SFF The novel.

[lyssie]

BSG: No, really, I'm pretty sure this is novel-length. It's probably not all my teal deer thoughts, either. Covers No Exit-Someone to Watch Over Me

I finally figured out what bugs me so much about the last three episodes. You know how people hate drabbles? Those 100-word pieces of fic?

The last three episodes have been like three drabbles, 100 words each. And Ron and his people (and a good portion of fandom) are claiming they're 10,000 word stories with glossy details and character notes that make sense. And they're not. I'm sorry, folks, Ron is fucking naked, and all of you people who think this is good writing should maybe stfu. For the record, the episode before the mutiny was also a drabble. The mutiny itself was a double-drabble with 50 extra words to pad it out.

Imagine, if you will, that you're a TV writer and you've got eight episodes left to tell your story. Do you tell it? Or do you meander all over the place, bullshitting until the end has passed and people actually wake up and realize you told them nothing? Or, do you spend that time with your chracters, building plots and working it through with logic and good narrative?

If you're Ron Moore, you apparently go with the former. If you're Farscape, you go with the latter, but get fucked because they canceled you in the middle of your narrative. (so, I suppose Ron's idea works better, since the fans keep eating this shit like it's good)

This is not to say I haven't enjoyed it. There are bits that I have, and stuff that's made some sense. But on the whole? Not impressed. Someone to Watch Over Me? HAD EVEN LESS POINT THAN DEADLOCK. It was slightly better written, but it was ultimately useless and pointless. Both episodes (and No Exit) could have been scrapped and we could have had Captain Kara 'Exposition' Thrace give us another speech, detailing all those pesky details like where the mutineers were (y'all remember that mutiny that was pointless? Yeah. They finally remembered it, but I guess we're getting no women in prison specials. SORRY, NARCHO.) and how the ship has stood up for five years, but suddenly now it's falling apart (really? REally really? It's only now that the ship is falling apart? When Chief happens to have magic lamps that show the way to the Orient? cracks for us? *sarcasm* Gosh.)

At least we were spared Adama staring vacantly at more Sixes and Eights (with no lines! Hey! That's so awesome how you have so many women who never speak!) this week. I think. Maybe I blocked those scenes out.

-

Let's talk Boomer.

I like Boomer. Unfortunately, the writers haven't known what to do with Boomer since she was shot dead. They pulled her back in Downloaded, because they needed someone to 'bond' with Caprica, and they just as quickly dropped her again during the New Caprica arc. (this is not to say that Caprica's been given any better motivations, btw)

Boomer actually has less characterization and motivation than a centurion. At least they're programed to do the shit they do and obey Cavil. Boomer is just an automaton that fakes being human.

On New Caprica, she has one conversation with a non-Cylon, ONE. And it's with Cally and it's an understandably horrible conversation. And that one conversation is the ONLY ONLY ONLY FUCKING TIME we get to see Boomer have any sort of motivation. And what does she do? Oh, right. She lets Cally die. And then she goes on to advocate for "Kill All Humans". She's possibly even treasurer.

Post-NC, she gets about three lines, total, and all of them are pointless.

Fast forward to her vote against her model, and, um. You can maybe wank it as Boomer being angry and feeling betrayed by Caprica (who went and fell in love with Gaius and D without poor Boomer, and then killed her that one time over the pop tart). But as mentioned before, there's no motivation. She's just suddenly On Cavil's Side. Really? This is the same woman who wanted peace with the humans?

Ok, then.

I'm only going to briefly touch on how squicky it is that Boomer fucks Cavil. Because, seriously? Talk about old man wish fulfillment. GOOD GOD, NO. EW. I'm sorry, Boomer. Was Chief that bad in bed that a decrepit ugly old man feels good?

Next time we see Boomer, she's again Cavil's automaton, bringing fruits from the garden of Eden to Ellen (who is no Eve). She has, like, no lines until randomly deciding that she's going to 'forgive' Ellen.

Now. Here's the thing. I could actually believe that Boomer realized the FF were flawed and stupid and that they deserved a chance and that the humans deserved one and that she really did miss the people who'd once been family. Again, it's a bit hard to understand because there's never been ANY thought put into Boomer's character motivations, but ok. I can get that.

Let's pause for a moment, because I want to mention something that threw me out of the episode and made me go "huh?" Laura Roslin, people. She has never, to my knowledge, EVER encountered Boomer. NEVER. The only things she knows about Sharon Valerii are after-action reports and Bill Adama being shot and Boomer being one of those who advocated going to New Caprica.

That's it.

So how come she's the only one who knows that Boomer is an evil, emotionally-manipulative, psychotic bitch?

Or is this what Roslin thinks of ALL the Eights. In which case, fuck you, old woman, please die and get the fuck over yourself. Athena has risked her ass more times than I can count to keep your people alive and all you can do is heap mysoginistic bullshit all over her endeavors? YOU STOLE HER BABY, YOU DON'T GET TO CLAIM THE MORAL HIGH GROUND.

(wow, I apparently had more rage over that one single line than I'd thought)

And Roslin was telling Helo he wasn't married to the whole production line? Really? He's the one who can't see them as individuals?

(I know. Give me my moment of rage.)

Moving on.

So, Boomer comes back and they throw her in the brig (...er, ok?) and then are going to hand her over to the Cylons who, at least, have some sort of reason for wanting to try her (of course, in this day of handwavey "It's ok you nuked the fuck out of us, we'll keep you safe" alliances, I suppose that makes good political sense--and, hey, look! The Cylons aren't all "we want to run away 'cause we have no other motivation, yay" this time!), and execute her.

Then Chief talks to her (nice call-back to Flight of the Phoenix, btw). And ah, they were Twu Luv Soulmates. Gosh. (so, Cally basically was not someone Chief ever loved. Hey, thanks, BSG, I didn't know men could only love one woman. Now I get it!)

Boomer freaks him out with some projecting (um. I thought y'all had dropped that idea, but ok!), and then shows him Hera at age ten (oh, Chief. Big and dumb.).

And, um, while creepy, I was sort of like, "...um, ok." about how Boomer had decided Chief was her Soulmate and shit, and that they could still maybe be in love and have a fewcha. Sort of, because that would at least have given her a little bit of motivation and made her seem like a real person.

Luckily, within a few minutes, Ron dispelled the notion that Boomer has any sort of agency.

Thank god he made her another crazy woman who goes insane over babies! I thought the episode needed one and the cast was sorely lacking in unstable women. =)

So, yeah. Chief kills an Eight and substitutes her for Boomer (and no one, of course, notices him carting around the body. Man, this ship is apparently filled with people who don't care), and then Boomer... beats up Athena.

Now, I can sort of see her being angry about how Athena has the life that she doesn't (and Chief, who can't give her babies, though Boomer MAY NOT KNOW that cylon/cylon babies don't work out, since I doubt they've kept her informed about things like that--unless Caprica sent her a baby shower invitation? That would totes be something Caprica would do). So that, while brutal (and, hey, can't have women being friendly or talking to each other, can we?), at least made sense.

Y'know. As much as anything does.

Helo was happenstance, and I really wish Boomer had just knocked him out. But I get that he's a proven sperm donor, so if she wants babies (and all women want babies, Ron said so), he's her only outlet. Chief can't donate sperm, after all. She was also probably happy to rub Athena's face in it.

Because, after all, this whole thing was just a plot from Cavil to, um, y'know, steal Hera. So that the FF have to rescue the Hope of the Fewcha, and can be coerced into bringing resurrection back.

Ain't it awesome how Cavil programed Boomer like that?

She sure as fuck had no other motivation for it.

-

Let's talk Caprica.

Didn't you all love the way they let us see how Caprica felt about her pregnancy, and how she's dealing with the loss of her child? I mean, it was almost better than that time Cottle told her she was pregnant and that brilliant smile she got when she admitted they'd been trying for a while, and she'd been so hopeful.

Oh, right. The writers have never given a fuck about how Caprica feels about any of this. After all, she's a woman, she must want babies? And love? And once she's been used, tossing her aside like a condom is perfect. Because it's Tigh's angst they care about, and Tigh's angst they'll play over and over and over and over and over again until maybe one day we'll be bored with watching a man angst.

I'm not sure when that will happen.

It just. It kills me that this whole baby storyline could have been so much more interesting and given Caprica something to do, and... it wasn't. Tricia Helfer can act, you guys. I mean, like, for really real, SHE CAN.

And while in Deadlock it was nice to see her actually seem to have some agency, again, it was mostly so she could reflect other peoples' actions and feelings. It wasn't about Caprica, it was about the magic baby and how love had to be True and Pure (which begs questions about Helo getting Boomer pregnant), or babies die.

Deadlock also fell prey to what should be termed "School Reunion Syndrome" in that, of course, anytime a man has more than one woman in love with him, those women MUST FIGHT OVER HIM. Luckily for the dude if there are other men involved, they can totes be friends and do manly bonding shit. Women, though, are catty bitches and can't ever get along.

I don't actually give a fuck how much Tigh is hurting from the loss of his child. But that's ok, the writers don't give a fuck about Caprica. It evens out.

-

Speaking of Deadlock, here's what I started typing last week and never finished...

I'm just. I have thoughts. I don't know how coherent this is, because this episode was so badly-written that so much logic has to be ignored in order for certain things to work, and-- I'm a bit worried about what they're doing to women in power. And how they're continually stripping that power away from them by giving it over to a man.

This is not a new thing, btw. Just. It hadn't been so present in a while (Cavil's jailing of one Ellen Tigh and brain-fucking of Boomer notwithstanding, I s'pose).

So, here's the thing. A long time ago, there was this mutiny (most everyone's forgotten it, except when Baltar makes non-sensical speeches and is given automatic weapons, wtf). And during the mutiny, Gaius Baltar abandoned his flock, shacked up with a golden-haired Six and came to an epiphany that he, like, maybe cared for his flock (of, um, twelve nubile women.)

And then he sat on his ass on the base ship for weeks and weeks. Long enough that they had to take up arms on their own to defend themselves. Long enough that Paulla had to take charge, had to step up and become the cool-headed leader who would keep them from being raped and abused and left to starve.

(please, for the love of god, please ignore the illogic of Adama allowing this sort of shit to go down in Dogsville--except of course, Adama doesn't give a shit about Civvies much anymore, does he? Is it Dirty Hands time again? Because I so missed that shithole of an episode. Really.) [Editing note: Ron claims in the podcast that there aren't enough marines. Hey, dumbass, maybe you should have made that text and canon. God. Why do people keep claiming this show is well-written?]

Then Gaius comes back and discovers they are not puppies and kittens over the moon to see him. And spends the rest of the episode systematically stripping Paulla's power away from her and mocking her choices and saying that she's wrong. Because he's so totally more selfless than her, and there's a baby who is starving! And, obviously, the real solution is to get Adama to give them bigger weapons. (I was thanking my stars that the dudes who stole their food didn't stop for a little raping on the way)

This little sub-plot is counter-pointed by Caprica, who got pregnant but never got to tell us her opinion of that (at least not until Tigh needed to be cuddly with her). For some inexplicable reason, she's wandering down in Dogsville where she's assaulted (and beats them up, go Caprica--HEY STARGATE: ATLANTIS PEOPLE. PREGNANT WOMEN? ARE NOT FRAGILE FLOWERS, ASSHOLES).

Next, she's in the infirmary where COTTLE IS SO ADORABLE AND THINKS SHE'S ADORABLE, TOO. Oh, Cottle. <3

Er, where was I. Anyway. Infirmary, where there's still that sense that Tigh is... well, he sees her as the vessel for his baby, and Caprica sees herself as such, and it's... it's so yucky that she doesn't feel whole or complete without this baby and a man. :/

And then the text pretty much tells us that without the love of a man, babies die. And babies are all women are good for. Hey, thanks.

--this was as far as I got before I was distracted by fic-writing.

Which is fine, because I'd lost the thread of my rant for the most part.

-

Ellen Tigh. You guys. See, despite the previous section of this rant, I actually loved and adored large portions of Deadlock. LIKE ELLEN. ELLEN WHO WAS AWESOME and sanguine and serene as she explained how Cavil was going to fuck everyone over until Roslin and Adama's disquiet entered her soul (see what I did there?), and she stepped back and let her old self come to the fore.

Drinking! And frakking Tigh! And while I was all *covers eyes* that was EXACTLY the sort of reunion I wanted for them. I. I. YOU GUYS, MY OTP. (one of them, shut up, I can have more than one) I was all gleeful and flaily, and I love love love Ellen and Saul and their frakked-uppedness, and how they deal with each other right here.

It makes me sad that he couldn't bring himself to tell her about the baby, but that's all right, BECAUSE IT GAVE ME THE NEXT SCENE WITH THE AWESOME REVEAL.

NOTHING will top the Cylons en masse and Ellen reconnecting and the Tory just spilling the beans right there. <3 <3 <3 <3

ok, Kara and Sam having happy, athletic sex would. But that's a different thing entirely

Anyway. Ellen gets smacked in the face by this, and she just... she grabs onto what she's familiar with: Saul and conflict.

While I hate that Caprica and Ellen are now fighting over Saul (though Caprica isn't fighting, she's basically "my baby, fuck you" and not caring one way or the other). I love that it meant women were talking again! And Roslin and Caprica, too!

OMG. Caprica and Roslin's conversation = MOST AWKWARD CONVERSATION EVER. <3<3<3<3 Like, D'Anna being there, having her own say would have been ICING ON THE CAKE (except D'Anna was one of those unstable women and stayed on Earth to die, of course). (someone rewrite the scene with D, pls)

Caprica and Ellen? Also awesome and awkward, but in a vastly different way that was also even more full of scary creepy undertones. Oh, Ellen. I'm sorry you couldn't have babies, but, seriously? Just love Caprica and then there can be an ot3 again and all will be well.

Man. OT3s never end well for Caprica. :/ (I'm half-torn that we didn't get the original rumored Caprica/Anders, because that would have been HOT and he would have been good for her, but again, KARA would have been the big elephant in the room, and unlike Tigh, Sam has never shown any sort of uncertainty about Kara--sorry, Tory. You're still second-best)

I just wish the writers would let us see more of Caprica and Ellen and Tory and Roslin. Because these are strong, capable women, and they're being ignored so Adama can wander his ship drunk and Tigh can sob about his baby boy (if it had been a girl, would he even have cared?), and, I don't know. I find that stuff boring.

Speaking of boring, Jamie Bamber must have been. Seriously. I <3 Leland, and he has had fuck-all to do. You know that new quorum he's supposed to be setting up? You guys. You guys know that it's bad when I'm wanting them to write more politics, please. This is the stuff we should be focusing on, this and the backlash from the alliance and the alliance and the mutiny. There is no time for this interpersonal bullshit which has no impact on the story! (I'm sorry, but it doesn't. If you pull Somewhere and Deadlock from the line of episodes, you don't exactly miss much. Like Disquiet Follows My Soul, there's lots of nothing and five seconds of plot)

Which is just to say that BSG is like watching a really badly written fanfic. Where the author sort of grasps the characters, but not really, and has no idea where they're going or where they came from.

I say again, where is the quorum? Where are Paulla and her girls taking down the Sons of Ares and Fifth? (and are there really twelve of them, because this show likes its twelves, but that also makes Gaius Jesus and Paulla Judas, which has annoying implications, but, but--shit, you know it's bad when I want more of Gaius as God subplot)

-

I'm sure you've all noticed the glaring lack of Kara and Sam. I'm getting there. I am, really. Because on the one hand, oh dear god, Ron is giving me almost everything I could ever want. BUT OH GOD. He never gives without taking away. This is going to either end badly or wrongly, and neither way is going to make me happy.

Am I more willing to fanwank Kara's feelings for Sam? I keep seeing a lot from people who are convinced Kara doesn't really love him and that she's just feeling guilty and/or dutiful or something. Is that really what it is? This woman who has never had anything in her life go the right way, who's had this man who was there, who keeps going back to him, this woman is just clinging to his husk because she's just that broken? It's not at least a little because she loves him and cares for him, and she's realizing now that she could actually lose him?

Because that's actually what I'm getting from this.

-

Kara. God, I love Kara Thrace. The opening of Someone... was so awesome, with her angsting and speechifying and being CAG (I guess Helo got tired of that). And I love the touch that she and Helo are still friends again. AND AND. Kara must totally be made to babysit Hera often, given that they're ok with each other. <3

Unfortunately, then we got forty minutes of Kara talking to head!dude, who was obviously supposed to be daddy despite the sex-possible overtones, and, bleh. I'm sorry, but I feel like they wasted an episode to tell us Kara's Daddy issues, instead of leaving large swathes of them as subtext.

Things I did like? Her nightmares. How she keeps seeing herself and her dead self. That struck true. Kara playing All Along the Watchtower and freaking the FF out? Also awesome.

Kara talking to some dude? Sigh. It's Maelstrom all over again. At least this time she wasn't submitting to her destiny in a dream about having sex.

Where the hell are Kara's friends? Where is Adama, where is Lee? Don't give me some bullshit about the government of Galactica. They can spare five seconds to go and give her a hug.

I <3 Doc Cottle TO BITS, but it's a little scary when he is the only one around giving Kara moral support. (dear god, he worries about her and it's heartbreaking that he's so careful. Sure, he's telling her to prepare herself, but he could be doing a lot worse given how this man has no bedside manner to speak of, usually)

Not even Helo is there to hug her, or check on Sam. I can fanwank that everyone visits Sam, but it isn't canon. It isn't text.

I just... (*stares at commercial for Duplicity* shit. That's kinda hot)

(also, I'm running out of steam here, people.)

I find myself mostly apathetic about Kara, which SUCKS. SUCKS, because I love her.

There was stuff I liked (hey, look)

1. PILOT CYLONS.
2. SONJA. CAN WE KEEP HER?
3. PAULLA. SAME QUESTION.
4. Kara's lecture about wanking.
5. CYLONS FLYING CAP. I just love being Ronned. Sigh.
6. Cylons putting their photos in the memorial hall. <3 <3 <3

I'm sure there were more.

Comments

[cherryice.livejournal.com]

I... am really not even going to watch this episode. I've always been a Boomer fan, and I was so excited to see her come back around. I think we can now officially add the writers to the list of people she's been fucked over by.

The things is, given what she's been through, they could probably provide enough motivation to make us buy into some of this, even if not support it -- if she ever had any freaking screen time. A redemption-type arc would not only have made more sense, I really think it would have made better television.

Yeah. I don't really have anything else. Let's just pretend that I added to the conversation.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I wanted Boomer to have actions and motivation and life so hard. And they just... They just used her, because they are hacks. :/

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

Warning: Character defensive mode ON.

Uh, Laura was not being misogynist. Boomer was programmed and trained to manipulate people. I love her to death, but it's true. And she didn't say word one about Athena. I think it's a little harsh to take a (true) thing she said about Boomer, pretend she was talking about Athena, and then say that she deserves to die because she can't tell the 8's apart. (And, FWIW, it was also true of Athena at one point; she said herself that she knows more than anyone how the Cylons have used human emotions to manipulate them. That's why she hates them more than any other character on the show!)

[amathela.livejournal.com]

I loved Cylon pilots! And how Helo was very carefully not sitting next to the Eight.

Not even Helo is there to hug her, or check on Sam. I can fanwank that everyone visits Sam, but it isn't canon. It isn't text.

I really liked the scene between Helo and Kara this episode, and seeing that their friendship actually, like, still exists, but yes. My fanwank is that he went to see Sam and Kara a few times, but that Eight kept standing a little too close and giving him looks, and so he started hanging around the edge of the sickbay and hiding, and then he felt really stupid and ridiculous, so in the end he just asked Kara to come to his room instead. Whatever. That's my fanon, and I'm sticking to it.

And I just ... I will be having Serious Thoughts about Boomer, but I might have to let them percolate for a bit first.

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

Have I mentioned what a relief it is to hear someone critique the show like this? Because when I dare to commit the blasphemy of pointing out the lack of clothes of this show's writing, most of friends go nutty and scream at me that this is the Best! SciFi! Show! Ever! Inallofhistory! And how dare I question the wisdom of Ron Moore, etc.

It's like brainwashing. All these (male) critics come in their pants over the show for a couple years and now daring to just point out that the writing is really crappy in a lot of places is like standing outside an ASPCA kicking puppies.

Makes me crazy.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I will continue to kick puppies, because it's so very very frustrating, looking at the show and seeing what they COULD have done with it instead of the crap they shoveled out for it.

[star-lace.livejournal.com]

Um, wow, I could not agree with you more. This post pretty much sums up all the reservations I have about this half of the season. I've been constantly torn because while I've enjoyed some things that have transpired, I haven't once felt like I was watching a well-written show. Exposition that doesn't push characters into action is horribly executed. Entire episodes that consist of nothing but exposition are entirely pointless. I thought the 2 mutiny episodes were well-structured, but when it was subsequently forgotten days later, it proved to be an entirely pointless plot point. The characterization of the female characters (and Adama) has been ALL OVER THE PLACE and I hate it. Basically, the majority of this season has felt totally pointless. Nothing that's happened thus far has had to happen in order to support the greater narrative of the show and that's been wholly disappointing. Granted, there are things I love (and loathe) as a fan, but from a critical standpoint, the last season has been a TOTAL mess.

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

I keep seeing a lot from people who are convinced Kara doesn't really love him and that she's just feeling guilty and/or dutiful or something.

Honestly, even most of the Kara/Lee shippers I know, who were in Total Denial during the last two Kara/Sam heavy episodes, are now like "oops, I guess she really does love him, damn you Ron!!" But yeah, some people are still trying to fanwank it, which is fine, because most of us are guilty of fanwanking stuff that supports other ships. They are totally entitled to their interpretations, but I'm not going to let them affect how I view what I am blatantly being shown. Seriously, when has Kara ever been dutiful? And where on the show are you getting the idea that this interpretation is anything other than fanwanking on the part of a few shippers? When Kara told Cottle she doesn't know how to let Sam go? When she actually broke down and cried when he told her there was no hope? When she told her Dad that his music made her think of losing someone she loves, and then played that song later for Sam? I'm not exactly expecting a happy ending for them either, but it couldn't be more obvious that she loves him if Ron wrote it on a giant cluebat and beat us over the head with it.

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

Yep. And I felt the same way about Atlantis but a lot of other people all recognized how badly written that was, so it wasn't really out there to criticize it. Unlike BSG.

[rosewildeirish.livejournal.com]

most of friends go nutty and scream at me that this is the Best! SciFi! Show! Ever! Inallofhistory! And how dare I question the wisdom of Ron Moore, etc.

Jesus God. This. This is a travesty. *clings*

[ellestra.livejournal.com]

I did get Boomer in StWOM. I wanted her and Chief to have their happy ending but I understand why she chose the other side. I wrote more about it in review of the episode but I basically think that the in the first exchange with chief she tells him why she did this. All this I wanted to make it right but I was just hated more. Everytime she wanted to be nice she was treated with hate and hostility. All that Tyrol said to her (in the flashbacks - I think their choice wasn't accidental) and then he turned to be a cylon himself. And Athena who got everything Boomer ever wanted - respect, love, family. For those months with Cavil she thought about it everyday. By the time she came back she must've been full of hate and resentment. And they put her in the cell and planned to kill her. They deserved all that came to them.

I'm not saying I agree but I understand. Just like Baltar's God talk to many to her Cavil's talks about justice probably made sense.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

A true thing that is no longer true if Boomer is now a person in her own right. Unless you're telling me that Boomer was a manipulative woman all her life and being a Cylon was just happenstance?

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

And how Helo was very carefully not sitting next to the Eight.

I did not notice that, but it is HILARIOUS.

I don't ask for much! One scene of someone other than Kara and the Crazy Cylons visiting Sam! Did he have no other friends? Is that it?

Percolation is good for thoughts. Some of these took a long time to come out.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Atlantis still makes me ragey. (not to mention, I go off half-cocked and cranky everywhere about it)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

especially considering that I had just posted a thing about how Ron can't write women who are completely trustworthy and/or stable

Yes! I read through that at work and have totally failed to comment, sorry. And Boomer just makes me want to throw things. Because I could believe she could do this if they'd ever written her in any way, shape or form. I should not have to fanwank Boomer's motivations!

And the Caprica thing still makes me livid. How hard would it have been to cut one tiny moment of Bill Adama Angsting in Sine Qua Non to have Cottle TELL HER?

It's just been handled so badly (Athena's pregnancy at least had HER input!), and it makes me want to kick things.

To be honest, I broke up with SGA after Sheppard told Teyla she was a fragile snowflake when she was pregnant and then the show textually told us she was stupid and emotional and useless by having her ass get kicked by a Wraith and then Teyla apologized for making her own decisions and being a pregnant woman... (and, no, nothing later written is going to change my initial utter rage at the appalling sexism)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Nothing that's happened thus far has had to happen in order to support the greater narrative of the show and that's been wholly disappointing.

This, right here? Is BSG's greatest failing. They'd rather sit around playing with themselves and being Gritty than in actually telling us a story.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Everytime she wanted to be nice she was treated with hate and hostility.

Yeah. That one time she did nothing to stop Cally from getting executed. That's totally evidence she was treated like crap every single time.

The show has never shown us her helping. Ever. She went from "We should live in peace" to "let me snap Hera's neck and Kill All Humans" with exactly one scene of explanation. It's whiplash-inducing and a fault of their inability to pull off complex characterization.

[ellestra.livejournal.com]

As with most of characters we never really did see what happened to them either during the Year in Baltar's Hair or Four Months of Occupation. Also all the non Baltar parts of basestar storyline were scraped. This mens all we know about Boomer is that she went from I want to be a human to I want to be a machine. So we have to imagine her reasons and motivations. This unfortunately happens often on BSG. And sometimes one manages to do that and sometimes it doesn't work. I couldn't do it for Cally and Dee but I can for Boomer. Things that happened between her and Tyrol and other humans on New Caprica. Hera's rejection. Sharon Agathon in uniform. The feeling of bitterness and entitlement that can lead to blaming everyone. And she is both right and overreacting - which is exactly what lead to cylon attack on the Colonies. Which for me explains why she follows Cavil.

[prozacpark.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, then we got forty minutes of Kara talking to head!dude, who was obviously supposed to be daddy despite the sex-possible overtones, and, bleh. I'm sorry, but I feel like they wasted an episode to tell us Kara's Daddy issues, instead of leaving large swathes of them as subtext.

THIS, yes. This is also why Malestorm bugged me so much. I don't mind my characters having weird tragic pasts, but if their tragedies are as cliche and generic as childhood abuse, I like them to remain vague and implied. It bugged me that Kara's parental issues were made so text when I liked it so much better when they were open to speculation and may or may not even have been real.

Not even Helo is there to hug her, or check on Sam. I can fanwank that everyone visits Sam, but it isn't canon. It isn't text.

And see, we don't even see this in the Helo/Kara scene we got. I hate exposition where people say things to each other just to tell me that's it's happening behind the scenes? But, oh, I would not have minded at all if Helo had mentioned Sam at all. Because, I don't know if the show wants me to think this, but Kara really does seem to be pretty much alone with Sam since the moment she picked him over taking out the mutiny.

It's not at least a little because she loves him and cares for him, and she's realizing now that she could actually lose him?

Because that's actually what I'm getting from this.

YES. You know how Sam has always been about Kara all along, but Kara's feelings are a bit more...vague. Which is why most of us went crazy with the shippy vibes in "No Exit." Because it's not that we ever doubted that Kara loved him, it's just that she shows it in such untraditional ways that it was nice to get that confirmation. But, really, the last few episodes? I'm completely convinced that she loves him just as much as he does her, if not more. Sam loves her with a quite and unwavering devotion, but she loves him with a scary and focused intensity that's totally going to burn their love out because there's no way that he's waking up to a happy ending with that amount of love coming his way because it's, um, BSG. So, yeah, I have no idea how anyone can think that she's doing it out of duty or whatever. I also feel really annoyed that they're likely going to give us a tragic ending just for the sake of tragedy and not because it's actually needed. After all this trauma, I really think we could use a happy ending for some of these people, and why can't the OTP be those people? I honestly think it's going to be a major narrative failure if Sam/Kara can't end up together, and I am being totally non-biased about it, of course. ;)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I think we're actually saying the same thing. I just hate it more (and refuse to fanwank it for them when they could do so much better).

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I am too brain-dead to reply, other than to agree with that, yes. AND ALSO. That is a good point about how everyone's abandoned Kara because she loves Sam and didn't give a frak about the mutiny anymore (and now I have a horrific AU idea, argh)

[prozacpark.livejournal.com]

*anticipates horrific AU fic*

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

I don't really understand what you mean. Yes, it's still true, because ... did you catch the part where Boomer played Chief, beat the hell out of Athena, frakked Helo, stole Hera, and ran off to Cavil? And... the fact that she's done "bad" things doesn't in any way negate her personhood. But it's been clear from the beginning that the Cylons are expert at manipulating human emotions. Please see: Leoben, Farm!Simon, Caprica with Baltar, Sweet Eight, Athena with Helo, Cavil with Chief, and Boomer with Chief. I just don't get why it makes any sense to call Laura an evil, misogynist old woman because she's smart and had an accurate read on the character and the situation.

And I'm sorry if I sound snippy, but this post really took me aback. I agree with a lot of what you say, as you know, esp. about Caprica. I disagree that the Paulla storyline was sexist; I thought it was pretty clear Baltar was being duplicitous, and only got power back with the help of Six. But when you start off saying that everyone who likes the show is an idiot who should just STFU, you make it sound like you're directing all your outrage and me and the rest of your flist who actually like the show, and that's not fair. Anymore than if I said that everyone who has a negative opinion is just interrogating from the wrong perspective and should SFTU. I'm all about hating the game and not the playas. :(

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I think maybe we're missing each other?

To me, the idea that Boomer was programed in the beginning works. But Boomer knows she's a Cylon now, and should be past her programing. The same way Athena did, or are they still just programed? In which case, what's the point in claiming any of them are individuals if all they are is these stamped-on factory-designed personalities?

And Roslin, as far as we know, has never encountered Boomer, AND IN FACT, should be one of the ones who knows that Boomer WANTED PEACE. Just because New Caprica failed doesn't negate the fact that Boomer felt like she'd betrayed everyone and was trying to make amends for that.

So for her to just assume, "Cylon = manipulative programed monster" is a bit much, not to mention insulting if we're supposed to assume they are people first, and programed robots second.

Just because the narrative set out to confirm it (and caused whiplash on a massive scale) doesn't make it all right.

But when you start off saying that everyone who likes the show is an idiot who should just STFU,

Well, I'm sorry if it sounds snippy, but I am so very tired of people saying this is the Best! Show! Ever! because it isn't. Even the actors claim it's ground-breaking and morally-awesome and new and inventive and a plethora of adjectives that don't hang up when you actually watch the show and see all the places they should have made things better.

It's frustrating, because this show COULD be that good. And it keeps failing, and usually not in good ways.

[heliotitans.livejournal.com]

i found you at galacticanews

and after reading this:

Imagine, if you will, that you're a TV writer and you've got eight episodes left to tell your story. Do you tell it? Or do you meander all over the place, bullshitting until the end has passed and people actually wake up and realize you told them nothing? Or, do you spend that time with your chracters, building plots and working it through with logic and good narrative?

If you're Ron Moore, you apparently go with the former. If you're Farscape, you go with the latter, but get fucked because they canceled you in the middle of your narrative. (so, I suppose Ron's idea works better, since the fans keep eating this shit like it's good)

I have to tell you: THANK YOU! SO TRUE!!!

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see where you're coming from on Boomer now. To me, this:

n which case, what's the point in claiming any of them are individuals if all they are is these stamped-on factory-designed personalities?

is one of the Big Questions, because to me it seems pretty clear that all the members of each model do have the same default personality. Look at D'Anna and Leoben! And Athena was never programmed but Helo never suspected a difference. Look at Gina and Caprica. Or Caprica and Natalie and Sonia - all leaders. That's what makes these characters so interesting; because they experience themselves as individuals, and they have different experiences which can cause them to end up with very different personalities. I don't think their individuality is clear-cut at all; it's developing, which is part of their whole story.

So Boomer never had a choice about seducing Galen the first time, but she still has all those skills. (Athena DID have a choice about using Helo's emotions against him, as did Sweet Eight with Gaeta, so in that respect Laura would be justified in saying that all of them are manipulators.) And this time she CHOSE to use them

And Roslin, as far as we know, has never encountered Boomer, AND IN FACT, should be one of the ones who knows that Boomer WANTED PEACE.

I think that's like saying that Kara should have known Leoben only wanted her to love him, so she was a bitch for stabbing him all those times. Boomer could have had peace by just leaving them alone. Instead she tried to "force people to love her at the point of a gun," and that resulted in a brutal occupation that got thousands of people killed. To the extent that Laura knows that Boomer was in charge, she also knows that Boomer is one of the people who put her in front of a firing squad. I mean, our precious Sam killed 13 people just for being on the same side as the Cylons who so obviously just wanted peace. Is he a bitch too? ;)

And she may not have met her personally, but she's the President. I'm sure she took it upon herself to learn everything she could about how exactly Galactia was almost sabotaged. And she doesn't treat Caprica like a programmed monster! Or Galen or Tigh.

Just because the narrative set out to confirm it (and caused whiplash on a massive scale) doesn't make it all right.

Wasn't everyone complaining for the last two weeks that Boomer's sudden redemption was whiplash inducing? I like this less, but I think it makes a lot more sense for her character. And it shows at least that the writers were going for "smart" and not "evil old woman" with Laura.

Well, I'm sorry if it sounds snippy, but I am so very tired of people saying this is the Best! Show! Ever! because it isn't.

Heh. Well, I can understand how both people who love the show and people who hate the show are feeling oppressed right now, because there are certainly plenty on both sides. I personally both love and am frequently outraged by the show, so... *oppresses EVERYONE*