"Islanded in a Stream of Stars" follow-up (predictably all about Laura)

[pellucid]

So I said yesterday I wasn't going to say more about the episode, but I have something of a compulsive need to make myself clear--perhaps especially when I see people reacting to things I've said in a way that suggests to me I haven't been clear enough.

Comments

[cofax7]

In season 4, Aeryn Sun got turned into The Girl/The Mother. Complete with glossy makeup and pining. Her independent storyline about her growth as a person, as a soldier, as a former Peacekeeper, evaporated.

Six years later, and I'm still angry about it.

[pellucid]

What cofax said, yes.

[beccatoria]

*hug tackles you*

Maybe we should go out, get drunk, and mourn her. :(

[pellucid]

*hug tackles you back*

We totally should. Damned geography...

[beccatoria]

Why yes. Yes you can.

[dionusia]

I don't think I've ever felt truly at home until these last few months here with you.

I guess for me the key word in this sentence was "truly"-- one little word to do so much! I took "truly at home" to mean, especially in the context of what preceded it, as: "I felt at home other places, but with you, I felt this feeling of connection the most" rather than "I never ever felt at home before now" (though I can see the opposite take on it, of course). I didn't think she meant that she only found fulfillment with him or never found satisfaction in any part of her life before she moved in with him. In fact, I read it as having nothing at all to do with her professional life or her many achievements there. "Most happy/at home with you" vs. "never happy/at home before I was living with you" is a pretty big difference, though, in either case, and I respect that it's open to interpretation. It might be wishful thinking on my part, but that was my natural and instant reaction. I know I never thought she withdrew from the presidency in

[pellucid]

I'm glad you're able to see it that way. It all feels like rather too much handwaving and fanwanking to me to try to make that line anything other than a rather tired and vaguely sexist cliche. It wouldn't have taken much tweaking to that conversation to inject more subtlety and nuance, but I feel like they've lost all capacity for either with regard to this relationship at this point.

I know I never thought she withdrew from the presidency in order to be with him, either -- and that's an interpretation that I came away with immediately -- so I think our differences there may be affecting our divergent takes on this too.

I don't really think she withdrew from the presidency in order to be with Bill. But I think there has been very little clear causality between most of her actions in 4.5, and the thread that's coming out the clearest to me right now--and the ONLY thing we've actually heard Laura give her own opinion about--is the relationship with Bill. Which doesn't place it in a clear causal relationship with anything else,

[asta77]

Well, I agree with you and don't feel we are in the minority. I have read takes on the episode where people either briefly touched upon Laura's scenes or skipped discussing them all together, but those individuals don't fangirl Laura as we do.

There is the disappointment of Earth thread, the cancer thread, and the relationship with Bill thread. How are these influences working together to motivate her actions?This is a good point because it feels as if, in the back half of the season, Laura has been split into several different characters and which character we see depends on what particular aspect of the arc they are tackling that week. You know I adored the scene between Laura and Lee in 'No Exit'. It was a very in-character scene for both and was need to establish what kind of government they would have going forward after the slaughter of the Quorum. It was also needed to tie up loose ends and lay foundation for the episodes that followed, but we were seeing a Laura we hadn't seen in the weeks prior and one we haven't seen

[pellucid]

The question of who is in the minority is so interesting! Everyone (except you!) seems to be taking the defensive stance, no matter which side of the question they're coming down on. I've seen the "I know I'm in the minority, but..." line coming from people who disagree with me, and obviously I've also used it myself. At least among the places I've been reading--which is in no way exhaustive, obviously--I'm still feeling very much in the minority. Among the opinions of the more A/R-slanted folks I've read, only Chaila seems to agree with me, and even among non-A/R people (though not anti-A/R people like you and Becka, and I suspect that's a key distinction) there seems to be a range of "but at least she's happy" to "what??? who are the crazy people who didn't like that scene?"

So we're among the majority within the Laura/Lee crowd, the femslash crowd (I would imagine, anyway; I haven't read anyone but runawaynun on the subject), and the, uh, me and Chaila crowd! Not so sure about everyone else, though... Nor do I have any idea how one would

[beccatoria]

Just butting in to say that I'm not particularly involved in the femslash scene but a bunch of my friends are and as far as I can tell they are also Not Happy. So yeah, the alternashippers around Laura are definitely not feeling this, but I wouldn't like to comment on the A/R crowd because I know even less about them than I know about the K/L crowd (it's amazing how much of this fandom I've managed to completely and accidentally avoid, you know...) so I'd trust your instinct on that one. Especially since shippers tend to be forgiving of dodginess if it's at least dodginess in service to the ship. /judgementalisms.

I guess my instinct would be to say that you and Chaila are Laura fans who happened to like a romantic relationship with Bill best of her romantic options rather than coming to the show from a wholesale A/R perspective? (Although I would also say that the little I have seen of A/R shippery suggests to me that Laura is the more appreciated character there, though this could just be my own blinding bias; that said, I

[pellucid]

I call brain damage. Let's plug her into Galactica like the hybrid. She'd be cooler like that than she is now, and then Bill could REALLY love the damn ship more than ANYTHING ELSE EVER.

I can't decide if this makes me want to LAUGH or CRY!!!!!!!! A little of both, perhaps.

The question of the A/R crowd is...kind of weird. My read on the group, generally, was that the great mass of them, like the great mass of most groups of shippers once the group reaches a particular critical mass, are kind of crazy in the way that fanatical shippers are. Not better or worse than any other group of shippers, but fanatical shippers nonetheless. And then there was this other group, to which I suppose I more or less belonged, that was a bit less fanatical, a bit more thinky, a bit more elitist, etc. What seems to have happened during 4.5 is the fragmentation of that smaller group between some people (even people whose views I thought I totally agreed with, and then it turns out we were operating on slightly different premises all along, and those

[pellucid]

I couldn't actually bring myself to re-read either meta post. That bit you quoted--god! How wrong we were! Though to our credit, I think we were still right up until the moment we were suddenly wrong? But yeah, I'm out, too. I'm not shipping this. No way.

And yes, transcribing it totally buried any possibility of reading the end of that scene positively, either. The whole thing is just awful!!! The real Laura is Not Impressed. Or maybe beccatoria is right above when she speculates that the cancer has gone to her brain and she's just not thinking clearly at all.

How depressing! Except for the part where I don't have to care anymore. That's actually a little bit of a relief.

[anonymous]

Oh, my gosh, Chalia,

I'm pretty new to the LJ society, only a few months lurking and a month or so posting. But I remember that meta post you mention (about Adama not diminishing Roslin or simplifying her motivations) -- it was one of the first things I read around here and I thought, "Sister!".

Yeah, this whole thing just breaks my heart and makes me sick. Sure, Laura, just click your heels together three times, and you'll be safe and warm in Bill's cabin. Mighty blerg.

You know what would have been great? If the show had just simply ended when they found Earth -- it would have been a great ironic, dark ending, which would have left the characters intact. And fanfic would have flourished...

Anyway -- I officially sign onto Pellucid's post, too.

[whatever_lj]

SORRY - I'M POSTING THIS A SECOND TIME, BECAUSE I WOUND UP ANONYMOUS BY ACCIDENT THE FIRST TIME -- AS I SAID -- I'M PRETTY NEW. FORGIVENESS, PLEASE...

Oh, my gosh, Chalia,

I'm pretty new to the LJ society, only a few months lurking and a month or so posting. But I remember that meta post you mention (about Adama not diminishing Roslin or simplifying her motivations) -- it was one of the first things I read around here and I thought, "Sister!".

Yeah, this whole thing just breaks my heart and makes me sick. Sure, Laura, just click your heels together three times, and you'll be safe and warm in Bill's cabin. Mighty blerg.

You know what would have been great? If the show had just simply ended when they found Earth -- it would have been a great ironic, dark ending, which would have left the characters intact. And fanfic would have flourished...

Anyway -- I officially sign onto Pellucid's post, too.