A Pair of Teal Deers
I am alive! Okay, so I’ve been stuck on dial-up for the last two weeks, which sucks (mostly because I really wanted to stream Doctor Who episodes), got sick a week ago (am better now!), and spent way too much of the intervening time playing Oblivion, now that my brother actually has a computer that will run it
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I got pissy every time it cut to commercial.
Every. Single. Time.
My SO went stomping out to clean out the fridge after the second one because she said my couch flailing at each commercial was driving her crazy.
but the way Leoben said, “I was wrong about everything,”
I have an acknowledged Leoben bias but, damn, I loved him so much last night and how they cut between scenes.
It was like, BAM, BITCHES, TRY TO KEEP UP WITH THIS SHOW'S AWESOME.
And the whole time I'm running after yelling at the top of my lungs to slow down long enough for me to process what I'm seeing.
And word to your comments on absurdism, because, whoa, I am so glad I have you on my flist, like, really really. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that they really carried out the entire idea of cyclical time and going OMGWTF? that I still can't process my brainy thoughts and you already have for me so I can actually, like, poke at this stuff.
A PLANET OF CYLONS.
YES.
I was desperately geekily hoping for the 13th to have a massive whole new twist into the Cylon story and while a part of me believed that's what it was leading up to because it made sense with everything that had been given to us, I was still terrified it would lead somewhere else and I'd be disappointed because I love the Cylons massively like a dork.
I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED.
AT ALL.
And see, my immediate thought is that the human were the ones bombing the Cylon planet (if it was a Cylon planet).
Er, that sounds stupid, doesn't it?
Okay, the entire "things are repeating" is sort of a lot of what makes me love this show so damn much on more than just a 'Starbuck is hot' level and on a religious geek level. It's such a basic concept that BSG has taken it to whole new levels and just keep fleshing it out further. And when you add in how obsessed a person can become with the concept itself, especially when you really connect to the religious meaning there, there is such an echo of the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' there. It's such a classic idea to me and I'm sort of obsessed with it.
So what if through some kind of weird twisting, the humans came back and bombed the fuck out of the Cylon planet? It's flipped, shifted, but it doesn't stop the merry-go-round and it, again, just keeps happening.
Cylons evolve and keep evolving and they bomb each other one way and then another and then go out for lunch and joke about peace treaties before they do it all again.
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On the other hand.... WHOA, says my brain.
Because they've shown us beautifully how the human Cylons have evolved, gained a further humanity and all that that entails - you can have growth through individual identity, real independent intelligence and dissent in how we saw the human models split, and then you can have them fall into the same pitfalls we do over and over again, like the ability to hold a grudge in the way only a human can and turning around and lobotomizing their own (and I never thought BSG would be awesome enough to pull that awesomeness). It's something other people have used but BSG has really taken it to a whole new level just like the entire way they've sort of really fleshed out the 'everything will happen again' mentality.
That emotionally scarred Six who freaked out before. Caprica's growth. Boomer's completely human insecurities. My beloved, ass-kicking Natalie.
They just keep evolving.
So... with the planet of Cylons... it's happened before?
But the merry-go-round was just reversed?
This time it was the humans who left to start their own place when the Cylons inevitably got smart enough to fight for themselves?
The humans who might have later come back?
In the colonies that we started this show with, instead of just running off and forgetting about us, the Cylons held enough of a grudge that they held off for 40 years and then came back and blew us all to hell. Some of the human models pretty clearly view us the way we have a habit of viewing whatever old native culture we come in to "save" while demolishing, talking about what makes them special while also still looking at them with a belief deep inside that we will always be better than them.
Add in the religious aspect there, the slant of monotheistic against polytheistic.
The way they focused on how human the people on the planet were when we saw the gang wandering around I what I keep coming back to. The jacks, Chief wandering around in a fruit market, guitar playing, the screaming and sobbing in the background while Saul was searching for Ellen...
WHOA, says my brain.
... see what this show does to me? I make no sense.
And I'm ignoring Twilight because I'm trying to ignore the idea of millions of girls thinking this is great advice for life, *twitches violently*
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I’ll admit that I came to the show because Baltar and Six were just so pretty (before he stopped shaving last season, at least), but it’s just… so much more awesome than that. The ethics, the metaphysics, the theology, the poli sci… even the character studies. Especially the character studies. Because Baltar is one of the most fascinatingly human characters I’ve ever come across. Kara as well, in other ways. Romo Lampkin's comments about studying the worst of humanity to understand what we're capable of... so fitting.
And see, my immediate thought is that the human were the ones bombing the Cylon planet (if it was a Cylon planet).
Not stupid at all. Just as you said… considering the cyclical nature of everything, and how the roles are constantly shifting back and forth (and like the huge Kara/Leoben shipper I am, I’ll point to her holding him prisoner, and then vice versa), I can definitely see the humans being on the offensive in the last go around. And it would also help to explain why the Cylons saw the need for a preemptive attack this time.
The way they focused on how human the people on the planet were when we saw the gang wandering around I what I keep coming back to.
THIS. This is what I loved about first 15 or so minutes of the show. Because you get such a clear picture of just how each character reacts to the situation. Sure, it continues, but the close-ups right then… eeee. <3
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