Comments | dionusia: BSG 4.17: The Force of the Past

dionusia

BSG 4.17: The Force of the Past

Mar 04, 2009 14:36

My extremely long typical-length musings on "Someone to Watch over Me."

I also get into some etymology and spec at the end. Yeah, I know. Forgive me. :)

Caps from capaholic.

( It's like the distant chaos of an orchestra tuning up, and then somebody waves a magic wand. And all of those notes start to slide into place. )

s4.5, kara, bsg

Comments 20

indigo419 March 5 2009, 00:11:23 UTC

D, this is beautiful. I especially like how you make sense of this Kara tone poem, so close to the end (all of those notes start to slide into place), and why she doesn't recognize her dad (hallucination? projection? Kara-hybrid-auto-therapy?) till the end.

Dealing with a feverish nugget, so no deep thinky thoughts right now, but just wanted to say thank you to you for bringing some clarity to this ep! :D

dionusia March 5 2009, 02:58:46 UTC

Oh, you're very welcome, Indi! I'm glad you found it interesting. I've been trying to write this all out since Saturday, and my brain's been teeming with meta on Kara's childhood, too. They sort of collided into one post. And this might all just be the meaning I'm constructing out of it, but I like it!

Kara-hybrid-auto-therapy?

Hee! Yes, Kara needs therapy. Surely even the Cylon God, if he's really out there, recognizes this.

I'm wishing better health and sweet dreams to the nugget, and a good night to you. Come back anytime, if you want! Take care. :)

workerbee73 March 5 2009, 00:32:06 UTC

Ahhh, the flisters are just determined to make me like this one, dammit ( ... )

dionusia March 5 2009, 06:24:58 UTC

Hee! Well, I didn't know I was part of an unofficial campaign to win hearts and minds, but I'll take it. Cool. :)

she's got to trust herself. Trust her emotions, the parts of herself she tries so damn hard to hide

Amen! And yet you can see why she doesn't usually -- she's still living with the legacy of her mother, every day, and internalized that negative message. She's a failure, she's a screwup. I can't even imagine the amount of terror she must have always been, to have every single mistake of hers met with such disproportional reprimands and violence. It's what she learned from when she was young; it's not true, but it became a part of her. It's just as Leoben said in "Flesh and Bone": she's damaged. She hears that voice in her head every day and she wants it to be right. So I was really glad, this time around, she could hear a different message, in a different voice. If only she could let that go, she'd be unstoppable. Pretty unstoppable now, but you know what I mean. She could become...whole.

(Oh dammit, Kara, I ( ... )

innibis March 5 2009, 01:59:56 UTC

This is a lovely post, and I like your thought process ( ... )

dionusia March 5 2009, 07:03:25 UTC

One of the big parts of the classic hero's journey (King Arthur, Lyra Belacqua, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Kara Thrace, etc. etc, etc,) is confronting and overcoming the past, which is usually represented by the hero's parents.

Yes, exactly! I love how that hero's-journey pattern has also been absorbed into pop culture; it's even in The Lion King. And Kara keeps being sent through these literal and figurative underworlds -- the dead land of Caprica, the season in hell with Leoben, crossing to the space between life and death, and finally going through the battlefield of dismembered Baseships to visit the hybrid oracle. What's odd about her actual death is that she doesn't seem to remember everything she saw there. She made that journey, but she doesn't know what it means.

So, as I am pretty ani-mysticism (though very pro-myth) I am looking forward to Kara's solution.I like this. It's kind of ominous the way they keep repeating "And it will happen again." Or, "God has a plan for everything and everyone." I hope Kara can be ( ... )

innibis March 5 2009, 16:25:45 UTC

I want a big song performance in the Opera House soon, though. They can break that barrier between show and audience again, for sure!

And I want choreography to go with it! *jazz hands*

dionusia March 8 2009, 12:28:14 UTC

I will be doing jazzhands at home if I don't get them onscreen! Hehe. And I confess now I also want to see the Final Five simultaneously bust out into The Robot.

I read Bear McCreary's blog and both he and the director spoke about how excited they were about the musical barrier-breaking. That made me jump up and down with joy, because I think we'll see this idea again. And how amazing would it be if they didn't just play Watchtower, but also had the musical themes of the individual characters weave together? I don't know if it's possible, but that would me neat.

*jazzhands of joy*

canadiangirl_86 March 5 2009, 03:58:29 UTC

Well, this is fascinating. Especially your observations about the song. Wow! I haven't always been fond of the way they've used that in practice, but the ideas behind it are very intriguing.

wisteria_ March 5 2009, 06:59:31 UTC

I really think Boomer’s the most tragic figure in the entire show.

Yeah. Though I must say that I appreciated how she didn't get a big Redemption Arc. With shows like BSG, those storylines are quite common and perhaps the easiest route for such a character. They didn't make her wholly evil -- she had (in her mind) legitimate reasons for her choices -- but she didn't see the error of her ways and have a grand moment of repentance and atonement.

I also liked the overall tone and feel, and how much of it all centered on memory and fantasy, vision and delusion.

It was just so, well, languid and wistful, which are two things I love in an episode -- especially one focused on Kara!

There’s nothing she can do to fix her husband. She died and can't explain how she came back.

Poor, poor Kara. Having Sam in a coma is almost the worst thing that could happen to her, because he almost certainly won't come back as himself, and she can't have any sense of closure.

The rush of elation and sense of purpose that she gained in battle during ( ... )