The Defining Moments of Felix Gaeta

[falafel_musings]

Okay, it's been a week. I've been in mourning over this character, but now I'm feeling reflective. Looking back over the Epic Felix Gaeta picspam by webeh  I wrote up a list of my personal Top 20 Felix Gaeta moments (with bonus scenes because there was so much that I found memorable!). This isn't so much a list of "best moments" since it contains many

Comments

[trovia]

Oh, nice

[falafel_musings]

Thanks for responding

[prophetkristy]

I keep thinking about Adama when I think about the perjury. Adama letting Baltar go free only makes sense if he knew that Gaeta was lying. So, did he know because he knows Gaeta that well? Or did he just dismiss him because it's Gaeta and Adama never puts much weight in what Gaeta says? And did Gaeta ask himself these question too, and what were his answers?

Oooh. I never thought about that before. It does make sense that Adama wasn't really taking Felix's testimony very seriously. I might have to steal borrow this thought if I ever get to my back-back-back-burner fic...

[trovia]

Feel free to do so! I'd love to read fic about this.

[blue_crow]

1. I think, for me, Felix Gaeta is defined heavily by his relationship with Gaius Baltar. The early parts of the show is set up slightly from Gaius's point of view, as he and Roslin are the ones that are new to their surroundings and their jobs. And his involvement with Gaius has always seemed to show who he really is, at a given time. The first moment, the hug in the prison cell, shows a young man so eager to do the right thing. The next, the stabbing scene, reveals just how deep his emotional corruption goes. It shows, more so than anything that actually happens on New Caprica, how damaging that experience was for him. And the third is his last conversation with Gaius, where he comes full circle, back to who he was, at peace

[falafel_musings]

I rather love you for choosing the mutiny as Gaeta's most heroic moment and his Not Begging scene as the darkest moment. Just because I think a lot of people would put those two the other way around. Yet I think you have completely justified your perspective. I also find the Collaborators airlock scene a very dark moment, more so than a heroic moment. The moment when Starbuck starts kicking and yelling at Felix is awful. The look on Felix's face hurts me every time. He looks at Kara with such shock and confusion like he never believed anyone could be so cruel. Yet he still takes the abuse till Chief puts a stop to it.

I have to agree that Baltar defines Gaeta more than any other character. I don't think you are being melodramatic. When Gaeta lost faith in Baltar he lost faith in his entire world view. There were others who contributed to his breakdown but Gaius was at the heart of it.

[anonymousblu]

Where did you get that icon??? Wonderful!

[blue_crow]

I think it was someone's photo I found on Flickr of the prop auction. I was confused as to why the dogtags had L. Gaeta on them, so I just changed it (I wondered if they printed them before they gave him a first name, though there's no reason in the world they'd think his first name was Lieutenant.)

[lls_mutant]

1) What are the top three defining moments of Felix Gaeta in your opinion?

-The gun in Exodus II. This was when he went from "Gaeta, CIC mainstay" to "Felix, broken idealist."
-Gotta agree with Restaurants Shaped Like Food- That scene was AMAZING
-The smile with Tom right before the firing squad. The fact he COULD smile, and went to his death proudly, bravely, and believing in his ideals, yet still repentant for his actions... total Felix Gaeta.

2) What was the first moment that got you invested in this character?

When he pulled the gun on Baltar. That's the exact moment he really gained a third dimension for me.

3) What do you consider to be his best or most heroic moment?

I'm going to have to agree with trovia about refusing to beg for his life

[falafel_musings]

Thanks for your response. Sorry it has taken me ages to respond!

I actually found Gaeta at Adama's trial and Baltar's trial equally dark. I thought on both occasions Gaeta wasn't so much lying as he was deluding himself and projecting his own guilt onto other people. I think that IS the darkest part of Gaeta's character for me. There is a fine line between Idealism and Fundamentalism with Gaeta - when he drifts over the line into Fundamentalism he gets delusional, he gets passive aggressive, he gets crazy. It's not a nice thing to see.

Yeah, Felix's reaction to Dee's suicide breaks my heart too, because he seems so alone in his grief. The two Adamas at least speak to each other but Felix, for some reason, is treated like a leper - made to wait outside the morgue, Lee won't even look at him. It's like when he is all alone in sick bay. It horrible to see nobody comforting him.

You know I'd love you to write a fic based on this idea of Zarek-Gaeta as the same man at different ends of life...

[lls_mutant]

I am in total agreement that Felix was deluding himself during Adama's trial. The thing about Baltar's trial that gives it more grace for me is that Felix didn't know how badly he was lying

[cylune9]

1) What are the top three defining moments of Felix Gaeta in your opinion?

In chronoligical order:
1. You're not that kind of man.
Shows how trusting Gaeta is. How he immediately assumes the best about the people he meets. I think he's doing some projection here - he's putting himself in Baltar's shoes and thinks how *he* would react and assumes that's how others would react to. It's naive, it's a flaw but such an endearing one.

2. I'm not going to bed.
He has so much guilt about New Caprica, even though he knows he's the reason they got rescued in the first place, that he's willing to let people kill him without objecting. He's got such high expectations for the people around him, but worse of all, toward himself.

3. Weapons Hold.
Zarek told him to wake up, and he did.

2) What was the first moment that got you invested in this character?Season 3 and especially the events of Collaborators. He's the only character that came out of that storyline completely sympathetic and he still was full of guilt even though he saved

[falafel_musings]

Thanks for your response. Sorry it has taken me ages to respond

[safenthecity]

1) What are the top three defining moments of Felix Gaeta in your opinion

[safenthecity]

I would like to add, as far as defining moments go- and I do not know whether this belongs under darkest or most tragic- the meeting with Zarek. When he asks Tom Zarek "Are you that man?"

I feel this scene just sums up absolutely how turned on its head his world has become. Because Zarek is the one who first authorized Gaeta's execution, and Gaeta knew that. The Circle told him. There is something utterly... heartwrenching, in this moment, that everything around him is falling to so many pieces that this man seems like the best of all his options. This is the man Gaeta turns to, because there is nobody else.

[webeh]

Restaurants shaped like food. Hands down. I cried.

I think Gaeta would have been an awesome architect. He's a regular Howard Roark. Speaking of Roark, don't you think AJ would be a brilliant Roark onstage or onscreen?

[safenthecity]

I admit, I had to look up who Howard Roark was. But, looking over the Wikipedia entry, I have to say yes, yes he would.

But then, I would absolutely die to see him onstage in pretty much anything. He could be up there reading (or singing!) the phone book, and I'm sure it would be entertaining, at the very least.