Flipping gender or point of views; multifandom musings (including BSG, Star Wars, DS9 and Carnivale)

[selenak]

Firstly, American readers, if the ramblings on these humble pages or anything else has made you interested into the new Battlestar Galactica, the Sci-Fi Channel is running a marathon on Tuesday of the first five episodes starting at 7 p.m. EST, so you should have a chance to catch up. A fan of the old show - proving that loving both is far from

Comments

[selenak]

I'm a big fan of genderswapping, and although I never met the original Starbuck, it does make me wonder how being genderswapped changed her character. At the moment (having seen just 2 episodes) she doesn't seem all that unusual - the crackerjack female fighter with deep emotional wounds is something we've seen before, with Kira and Susan Ivanova. It makes me want to back and watch the original, just so I can see how the characters compare.

Judging by the pilot of the original and the two or so episodes I saw way back when, the emotional wounds are what's new. Male Starbuck was just a swashbuckler. But then the adding of emotional trauma is not confined to Starbuck. In the original, Zack was killed by Cylons, there was no guilt for anyone, and Apollo and Adama got along along just fine. (Whereas in the new series, they start out barely on talking terms and are now tentatively becoming closer again.) The other genderswapped character is Boomer, who was a man but then also wasn't a Cylon sleeper agent unaware of her nature because the Cylons weren't able to look like humans in the original (they were just dumb robots).

Shakespeare genderswapping can be galvanizing, yes. Love it.

[nenya_kanadka]

he crackerjack female fighter with deep emotional wounds is something we've seen before

Judging by the pilot of the original and the two or so episodes I saw way back when, the emotional wounds are what's new.

I can't be the only one who is annoyed that "kick-ass" female characters always seem to have to have emotional wounds. It worked for Kira, yes. (And thank heaven Jadzia was there as an example of a strong woman who hadn't been emotionally banged around. And that Kira retained her kick-ass-ness when she started healing from her wounds.) But come on--is there some rule that says women can't do cool adventurous things unless they're driven by some deep internal pain and trauma? The men don't have to. *sigh*

[selenak]

True enough, though in the case of the new BSG, everyone, male or female, got emotional wounds in their pasts. So I don't mind in this case.

[nenya_kanadka]

That does help. Equal-opportunity character abuse, or something. :)

Someone has written crossover fic with Sam Carter and Starbuck.

Which is not the only reason I'm curious about this show. :)

[selenak]

Oh, you need to watch it! Best start with the miniseries that lays out the foundations, though. It really introduces the characters best, and it's out already on DVD in all regions.