Now that's the way to end a series - with some frakking incredible storytelling. Ron Moore said he was stressing over how to write the ending to BSG, getting all caught up in the plot, and it wasn't working. Then he had an epiphany: 'It's the characters, stupid.'
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Frak yeah )
1. The way they used the Opera House dream was very well done. [And the subtext of it - that you need not only the two typical protectors, the mother (Athena) and the leader of your people (Laura), but also other, non-traditional protectors like Caprica and Gaius to come together to protect Hera and the future of humanity. Also it's all even steven - 2 humans, 2 cylons.]
Ooh, I hadn't even really picked up on that aspect of it. I like that.
2. The fact that Gaius and Caprica both having versions of each other in their heads was real.
Now see, I was really attached to the idea that Baltar was going to turn out to be the one surviving copy of the missing "Daniel," and that his hallucination!Caprica was going to be a projection while her hallucination!Gaius would also be one. Them being able to see each other's projections still worked. But having them turn out to be actual "angel"-ish things kind of annoyed me.
3. Starbuck and Apollo got really drunk the first night they met and almost got it on! I swear I hadn't heard this as a spoiler when I wrote 'Ship Wars' - really.
And yet they weren't ever really able to be together - there was always an obstacle. Then we come to an end where it seems everything else has been swept aside (including having both of their other love interests conveniently dead) and bam - still no go. That was something I'd felt (Maria in 'Ship Wars,') but the Andrew in me had still hoped for some happiness.
Well, they did have that one night on New Caprica, even though Starbuck freaked out and ran off to marry Sam the next morning. But yeah, that first night was cool.
4. And what was Starbuck? An 'angel.' Hmmm. Glad there's still some mystery about it.
I would actually have liked to see that get wrapped up a bit better. Given all the suggestions about time issues, I was hoping, when they jumped away from the colony near that singularity, that they'd have intersected a time loop somewhere that both complicated and explained things like Starbuck's "resurrection."
5. Starbuck jumping them to our Earth - the song coming together.
That was awesome.
6. Oh, Laura. How sad and beautiful her passing and Bill staying with her to his end.
Yes. *sniffles*
7. Caprica finally respecting Gaius, allowing their love to finally be true.
Yes. Not to mention Gaius finally doing something worth respecting. Though I will give him that he did have that one moment in the miniseries, when he could've taken that old lady's seat on the raptor and didn't. I like to think that was him trying to make ammends for his part in the destruction of the colonies.
8. Athena forgiving Helo.
Yes.
9. Hera as mitochondrial Eve - we've all got a bit of Cylon in us. Interesting as well to realize that the people put down on the other continents didn't 'make it' in the long run (aren't our ancestors).
I know. That's definite food for thought. Though, did they not make it? Or did they hang onto some technology and end up leaving again?
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1. I wanted a bit of closure for Leoben and Starbuck - not sexual, but something. He had been such an important part of her journey (and underscored once again that it takes both humans and cylons) that I felt it needed something more.
Yeah, Leoben was just kind of missing at the end, and there needed to be some resolution there.
2. I have a few concerns about it devolving into a pastoral, that return to primitive nobility that will make everything better. Oh, well - it's a genre for a reason, I guess.
I didn't see it so much as a return to primitive nobility as, like Lee said, a clean slate. Starting over.
3. The last few minutes. They tell us Hera is mitochondrial Eve, and that's important to the human/cylon message. It also saves it a bit from the pastoral thingy.
But ... but ... it just felt too heavy handed. Yes, this is our Earth (showing Africa as the ship flies over Luna kinda nailed that). But flashing forward to now and going, 'Will they repeat the same mistakes again?' Literally. Out loud. Too, too much. [No wait - let me open my mouth wider so you can use a bigger spoon.] And all the video of the robots we've made - it went on for too long.
Yeah. They just needed to cut that waaaaay shorter.
4. If they wanted to really work the missing link thingy, they should have had the primitives on earth be more like a neanderthal instead of so tall and gangly.
Yes! That really didn't make much sense.
5. I know the show has had a mystical/spiritual element from the start, but 'angels' and 'god' and all that still get on my nerves. At least Gaius said that the higher power didn't like to be called 'god,' so that we can see we shouldn't be layering Christianity over it, but it was just one tiny line, and I fear not enough to really say that we still don't know what the higher power is.
And as a polytheist, can I just say how very, very much this aspect annoyed the hell out of me?
On the one hand, it was very cool seeing this utterly matter-of-fact polytheist society. Even worshipping some of the same Gods and Goddesses I do! Not in a way that has any real connection to the way the Ancient Greeks did it (let's start with priests doing funerals - huge taboo!), which had me wondering what if any connection to our Ancient Greece there would be. But still, it was cool. However. The Cylon "one true God" kept showing more actual influence on events. And then Baltar's little sermon on Galactica. And Gaius and Caprica's little Crowley and Aziraphale-esque stroll through downtown-wherever. Yeah. Very annoyed.
Even with the "doesn't like to be called God" line, it still annoys me, because it does buy into that neo-Platonic "whatever it is, there can be only one" thing. I get that a large percentage of people believe that in some form or other. But to go there from that well-developed polytheistic society felt like a slap in the face. There's been a longish post on this brewing since about midway through the webisodes between S2 and S3, and now that I've finally seen the ending, maybe I'll finally type it all out.
6. Update: This did strike me. I know it served the story, and there was never any doubt that Laura would lose her battle with cancer, but ... But we're left with an ending about four different couples. All the men are human. For the two couples with human women, both women 'die.' For the two couples with cylon women, they live. The subtext is a little like 'the men get their walking sex-toys.' Only a little, because we come to see both Caprica and Athena as much more than that, but ... I'm bothered nonetheless.
I was bothered by Caprica and Boomer from the start coming across as the typical temptresses luring men to their destruction. At least Gina!Six got to also lure a woman? *sigh* And yeah, all the purely human lead women were gone by the end, which didn't exactly help the overall sense of misogynistic undertones, though Hera as Mitochondrial Eve helped. And the way Caprica, Athena, and Starbuck developed as strong women characters helped. But still. Yeah. Bothered.
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I get the starting over thing now, but boy, you should have seen some BSG freak the hell out over this.
Even with the "doesn't like to be called God" line, it still annoys me, because it does buy into that neo-Platonic "whatever it is, there can be only one" thing.
I know! If the message is that we have to incorporate multiple ways of being to make the best hope for the future (Hera as mitochondrial Eve), why wasn't that social as well as genetic? Why the push for monotheism? Argh.
all the purely human lead women were gone by the end, which didn't exactly help the overall sense of misogynistic undertones
Yes, I want to know why there couldn't have been one viable male Cylon/female human storyline in the entire series. Kara/Leoben doesn't count (much as a part of me wishes it did) - he was too messed up.
Really, all the male Cylons were very negative. Maybe it was sexism from the other side? Or is it still a crack at women - only female Cylons won't be 'tough killing machines'?
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True, but guh - that just adds to the sadness in some ways. It was the most open and vulnerable we ever see either of them, and then ...
Or did they hang onto some technology and end up leaving again?
I don't know - I thought it was implied that all of the Colonists gave up technology. Now that I've thought about it more, I think they pretty much had to - they had no way to machine anything new.
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