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Fangirl babbling: Kara Thrace
Why does Lyssie love Kara Thrace?
I'm sure you are all dying to know the answer to this question, so I'll provide it for you.
Kara had me from "How's your wife?", so to speak. While watching the mini-series, she hits Tigh and then chomps her cigar, and then mocks Lee whilst in the brig. I like that sort of thing.
And at the time, I really liked Sam Carter, and found Kara to be Sam Carter but with violence and chaos.
I like violent people.
No, really, I do.
I also like expedient people, people who simply cut to the chase and don't try to pretty shit up. Kara tends to do that a lot. She's very up-front, very in-your-face, very confrontational.
So, I hadn't seen most of the mini-series, except in bits and pieces. But I knew that the little blonde woman who punched and kicked and bit and fought and flew a viper was damned fun. I knew there was more to the character, but hadn't seen those scenes yet. I didn't need there to be more, but I could live with it.
I finally caught up, and was amused that they gave her a back-story that included a dead fiance, and personal angst. Amused, and kind of disappointed that even with the brashness, they had to 'well-round' her to make people like her.
See, I'm weird. I'm perfectly fine with the woman who fraks, drinks, smokes, brawls, flies and does whatever the hell she wants without needing some twisted childhood to make her that chaotic and wild.
But I'm getting off-topic.
I wasn't sure the vulnerability worked for me, but then I saw season one, and realized I could live with it. It gave dimension that I was okay with, especially the relationship between her and Adama.
In '33', she yells at Lee, takes him to task for being an idiot. I think she's in 'Water', but I don't remember. And then in 'Bastille Day', she pulls off being temp CAG and is very perky
And have I mentioned that expedient people make me happy?
I keep rewatching the Kara parts of Act of Contrition and You Can't Go Home Again. And maybe part of that is I don't find Galactica's overall plot particularly interesting (although I liked Litmus enough to actually watch it twice, hrm), and I just want to see her. Is it probably obsession? Yeah, sure.
Yes, I want to be Kara Thrace. She's brash, obnoxious, sarcastic, full of arrogance and deeply flawed. She's also hot.
She fucks up the only good relationship she has, then fucks up every single one after that. Not all at once, but over time. I mean, Lee spilling the beans is like the best cluster-fuck EVER.
As the season continues, her character arcs some more. She goes from whining infirmary brat to Cylon raider engineer, and spends a lot of time with goop covering her (bet the shower doesn't take the stink off completely). And then she gets asked to interrogate a Cylon.
She's completely crap at getting anything out of Leoben. He just spouts Cylon propaganda, and gets under her skin, and makes her think that (maybe) Cylons have souls, too. She takes his soul to send to the Gods, after all.
Hand of God sees her planning something with out of the box thinking, and being stuck back in command, where she can't be out there, keeping them alive. She also winks at Tigh, which amuses me.
I'm sure Roslin was glad to have her be alive, at this point.
Then we get Kara the security guard, who almost gets her ass kicked in a bar, and then limps around in a dress which is ugly, but works on her (yes it does). And she sleeps with Baltar and fantasizes about Lee.
And runs out on Baltar. Can I say how much I love this fact more? Probably not. And I still say he never got off. He was practically there, being a gentleman and making sure she went first, and then she called him Lee, and it just ruined it all for him. And her expression is priceless.
She's an ass, she's abrasive, she makes really shitty decisions, and she makes leaps of logic that work out brilliantly.
If she were a man, she'd be Malcolm Reynolds, and simply not as HOT.
Or as interesting, come to think of it. OMG does this make Lee Inara? Yes. Yes it does.
I want Kara to call Lee a whore now. Damn.
*coughs* I was essaying. Yes.
Honestly, I fell in love with Kara because she threw a punch and she was a bitch. I mean, c'mon, I already had Jo McDonagh as an example of this sort of behavior. The first time we SEE Jo, she gets into a fight with a paratrooper, and has a bloody nose for the rest of the frakking episode! And bruises. And her hair is long enough to pull back into a messy blonde ponytail, and can we see why I fell for Kara? Yes. Thank you.
There's lots more to be said. Season one ends with her feeling betrayed by Adama and running off to Caprica for the arrow, getting her ass beaten by Six, practically dying, and then finding Helo again and discovering him with a toaster!
I have never loved a broken!scream more than Kara's reaction to Helo's "you can't kill her, she's pregnant!"
And Kara and Helo so obviously know each other in some ways--I'm fully behind the frak-buddies on this one, because it's the sort of thing I think they'd both do. I don't think it's OMG love, I don't think it's more than casual, and I don't think it's going to happen again for a while (erm, Boomer). They're also friends.
(yes, I skipped the Lee stuff. Gimme a minute to ramble about Helo and Kara and I'll get to the hitting which was good)
Helo and Kara are, in fact, my favorite Old Married Couple right now. They bicker and mock, and they know each other in some ways--in others, well, they're still learning. But Helo is very passive in this relationship and I think that's because he's a very calm guy, very surface (not that he isn't deep or doesn't think, but he doesn't let things get to him--I suspect he has siblings and is the second or third child). He doesn't need to push Kara because she doesn't push him.
And now, to the hitting thing.
How much do I love her awkwardness with Baltar? Lots. Er, but let's get onto the Lee thing. He pushes and pushes until the only reaction she has is anger, which she excels at, and she punches him and he punches her back without hesitation.
Why do I like that he hits her back? Because it cements that this is a society where gender doesn't matter. I am ALL FOR this concept.
Kara tells him as she walks away that she's a screw-up. And later, she tries to get him to understand that she's sorry, and he's shutting her out.
I don't know that Kara's a screw-up. But she believes she is.
A lot of people around her believe it, too. Tigh, for instance. (although it's interesting to note that Tigh doesn't think she can be coerced, considering he used reverse psychology on her earlier in the season).
Cue season two.
She still wants to shoot the toaster, and almost hits her. The toaster then steals her ride, and, well, she's stuck broken and bloody, and needing a rest.
Painting.
It's like the best Emo Goth Thing EVER. There's even bad poetry on the wall.
Kara is obviously a private person, though, as Helo didn't know about this place, and I don't think she'd told anyone (maybe Zak?). And it's dirty, but not in a mold-growing in piles kind of dirty. More a couldn't be bothered to take out the trash that had piled on a table dirty. Cluttered. And lest we forget, there are paintings, and wallscrawl.
Do I like the painting? Depends. As long as she does it when drunk and bored, I'm ok with it. But if it's an Expression Of Her Dark And Twisted Soul? Please, fuck off and die. Now.
There's been more since then, of course. We've gotten confirmation that there was more to her childhood than I'd previously thought (I am a Polyanna, and like to believe things are always better for my heroes in their childhood). I'm not ecstatic about it, but I can adjust my world view, and absorb it into all of the other facets of her character.
It's not like I haven't read similar--or worse--Charles de Lint has rather cornered the market on fabulous abuse redemption fantasy.
She's outraged about the farms, she's scared shitless, she's vengeful (and terrified) of Six, and yet she still thinks, she still kills Simon, she still gets her ass out of there.
And yes, I'm fine with Anders being a quick frak. Making him more is a little irritating, but I'll live with it (I suspect this is because I still find Sam/Kara hotter than anything else. Or Lee/Kara/Helo. Or Sam/Anders/Kara. Er. Orgies for all!). Mostly because I'm perfectly happy with her never having another Twu Luv again. Er, and with lots of Kara getting sex.
Kara's relationship with William Adama is more interesting than commander and commanded. She's the woman his son was planning to marry, the daughter he didn't think he'd ever have (I think, and he clearly considers her family). He loves her for her brilliance and her brashness, and just because she's Kara.
Finding out she was responsible for the death of his son--I think, if she hadn't left the room he would have beaten her senseless. (Which points out that he desperately loves his children, I suppose). Her being stuck on the moon galvanized him. He realized in an instant that it didn't matter what she'd done, she was still the girl who'd wormed her way under his skin, and who made him smile and who he loved.
It should be interesting to see where that all goes now. They've both betrayed each other: Adama for lying about Earth, and Kara for going after the arrow.
For more on the Adama/Kara trio, I recommend
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svilleficrecs's commentary. It's far more comprehensive and in-depth than mine.Have I said enough? Do I need to mention that she flies a viper, shoots guns, looks hot half-naked, and smirks well?
I shouldn't...
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And that whole hitting Lee and him hitting back thing; it was the first thing that jumped into my mind when Daniel hit Vala in Prometheus Unbound. Which I saw tonight. Have I mentioned our TV stations SUCK?
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Or as interesting, come to think of it. OMG does this make Lee Inara? Yes. Yes it does.
I want Kara to call Lee a whore now. Damn.
:: dies and iz ded ::
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*cough*Mercedes Lackey*cough*
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Things like The Onion Girl are completely in a class far removed.
Damn. Now I want to reread it.
::decloaking from lurker mode::
(And Mercedes Lackey? I'm always horrified by how popular her books are with **adults**. I generally find that the folks who love Mercedes Lackey aren't the folks you're going to sit down and have terribly interesting conversations with. Got to find readers of CJ Cherryh for that, I guess. ;) )
Re: ::decloaking from lurker mode::