Razor (Didn't they mean Knife? or Blade?)
redbrickrose came over last night to watch Razor. I'm so glad she was here because we had to process some of the things we saw. I was going to wait until I'd watched again to comment but. . . not so much anymore.
There were a couple of things I was really happy to see. One of them was Adama's backstory with the hybrid. I had just rewatched the mini on Thanksgiving and one of the things that has always bothered me is that Adama just magically knew Leoben was a cylon. Why would it suddenly occur to him that the boxy, digital voiced machines (that we finally saw in Razor- and ha! new cylons are much scarier) he'd fought were suddenly human? Just because Leoben was sick? Now that little piece makes sense to me. That flashback was well done.
It also maybe partially served to explain how Adama was just going to stand there and let Lee order Kara to blow herself up. But we'll get to that in a minute (you knew I'd go there, come on).
Another thing that I liked was that Quiznos seemed to be enthusiastically sponsoring the Cain/Gina relationship which made me happy and also made me laugh with glee all through that commercial break. As for the relationship-- well, it sure did solidify how inhumane Cain became. What, she orders civilian family members to be shot because she's feeling betrayed by her lover? Ok. Cain was insane, clearly, and it bothers me that Kendra didn't ever get that Cain's actions were flat-out wrong. I did appreciate what Adama said about how he could have gone the same way without Roslin's influence. I believe that, particularly after the hybrid ship storyline and how there was some personal issues that fueled the idea that it was worth any cost to detonate that ship-- to which I call bullshit.**
ETA: The following may read as particularly critical of Lee but I want to state right at the beginning that I love Lee and I think that if the story would have followed-through with some important details (hello EMOTIONS) then his actions would have made complete sense.
Wow. Commander Lee Adama has a pattern now. Cylons show up at New Caprica and he says, leave them behind and save what we can. I could maybe sorta buy that if I squinted because he was portly and married to Dee and whiny and had changed in so many other ways that what was one more in the scheme of things? I have to say that Razor made me buy the characterization more, because very quickly Lee is shown making decisions that are all pragmatic militarism and no humanistic idealism. I guess following in the wake of his space walk and then being shot and almost dying, something in Lee changed pretty significantly(at least for a while- end of Season 3 reverted him back as far as I can tell so far). I can be on board with that, in the sense that that happens when people experience trauma time after time after time. The way they make decisions changes, the stakes change. I think Lee is shaping up to be a great military commander in Razor- I just happen to personally like him more conflicted :)
The other thing I liked about Razor is that I finally finally totally get Kara's decision to leave the military, settle on New Caprica, and marry Anders even after she knows how Lee feels once and for all. I could always explain it on an intuitive level, but now, for me, there is a very concrete path.
Those Adamas do keep trying to send Kara to her death. Adama tells her to kill Cain in her own CIC, something with a very high probability of immediate death attached to it. Lee tries to blow her up not once but twice, the minute he gets command of Pegasus.** I get why they do it. She gets why they do it. It's their job. It's her job, and they trust her to get things done. That's awesome. There's nothing wrong with it from a military stand-point and you can't really fault them for asking her to do the things they ask her to do. And all of that would be fine if they also weren't her family.
But they are her family, the people Kara loves and identifies with, the people she'd gladly go to her death for. Except she has this history of being abandoned by people she loves, about people she loves not being careful with her and her feelings, about her family seeing her as a tool who needs to be beaten into her destiny rather than loved. She has continually got this message, alternately, that her worth is nothing, or that it's at the level of grand destiny but in none of those messages has anyone been telling her that she's worth something just as Kara. You bring in the Adamas, who I think clearly do think she's worth something just as Kara BUT. They aren't dealing with just Kara, they're dealing with a really good soldier named Starbuck and they're dealing with her as the leaders of the fleet so they treat her like a military asset rather than a family member who is indispensable . Kara gets it, understands it, and very probably doesn't really believe she deserves more.
Then Sam joins the fleet and people are settling on New Caprica. This happens *right* after the events of Razor, based on the wireless stuff that was going on in the ep. Sam is rescued, and he's so happy to be with her. Here's the guy who doesn't look at her as an asset. Here's the guy who wouldn't tell her to stay behind and detonate a nuclear bomb. He sees Kara, not Starbuck, and that's who he finds worth in and who he loves. Now Kara can't ever quite get herself to accept that, but she's looking for it. She sees the opportunity and she tries to take it. And when Lee comes down to New Caprica and declares how much he loves her, I'm guessing the panicking part of her is thinking oh shit, he loves me this much and he still thinks I'm dispensable-- nice short life that'll be. She is dispensable to Commander Adama like she has been dispensable to every other person in her life. Kara's got a huge drive for self-preservation, even when she's being reckless. Among all of the other reasons she has for marrying Sam the next morning, the events of Razor make it all a little less about things going on in her head alone and a little more evident based on actual Lee-related actions. Lee, the man who loves her, ordered her to kill herself. Ordered. Didn't even pretend like she had any say for the sake of a false choice. Because the command comes before love and family.
And Lee turns into his father.
There is fic in this. redbrickrose is heckling me about it.
I don't have much to say about the Kara is the Anti-Christ message from the Cylon God. It's a cool story-telling device by RDM to take a proven audience favorite and try to make the audience distrust her. I like that on a grand level. However, I don't like that it seems like an early set-up for Kara to be the hero through self-sacrifice. Another young, strong female character going to her death to save humanity? On the one hand, cool, because it's usually the men who get to be the heroes. On the other hand, not cool, because there's something a little icky going on when all of your major female heroes have to die. Huh, anyway, I clearly have no idea what's intended and will have to wait until March to see where they plan to take this but I guess I had a mini-rant in me. Sorry about that.
**As an aside- I found it hard to imagine Lee and Adama's reactions in that scene because they didn't really sell to me why it was absolutely essential-- worth nuking their own crew-- for the hybrid ship to be destroyed. It's been floating out there alone for decades and only had humans to use because Adama let a raptor go out on its own for non-military purposes. If they jump away and don't send out civilians on raptors, they could probably not sacrifice top-ranking officials to nuking the ship. They needed to sell *why* it was worth Lee ordering Kara to nuke herself for me to buy it. Not only that, they also fell short on the emotional impact of the decision. The Adamas were pretty non-chalant about it on an emotional level. The only emotion we get is when comms are reestablished and Lee's reaction is much more clearly about having almost frakked up than being glad they're still alive. Adama fights for the crew in general, but leaves Lee to make the decision to order Kara to do the deed. I think they did everything right *except* that it wasn't emotionally true and that's why it didn't sell to me. Of course Adama is going to let Lee make command decisions. Of course Lee is going to order Kara to stay behind to detonate because she's the highest ranking uninjured officer there. But OF COURSE they're going to have some major emotion about it, particularly when they find out Kara survives it. Except. . . they pretty much didn't. We get that weird laughing scene at the end (which is sooooo Kara to deflect like that but was not really Lee- hahahaha, almost ordered you to kill yourself, hahahahaha!)
ETA #2: Oh! I forgot to add that it was SO NICE in the beginning to get old-school pilots action, with the jokes and the glances and the friendships. And then Lee orders Kara to kill herself and Kara climbs in Sam's lap and rubs it all in Lee's face. Woe.
If you've posted about this in the past few weeks, I would love a link in the comments.
There were a couple of things I was really happy to see. One of them was Adama's backstory with the hybrid. I had just rewatched the mini on Thanksgiving and one of the things that has always bothered me is that Adama just magically knew Leoben was a cylon. Why would it suddenly occur to him that the boxy, digital voiced machines (that we finally saw in Razor- and ha! new cylons are much scarier) he'd fought were suddenly human? Just because Leoben was sick? Now that little piece makes sense to me. That flashback was well done.
It also maybe partially served to explain how Adama was just going to stand there and let Lee order Kara to blow herself up. But we'll get to that in a minute (you knew I'd go there, come on).
Another thing that I liked was that Quiznos seemed to be enthusiastically sponsoring the Cain/Gina relationship which made me happy and also made me laugh with glee all through that commercial break. As for the relationship-- well, it sure did solidify how inhumane Cain became. What, she orders civilian family members to be shot because she's feeling betrayed by her lover? Ok. Cain was insane, clearly, and it bothers me that Kendra didn't ever get that Cain's actions were flat-out wrong. I did appreciate what Adama said about how he could have gone the same way without Roslin's influence. I believe that, particularly after the hybrid ship storyline and how there was some personal issues that fueled the idea that it was worth any cost to detonate that ship-- to which I call bullshit.**
ETA: The following may read as particularly critical of Lee but I want to state right at the beginning that I love Lee and I think that if the story would have followed-through with some important details (hello EMOTIONS) then his actions would have made complete sense.
Wow. Commander Lee Adama has a pattern now. Cylons show up at New Caprica and he says, leave them behind and save what we can. I could maybe sorta buy that if I squinted because he was portly and married to Dee and whiny and had changed in so many other ways that what was one more in the scheme of things? I have to say that Razor made me buy the characterization more, because very quickly Lee is shown making decisions that are all pragmatic militarism and no humanistic idealism. I guess following in the wake of his space walk and then being shot and almost dying, something in Lee changed pretty significantly(at least for a while- end of Season 3 reverted him back as far as I can tell so far). I can be on board with that, in the sense that that happens when people experience trauma time after time after time. The way they make decisions changes, the stakes change. I think Lee is shaping up to be a great military commander in Razor- I just happen to personally like him more conflicted :)
The other thing I liked about Razor is that I finally finally totally get Kara's decision to leave the military, settle on New Caprica, and marry Anders even after she knows how Lee feels once and for all. I could always explain it on an intuitive level, but now, for me, there is a very concrete path.
Those Adamas do keep trying to send Kara to her death. Adama tells her to kill Cain in her own CIC, something with a very high probability of immediate death attached to it. Lee tries to blow her up not once but twice, the minute he gets command of Pegasus.** I get why they do it. She gets why they do it. It's their job. It's her job, and they trust her to get things done. That's awesome. There's nothing wrong with it from a military stand-point and you can't really fault them for asking her to do the things they ask her to do. And all of that would be fine if they also weren't her family.
But they are her family, the people Kara loves and identifies with, the people she'd gladly go to her death for. Except she has this history of being abandoned by people she loves, about people she loves not being careful with her and her feelings, about her family seeing her as a tool who needs to be beaten into her destiny rather than loved. She has continually got this message, alternately, that her worth is nothing, or that it's at the level of grand destiny but in none of those messages has anyone been telling her that she's worth something just as Kara. You bring in the Adamas, who I think clearly do think she's worth something just as Kara BUT. They aren't dealing with just Kara, they're dealing with a really good soldier named Starbuck and they're dealing with her as the leaders of the fleet so they treat her like a military asset rather than a family member who is indispensable . Kara gets it, understands it, and very probably doesn't really believe she deserves more.
Then Sam joins the fleet and people are settling on New Caprica. This happens *right* after the events of Razor, based on the wireless stuff that was going on in the ep. Sam is rescued, and he's so happy to be with her. Here's the guy who doesn't look at her as an asset. Here's the guy who wouldn't tell her to stay behind and detonate a nuclear bomb. He sees Kara, not Starbuck, and that's who he finds worth in and who he loves. Now Kara can't ever quite get herself to accept that, but she's looking for it. She sees the opportunity and she tries to take it. And when Lee comes down to New Caprica and declares how much he loves her, I'm guessing the panicking part of her is thinking oh shit, he loves me this much and he still thinks I'm dispensable-- nice short life that'll be. She is dispensable to Commander Adama like she has been dispensable to every other person in her life. Kara's got a huge drive for self-preservation, even when she's being reckless. Among all of the other reasons she has for marrying Sam the next morning, the events of Razor make it all a little less about things going on in her head alone and a little more evident based on actual Lee-related actions. Lee, the man who loves her, ordered her to kill herself. Ordered. Didn't even pretend like she had any say for the sake of a false choice. Because the command comes before love and family.
And Lee turns into his father.
There is fic in this. redbrickrose is heckling me about it.
I don't have much to say about the Kara is the Anti-Christ message from the Cylon God. It's a cool story-telling device by RDM to take a proven audience favorite and try to make the audience distrust her. I like that on a grand level. However, I don't like that it seems like an early set-up for Kara to be the hero through self-sacrifice. Another young, strong female character going to her death to save humanity? On the one hand, cool, because it's usually the men who get to be the heroes. On the other hand, not cool, because there's something a little icky going on when all of your major female heroes have to die. Huh, anyway, I clearly have no idea what's intended and will have to wait until March to see where they plan to take this but I guess I had a mini-rant in me. Sorry about that.
**As an aside- I found it hard to imagine Lee and Adama's reactions in that scene because they didn't really sell to me why it was absolutely essential-- worth nuking their own crew-- for the hybrid ship to be destroyed. It's been floating out there alone for decades and only had humans to use because Adama let a raptor go out on its own for non-military purposes. If they jump away and don't send out civilians on raptors, they could probably not sacrifice top-ranking officials to nuking the ship. They needed to sell *why* it was worth Lee ordering Kara to nuke herself for me to buy it. Not only that, they also fell short on the emotional impact of the decision. The Adamas were pretty non-chalant about it on an emotional level. The only emotion we get is when comms are reestablished and Lee's reaction is much more clearly about having almost frakked up than being glad they're still alive. Adama fights for the crew in general, but leaves Lee to make the decision to order Kara to do the deed. I think they did everything right *except* that it wasn't emotionally true and that's why it didn't sell to me. Of course Adama is going to let Lee make command decisions. Of course Lee is going to order Kara to stay behind to detonate because she's the highest ranking uninjured officer there. But OF COURSE they're going to have some major emotion about it, particularly when they find out Kara survives it. Except. . . they pretty much didn't. We get that weird laughing scene at the end (which is sooooo Kara to deflect like that but was not really Lee- hahahaha, almost ordered you to kill yourself, hahahahaha!)
ETA #2: Oh! I forgot to add that it was SO NICE in the beginning to get old-school pilots action, with the jokes and the glances and the friendships. And then Lee orders Kara to kill herself and Kara climbs in Sam's lap and rubs it all in Lee's face. Woe.
If you've posted about this in the past few weeks, I would love a link in the comments.