SFF: addendum (Daybreak episode review)
BSG: I killed some deer in here, sorry (no, really, 3500+ words...)
*props feet up*
So. I sort of meant to do this over the weekend and didn't.
Some of this is a bit colored by other peoples' comments and episode reviews. (now I can go read my flist)
Let's talk about why Ron loves me. As a surprise to you, it mostly has nothing to do with my previous, bitchy, post.
I love battles. And explosions and vipers flying and set design filled with rich colors and detail. And they delivered.
The storming of the cylon colony was just incredible. The colors of the interior and the design were very very Farscape, which made me love them more. But it wasn't just that. It was the plan and the execution and the guns. And that it didn't matter who was in charge, it was humans and cylons and centurions all working together.
The centurions with their military gestures made me so very gleeful. I SQUEAKED at it, and decided it was Very Hot. Which is scary, I'll admit. I imagine the CGI guys had a TON of fun making them and animating them.
Galactica ramming the colony was also pretty and disturbing and wonderful at once--and Sam... sigh.
Sam as hybrid sort of proves that Ron doesn't really love me as much as he could (so do other things). And I will never be completely happy about it (if Ron wanted an excuse for Sam to Ascend to a different plane to be with Kara/alone/whatever, he could have done it)--and I didn't mean to digress here, other than to note that HYBRIDS ALL HAVE A CRUSH ON SAM. And I called that ages ago. ;] ;] ;]
Ishay and Roslin and triage works in theory, though the location of the infirmary is, erm, hard to discern, but I'd guess they used a forward station close to where the action would be and far enough that they'd be somewhat safe (and corpsmen to run between both the front and back, otherwise, how were wounded making it back?).
Some of the engagement feels like it should have had a much larger complement of people, and I don't think the number standing there in the bay at the beginning could account for the amount of people they would need to execute it all. (pilots for raptor squads and vipers, marines and others for the boarding parties, and marines and others under Lee's command, plus those running between the infirmary and various points to retrieve wounded and carry ammunition--and you can handwave parts of that with centurions, but I don't think Ishay would appreciate them as corpsmen).
But I'll handwave it, for now.
Simon could read the phonebook to me and I'd listen. Sigh. Another wasted person, though. Sadly. Much like Doral--who had some bad-ass moments that made me remember he wore a leather jacket that one time in SG-1 and it was hot. Ahem. Anyway, Simon was... cold and clinical and then Boomer snapped his neck. Yay!
ok, so, maybe I shouldn't applaud that?
Racetrack and Skulls dying in the first wave bruised my heart, a bit. Not that I've been liking Skulls that much (I'm trying really hard to pretend the writers didn't give him some heartless and stupid dialog, and clinging to the Skulls that yelled at Chief in Escape Velocity, because HIM, I liked). I... I just don't seem to be very sympathetic to most of the human survivors. It's my Cylon-loving tendencies. :/
And then Kara! With guns and everything, and Lee in his uniform being all efficient! <3
I was actually annoyed at the over-laid dialog of The Plan, but I understand they needed to cut for time and they wouldn't have been able to hold just one massive briefing.
ADMIRAL HOSHI. The only thing that would have been mnore awesome would have been Admiral Dualla. TEN BILLION TIMES AWESOME. And she might not have given them back once they'd made it to Earth (OH GOD. PRESIDENT LAMPKIN VS. ADMIRAL DUALLA).
President Lampkin. HOLY SHIT, I did not see that coming, but it was FUNNY AS HELL.
And I'm highly disappointed we didn't get to see it more.
Before the attack on the colony, we also have Gaius giving care of his cult over to Paulla. Paulla, who suddenly doesn't seem all that keen on it. I'm not sure I would be, either. But I also expect she shouldered responsibility as soon as that hatch closed.
I'm going to digress for a moment and say that it's incredibly unsatisfying that we never saw the girls with their guns after that one scene in Deadlock. What was the point of that entire thing? It's... It's honestly bad pacing and writing, and it sadly detracts from the awesome of the shiny bits of the finale. Sigh. (there are large portions of the last three seasons I would like to rip to pieces and build back up so they are paced and plotted for character motivations that make organic sense!)
Caprica with a gun was awesome. Caprica knocking Gaius' arm up, so he didn't shoot the friendlies? WAY AWESOME.
Caprica and Gaius shooting AND THEN KISSING OMG. That was so unexpected, but it made me more gleeful than I'd ever thought I'd be. And then they saw each others' head!people AND OMG. <3 <3 <3 <3.
So.
There was the battle and the plan and Hera saved (I'll be dealing with Boomer in a bit). And Kara being snarky and Lee saving everyone and then--
ok. The Opera House.
I... I am sort of torn, on this. On the one hand, the shiny shiny staging was shiiiiiny. On the other... it was sort of a let-down. See, the bit where Roslin and Athena were running (while I WAS BITING MY NAILS ABOUT KARL OMG) was sort of awesome.
But the... the bit where... where Caprica and Gaius couldn't hear them shouting was a bit naff. And then the bit where that was IT for the Opera House, where there wasn't any sort of payoff... meh.
And the God/Gods/Supreme Power thing was really stupid. I totally predicted that would be their copout (man, there's so much I never bothered metaing about, sigh), and was amused by it, but... I HATE GOD-LIKE BEINGS. HATE THEM. I barely tolerated them in B5, I mocked the fuck out of them in Stargate, and Doctor Who tends to... sciencize them and they're less obnoxious, of textily mocked by the Doctor.
The fact that it led to them all ignoring Hera and LETTING CAVIL GET HER, just. BAH. I fucking hated that, it made NO SENSE.
BAH.
The truce with Cavil was just... yeah. well, it made sense. AND THEN. AND THEN.
I KNEW they were going to have to brainshare to figure out resurrection. I KNEW IT. And there was Tory, all suddenly nervous and shit, and--
The brainshare was fun. What came after--well, the destruction of the 'truce' was awesome and fun. But what caused it? Not so much.
Sigh. Gods, Tory. Ok. I'm'a deal with it here. I am... I am so very disappointed in how they've treated Tory over the course of the season. She was here to be a mama bear to the boy-lons, to sex up Gaius, and to... be evil.
Tory didn't have a story of her own, and yeah, she was just a second-tier character. But so was Tyrol and so was Anders and so was FUCKING SAUL TIGH, and the latter had fifty percent of the last half-season be ALL ABOUT HIS MANPAIN. They could have done something with Tory, they just didn't bother.
She could have been the Cylons' rep to the council, she could have offered her services as assistant to the president... she could have taken over Gauis' cult, if she still believed in God.
She and D'Anna and Dee could have formed a fucking commune of their own. *sulks* (Admiral Dualla, people. You know you love me--though, really, at least Hoshi proves that some gay people aren't evil?)
Tory killed Cally. She didn't do it out of necessity, she didn't do it out of desperation. She did it because she didn't want to admit that Cylons were human and able to make mistakes, too. Maybe she did it to protect them a little bit, too. Or because she didn't want Cally to spill. I just... They didn't GIVE US any reasoning, other than, "I am a Perfect Cylon Because of God" line of thought.
As for Tyrol, I refuse to believe he didn't love Cally. But I'm not sure I buy him immediately snapping her neck, even though I think that may have been the only way they had to go, by then. And it's another woman killed in a brutal fashion by a man.
I'm good with it completely destroying the peace. I'm not good with the waste of another character (Dee and D'Anna and Sparky and Zarek are stacked in the pile, too).
And for all that Ron kept going on about how "anyone can die!" it really isn't true. Of the main cast, only Laura and Kara die. Of the secondary cast: Sam and Tory die. Of the tertiary cast: Racetrack and Skulls. (7 raptor crews and four vipers, as well. Still not the bloodbath they claimed it was...)
Oh, and who was the dying leader? I'm not sure I want to know. Laura, Kara, Natalie, the Galactica herself--they've all been posited. What if it was Tory or Sam or Leoben? Sam was a leader, after all. Maybe it was Gina, who kept them from pausing on the road to Earth by making them findable by the Cylons with her nuclear bomb.
I have really strayed from my gleeful squee about the fighting. CENTURIONS MAKING MILITARY GESTURES. Still hot. Caprica with her gun? SO HOT. The lack of Paulla with hers? Sigh.
Cavil shooting himself in the head? OMG. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Racetrack, even dead, saved the day. OH MAGGIE. :/ :( :( :(
And now for Boomer. Sigh.
I ache for Boomer. She tried so hard and she was betrayed and knocked down and programed and then, in the end, suckered by a cute kid. Much like Tory, most of her through-line and characterization is never touched upon.
I don't hate Athena for shooting her. I hate the writers for that ridiculously insulting flashback with Adama and Tigh as leering old men drinking booze in front of the newb officer. That was just... I can't even explain it. Not to mention? If Boomer was supposed to be a sleeper agent, why was she given such shit piloting skills to the point she nearly got tossed?
Athena shooting her was, in a way, the same firing squad that Sparky and Zarek got--and if anyone tells me Adama having them shot wasn't personal, I will laugh in their face. Fuck, yes, both instances are personal. And on some levels, Boomer's betrayal was far worse.
Sparky and Zarek didn't rape anyone. (and, if you want to get technical, that's not what it was, but it's close enough--she had sex with a man who didn't know she was the wrong woman. If the roles were reversed, it would be just as bad)
To be honest, I wouldn't have minded Adama getting killed, either.
And what was the point of Caprica's baby and Caprica/Tigh if there's no fall-out at all? Sure, she and Gaius are now going to be ADORABLE and have babies and plant carrots, but...
(I still cannot believe how happy that made me, especially since I hated them)
All right. Shippy stuff, I suppose. Or romance. Or whatever.
1. Caprica/Gaius. There wasn't enough build-up from her leaving Tigh to this, but it's easy to handwave because Tricia and James sell it beautifully. And the head!pairing. Also also awesome. (as long as I don't think too hard about how 'god' manipulated everyone and get eye-rolly, it's all good) I am also pleased Gaius will be farming. ;]
2. Why the hell did Cavil listen to them for the truce? I guess because they promised him what they wanted.
3. HELO IS ALIVE. I have no words for how happy that made me. I seriously expected him to be dead and either Sharon or Hera to be imagining him.
4. Laura Roslin. While I'm glad she got to see everyone settled (so to speak) on Earth, I... I sort of wish she'd gotten a less... boring... ? ... ending. Like. I don't know. Piloted a raptor into the sun, or something (so what happens when archeologists find the remains of the raptors left on the planet? You can't tell me some of that plastic and shit degrades that fast, not if human bones remained... FOSSILIZED RAPTOR. YOU KNOW IT HAPPENED)
5. There are too many people we didn't get to say goodbye to. Or at least, have no idea if they survived to the end (Seelix! I wanna know. :/). Also, I really wanted more of President Romo Lampkin and the first dog.
6. Lee Adama. I'm apparently one of five people who actually thought Lee is going to be fine? He's happy, he has a whole planet to explore. And he was bouncing at that idea. You can't tell me he'll mope for the rest of his life 'cause his dad went to commit suicide and his pigeon was an angel...
7. Which brings us to Kara/Lee. I don't ship it, I generally don't see it (unless it's in the overly eye-rolly soap opera way that the writers on SG-1 gave us Sam/Pete, Sam/Anyone, or Sam/Jack at times). So to me, the end worked fine. Kara was at peace with everyone and herself. And given the last half of the season (hell, the whole season) was very focused on Kara and Kara/Sam, and how they fit together...
8. Kara/Zak. Cute. But it finally occurred to me why I was rolling my eyes at the sentiment that it was so AWFUL that Kara and Lee tried having sex while his brother was asleep. Well, a few reasons.
A) as soon as Ron announced this epic idea that Starbuck fell for Zak and then met Lee and found she'd fallen for the wrong guy, I'd always assumed that this was how it was, though I'd expected it to be maybe a day or two later.
B) if you accept that Kara frakked around on Sam during their marriage on New Caprica, this is exactly that same pattern...
C) If Kara frakking around on Zak (a question I once had, but never got answered until now) is worse than her frakking around on her husband, I call bullshit (and how about Dee, hrm? Or do Sam and Dee deserve it for getting in the way of their true love? Because y'all were ecstatic about Kara and Lee making out in Eye of Jupiter, and that's actually worse than them almost making out while Zak was asleep nearby).
D) Kara called Dee Lee's 'Better half' during Unfinished Business, so she and Zak might not be engaged yet (which begs the question, did Kara pop the question the next morning? Or was Sam the first time she did that?)
E) Speaking of New Caprica, Kara and Lee had sex in a field while their SOs were passed out/asleep. Somehow, a little fooling around on a table doesn't sound so bad anymore.
Bottom line? You cannot have it both ways: either it's skanky when they do it to both sets of SOs, or it's not skanky at all.
(for the record, I fall on the side of it being sort of skanky, though it's a bit disappointing, on Lee's side. I also wonder about the rammifications of male writers always choosing sex as a female character's outlet to display her neuroses, though Kara is nowhere near Grace Hanadarko's level anymore)
9. Kara/Sam. I... to be honest, I was out paying for dinner during most of the one Kara/Sam scene, and I only know what happened from other people (my dvr didn't deign to record the episode). I'm honestly shocked that Kara said "I love you"; I wasn't expecting that, I'd always just assumed Kara would stick with her normal: big gestures. And not killing him.
Do I think they're happily frakking in the afterlife together? Yeah. Does it matter if they're not? No.
10. Kara/Lee, addendum. I wish Ron hadn't taken a page from the SG writers' books in regards to them. The will-they, won't-they, have-they back and forth of Sam and Jack was NEVER EVER resolved, and the writers there deliberately kept it as an idea they might explore. Enough to keep the shippers coming back for more, in fact. Enough for the shippers to threaten letter campaigns. And you can say all you want about SG-1 not making the "implicit promise" about Sam and Jack, but that door never actually closed (I think it's even still maybe open during Carter's Atlantis run), and that is exactly what all of the Kara/Lee scenes have felt like, this season. The writers stringing them along, in hopes the people watching for the pairing would keep watching.
11. Sam as hybrid. God. Even typing that makes me want to punch something. It was not inevitable that Sam would die once he got shot in the head. It wasn't. How many people on this show have been shot and not died? Adama? Athena? Skulls (who must have recovered from that hit pretty damned fast)? Cally?
But Sam was gonna die, he was marked for death, the instant Kara admitted any feeling for him, I suppose.
I don't believe Sam was happy as a hybrid, I don't believe that was the best use of him, and I refuse to believe that was it for him. That talk of perfection is very similar to other phrases used by various shows and books in regards to people moving from one plane to the next--it was very Daniel Jackson, actually, with maybe a bit more Oma Desala than should have been there.
I also don't believe, that if Ron wanted a Kara/Sam ending, he couldn't have come up with another way to have Sam ascend. (Or Lee ascend, or Kara stay Earth-bound and have both of them)
12. Kara Thrace. Gods. My girl. The gateway drug that pulled me into Galactica like nothing else and then made me stay because she was hot and hard and crazy and went at life with the throttle open wide... prolix_allie has free reign to mock me for what I'm about to say.
I'm ok with Kara being an angel and ascending.
Yeah, I said it. I'm ok with it. Mostly.
I actually sort of really want the Wacky Misadventures of Kara Thrace in the Afterlife now, though.
Her being dead from Maelstrom makes sense (and her body and viper got to Earth because there was, um, a wormhole. Yup. Either that, or the body and everything else was another angelic projection, as those tend to be solid. Head!Six once smashed Gaius into a mirror after all <3). And I said this elsewhere, so I'm paraphrasing myself:
For Kara to get back to the afterlife/ascension, she had to come to terms with herself and everyone around her. She had to fulfill her destiny (to lead everyone to a new home? That still might not make her said dying leader, as she made it there... sort of), and she had to make sure those she loved were going to be ok. Adama... I have a hard time, because I hated him a lot this season. But Kara got her hug and the cheesy call-back to the mini (and let's be honest, 90% of BSG is frelling cheesy at times). She knows he won't survive long, or maybe he will. And Lee...
In that instant, Lee is happy. He has a planet to explore. He knows his father is at peace. And Kara, too. And...
That's enough for Kara, because she can go. She can go flirt with angels or join Sam or go play cards with Racetrack and Dee and D'Anna and Natalie (Natalie has a horrible poker face)
13. One last Roslin thought: I wonder if she could have been the one to pilot the fleet into the sun. Or been the hybrid (or Tory as hybrid, which is also somewhere they could have gone, and she certainly had all of that 'we are perfect' nonsense down pat)
huh.
I know there's dodgy science. BSG always has dodgy science (CANCER CURING BABY BLOOD). Many others have touched upon it.
14. Leoben. I almost forgot how annoyed I was that he was shafted as well. Two lines and no further interaction with Kara. Sigh. I'm sorry, Leoben. :/
15. Cottle. <3
I... I don't know what I have else to say?
Oh.
16. Tyrol. His end seems very fitting. He keeps getting women killed. Maybe he should go gay? In all seriousness, I haven't really liked Tyrol for a while and sort of don't care to ever really like him again--and they even tried to, like, give us reasons for sympathy and all? Still don't care.
17. The Tighs. Happy, as though the Caprica thing never happened. Which... It really didn't have to. It was lazy writing and pointless, now we've reached the end.
And I'm trying not to get angry all over again on Caprica's behalf, because the whole thing was never fuckign about her, just all about Tigh and his manpain (as Kara's death and rebirth and Lee and Laura Roslin and half a dozen other things were allllll about Adama's manpain). Really, SF needs to get away from its obsession with manpain.
*props feet up*
So. I sort of meant to do this over the weekend and didn't.
Some of this is a bit colored by other peoples' comments and episode reviews. (now I can go read my flist)
Let's talk about why Ron loves me. As a surprise to you, it mostly has nothing to do with my previous, bitchy, post.
I love battles. And explosions and vipers flying and set design filled with rich colors and detail. And they delivered.
The storming of the cylon colony was just incredible. The colors of the interior and the design were very very Farscape, which made me love them more. But it wasn't just that. It was the plan and the execution and the guns. And that it didn't matter who was in charge, it was humans and cylons and centurions all working together.
The centurions with their military gestures made me so very gleeful. I SQUEAKED at it, and decided it was Very Hot. Which is scary, I'll admit. I imagine the CGI guys had a TON of fun making them and animating them.
Galactica ramming the colony was also pretty and disturbing and wonderful at once--and Sam... sigh.
Sam as hybrid sort of proves that Ron doesn't really love me as much as he could (so do other things). And I will never be completely happy about it (if Ron wanted an excuse for Sam to Ascend to a different plane to be with Kara/alone/whatever, he could have done it)--and I didn't mean to digress here, other than to note that HYBRIDS ALL HAVE A CRUSH ON SAM. And I called that ages ago. ;] ;] ;]
Ishay and Roslin and triage works in theory, though the location of the infirmary is, erm, hard to discern, but I'd guess they used a forward station close to where the action would be and far enough that they'd be somewhat safe (and corpsmen to run between both the front and back, otherwise, how were wounded making it back?).
Some of the engagement feels like it should have had a much larger complement of people, and I don't think the number standing there in the bay at the beginning could account for the amount of people they would need to execute it all. (pilots for raptor squads and vipers, marines and others for the boarding parties, and marines and others under Lee's command, plus those running between the infirmary and various points to retrieve wounded and carry ammunition--and you can handwave parts of that with centurions, but I don't think Ishay would appreciate them as corpsmen).
But I'll handwave it, for now.
Simon could read the phonebook to me and I'd listen. Sigh. Another wasted person, though. Sadly. Much like Doral--who had some bad-ass moments that made me remember he wore a leather jacket that one time in SG-1 and it was hot. Ahem. Anyway, Simon was... cold and clinical and then Boomer snapped his neck. Yay!
ok, so, maybe I shouldn't applaud that?
Racetrack and Skulls dying in the first wave bruised my heart, a bit. Not that I've been liking Skulls that much (I'm trying really hard to pretend the writers didn't give him some heartless and stupid dialog, and clinging to the Skulls that yelled at Chief in Escape Velocity, because HIM, I liked). I... I just don't seem to be very sympathetic to most of the human survivors. It's my Cylon-loving tendencies. :/
And then Kara! With guns and everything, and Lee in his uniform being all efficient! <3
I was actually annoyed at the over-laid dialog of The Plan, but I understand they needed to cut for time and they wouldn't have been able to hold just one massive briefing.
ADMIRAL HOSHI. The only thing that would have been mnore awesome would have been Admiral Dualla. TEN BILLION TIMES AWESOME. And she might not have given them back once they'd made it to Earth (OH GOD. PRESIDENT LAMPKIN VS. ADMIRAL DUALLA).
President Lampkin. HOLY SHIT, I did not see that coming, but it was FUNNY AS HELL.
And I'm highly disappointed we didn't get to see it more.
Before the attack on the colony, we also have Gaius giving care of his cult over to Paulla. Paulla, who suddenly doesn't seem all that keen on it. I'm not sure I would be, either. But I also expect she shouldered responsibility as soon as that hatch closed.
I'm going to digress for a moment and say that it's incredibly unsatisfying that we never saw the girls with their guns after that one scene in Deadlock. What was the point of that entire thing? It's... It's honestly bad pacing and writing, and it sadly detracts from the awesome of the shiny bits of the finale. Sigh. (there are large portions of the last three seasons I would like to rip to pieces and build back up so they are paced and plotted for character motivations that make organic sense!)
Caprica with a gun was awesome. Caprica knocking Gaius' arm up, so he didn't shoot the friendlies? WAY AWESOME.
Caprica and Gaius shooting AND THEN KISSING OMG. That was so unexpected, but it made me more gleeful than I'd ever thought I'd be. And then they saw each others' head!people AND OMG. <3 <3 <3 <3.
So.
There was the battle and the plan and Hera saved (I'll be dealing with Boomer in a bit). And Kara being snarky and Lee saving everyone and then--
ok. The Opera House.
I... I am sort of torn, on this. On the one hand, the shiny shiny staging was shiiiiiny. On the other... it was sort of a let-down. See, the bit where Roslin and Athena were running (while I WAS BITING MY NAILS ABOUT KARL OMG) was sort of awesome.
But the... the bit where... where Caprica and Gaius couldn't hear them shouting was a bit naff. And then the bit where that was IT for the Opera House, where there wasn't any sort of payoff... meh.
And the God/Gods/Supreme Power thing was really stupid. I totally predicted that would be their copout (man, there's so much I never bothered metaing about, sigh), and was amused by it, but... I HATE GOD-LIKE BEINGS. HATE THEM. I barely tolerated them in B5, I mocked the fuck out of them in Stargate, and Doctor Who tends to... sciencize them and they're less obnoxious, of textily mocked by the Doctor.
The fact that it led to them all ignoring Hera and LETTING CAVIL GET HER, just. BAH. I fucking hated that, it made NO SENSE.
BAH.
The truce with Cavil was just... yeah. well, it made sense. AND THEN. AND THEN.
I KNEW they were going to have to brainshare to figure out resurrection. I KNEW IT. And there was Tory, all suddenly nervous and shit, and--
The brainshare was fun. What came after--well, the destruction of the 'truce' was awesome and fun. But what caused it? Not so much.
Sigh. Gods, Tory. Ok. I'm'a deal with it here. I am... I am so very disappointed in how they've treated Tory over the course of the season. She was here to be a mama bear to the boy-lons, to sex up Gaius, and to... be evil.
Tory didn't have a story of her own, and yeah, she was just a second-tier character. But so was Tyrol and so was Anders and so was FUCKING SAUL TIGH, and the latter had fifty percent of the last half-season be ALL ABOUT HIS MANPAIN. They could have done something with Tory, they just didn't bother.
She could have been the Cylons' rep to the council, she could have offered her services as assistant to the president... she could have taken over Gauis' cult, if she still believed in God.
She and D'Anna and Dee could have formed a fucking commune of their own. *sulks* (Admiral Dualla, people. You know you love me--though, really, at least Hoshi proves that some gay people aren't evil?)
Tory killed Cally. She didn't do it out of necessity, she didn't do it out of desperation. She did it because she didn't want to admit that Cylons were human and able to make mistakes, too. Maybe she did it to protect them a little bit, too. Or because she didn't want Cally to spill. I just... They didn't GIVE US any reasoning, other than, "I am a Perfect Cylon Because of God" line of thought.
As for Tyrol, I refuse to believe he didn't love Cally. But I'm not sure I buy him immediately snapping her neck, even though I think that may have been the only way they had to go, by then. And it's another woman killed in a brutal fashion by a man.
I'm good with it completely destroying the peace. I'm not good with the waste of another character (Dee and D'Anna and Sparky and Zarek are stacked in the pile, too).
And for all that Ron kept going on about how "anyone can die!" it really isn't true. Of the main cast, only Laura and Kara die. Of the secondary cast: Sam and Tory die. Of the tertiary cast: Racetrack and Skulls. (7 raptor crews and four vipers, as well. Still not the bloodbath they claimed it was...)
Oh, and who was the dying leader? I'm not sure I want to know. Laura, Kara, Natalie, the Galactica herself--they've all been posited. What if it was Tory or Sam or Leoben? Sam was a leader, after all. Maybe it was Gina, who kept them from pausing on the road to Earth by making them findable by the Cylons with her nuclear bomb.
I have really strayed from my gleeful squee about the fighting. CENTURIONS MAKING MILITARY GESTURES. Still hot. Caprica with her gun? SO HOT. The lack of Paulla with hers? Sigh.
Cavil shooting himself in the head? OMG. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Racetrack, even dead, saved the day. OH MAGGIE. :/ :( :( :(
And now for Boomer. Sigh.
I ache for Boomer. She tried so hard and she was betrayed and knocked down and programed and then, in the end, suckered by a cute kid. Much like Tory, most of her through-line and characterization is never touched upon.
I don't hate Athena for shooting her. I hate the writers for that ridiculously insulting flashback with Adama and Tigh as leering old men drinking booze in front of the newb officer. That was just... I can't even explain it. Not to mention? If Boomer was supposed to be a sleeper agent, why was she given such shit piloting skills to the point she nearly got tossed?
Athena shooting her was, in a way, the same firing squad that Sparky and Zarek got--and if anyone tells me Adama having them shot wasn't personal, I will laugh in their face. Fuck, yes, both instances are personal. And on some levels, Boomer's betrayal was far worse.
Sparky and Zarek didn't rape anyone. (and, if you want to get technical, that's not what it was, but it's close enough--she had sex with a man who didn't know she was the wrong woman. If the roles were reversed, it would be just as bad)
To be honest, I wouldn't have minded Adama getting killed, either.
And what was the point of Caprica's baby and Caprica/Tigh if there's no fall-out at all? Sure, she and Gaius are now going to be ADORABLE and have babies and plant carrots, but...
(I still cannot believe how happy that made me, especially since I hated them)
All right. Shippy stuff, I suppose. Or romance. Or whatever.
1. Caprica/Gaius. There wasn't enough build-up from her leaving Tigh to this, but it's easy to handwave because Tricia and James sell it beautifully. And the head!pairing. Also also awesome. (as long as I don't think too hard about how 'god' manipulated everyone and get eye-rolly, it's all good) I am also pleased Gaius will be farming. ;]
2. Why the hell did Cavil listen to them for the truce? I guess because they promised him what they wanted.
3. HELO IS ALIVE. I have no words for how happy that made me. I seriously expected him to be dead and either Sharon or Hera to be imagining him.
4. Laura Roslin. While I'm glad she got to see everyone settled (so to speak) on Earth, I... I sort of wish she'd gotten a less... boring... ? ... ending. Like. I don't know. Piloted a raptor into the sun, or something (so what happens when archeologists find the remains of the raptors left on the planet? You can't tell me some of that plastic and shit degrades that fast, not if human bones remained... FOSSILIZED RAPTOR. YOU KNOW IT HAPPENED)
5. There are too many people we didn't get to say goodbye to. Or at least, have no idea if they survived to the end (Seelix! I wanna know. :/). Also, I really wanted more of President Romo Lampkin and the first dog.
6. Lee Adama. I'm apparently one of five people who actually thought Lee is going to be fine? He's happy, he has a whole planet to explore. And he was bouncing at that idea. You can't tell me he'll mope for the rest of his life 'cause his dad went to commit suicide and his pigeon was an angel...
7. Which brings us to Kara/Lee. I don't ship it, I generally don't see it (unless it's in the overly eye-rolly soap opera way that the writers on SG-1 gave us Sam/Pete, Sam/Anyone, or Sam/Jack at times). So to me, the end worked fine. Kara was at peace with everyone and herself. And given the last half of the season (hell, the whole season) was very focused on Kara and Kara/Sam, and how they fit together...
8. Kara/Zak. Cute. But it finally occurred to me why I was rolling my eyes at the sentiment that it was so AWFUL that Kara and Lee tried having sex while his brother was asleep. Well, a few reasons.
A) as soon as Ron announced this epic idea that Starbuck fell for Zak and then met Lee and found she'd fallen for the wrong guy, I'd always assumed that this was how it was, though I'd expected it to be maybe a day or two later.
B) if you accept that Kara frakked around on Sam during their marriage on New Caprica, this is exactly that same pattern...
C) If Kara frakking around on Zak (a question I once had, but never got answered until now) is worse than her frakking around on her husband, I call bullshit (and how about Dee, hrm? Or do Sam and Dee deserve it for getting in the way of their true love? Because y'all were ecstatic about Kara and Lee making out in Eye of Jupiter, and that's actually worse than them almost making out while Zak was asleep nearby).
D) Kara called Dee Lee's 'Better half' during Unfinished Business, so she and Zak might not be engaged yet (which begs the question, did Kara pop the question the next morning? Or was Sam the first time she did that?)
E) Speaking of New Caprica, Kara and Lee had sex in a field while their SOs were passed out/asleep. Somehow, a little fooling around on a table doesn't sound so bad anymore.
Bottom line? You cannot have it both ways: either it's skanky when they do it to both sets of SOs, or it's not skanky at all.
(for the record, I fall on the side of it being sort of skanky, though it's a bit disappointing, on Lee's side. I also wonder about the rammifications of male writers always choosing sex as a female character's outlet to display her neuroses, though Kara is nowhere near Grace Hanadarko's level anymore)
9. Kara/Sam. I... to be honest, I was out paying for dinner during most of the one Kara/Sam scene, and I only know what happened from other people (my dvr didn't deign to record the episode). I'm honestly shocked that Kara said "I love you"; I wasn't expecting that, I'd always just assumed Kara would stick with her normal: big gestures. And not killing him.
Do I think they're happily frakking in the afterlife together? Yeah. Does it matter if they're not? No.
10. Kara/Lee, addendum. I wish Ron hadn't taken a page from the SG writers' books in regards to them. The will-they, won't-they, have-they back and forth of Sam and Jack was NEVER EVER resolved, and the writers there deliberately kept it as an idea they might explore. Enough to keep the shippers coming back for more, in fact. Enough for the shippers to threaten letter campaigns. And you can say all you want about SG-1 not making the "implicit promise" about Sam and Jack, but that door never actually closed (I think it's even still maybe open during Carter's Atlantis run), and that is exactly what all of the Kara/Lee scenes have felt like, this season. The writers stringing them along, in hopes the people watching for the pairing would keep watching.
11. Sam as hybrid. God. Even typing that makes me want to punch something. It was not inevitable that Sam would die once he got shot in the head. It wasn't. How many people on this show have been shot and not died? Adama? Athena? Skulls (who must have recovered from that hit pretty damned fast)? Cally?
But Sam was gonna die, he was marked for death, the instant Kara admitted any feeling for him, I suppose.
I don't believe Sam was happy as a hybrid, I don't believe that was the best use of him, and I refuse to believe that was it for him. That talk of perfection is very similar to other phrases used by various shows and books in regards to people moving from one plane to the next--it was very Daniel Jackson, actually, with maybe a bit more Oma Desala than should have been there.
I also don't believe, that if Ron wanted a Kara/Sam ending, he couldn't have come up with another way to have Sam ascend. (Or Lee ascend, or Kara stay Earth-bound and have both of them)
12. Kara Thrace. Gods. My girl. The gateway drug that pulled me into Galactica like nothing else and then made me stay because she was hot and hard and crazy and went at life with the throttle open wide... prolix_allie has free reign to mock me for what I'm about to say.
I'm ok with Kara being an angel and ascending.
Yeah, I said it. I'm ok with it. Mostly.
I actually sort of really want the Wacky Misadventures of Kara Thrace in the Afterlife now, though.
Her being dead from Maelstrom makes sense (and her body and viper got to Earth because there was, um, a wormhole. Yup. Either that, or the body and everything else was another angelic projection, as those tend to be solid. Head!Six once smashed Gaius into a mirror after all <3). And I said this elsewhere, so I'm paraphrasing myself:
For Kara to get back to the afterlife/ascension, she had to come to terms with herself and everyone around her. She had to fulfill her destiny (to lead everyone to a new home? That still might not make her said dying leader, as she made it there... sort of), and she had to make sure those she loved were going to be ok. Adama... I have a hard time, because I hated him a lot this season. But Kara got her hug and the cheesy call-back to the mini (and let's be honest, 90% of BSG is frelling cheesy at times). She knows he won't survive long, or maybe he will. And Lee...
In that instant, Lee is happy. He has a planet to explore. He knows his father is at peace. And Kara, too. And...
That's enough for Kara, because she can go. She can go flirt with angels or join Sam or go play cards with Racetrack and Dee and D'Anna and Natalie (Natalie has a horrible poker face)
13. One last Roslin thought: I wonder if she could have been the one to pilot the fleet into the sun. Or been the hybrid (or Tory as hybrid, which is also somewhere they could have gone, and she certainly had all of that 'we are perfect' nonsense down pat)
huh.
I know there's dodgy science. BSG always has dodgy science (CANCER CURING BABY BLOOD). Many others have touched upon it.
14. Leoben. I almost forgot how annoyed I was that he was shafted as well. Two lines and no further interaction with Kara. Sigh. I'm sorry, Leoben. :/
15. Cottle. <3
I... I don't know what I have else to say?
Oh.
16. Tyrol. His end seems very fitting. He keeps getting women killed. Maybe he should go gay? In all seriousness, I haven't really liked Tyrol for a while and sort of don't care to ever really like him again--and they even tried to, like, give us reasons for sympathy and all? Still don't care.
17. The Tighs. Happy, as though the Caprica thing never happened. Which... It really didn't have to. It was lazy writing and pointless, now we've reached the end.
And I'm trying not to get angry all over again on Caprica's behalf, because the whole thing was never fuckign about her, just all about Tigh and his manpain (as Kara's death and rebirth and Lee and Laura Roslin and half a dozen other things were allllll about Adama's manpain). Really, SF needs to get away from its obsession with manpain.