BSG Community Day Meta: Five Things (Laura, Zarek, Bill/Saul/Laura, bonus Billy)
Yesterday's community discussion question over at bsg-epics asked folks to leave characters or pairings for you then to write: "the five most important concepts/ideas/things you always keep in mind when you write them or that you feel you need to see when you read about them. The things you feel are essential to accurately depicting those characters in fic, the way you prefer to see them."
I was prompted with Bill/Saul/Laura, Zarek, Laura, and Billy. I'd already done this question, in this exact same five things format, for Billy so I'll just leave a link to that post here. Below the cuts are some thinky thoughts about B/S/L, Zarek, and Laura.
Bill/Saul/Laura
1. Whether I’m writing or reading B/S/L with B/S as established before the OT3 or not their long, storied friendship is the foundation of the OT3. It impacts how the three make their relationship works and how they interact both as a whole and in dyads. Bill understands Saul’s flaws and their origins and is able to explain them to Laura in a way that evokes her natural empathy and makes her love Saul all the more for them as Bill does. Saul knows intimately what it’s like to be loved by Bill -- both how wonderful it is and how overwhelming in intensity it can be -- and helps Laura become more comfortable being enveloped by that love. And she helps them soothe old wounds, reconcile some of the hard stuff like Saul being a Cylon, and gives them something to focus on when her cancer returns.
2. They’re able to balance a romantic relationship with collectively running the fleet because they’ve learned to trust each other as leaders in all of the dyads. Bill and Laura as Commander/Admiral and President, Bill and Saul as Commander/Admiral and XO, and Saul and Laura as leaders of the resistance on New Caprica. The deep respect that comes from making life and death decisions together runs over into how they treat each other as partners.
3. Laura is incredibly supportive of Bill/Saul, whether it’s as a friend before entering the OT3 or as the last to join the triad when she finally does. She knows they’ve kept each other alive for many years and how much they need one another. One of the reason she’s so willing to enter the OT3 is to make sure Bill won’t be left alone to completely collapse when she eventually dies.
4. Saul’s been trying to ease the stick out of Bill’s ass for decades but in Laura he’s found a mischievous partner in that task. He knows she’s playful but the pedestal he has her on plus his overprotectiveness often leaves him blind to her ability to scheme. This leads, in my fics, to many humorous situations in which Laura and Saul partner together to get Bill to relax a little bit. Bill also learns, eventually, that Laura can appreciate Saul’s crass sense of humor and Saul enjoys Laura’s dry sarcasm despite his original concerns.
5. No matter what situation I write or read them in the most important thing to me is that all three are age appropriate. Not that they don’t have fun or be playful but their personalities and therefore their actions are informed by decades of living and learning. I think, of the three, Saul has the most leeway (especially before the Cylon reveal) because he naturally has a carefree and sometimes reckless personality. It’s a lot harder for Laura to relax enough to make rash decisions and a lot, LOT harder for Bill.
Tom Zarek
1. Despite the sometimes sketchy means he uses to achieve his ends, Tom really does consider himself a freedom fighter who is always on the side of the people. He has a strong reaction to injustice and it’s simply not within his nature to sit idly by while people suffer. He could have taken Adar’s pardon and he could have stood by silently on NC but the fact he didn’t are strong indicators that he’s sincere about the depth and nature of his moral beliefs.
2. Tom is charismatic, well-spoken, and knows how to give a damn good speech. And he knows it. He’s used those characteristics as a freedom fighter, as the leader he became in prison and then on the Astral Queen, and then in all the other roles he played after the Colonies were destroyed. These qualities irk Roslin and Adama -- even though they both possess them too -- and Tom sees their reaction to his ability to match them in those areas as part of their discrimination against him as a Sagittaron and a former prisoner.
3. Tom had a relatively happy childhood despite living on an oppressed colony because his parents worked very hard to make sure of it. That’s part of his determination to make sure all children, whether they be Sagittaron or the children on NC, have the opportunity to have happy childhoods.
4. Tom’s feelings about Laura Roslin evolve tremendously throughout the canon story and she occupies not a small part of his mind space. He truly views her as an oppressive Caprican who has instituted a dictatorship at the start but he begins to respect her as a politician after she bests him in the vice presidential contest. His alliance with Baltar is a power play -- and he’s truly appalled by her decision to ban abortion -- but even before the election he starts to realize she’s more sane and competent than his running mate. Without a doubt he regretted his decision after the Cylons invaded NC and he’s come to the realization that she’s the leader the people need once they return to space. He’s disappointed by the way she handles Baltar’s trial and judges her harshly for the way she steps back from her presidency once her cancer returns. All of this is wrapped up in his feelings about her as a woman. He’s attracted to her, without a doubt, but he vascilates between wanting to frak her into submission, be controlled by her, or have the sort of co-leadership romance with her that she eventually develops with Adama. No matter which scenario he prefers at any given moment he sincerely enjoys bantering with someone who is as smart, strategic, and sarcastic as he is.
5. Tom has it in him to be not only incredibly cruel but murderous when his back is against the wall. I think even he would put the bombings and holding the Galactica personnel and Billy hostage to spark a bloodbath in a different mental category than killing the Quorum. He likely justified all those acts the same way in his head -- for the greater good -- but he probably realized, even through his desperation he’d crossed into a whole new territory.
Laura Roslin
1. Laura is above all practical in everything she does. She makes a decision about what she believes to be right and is steadfast and sometimes even merciless in pursuing that end. Every decision she makes, from leaving behind the ships that don’t have FTL capacity to destroying the Olympic Carrier to the abortion ban, stems from the practical side of her that knows it’s a numbers game and if she lets emotion get in the way the human race will suffer. She’s always been like this although the holocaust forced her to make much harder and higher stakes decisions than ever before. This is an innate personality trait intensified by being the oldest child and from having to take care of her siblings and father after her mother died.
2. Laura is by no means heartless. In fact, she mourns each death and feels the pain of her people when they suffer even if it’s due to a decision she’s made. Rather than collapsing under the weight of that grief she forces herself to learn from it and uses it to propel her forward during the hardest moments.
3. Laura is stoic because if she allows herself to show the immensity of what she’s feeling inside, she’ll fall apart. She learned this when her mother died and she had to be the strong one who took on the mantle of being the matriarch of her family. After her sisters and father died she repressed her emotions even more as a means of protecting herself from further hurt. Her relationship with Adar was the way it was because she couldn’t risk opening herself up to the vulnerability of a full relationship. This trait, combined with her innate practicality, is why it took her so long to open herself up to Bill’s love and why it sometimes felt smothering to her.
4. Laura is naturally playful and funny. Her wit is dry and sarcastic and imbued with her above average intelligence. When she’s comfortable enough to let her hair down she’s willing to take a responsible measure of risk in the name of fun and her giggling is a lifelong trait that she sometimes hates and sometimes credits with allowing her to survive incredible tragedy.
5. Laura is a mature woman whose behavior, life view, and decisions are informed by living in a sexist and ageist world that have forced her to figure out how to play situations to her advantage in light of those facts. She’s comfortable enough with herself as a whole to use silence effectively and no longer feels the need to immediately prove she’s the smartest and most powerful person in the room. Laura is comfortable in her skin when it comes to professional, intellectual matters and no longer apologizes in any way for who she is as a woman or a leader.
I was prompted with Bill/Saul/Laura, Zarek, Laura, and Billy. I'd already done this question, in this exact same five things format, for Billy so I'll just leave a link to that post here. Below the cuts are some thinky thoughts about B/S/L, Zarek, and Laura.
Bill/Saul/Laura
1. Whether I’m writing or reading B/S/L with B/S as established before the OT3 or not their long, storied friendship is the foundation of the OT3. It impacts how the three make their relationship works and how they interact both as a whole and in dyads. Bill understands Saul’s flaws and their origins and is able to explain them to Laura in a way that evokes her natural empathy and makes her love Saul all the more for them as Bill does. Saul knows intimately what it’s like to be loved by Bill -- both how wonderful it is and how overwhelming in intensity it can be -- and helps Laura become more comfortable being enveloped by that love. And she helps them soothe old wounds, reconcile some of the hard stuff like Saul being a Cylon, and gives them something to focus on when her cancer returns.
2. They’re able to balance a romantic relationship with collectively running the fleet because they’ve learned to trust each other as leaders in all of the dyads. Bill and Laura as Commander/Admiral and President, Bill and Saul as Commander/Admiral and XO, and Saul and Laura as leaders of the resistance on New Caprica. The deep respect that comes from making life and death decisions together runs over into how they treat each other as partners.
3. Laura is incredibly supportive of Bill/Saul, whether it’s as a friend before entering the OT3 or as the last to join the triad when she finally does. She knows they’ve kept each other alive for many years and how much they need one another. One of the reason she’s so willing to enter the OT3 is to make sure Bill won’t be left alone to completely collapse when she eventually dies.
4. Saul’s been trying to ease the stick out of Bill’s ass for decades but in Laura he’s found a mischievous partner in that task. He knows she’s playful but the pedestal he has her on plus his overprotectiveness often leaves him blind to her ability to scheme. This leads, in my fics, to many humorous situations in which Laura and Saul partner together to get Bill to relax a little bit. Bill also learns, eventually, that Laura can appreciate Saul’s crass sense of humor and Saul enjoys Laura’s dry sarcasm despite his original concerns.
5. No matter what situation I write or read them in the most important thing to me is that all three are age appropriate. Not that they don’t have fun or be playful but their personalities and therefore their actions are informed by decades of living and learning. I think, of the three, Saul has the most leeway (especially before the Cylon reveal) because he naturally has a carefree and sometimes reckless personality. It’s a lot harder for Laura to relax enough to make rash decisions and a lot, LOT harder for Bill.
Tom Zarek
1. Despite the sometimes sketchy means he uses to achieve his ends, Tom really does consider himself a freedom fighter who is always on the side of the people. He has a strong reaction to injustice and it’s simply not within his nature to sit idly by while people suffer. He could have taken Adar’s pardon and he could have stood by silently on NC but the fact he didn’t are strong indicators that he’s sincere about the depth and nature of his moral beliefs.
2. Tom is charismatic, well-spoken, and knows how to give a damn good speech. And he knows it. He’s used those characteristics as a freedom fighter, as the leader he became in prison and then on the Astral Queen, and then in all the other roles he played after the Colonies were destroyed. These qualities irk Roslin and Adama -- even though they both possess them too -- and Tom sees their reaction to his ability to match them in those areas as part of their discrimination against him as a Sagittaron and a former prisoner.
3. Tom had a relatively happy childhood despite living on an oppressed colony because his parents worked very hard to make sure of it. That’s part of his determination to make sure all children, whether they be Sagittaron or the children on NC, have the opportunity to have happy childhoods.
4. Tom’s feelings about Laura Roslin evolve tremendously throughout the canon story and she occupies not a small part of his mind space. He truly views her as an oppressive Caprican who has instituted a dictatorship at the start but he begins to respect her as a politician after she bests him in the vice presidential contest. His alliance with Baltar is a power play -- and he’s truly appalled by her decision to ban abortion -- but even before the election he starts to realize she’s more sane and competent than his running mate. Without a doubt he regretted his decision after the Cylons invaded NC and he’s come to the realization that she’s the leader the people need once they return to space. He’s disappointed by the way she handles Baltar’s trial and judges her harshly for the way she steps back from her presidency once her cancer returns. All of this is wrapped up in his feelings about her as a woman. He’s attracted to her, without a doubt, but he vascilates between wanting to frak her into submission, be controlled by her, or have the sort of co-leadership romance with her that she eventually develops with Adama. No matter which scenario he prefers at any given moment he sincerely enjoys bantering with someone who is as smart, strategic, and sarcastic as he is.
5. Tom has it in him to be not only incredibly cruel but murderous when his back is against the wall. I think even he would put the bombings and holding the Galactica personnel and Billy hostage to spark a bloodbath in a different mental category than killing the Quorum. He likely justified all those acts the same way in his head -- for the greater good -- but he probably realized, even through his desperation he’d crossed into a whole new territory.
Laura Roslin
1. Laura is above all practical in everything she does. She makes a decision about what she believes to be right and is steadfast and sometimes even merciless in pursuing that end. Every decision she makes, from leaving behind the ships that don’t have FTL capacity to destroying the Olympic Carrier to the abortion ban, stems from the practical side of her that knows it’s a numbers game and if she lets emotion get in the way the human race will suffer. She’s always been like this although the holocaust forced her to make much harder and higher stakes decisions than ever before. This is an innate personality trait intensified by being the oldest child and from having to take care of her siblings and father after her mother died.
2. Laura is by no means heartless. In fact, she mourns each death and feels the pain of her people when they suffer even if it’s due to a decision she’s made. Rather than collapsing under the weight of that grief she forces herself to learn from it and uses it to propel her forward during the hardest moments.
3. Laura is stoic because if she allows herself to show the immensity of what she’s feeling inside, she’ll fall apart. She learned this when her mother died and she had to be the strong one who took on the mantle of being the matriarch of her family. After her sisters and father died she repressed her emotions even more as a means of protecting herself from further hurt. Her relationship with Adar was the way it was because she couldn’t risk opening herself up to the vulnerability of a full relationship. This trait, combined with her innate practicality, is why it took her so long to open herself up to Bill’s love and why it sometimes felt smothering to her.
4. Laura is naturally playful and funny. Her wit is dry and sarcastic and imbued with her above average intelligence. When she’s comfortable enough to let her hair down she’s willing to take a responsible measure of risk in the name of fun and her giggling is a lifelong trait that she sometimes hates and sometimes credits with allowing her to survive incredible tragedy.
5. Laura is a mature woman whose behavior, life view, and decisions are informed by living in a sexist and ageist world that have forced her to figure out how to play situations to her advantage in light of those facts. She’s comfortable enough with herself as a whole to use silence effectively and no longer feels the need to immediately prove she’s the smartest and most powerful person in the room. Laura is comfortable in her skin when it comes to professional, intellectual matters and no longer apologizes in any way for who she is as a woman or a leader.