pooch with Starbuck and Tigh, both of whom could easily have been my picks for most consistently characterized until then.Yeah. I
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Great point about Dee. I felt she was used for exposition or as a sounding board for other characters at points and that was not fair. Plus her ending did not have enough context to understand. In the finale when Bill gives his admiral pins to Gaeta's boyfriend, sorry I forget his name, I remember thinking, that should have been Dee.
Dee's ending was tragic and unexpected. Maybe if she'd had your icon, she wouldn't have been so upset by what happened to Earth. I do think she got a raw deal all the way around, but that's not where the fault lies. Pretty much everyone got a raw deal all the way around, but their characterization didn't suffer for/because of it.
Yeah, for me it goes back to her suddenly dropping Billy in favor of Lee with no real explanation other than they were close physically during a workout? Every time I watch the series, I yell at Dee to stick with Billy. He'd be better for her in so many ways.
You know, I got so distracted by responding to the Zarek part that I forgot to respond to the Dee part. I think you're right on the mark about her. I like her a lot at times but I can only make a little sense out of her character on a long-term basis, particularly beyond, oh, maybe the halfway point of the series.
I remember watching the workout scene between Dee and Lee for the first time and thinking oh, I see what you're doing, BSG writers, but I don't understand why. And I feel like they didn't really give enough of a why.
I also don't understand while she'll stick with Lee through the ongoing Starbuck business only to promptly leave him when he defends Gaius. I understand how Dee probably felt about Gaius and the idea of her husband defending the guy, but I don't really understand her actions.
I agree with all these points. Dee keeps sucking it up and dealing where Leemo's concerned, but damn if she isn't strong enough to put it all aside and go rescue Starbuck without too much enmity. And then it's kindness that kills her? I'm not so sure about that.
Part of me thinks that toward the end, the BSG writers were just jamming on that +10 TRAGEDY button until it wore out.
If you had to pick a single character from the ensemble to hold up as a primary protagonist for the show, who would you say it is?
That's a really tough question. I don't believe the show actually has a primary protagonist, seeing as how it's the epitome of "ensemble." Every highlighted character has a bright and shining moment as well as a moment of complete and utter failure. The sentimentalist in me wants to pinpoint Laura as the primary protagonist, because it's her goal from the moment she takes office to the moment she dies to protect humanity, and that's what's accomplished during the course of the show. If I want to play devil's advocate, though, I can say that it's the Borg collective Cylons in general who are the primary protagonists: they direct the action, they're in control, they even know the outcome. If I have to narrow it down to Angels Six and Baltar I could, but it would be against my better judgment. They become more of a Greek chorus over the course ( ... )
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I like that reasoning. I think she'd be a good choice.
Maybe the primary protagonist is the ship itself, Galactica. It is the single most consistent entity of all.
Heh! A good point.
I'm actually going to give my personal award for most consistent characterization to Tom Zarek, he who never changes even though we all really want him to.
Good call! Zarek is very consistent. I think he's kind of a pleasure to watch. After New Caprica you get just a tiny bit hopeful that he might become an actual friend instead of just an enemy of the enemy, but he never changes his stripes.
I wish I could discount the first half of Season Four, because they really screwed the pooch with Starbuck and Tigh, both of whom could easily have been my picks for most consistently characterized until then.Yeah. I ( ... )
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Dee's ending was tragic and unexpected. Maybe if she'd had your icon, she wouldn't have been so upset by what happened to Earth. I do think she got a raw deal all the way around, but that's not where the fault lies. Pretty much everyone got a raw deal all the way around, but their characterization didn't suffer for/because of it.
(I really am so enamored with your icon!)
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I think we lost Dee's perspective around the time she started dating Lee and was swallowed by the more dominant personalities in the triangle.
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It never works, though.
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I also don't understand while she'll stick with Lee through the ongoing Starbuck business only to promptly leave him when he defends Gaius. I understand how Dee probably felt about Gaius and the idea of her husband defending the guy, but I don't really understand her actions.
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Part of me thinks that toward the end, the BSG writers were just jamming on that +10 TRAGEDY button until it wore out.
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