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Random meta/opinion: BSG, 'Maelstrom'
In advance: I ran out of interest by point 4. Sorry. Also, this contains spoilers for NCIS season 2 and 3; and Babylon 5 seasons 3,4 and 5. Some of this was written off and on at work, so, it may look a little choppy.
1. Very Special Episodes.
From the beginning, Moore and his people have gone on about how BSG is better than any other show, because they don't solve everything in 40 minutes. Never has this been a more glaring lie than during the last four episodes. All four would have had far more impact if the stories had been interwoven and spread out during the entire season.
I said this before: if I want episodic tv with Special Messages, I'll watch Star Trek: the Next Generation.
Much like with Kat's episode, this one was obviously a setup for Kara dying. We got all sorts of callbacks to early season one stuff, and even the mini. And Kara herself said stuff about it being "full circle". Which. Great. Thanks for the baseball bat.
You know why I liked the episode of NCIS where Kate died? Because it wasn't a long wanky love letter to her. It was simply a normal episode (well, as normal an episode as you can get with Ari the idiot in it) that just happened to end with her getting shot in the head.
*pauses* Sadly, I don't think the next episode will have Kara as a ghostly presence while the men and women who loved her go after the Cylon that killed her (namely, Leoben).
Character things came out of left field: Kara and Adama haven't spoken since Torn, when he called her a cancer, but they're back to completely normal footing. WHAT? Kara and Lee... well, I suppose they had the reset button hit during WK, since they were all normal/friendly last episode. (BSG loves its character reset button like whoa) At least with Sam and Kara, we know they've talked before (TaB). And Kara and Helo, dude, they've been friends forever.
Just because your mid-season episodes are not supposed to be Great doesn't mean you can skimp and make them obviously filler.
You can't simply have characters acting unlike themselves with no build-up. I may hate with a passion the Garibaldi and Sheridan fall-out in B5, but it had setup and motivation, and you didn't just go from one episode with them being buddies to them being mortal enemies. You can't skimp on your characters and make them cookie cutter people you can slot into various situations. That's cheap story-telling.
This would be like me writing a fic where everyone is all about Keeping Lee and Dee Together, and thus, they all give them advice and it's all anyone talks about, and the Whole Fleet knows about it.
Yes. I did just say the last four episodes were like badly-written 'ship fic. With babies.
And, the sad thing is, I WANT to see shows deal with things like class issues and religious tension. But BSG only does it when they've got nothing better to do, and they don't bother letting us see it over time. Y'know, subtley.
I could believe that Roslin would ignore CHILD LABOR, y'know, if I hadn't seen her once ask a prison ship captain for daily reports on his prisoners. Hell, the woman won't fucking airlock Baltar, but making little kids work in a big-ass industrial ship is OK? Yeah. Right.
Weave in little bits and pieces about class all during the damned season. Don't just shove it all in one episode, to be forgotten as soon as it's done. (that's actually why I was so pissed about it. I would have LOVED to see that handled well, and it simply wasn't.)
I mean, I may think the Telepaths Are Persecuted People storyline from B5 seasons 4/5 was stupid (BYRON. omg. I'm SO GLAD he's dead--and, hey! He set himself on fire!), but it didn't come out of left field, there'd been setup for it for seasons. Which made the payoff that much better. You got why people did what they did. With the sense that it wasn't a black and white issue, and never would be.
Right. Back to Maelstrom.
2. Child Abuse is OK, 'Cause You've Got a Special Destiny.
The oracle, Leoben, and not!Leoben all say pretty much the same thing: it's ok for Kara to be abused, 'cause she's got a special destiny, and her mother was trying to make her tough.
Hell. We even see that she needs her mother's approval and forgiveness.
Yeah. I'll be over here being sick, thanks.
Why do I hate Ron's Destiny and Horrible Past for Kara so much? Because he's basically saying that, no matter what, no matter who loves you, you will never be able to break the cycle. And that's complete and utter bullshit. Complete. It's also basically telling every abused person out there that there's no hope. That you can never win, so you might as well give up now, 'cause baby, this is the best you'll ever get. And all you'll deserve is pain.
Although, it does make me happy that Sam and Kara have obviously talked about her mother before. Except. Um. That is NOT the post-sex conversation I'd expect to have. How did that start? "Hey, baby, your deep dicking has made me want to bare my dirty childhood secrets."?
3. Our Suicides Are Pastede on, Yay.
Apparently, Ron thinks that Kara embracing death is new for BSG. He is, of course, forgetting his own damned canon. Sharon Valerii who was talked into suicide by Baltar. Leoben talks Kara into it. Lee, surprisingly, talked himself into it. Chief was only dreaming about it. Kat was goaded into it, and her death wasn't anywhere near as painless as the others' would have been (not to mention, Kara tried to give her pills to make it go faster).
Kara killing herself was neither new nor innovative. Not even for BSG.
4. Kara the Mary Sue.
So, Kara has always been Ron's Mary Sue. And this was no more noticeable than inlistening to having people tell me about the podcast. He sounds like the dumbest LotR Mary sue author, talking about how they made everyone angst for three chapters... "And then I said, well, what if I killed her? And I realized it was a brilliant idea. People would be sad and grieve, which would just show off how awesome she ls!"
1. Very Special Episodes.
From the beginning, Moore and his people have gone on about how BSG is better than any other show, because they don't solve everything in 40 minutes. Never has this been a more glaring lie than during the last four episodes. All four would have had far more impact if the stories had been interwoven and spread out during the entire season.
I said this before: if I want episodic tv with Special Messages, I'll watch Star Trek: the Next Generation.
Much like with Kat's episode, this one was obviously a setup for Kara dying. We got all sorts of callbacks to early season one stuff, and even the mini. And Kara herself said stuff about it being "full circle". Which. Great. Thanks for the baseball bat.
You know why I liked the episode of NCIS where Kate died? Because it wasn't a long wanky love letter to her. It was simply a normal episode (well, as normal an episode as you can get with Ari the idiot in it) that just happened to end with her getting shot in the head.
*pauses* Sadly, I don't think the next episode will have Kara as a ghostly presence while the men and women who loved her go after the Cylon that killed her (namely, Leoben).
Character things came out of left field: Kara and Adama haven't spoken since Torn, when he called her a cancer, but they're back to completely normal footing. WHAT? Kara and Lee... well, I suppose they had the reset button hit during WK, since they were all normal/friendly last episode. (BSG loves its character reset button like whoa) At least with Sam and Kara, we know they've talked before (TaB). And Kara and Helo, dude, they've been friends forever.
Just because your mid-season episodes are not supposed to be Great doesn't mean you can skimp and make them obviously filler.
You can't simply have characters acting unlike themselves with no build-up. I may hate with a passion the Garibaldi and Sheridan fall-out in B5, but it had setup and motivation, and you didn't just go from one episode with them being buddies to them being mortal enemies. You can't skimp on your characters and make them cookie cutter people you can slot into various situations. That's cheap story-telling.
This would be like me writing a fic where everyone is all about Keeping Lee and Dee Together, and thus, they all give them advice and it's all anyone talks about, and the Whole Fleet knows about it.
Yes. I did just say the last four episodes were like badly-written 'ship fic. With babies.
And, the sad thing is, I WANT to see shows deal with things like class issues and religious tension. But BSG only does it when they've got nothing better to do, and they don't bother letting us see it over time. Y'know, subtley.
I could believe that Roslin would ignore CHILD LABOR, y'know, if I hadn't seen her once ask a prison ship captain for daily reports on his prisoners. Hell, the woman won't fucking airlock Baltar, but making little kids work in a big-ass industrial ship is OK? Yeah. Right.
Weave in little bits and pieces about class all during the damned season. Don't just shove it all in one episode, to be forgotten as soon as it's done. (that's actually why I was so pissed about it. I would have LOVED to see that handled well, and it simply wasn't.)
I mean, I may think the Telepaths Are Persecuted People storyline from B5 seasons 4/5 was stupid (BYRON. omg. I'm SO GLAD he's dead--and, hey! He set himself on fire!), but it didn't come out of left field, there'd been setup for it for seasons. Which made the payoff that much better. You got why people did what they did. With the sense that it wasn't a black and white issue, and never would be.
Right. Back to Maelstrom.
2. Child Abuse is OK, 'Cause You've Got a Special Destiny.
The oracle, Leoben, and not!Leoben all say pretty much the same thing: it's ok for Kara to be abused, 'cause she's got a special destiny, and her mother was trying to make her tough.
Hell. We even see that she needs her mother's approval and forgiveness.
Yeah. I'll be over here being sick, thanks.
Why do I hate Ron's Destiny and Horrible Past for Kara so much? Because he's basically saying that, no matter what, no matter who loves you, you will never be able to break the cycle. And that's complete and utter bullshit. Complete. It's also basically telling every abused person out there that there's no hope. That you can never win, so you might as well give up now, 'cause baby, this is the best you'll ever get. And all you'll deserve is pain.
Although, it does make me happy that Sam and Kara have obviously talked about her mother before. Except. Um. That is NOT the post-sex conversation I'd expect to have. How did that start? "Hey, baby, your deep dicking has made me want to bare my dirty childhood secrets."?
3. Our Suicides Are Pastede on, Yay.
Apparently, Ron thinks that Kara embracing death is new for BSG. He is, of course, forgetting his own damned canon. Sharon Valerii who was talked into suicide by Baltar. Leoben talks Kara into it. Lee, surprisingly, talked himself into it. Chief was only dreaming about it. Kat was goaded into it, and her death wasn't anywhere near as painless as the others' would have been (not to mention, Kara tried to give her pills to make it go faster).
Kara killing herself was neither new nor innovative. Not even for BSG.
4. Kara the Mary Sue.
So, Kara has always been Ron's Mary Sue. And this was no more noticeable than in
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ahem. Thank you. =)
The abuse thing is what has made me flaily and ranty all week.
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Ron: "Hey honey, what should I do with Kara next script?"
Mrs!Ron: "Let me check the shipper threads on the SciFi board... Oh, okay, basically make her say something that implies she still loves Lee and kill her. It's so Romeo and Juliet, so Antony and Cleopatra."
Ron: "Thank you, sweetie."
My biggest problem with it right now doesn't even have anything to do with Kara - it's Baltar. Adama and Roslin know Baltar wont say anything. Even if he does, he'd sound like he was incriminating himself, therefore it's not gonna be self-preservation if he spills all. IF there's anything to spill.
Which leaves one useless traitorous bastard. When the death penalty for treason is death, what do you do? You give him a long trial with episodes worth of build-up. What is the point of the trial? So they can say 'he did what he had to' and let him off, therefore breaking their own laws? And Lee is Baltars defence lawyer? Isn't this eerily reminiscent of Lee telling them that there HAD to be an election because it was the law? He's turning into the regular voice of reason. Shame he can't keep his dick in the right woman.
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*chokes and falls over, laughing*
Oh. Oh, but Baltar is a MAN OF THE PEOPLE.
And. The whole MrsRon thing. just. wtf. It's kind of why I'm sad the more sane people don't hang out on Skiffy. (not that we'd want to. But couldn't we, I don't know, burn the place down and salt it, so it doesn't come back?)
And, actually, Lee being all Mr. Law and Order DOES at least go back to what he was in season one. Which is nice. And reset buttony, but, hey, at least he's not contemplating suicide anymore.
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I just go with what people tell me. Anytime I visit that place I'm consumed with an overwhelming urge to choke a bitch. And after the time I saw the 'why there aren't/shouldn't be gay characters in BSG' type thread? That bitch may end up being Ron. Would it kill him to have a gay char? Really? He could even do it for humor. Hotdog getting his itch from another guy woulda been priceless.
at least he's not contemplating suicide anymore.
I wish he would. A lot.
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Pinpointing it, I think it came with the Lee/Kara show. In my review of "Unfinished Business," I said that I'd be OK with things if we got to see a friendship build back up between them, because OK, real life? But it was a downward descent into melodrama from there that I'm still not quite believing.
I expect more. And if they pick anymore on Roslin with this OOC crap, I'm going to have to readdress my love for this show. And yeah, I'm seeing your point on the B5 parallel (especially since I'm rewatching that arc currently) and there's loads of build-up there. In fact, it was so painfully realistic in its build-up that, as a Garabaldi fan, I'm finding it hard to get through it again and into S5.
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Oh, but Kara and Lee are Meant To Be. Or something like that.
*throttles sarcasm*
The thing about the Garibaldi and Sheridan stuff is that I love both of them. And I hated it, because it was painful to watch the destruction of their friendship. But it was still---actually, that's the thing. It was so well-done, I keep harping on it.
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And =still= it's one of the best shows on tv (at least amongst the tv I get).. either that or I'm just this uber-masochistic & desperate shipper that simply can't turn away from the trainwreck..
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Hell. We even see that she needs her mother's approval and forgiveness.
That didn't sit right with me either. All that 'don't confuse the message with the messenger' BS. Anyone who verbally and physically abuses her kid like that doesn't have any message *I* would care much to hear.
And I certainly wouldn't ask for forgiveness from someone like that. (Although I could see how Kara - who's already pretty frakked-up - might feel like she needed it).
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Honestly, I'm sure a good therapist would say, in some twisted way, that abused children need to forgive their parents. But I can't see them doing it the other way round.
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The episode wasn't All About Kate, with huge huge "OMG GUESS WHO WE'RE KILLING" prods.
I'm repeating myself.
Do! Just remember that B5 is less exciting than Farscape, and may take a while to get into. It's a lot talkier and political.