Thirty Days of TV: Day Thirty

[selenak]

Day 30 - Saddest character death.And we conclude with a horrible dilemma of a question, given that the media I consume offers really a lot of death scenes, now that I think of it. However, let me specify in order to narrow the criteria: "saddest death" is absolutely not the same as "most shocking" or "most surprising". And of course, one viewer's

Comments

[reverancepavane]

Thanks for 30 days of interesting ideas.

[selenak]

You're very welcome!

[daybreak777]

Darla's death. Totally fitting and unexpected. I wouldn't have changed a thing about that whole arc.

You mentioned my boy Felix! Aww. His death totally gutted me. So much I had to make this fanvid soon after. I'm so glad that you mentioned him.

Wallace! Where Wallace at?! Exactly. The king stay the king and the pawns stay the pawns. Never forgot Wallace.

[selenak]

Poor Felix. And thanks for linking your beautiful vid!

[daybreak777]

You're welcome. Thanks for watching it.

[falafel_musings]

Thanks for linking your Gaeta vid, daybreak! I've been wanting to rewatch that one for ages. I've just been to rewatch my own Gaeta tribute: http://falafel-musings.livejournal.com/26552.html *sniff* Poor poor Felix.

[falafel_musings]

Charlie's death by drowning complete with "not Penny's boat" message and preceding very touching "greatest hits" episode. However, while I liked Charlie, I didn't love him, Charlie was my favourite character but I think his death was designed for fans who didn't care about him much. Anyone I knew who was actually a big fan of Charlie just felt angry and cheated over his death. For me it was a hugely emotionally manipulative moment with "destiny!" forcing Charlie into a heroic sacrifice that he didn't actually need to make and that didn't achieve what it was supposed to. I quit watching Lost in S4 when it became clear that Claire and Aaron weren't going to be rescued together in a helicopter as per Desmond's vision which Desmond (and the show) just forgot about even though Desmond sent his friend on a suicide mission for this reason. Then in S5 I hear Desmond names his baby Charlie just to rewrite history as if Charlie's sacrifice was all about getting Desmond off the island. So it helps if you don't love Charlie because though it's

[selenak]

Oh, I can understand not rewatching the mutiny eps too often when Gaeta is your favourite! I don't rewatch the B5 eps where my favourite Londo gets put through the wringer of a horrible fate often, either, because though they're superbly done, it just hurts so much. Actually I hadn't rewatched the mutiny eps for years until recently myself, and that just reminded me all over again how tragic Gaeta's life was. I also watched for the first time the deleted or extended scenes, and there was one where when Adama & Co. show up to arrest Gaeta & Zarek, Zarek says to Adama he ought to give Felix a medal because Gaeta was the only reason Adama was still alive.

Re: the Felix/Gaius scene, I remember composer Bear McCreary (who as the composer got the scripts and the rushes ahead of time) comparing in his blog Gaius final words "I know who you are" to Felix here with Caprica Six telling Gaius "I know; I know you do" in Daybreak (again, the last thing we hear said between these particular characters, as Head!Six and Head!Gaius are different

[falafel_musings]

when Adama & Co. show up to arrest Gaeta & Zarek, Zarek says to Adama he ought to give Felix a medal because Gaeta was the only reason Adama was still alive. I wish they had kept that line in! It adds a lot to my Bill Adama hate that Felix agonized over killing him and was desperately stalling and searching for a reason not to do it. And when the roles were reversed Adama didn't think twice about executing Gaeta or show a flicker of emotion over killing one of his "kids", the cold self-righteous bastard (this reminds me, I forgot to respond to your Adama post earlier this week

[selenak]

Given that humans and Cylons were constantly coded as parents & children, the question of incest had to arise sooner or later. (Though in this case out of Cylon & Cylon combinations.) Though of course Cavil is the only one who went for that deliberately - Chief and Tigh didn't know (well, Tigh knew he was a Cylon at that point, but not that the Five had created the Six). I think Ellen when she got her memories back saw it as one of many things Cavil had done, and not the worst (hard to compete with full scale genocide and torture), but she also didn't forget it for a moment. And it's telling that when she finds out about Tigh & Caprica, the first thing she says "but we made them". On my recent rewatch, I paid attention to how Tigh reacts when Sam gets his memories back and reveals that bit of news (the creators/creations aspect). His immediate reaction (and he's the only one of the Five to do so) is to wonder whether that makes the entire genocide their fault). But there is a scene two episodes later when a dying Eight at sickbay

[airie_fairy]

It's Nate. Sympathetic character levels don't enter into it. It's totally Nate. Because it's the most real representation of experiencing the death of someone I've ever seen. I reacted to it like someone I knew had died. It had nothing to do with liking or not liking Nate (I do, and yes, he's an erratic man child, and I still do); rather it was about the feeling of something real being taken from your life. It affected me physiologically. I'm still stunned at how they managed to do that.

[selenak]

As I said: despite being irritated by him through most of the season, I still felt very sad by the death itself (and Ruth & David with the body afterwards, that was so gut wrenching!) - but I also thought it was the right thing to do for the show in its final season with this particular character (even if he'd been a prince throughout, it's about Nate & mortality).

[airie_fairy]

I'm not contesting that, I'm just referring to the impact.

[redfiona10]

Owen and Tosh are on my list too. It has lead to unfortunate side effects like the scene in Aliens of London making me go a bit moist round the eye-sockets.

[selenak]

It's been eons since I watched that - probably not since the initial broadcast - but I imagine the sight of Tosh is going to hit me hard when I eventually do...