Dysfunctional Shipping Awareness Month, Days 6&7

[pocochina]

Have y'all missed my stabby pointer finger? I know I have! Adama-grade temper tantrum about some extremely disturbing topics below the cut.

Comments

[anonymous]

I realise I am very late to this but I found this post fascinating. I strongly agree with what you're saying here. The Helo-Athena relationship I find massively off putting and I think what is interesting is that in the fourth season until Moore was put under pressure not to kill them off in Daybreak the show finally does really problematise the relationship. If Moore had stuck to his guns it would have been a devastating end to this previously overly romaticised relationship: the relationship is destroyed in StWOM and then the end of it would be death. Throw in the longer version of Islanded in which Athena's utter inability to forgive is made explicit despite the forgiveness that has been shown to her and the knife is twisted very hard. This is set up I think in The Hub where there is actually little difference between Twin Eight and Athena's behaviour - physiologically Athena is no more Hera's mother than Twin Eight is - and Helo is forced to confront the very odd nature of the relationship he has and it is Laura who is allowed to critique him with the you're not married to the whole production line argument.

What is striking to me is how much indulgence there is of this relationship in fandom and how much it contributes to the demonisation of Laura. Athena is a party to genocide and never expresses any remorse for that. Helo never struggles with having a relationship with someone who has behaved in that way once she tells him she is pregnant. And yet somehow Laura who tries to take responsibility for both the consequences for every human being still alive of Hera being in the fleet and for Hera's chances of living is the one for some who commits the unforgiveable sin not Athena. II honestly find it mind boggling that the issue can be approached ethically in the way it is. And I think even in season three the show itself is not to blame for the response. AMoS clearly contrast the solipsism of the Helo-Athena scene with the struggle of responsibility of the Roslin-Adama scene at the end. Helo thinks the fact he he has Athena means he can cope with being potentially responsible for the death of every single human being. Roslin and Adama who are at this point denying themselves the solace of a relationship know exactly what the stakes of responsibility are and that this is selfish nonsense.

The indulgence shown in fandom to Helo and Athena is in good part I think what happens when the most important thing in television becomes about sticking two hot young people together on the screen: other considerations and actually thinking about what is being shown go out of the window,

[pocochina]

Thanks for chiming in! There seems to be this odd thing where BSG characters are credited with what they're willing to acknowledge? Like, Helo decides to act as if the world consists of his positive perspective on his family, so people decide this makes him good and lovable. Laura acknowledges that their lives are a disaster, and so she gets blamed for the bad things that are there. Cylons decide that the past is irrelevant to *them*, so when they're around it's all this normative preference for forgive-and-forget. Far being from me to accuse anyone of being a believer in The Secret, but it seems to me there's an expectation of some fierce post-hoc magical thinking going on somewhere, though I can't put my finger on where it comes in. Possibly this is one of those instances where there wasn't sufficient agreement in production and it comes across in a way that really bothers me.

AMoS clearly contrast the solipsism of the Helo-Athena scene with the struggle of responsibility of the Roslin-Adama scene at the end. Helo thinks the fact he he has Athena means he can cope with being potentially responsible for the death of every single human being. Roslin and Adama who are at this point denying themselves the solace of a relationship know exactly what the stakes of responsibility are and that this is selfish nonsense.

Very, very well-said. I mean, I don't think it's bad characterization, or even that it necessarily comes from a place that would make me come down too hard on the characters? Psychologically, there's only so much people can do; Roslin is exceptional in her ability to detach. But that doesn't make the "me and mine" approach stop being the path of least resistance.

If Moore had stuck to his guns it would have been a devastating end to this previously overly romaticised relationship: the relationship is destroyed in StWOM and then the end of it would be death.

Ooooh, that's an interesting possibility. I don't know much about the backstage stuff, particularly toward the end there.

the longer version of Islanded in which Athena's utter inability to forgive is made explicit despite the forgiveness that has been shown to her

!!! I've never seen the longer version but this would have changed my interpretation of the relationship considerably.

The indulgence shown in fandom to Helo and Athena is in good part I think what happens when the most important thing in television becomes about sticking two hot young people together on the screen: other considerations and actually thinking about what is being shown go out of the window

Can't be overlooked, for sure.