BSG remix fic: "Blind Men's Bluffs" (plus meta)
Title: Blind Men's Bluffs
Summary: It's Colonial Day, and everybody tries to be somebody new.
Characters: Kara, Lee, Baltar, Boomer, Athena & various others
Pairings: Kara/Lee, Saul/Ellen
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Title, Author and URL of original story: First Bluff by kag523
Beta Thanks: Many thanks to nnaylime who stopped me from using a confusing line, to millari for giving Baltar a look and especially to rose_griffes for the overall beta.
Author's Note: The best lines are lifted directly from the original story.
"Blind Men's Bluffs" at the bsg_remix comm
Writing a remix for "First Bluff" was an incredibly fun challenge, because "First Bluff" is like nothing I'd ever write. Not only is it Kara/Lee fluff (not that I don't like the pairing - but have you ever seen me writing fluff, any fluff, any romantic tropes at all?). On top of that, it's also a very straightforward alternative ending to the episode "Colonial Day" in which Kara goes after Lee instead of dancing with (and later, frakking) Baltar; then there is kissing. I don't write stories like that, not without giving a good reason for why the characters act differently than in canon, because there's a reason characters act the way they act, hence just stating that they acted differently automatically computes as OOC for me.
Mind that this is a taste issue. There are several assumptions kag523 makes in characterizing Kara that I just don't agree with. It's just not how I see Kara, without thinking I must be right and she must be wrong - there's a reason why I'm not in that part of fandom while she is, after all. My fic is a direct consequence of trying to work my way around these assumption while at the same time still keeping the original premise intact. Once I'd managed, I had a story.
First of all, kag523 makes a clear distinction between Starbuck and Kara Thrace, much like they are completely different people and Starbuck is just a mask put on to hide the much more fragile, feminine Kara. While I get where she is coming from on the fragile part, I can't so much see it on the feminine part. Plus, in keeping with the distinction (that I'd never think to use in the first place because that's just not how I roll), I think the "Starbuck" part of Kara is way cooler and more interesting than the "Kara" part of Kara. This issue is probably best summed up in a line I once wrote about a badass Auror in a German HP fic, something the protagonist who was in love with her stated. Acting like all her hard edges were just a facade would have insulted one formidable woman. So I can agree that there's a part of Kara that longs to be more yielding, and to be able to let herself be open. The thing is, I don't think she'd ever be able to give in to it. I think the fact that she can't ever do that is a defining part of her character. And while there are hints in canon that Kara might have been interested in being more feminine (bottoming for Baltar, slapping him in S4 were two things that struck me as surprisingly stereotypically female), I choose to believe that these were cases of bad writing, not expressions of a deeper need by Kara.
Secondly, kag523 picks up on a trope that was used in the episode, one that is used in a lot of romance, and one that I happen to loathe (let me repeat again that this is a TASTE issue. There's nothing wrong with liking the trope!). It's the idea that you can put a woman in a dress and paint her with mascara, thus making it possible to see her true beauty. This has never worked for me. I love Starbuck exactly because she doesn't dress up. It's the fun part about her. I've never liked this moment in Colonial Day. Frankly, I neither think the dress made Kara more beautiful, nor do I think it made her "more herself" - just the opposite is true, it made her look a little ridiculous in my eyes. I took some measures to handle this problem in my fic, one of them being that I pointed out time and again how the whole exercise was a dare. I can make a dare work in my head. A dare is a very Starbuck thing to take.
Thirdly, I'm somebody who doesn't use make-up personally. I also don't do high heels. When I was younger and did use make-up, it was Gothic make-up and more of a matter of, "Heat mascara with lighter before use to make it look more badass." Thus, I am aware of something that many other adult women who do these things have probably forgotten. Also the movies, where all women are naturals at these things, help us forget: Applying make-up is a frakking art. It has to be studied for many years before you get good at it. The same is true for wearing high heels - I remember a friend in high school who loves high heels, who looks fantastic in high heels now, and who spent her first year walking in them looking like a storch on meth. So when I think "Starbuck applying make-up," I think, "How would she even know how to do that?" Though of course I think she just doesn't, which explains why she looks so weird in Colonial Day. I at least wanted to point in my story at how out of her depth she would be on that front. She's better at maintaining a Viper than herself. Which is my Starbuck in a nuthsell, anyway.
So at the end of this line of thoughts, I wrote my story, in which kag523's excellent story happens yet doesn't happen - because in my book, there's no chance it ever could.
Summary: It's Colonial Day, and everybody tries to be somebody new.
Characters: Kara, Lee, Baltar, Boomer, Athena & various others
Pairings: Kara/Lee, Saul/Ellen
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Title, Author and URL of original story: First Bluff by kag523
Beta Thanks: Many thanks to nnaylime who stopped me from using a confusing line, to millari for giving Baltar a look and especially to rose_griffes for the overall beta.
Author's Note: The best lines are lifted directly from the original story.
"Blind Men's Bluffs" at the bsg_remix comm
Writing a remix for "First Bluff" was an incredibly fun challenge, because "First Bluff" is like nothing I'd ever write. Not only is it Kara/Lee fluff (not that I don't like the pairing - but have you ever seen me writing fluff, any fluff, any romantic tropes at all?). On top of that, it's also a very straightforward alternative ending to the episode "Colonial Day" in which Kara goes after Lee instead of dancing with (and later, frakking) Baltar; then there is kissing. I don't write stories like that, not without giving a good reason for why the characters act differently than in canon, because there's a reason characters act the way they act, hence just stating that they acted differently automatically computes as OOC for me.
Mind that this is a taste issue. There are several assumptions kag523 makes in characterizing Kara that I just don't agree with. It's just not how I see Kara, without thinking I must be right and she must be wrong - there's a reason why I'm not in that part of fandom while she is, after all. My fic is a direct consequence of trying to work my way around these assumption while at the same time still keeping the original premise intact. Once I'd managed, I had a story.
First of all, kag523 makes a clear distinction between Starbuck and Kara Thrace, much like they are completely different people and Starbuck is just a mask put on to hide the much more fragile, feminine Kara. While I get where she is coming from on the fragile part, I can't so much see it on the feminine part. Plus, in keeping with the distinction (that I'd never think to use in the first place because that's just not how I roll), I think the "Starbuck" part of Kara is way cooler and more interesting than the "Kara" part of Kara. This issue is probably best summed up in a line I once wrote about a badass Auror in a German HP fic, something the protagonist who was in love with her stated. Acting like all her hard edges were just a facade would have insulted one formidable woman. So I can agree that there's a part of Kara that longs to be more yielding, and to be able to let herself be open. The thing is, I don't think she'd ever be able to give in to it. I think the fact that she can't ever do that is a defining part of her character. And while there are hints in canon that Kara might have been interested in being more feminine (bottoming for Baltar, slapping him in S4 were two things that struck me as surprisingly stereotypically female), I choose to believe that these were cases of bad writing, not expressions of a deeper need by Kara.
Secondly, kag523 picks up on a trope that was used in the episode, one that is used in a lot of romance, and one that I happen to loathe (let me repeat again that this is a TASTE issue. There's nothing wrong with liking the trope!). It's the idea that you can put a woman in a dress and paint her with mascara, thus making it possible to see her true beauty. This has never worked for me. I love Starbuck exactly because she doesn't dress up. It's the fun part about her. I've never liked this moment in Colonial Day. Frankly, I neither think the dress made Kara more beautiful, nor do I think it made her "more herself" - just the opposite is true, it made her look a little ridiculous in my eyes. I took some measures to handle this problem in my fic, one of them being that I pointed out time and again how the whole exercise was a dare. I can make a dare work in my head. A dare is a very Starbuck thing to take.
Thirdly, I'm somebody who doesn't use make-up personally. I also don't do high heels. When I was younger and did use make-up, it was Gothic make-up and more of a matter of, "Heat mascara with lighter before use to make it look more badass." Thus, I am aware of something that many other adult women who do these things have probably forgotten. Also the movies, where all women are naturals at these things, help us forget: Applying make-up is a frakking art. It has to be studied for many years before you get good at it. The same is true for wearing high heels - I remember a friend in high school who loves high heels, who looks fantastic in high heels now, and who spent her first year walking in them looking like a storch on meth. So when I think "Starbuck applying make-up," I think, "How would she even know how to do that?" Though of course I think she just doesn't, which explains why she looks so weird in Colonial Day. I at least wanted to point in my story at how out of her depth she would be on that front. She's better at maintaining a Viper than herself. Which is my Starbuck in a nuthsell, anyway.
So at the end of this line of thoughts, I wrote my story, in which kag523's excellent story happens yet doesn't happen - because in my book, there's no chance it ever could.