on garde! (the ship wars in my brain)
I could have posted this in my own journal, except y'all probably care much more about the contents herein than my flist. so here I am. but first what I have to say is: I'm frakking writing drabbles, all of a sudden, which I entirely don't have time for. I'm extremely disappointed in myself (all because I was desperate to distract myself from grading papers). in the course of developing this series, I gave my partner in crime aeonian a holler, and in the course of our conversation it was discovered that I have a rather thorny (and for me, unprecedented) problem: dueling OTPs!
now, I put a lot of work (The Word -- still WIP, which is one reason I shouldn't be writing drabbles) into fixing season 2 for OTP 1.0 (Laura/Kara), and I'm proud of that. but at some point a girl's gotta concede defeat and move on, was my thinking. there should be, like, The Rules for shippers: Stop Dating Him Her if He She Doesn't Buy You a Romantic Gift [Of Subtext] (and yes, I did just go look that up in my bathroom copy). and at this point, honestly, I'm having trouble seeing it. the prospects of the two of them ever talking again look pretty dismal (though I did hear tell of at least ONE scene). and even if they did Starbuck is an emotional black hole right now, and much as she needs Roslin as a mommy, Roslin is busy and I don't think she has time or patience to put the pieces back together (even if she's the only one who CAN). plus Roslin has been getting lots of sex from Maya and Tory and probably Zarek, and Starbuck is beyond the point of being able to roll with Battlestar Polyamory. much as I appreciate Starbuck, baggage and all, she's really not very appealing this season -- anyway, she's going to have to start pulling it together soon; it's scary because before she always had someone to catch her, and this time I predict it's going to be Leemo (I didn't make that up) -- so no help for us there.
and meanwhile there's OTP 2.0 -- Laura/Tory, all shiny and new. I won't go into my entire topography of this pairing (which, for the record, I've loved since LDYB) -- suffice it to say that I'M SMITTEN. it's a very, very good match in the canonical economy and in my personal libidinal economy. so I'm all ready, you see, to say goodbye, to jump ship.
and a BONUS interesting factoid about Laura/Tory: according to asta77's recap of the Collaborators podcast, a subplot was cut from the ep that involved Tory betraying Roslin (I won't go into more detail in case you don't want to stray from screen canon, but click through or listen yourself if you want to know more). so the excess of emotion emanating from Tory in the post-Maya and inauguration scenes originally had a textual basis (she feels terrible about what she did) which got edited out. basically leaving a plot hole to be readily repurposed as subtext, as her now-gratuitous tears overflow into GAY. now, I don't know if I'm happy about the cuts or not -- on the one hand this way Tory remains more unflinchingly devoted to Roslin, which is how I've always seen her; but on the other we lost a bunch of screentime and character development for Tory (even unsympathetic might be better than nothing), plus what could have been a very fruitful (even, dare I say, sexy) conflict between the two of them. but anyway, I find this metatext for OTP 2.0 pretty fascinating.
BUT then aeonian goes and says things (which I am quoting without permission, ha!) like:
[Kara's] all "I am serious and committed to the military and the mission of finding Earth and basically being exactly who I was before except more obedient" (a.k.a. "Roslin, be the sexy boss of me!")... and you know she is all craving punishment in her PTSD way, because she's ashamed of being kidnapped and Leobened and losing Kacey, and she's ashamed of being ashamed, so what better way to punish herself than to have sex with and take orders from a woman she doesn't believe loves her? [and...] isn't it plausible that Roslin feels a little bit guilty about not being able to protect everyone? She lost the election, let them go to New Caprica, didn't lead, kind of let a lot of people die on their way off the planet, and failed Maya and Isis. And so she tries to make up for it by being the bestest president she can and also making out with Kara, who is a representation of all the people she let die/get fucked up/etc.
and I'm all INTRAPSYCHIC SHIP WARS, OH NOES! plus viciouswishes wrote the first post-Occupation K/L, which didn't help.
now, I take full responsibility for getting myself into this pickle. but if, in my own personal fanon, Kara/Laura = TRUE LOVE (which I think we have to acknowledge that it does, as embarrassing as that may be) then no, Laura can't frak off with Tory and leave Kara to self-destruct. woe is me!
as an OTP, Laura/Tory is like Tory -- the smart choice. willing and able, confident and independent.
as an OTP, Laura/Kara is like Kara -- it was doomed from the beginning. it will break your heart when it implodes under the weight of its own internal issues. and yet you keep coming back for more, because you can see the gold glinting underneath, even when it's at its most hopeless.
in conclusion, more of my own personal fanon: the Cylon g0d is a Laura/Kara shipper, because they are destined to lead everyone to Earth, prophet and disciple. so if they break up, g0d says NOBODY GETS TO EARTH (I don't think I'm the only one who sees Leoben as a real loose cannon re: g0d's alleged plan -- though I might be the only one who believes this because I think he tanked g0d's favorite pairing [remember, the Cylon psyche works by PROJECTION). which is also my way of saying: look, TPTB, bad things happen when you sink my ship! so it's not like I would have ever let them live happily ever after, without each other. but aeonian had filled me with angst, you see, about whether I was duty-bound to write them a final re-reunion at the end of the drabble series (how not to find earth: a cautionary tale). but no, I think I'm sticking to my distopian guns: after the death of OTP 1.0, they'll remain a-wandering in the desert, amen.
now, I put a lot of work (The Word -- still WIP, which is one reason I shouldn't be writing drabbles) into fixing season 2 for OTP 1.0 (Laura/Kara), and I'm proud of that. but at some point a girl's gotta concede defeat and move on, was my thinking. there should be, like, The Rules for shippers: Stop Dating Him Her if He She Doesn't Buy You a Romantic Gift [Of Subtext] (and yes, I did just go look that up in my bathroom copy). and at this point, honestly, I'm having trouble seeing it. the prospects of the two of them ever talking again look pretty dismal (though I did hear tell of at least ONE scene). and even if they did Starbuck is an emotional black hole right now, and much as she needs Roslin as a mommy, Roslin is busy and I don't think she has time or patience to put the pieces back together (even if she's the only one who CAN). plus Roslin has been getting lots of sex from Maya and Tory and probably Zarek, and Starbuck is beyond the point of being able to roll with Battlestar Polyamory. much as I appreciate Starbuck, baggage and all, she's really not very appealing this season -- anyway, she's going to have to start pulling it together soon; it's scary because before she always had someone to catch her, and this time I predict it's going to be Leemo (I didn't make that up) -- so no help for us there.
and meanwhile there's OTP 2.0 -- Laura/Tory, all shiny and new. I won't go into my entire topography of this pairing (which, for the record, I've loved since LDYB) -- suffice it to say that I'M SMITTEN. it's a very, very good match in the canonical economy and in my personal libidinal economy. so I'm all ready, you see, to say goodbye, to jump ship.
and a BONUS interesting factoid about Laura/Tory: according to asta77's recap of the Collaborators podcast, a subplot was cut from the ep that involved Tory betraying Roslin (I won't go into more detail in case you don't want to stray from screen canon, but click through or listen yourself if you want to know more). so the excess of emotion emanating from Tory in the post-Maya and inauguration scenes originally had a textual basis (she feels terrible about what she did) which got edited out. basically leaving a plot hole to be readily repurposed as subtext, as her now-gratuitous tears overflow into GAY. now, I don't know if I'm happy about the cuts or not -- on the one hand this way Tory remains more unflinchingly devoted to Roslin, which is how I've always seen her; but on the other we lost a bunch of screentime and character development for Tory (even unsympathetic might be better than nothing), plus what could have been a very fruitful (even, dare I say, sexy) conflict between the two of them. but anyway, I find this metatext for OTP 2.0 pretty fascinating.
BUT then aeonian goes and says things (which I am quoting without permission, ha!) like:
[Kara's] all "I am serious and committed to the military and the mission of finding Earth and basically being exactly who I was before except more obedient" (a.k.a. "Roslin, be the sexy boss of me!")... and you know she is all craving punishment in her PTSD way, because she's ashamed of being kidnapped and Leobened and losing Kacey, and she's ashamed of being ashamed, so what better way to punish herself than to have sex with and take orders from a woman she doesn't believe loves her? [and...] isn't it plausible that Roslin feels a little bit guilty about not being able to protect everyone? She lost the election, let them go to New Caprica, didn't lead, kind of let a lot of people die on their way off the planet, and failed Maya and Isis. And so she tries to make up for it by being the bestest president she can and also making out with Kara, who is a representation of all the people she let die/get fucked up/etc.
and I'm all INTRAPSYCHIC SHIP WARS, OH NOES! plus viciouswishes wrote the first post-Occupation K/L, which didn't help.
now, I take full responsibility for getting myself into this pickle. but if, in my own personal fanon, Kara/Laura = TRUE LOVE (which I think we have to acknowledge that it does, as embarrassing as that may be) then no, Laura can't frak off with Tory and leave Kara to self-destruct. woe is me!
as an OTP, Laura/Tory is like Tory -- the smart choice. willing and able, confident and independent.
as an OTP, Laura/Kara is like Kara -- it was doomed from the beginning. it will break your heart when it implodes under the weight of its own internal issues. and yet you keep coming back for more, because you can see the gold glinting underneath, even when it's at its most hopeless.
in conclusion, more of my own personal fanon: the Cylon g0d is a Laura/Kara shipper, because they are destined to lead everyone to Earth, prophet and disciple. so if they break up, g0d says NOBODY GETS TO EARTH (I don't think I'm the only one who sees Leoben as a real loose cannon re: g0d's alleged plan -- though I might be the only one who believes this because I think he tanked g0d's favorite pairing [remember, the Cylon psyche works by PROJECTION). which is also my way of saying: look, TPTB, bad things happen when you sink my ship! so it's not like I would have ever let them live happily ever after, without each other. but aeonian had filled me with angst, you see, about whether I was duty-bound to write them a final re-reunion at the end of the drabble series (how not to find earth: a cautionary tale). but no, I think I'm sticking to my distopian guns: after the death of OTP 1.0, they'll remain a-wandering in the desert, amen.