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Lyssie's guide to accidentally epicing-up your OTP
...sort of. Spoilers for BSG, the entire run. (please keep in mind the ingrained OTP bias before proceeding)
They say subtext is all in the eye of the beholder. The people producing a show can put in explicit or non-explicit moments, and depending on someone's pairing or viewpoint, UST is had, lame attempts at it are had, and not at all is had.
Some show-runners/writers/directors will have an idea as to who the leads are. And usually, the goal is to make them have UST and keep them as far apart as possible. One of the biggest annoying myths ever is that RST is boring (but I'm not planning on smacking that one down, here).
The BSG crew settled on the star-crossed lovers as being Kara Thrace and Lee Adama. See the pairing or not, the narrative tends to structurally support them. They get all of the Angsty Glances, the arguments, the tension where they stand too close, the forbidden making out, and the obstacles in their past.
Now, I'll admit, Kara and Lee have a vague chemistry in the early seasons. In the later seasons, it's a bit more forced.
I don't know if that's because the actors were tired of the dragging it out, or if they truly thought the characters should move on.
Or if because the writers/etc. were forcing the scenes, trying to preserve that UST at all costs.
Amusingly enough, while that was going on, Kara/Sam was happening almost in the background, and most of their stuff was subtle and very RST-eyexcept for that liking lots of sex with each other thing. And it wasn't something the people in charge were really focusing on, trying to make be UST/interesting/the Star-Crossed Epic.
Let's be honest, the amount of Kara/Sam shippers they might have lost is nothing compared to the amount of Kara/Lee shippers they have lost over the years.
So, while they were constantly setting up Kara/Lee UST, the Kara/Sam RST slid on through and, to me (remember, beauty in the eye of the beholder, and all) was far more believable and interesting.
I think part of it can be laid at the doors of the actors. Katee and Trucco seem to actually be friends. Even more so, Katee and Tahmoh are friends (which lends well to all of the Kara and Helo scenes, since they're so comfortable with each other, even when Kara's trying to kill his toaster girlfriend).
Katee and Jamie don't seem to hang around each other a lot, off-set. Not like Trucco, Tricia, Grace, Katee, and Tahmoh do.
But for the most part, Kara/Sam slipped on through and ended up being the more Epic and Powerful (if you want to call it that) by accident, because it mostly grew organically, without predetermined and pointless hooks to keep people interested.
Think of it this way: Sam was never supposed to come back.
But he did.
Next, he was supposed to end his tenure in Collaborators. But for some reason (to keep the K/L tension, I think), they brought him back.
And then they made him a Cylon.
Whether by chance (most likely) or design (no one had a plan), Kara/Lee got bungled and left behind.
As much as I hate Sam's lack of choice in the matter, he became something more than human and passed into the twilight, a hero and more. Kara was already something more than human, by that point.
I find it almost fascinating that as soon as the focus went from Kara/Lee to Kara/Sam, they got the scenes and the angsty looks--even if it was the cliched comatose husband storyline.
Of course, we'd already gotten 'Scar', an entire episode devoted to Kara missing Sam and being convinced he was dead and then, um, deciding she could live for him. And then they gave us StWoM, which is all about her learning to come to terms with the fact that she might never get him back.
Both of those episodes do, of course, have other subplots. There's cylon politics and Kat being Kara, and Kara's family issues. And freaky hybrids.
So, what I was originally starting to say, was that I think the writers never concentrated on making Kara/Sam UST-y, because they were married, and their own goal was Kara/Lee. So concentrating on the RST couple was never something they were concerned with, until they realized they'd made a mistake.
Whereas, all the overt UST and Angst piled on Kara/Lee was very by-the-numbers and ultimately boring.
And that's how you accidentally end up with an Epic pairing that has an entwined Destiny of Doom.
Sigh. Stupid kids.
They say subtext is all in the eye of the beholder. The people producing a show can put in explicit or non-explicit moments, and depending on someone's pairing or viewpoint, UST is had, lame attempts at it are had, and not at all is had.
Some show-runners/writers/directors will have an idea as to who the leads are. And usually, the goal is to make them have UST and keep them as far apart as possible. One of the biggest annoying myths ever is that RST is boring (but I'm not planning on smacking that one down, here).
The BSG crew settled on the star-crossed lovers as being Kara Thrace and Lee Adama. See the pairing or not, the narrative tends to structurally support them. They get all of the Angsty Glances, the arguments, the tension where they stand too close, the forbidden making out, and the obstacles in their past.
Now, I'll admit, Kara and Lee have a vague chemistry in the early seasons. In the later seasons, it's a bit more forced.
I don't know if that's because the actors were tired of the dragging it out, or if they truly thought the characters should move on.
Or if because the writers/etc. were forcing the scenes, trying to preserve that UST at all costs.
Amusingly enough, while that was going on, Kara/Sam was happening almost in the background, and most of their stuff was subtle and very RST-ey
Let's be honest, the amount of Kara/Sam shippers they might have lost is nothing compared to the amount of Kara/Lee shippers they have lost over the years.
So, while they were constantly setting up Kara/Lee UST, the Kara/Sam RST slid on through and, to me (remember, beauty in the eye of the beholder, and all) was far more believable and interesting.
I think part of it can be laid at the doors of the actors. Katee and Trucco seem to actually be friends. Even more so, Katee and Tahmoh are friends (which lends well to all of the Kara and Helo scenes, since they're so comfortable with each other, even when Kara's trying to kill his toaster girlfriend).
Katee and Jamie don't seem to hang around each other a lot, off-set. Not like Trucco, Tricia, Grace, Katee, and Tahmoh do.
But for the most part, Kara/Sam slipped on through and ended up being the more Epic and Powerful (if you want to call it that) by accident, because it mostly grew organically, without predetermined and pointless hooks to keep people interested.
Think of it this way: Sam was never supposed to come back.
But he did.
Next, he was supposed to end his tenure in Collaborators. But for some reason (to keep the K/L tension, I think), they brought him back.
And then they made him a Cylon.
Whether by chance (most likely) or design (no one had a plan), Kara/Lee got bungled and left behind.
As much as I hate Sam's lack of choice in the matter, he became something more than human and passed into the twilight, a hero and more. Kara was already something more than human, by that point.
I find it almost fascinating that as soon as the focus went from Kara/Lee to Kara/Sam, they got the scenes and the angsty looks--even if it was the cliched comatose husband storyline.
Of course, we'd already gotten 'Scar', an entire episode devoted to Kara missing Sam and being convinced he was dead and then, um, deciding she could live for him. And then they gave us StWoM, which is all about her learning to come to terms with the fact that she might never get him back.
Both of those episodes do, of course, have other subplots. There's cylon politics and Kat being Kara, and Kara's family issues. And freaky hybrids.
So, what I was originally starting to say, was that I think the writers never concentrated on making Kara/Sam UST-y, because they were married, and their own goal was Kara/Lee. So concentrating on the RST couple was never something they were concerned with, until they realized they'd made a mistake.
Whereas, all the overt UST and Angst piled on Kara/Lee was very by-the-numbers and ultimately boring.
And that's how you accidentally end up with an Epic pairing that has an entwined Destiny of Doom.
Sigh. Stupid kids.
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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.
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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!
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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've seen people say if there are any more BSG movies they should do something set during the missing New Caprica year. While that's probably a slightly better idea than Eddie's post finale plan it's still not something I think I want to see. I don't trust the writers not to screw up canon. We get to envision so many awesome things for ourselves about that year, and I'm honestly afraid of what they'd do with K/S if they were to actually have to focus on their relationship for an entire movie.
I do think how awesome Kara/Sam were was accidental. And, going from her interviews, I think Katee may have had something to do with them realizing what they had set up and how they should use it. And that makes me love her even more.
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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)
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One of the main reasons I love their story is that it isn't the cliched "main couple" UST dragged out endlessly put punctuated with moments meant to feed the beast, as with Kara/Lee. (Or another current example is Chuck/Sarah on Chuck.) Apparently TV writers got the idea that couples need to be kept in perpetual UST from Moonlighting back in the 80's. Once they got that couple together, the audience abandoned the show. But IMHO perpetual UST doesn't work indefinitely either.
And one last thing, I also think it's awesome that Kara/Sam ended up with not one, but two epic symbols of their relationship. The wing tattoos, and the dog tags. Both of which really add to the overall epicness. :D
And one more, the song also connects them.
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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.
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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).
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Great analysis. And yes, very much agreed.
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Your brain is awesome.
<3
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