RST often ends up being boring in the hands of writers who are trying too hard and think that it's boring. So after the big canon OTP gets together, the writers come up with contrived ways to keep them 'interesting.' And this is entirely why the OTP RST is awesome? Because it's entirely unintentional, and not a result of the writers *trying* to make them interesting. Like, this is almost entirely why all my interest in Kara/Lee died after season two, because the writers were trying too hard, and all of the trite romance subtext was kind of...lame.
Meanwhile, Kara/Sam was being ignored by the writers and getting arbitrary arcs that didn't have much meaning, and it sort of just seemed to have written itself and ended up echoing the early themes of the show better because they were not part of the writers' active revision of themes? It also is just so much more...authentic and organic without all the drama of, "Look at their woe! Ship them! PLEASE" that we sometimes got with some of the other relationships.
I may be a little bit in love with your brain. That's not a problem, is it?
Basically a big fat word to everything you said. Especially about the RST=boring myth, even if you didn't really get into it. That's such a copout for lazy writers who don't want to think ahead about how to handle a couple once they resolve the ST. Which, I think, it part of what happened to Kara/Lee. They finally got around to doing it and nothing changed. It was business as usual except it was completely pointless because we'd already seen that they couldn't sustain a healthy (or even unhealthy) relationship
( ... )
I would sort of love Caprica stuff with Kara, actually. That's what I was hoping we'd get with The Plan. Sadly, I don't think they'll ever bother. NewCap stuff might be ok, if we can keep Ron from using his "Kara sleeps with everyone" angle...
Katee and Trucco both, I think, had a lot to do with Kara and Sam gelling and working and such. I love them for it, really. (Katee and Tahmoh totally made the Kara and Helo stuff work, too)
Absolutely This. The OTP is awesome, and it got that way entirely accidentally because the writers weren't focusing on it. But Kara/Sam actually ended up having a coherent arc. They kept bringing Trucco back, and not killing Sam off all through season 3 because they just wanted to keep him around as a barrier to the "main couple". But once they made Sam a Cylon, (something which still seems totally random...) his whole role, and the nature of his relationship to Kara completely changed
( ... )
It was funny to observe how they've written themselves into a corner and ended up with something unexpected. The other guy turned out to be not only a better fit but also the relationship had both the epicness and tension that the supposed main pairing lost along the way. They were so set on creating obstacles for Kara/Lee to preserve UST they actually killed it. The last time I rooted for Kara/Lee was Home II and that was the last time they seemed to really have fun being together. Later she seemed to get along with Sam better even when they were broken up. Kara and Sam's storylines also mirrored one another and their connection kept getting stronger while Lee's drifted in a completely new direction and the connection between him and Kara kept getting weaker till it seemed to exist just for old time sake. Which just proves that it's not the lack of sex that's makes relationship interesting (which should be obvious anyway but somehow isn't).
See, to go off on a tangent, that's why I very much like the RST of "Burn Notice". Because the fact that the two protagonists in question had sex did NOT, in fact, resolve the previous UST. AT ALL. *grin*
Comments 16
RST often ends up being boring in the hands of writers who are trying too hard and think that it's boring. So after the big canon OTP gets together, the writers come up with contrived ways to keep them 'interesting.' And this is entirely why the OTP RST is awesome? Because it's entirely unintentional, and not a result of the writers *trying* to make them interesting. Like, this is almost entirely why all my interest in Kara/Lee died after season two, because the writers were trying too hard, and all of the trite romance subtext was kind of...lame.
Meanwhile, Kara/Sam was being ignored by the writers and getting arbitrary arcs that didn't have much meaning, and it sort of just seemed to have written itself and ended up echoing the early themes of the show better because they were not part of the writers' active revision of themes? It also is just so much more...authentic and organic without all the drama of, "Look at their woe! Ship them! PLEASE" that we sometimes got with some of the other relationships.
Reply
The funniest thing about the Kara/Sam arcs is they were so arbitrarily yanked all over the place, but the internal consistency holds up and works!
Reply
Basically a big fat word to everything you said. Especially about the RST=boring myth, even if you didn't really get into it. That's such a copout for lazy writers who don't want to think ahead about how to handle a couple once they resolve the ST. Which, I think, it part of what happened to Kara/Lee. They finally got around to doing it and nothing changed. It was business as usual except it was completely pointless because we'd already seen that they couldn't sustain a healthy (or even unhealthy) relationship ( ... )
Reply
I would sort of love Caprica stuff with Kara, actually. That's what I was hoping we'd get with The Plan. Sadly, I don't think they'll ever bother. NewCap stuff might be ok, if we can keep Ron from using his "Kara sleeps with everyone" angle...
Katee and Trucco both, I think, had a lot to do with Kara and Sam gelling and working and such. I love them for it, really. (Katee and Tahmoh totally made the Kara and Helo stuff work, too)
Reply
Reply
It really wasn't dragged out. It was very much, "hi!" "hi!" SEX. And then they backed up and got deeper and angstier, so...
And the funniest thing about the tags is they were abused for something else entirely.
Reply
It was funny to observe how they've written themselves into a corner and ended up with something unexpected. The other guy turned out to be not only a better fit but also the relationship had both the epicness and tension that the supposed main pairing lost along the way. They were so set on creating obstacles for Kara/Lee to preserve UST they actually killed it. The last time I rooted for Kara/Lee was Home II and that was the last time they seemed to really have fun being together. Later she seemed to get along with Sam better even when they were broken up. Kara and Sam's storylines also mirrored one another and their connection kept getting stronger while Lee's drifted in a completely new direction and the connection between him and Kara kept getting weaker till it seemed to exist just for old time sake. Which just proves that it's not the lack of sex that's makes relationship interesting (which should be obvious anyway but somehow isn't).
Reply
Reply
Great analysis. And yes, very much agreed.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment