BSG

[shipperx]

I never did get around to posting about last week's BSG premiere. And now that this week's follow-up episode is on, let me reiterate my sentiments from last week.

Starbuck, get a cross and hang yourself already. Please! Just, for the love of the gods, stop annoying the shit out of me!

During the original mini-series I really liked Starbuck, but in the years since she has grown (or, rather, not grown) to annoy me. And it's weird that she is my obstacle to embracing BSG, because it's not like I love any of the characters on BSG. Nor do I feel that I need to love any of the characters. Sometimes the utterly frakked up are the most interesting. (Yeah, Baltar falls into this category. He isn't the least bit likeable, but damn if he isn't a a trainwreck that's difficult not to watch.) So my problem with Starbuck isn't the likeability quotient. I don't find her likable, but that's not even the issue. And god knows she's a trainwreck. Added to that, the actress isn't half bad. It's just...Kara Thrace is a damn SPOILED BRAT!

My current problem with Starbuck and why she's annoying the shit out of me is her self-righteous "I'm not a Cylon!" hissy-fits. Okay, so she most probably isn't a Cylon, but how in the frakking hell is she so certain of that? It's not like the other stealth-Cylons knew that they were Cylons.

Actually, it's not even her own denial that's the problem. Denial I get. I certainly understood Tigh's reaction to his discovery that he's a Cylon. And I sympathized with Boomer hiding her Cylon nature. What chaps me is Starbuck's narcissistic inability to ever see anyone else's point of view, particularly her inability to give anyone else any credit. There are good, valid reasons why everyone is wary of her! She gets on a self-righteous high horse about how everyone is just supposed to "know" that she isn't a Cylon. Right, because all the factors of her miraculous return from the dead should just be overlooked because she's so damn special. When she was having her bitch-fit at Roslin about all her "sacrifices"... damnit, as if every other character on the whole damn show hasn't made sacrifices. Really, Kara, just you? Only you? No one else? Athena lost her frakking child for a year!

But that's Kara. Never bother with anyone else's feelings. It's part of why I found the whole love quadrangle of DOOM such a show destroyer last year. Guess what? I don't care who's frakking Starbuck. I don't understand why either of the men she's involved with continually forgiveher bullshit. It's really not forgivable bullshit.

And it's not that I think Anders was the poor wronged one last week when she said that if she discovered that he was a Cylon she'd kill him, just after he said that even if she is a Cylon he'd love her. Part of his vow to love her despite being a Cylon was based on his own discovery that he is a Cylon and thus he vowed to Kara what he wished she'd vow to him. (Yeah, good luck with that one, cowboy, this is Starbuck we're talking about. The world revolves around Starbuck... and not in the almost amusingly off-the-wall, psychedelic batshit Baltar kind of way. Just in a total narcissistic kind of way.) And Lee... well, he was better off in the government working with Roslin than he ever has been mired in Starbuck's 'romantic' hell. I frakking hate the Quad of Doom. Every damn bit of it. All of it. Everything. I don't want any more of it. It sucks in so, so many ways.

Okay, having bitched about Starbuck more than enough (did I mention that she annoys me?) I continue to enjoy all versions of Six. Cylon she may be, but she's always interesting to try to figure out. (Though I think allowing the Centurian's freedom may well be a very, very bad move.) And I enjoy Tigh's quandry. Being the uber-Cylon hater that he is, to discover he is one? Damn. Knowing how devoted he is to the fleet (and having killed his wife for helping Cylons) he's due for an existential meltdown... that he won't allow himself to have because he's not built that way. Roslin, Athena, and Helo are as close to character-love as I can get with BSG where I tend to remain somewhat cold to the characters as a general rule.

At the end of the day, though, the two episodes thus far have been interesting, but in one respect I'm still where I was during last season's BSG finale -- really wishing that Starbuck had remained dead.

Comments

[denny-dc.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I stopped watching this show a while back, but you're tempting me to get caught up because you give me the strength to express how little I care about the characters on that show except maybe Helo, Tigh and the Six's. But what I loved about it in the beginning, I just couldn't get after what felt like the one millionth plot twist and turn, and the lack of clarity regarding their quest. The Wizard of Oz, trying to get back home story line, has been better used (my new love Farscape, for example). On BSG, it just doesn't, didn't work for me. I got confused (not that unusual, mind you), but even with traditional science fiction, I need a human touchstone, and they kept changing mine - not developing character - but just damn changing them.

So your rant about Starbuck was greatly appreciated:)

[thedeadlyhook.livejournal.com]

Anders is a Cylon now? I gave up on BSG back in S2, but was interested enough by the omnipresent SciFi Channel trailers to try watching again and... yeah, I see what you mean. It's a pretty show to look at, but likable characters seem a little thin on the ground.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the big thing at the end of last season was that there were 5 models of Cylons that had yet to be identified. In last season's finale 4 of the 5 discovered at the same time that they were Cylons when they were all drawn (by a non-Hendrix version of "All Along the Watchtower") to a redevous point on Galactica. Tigh, Anders, Chief, and Roslin's secretary all four discovered that they were Cylons, and are all equally unhappy about it. Since they were under attack at that moment, they all swore to go back and behave as they always. Then they made a pact that if any of the four of them went against what was best for Galactica or any of them begin to act Cylon-y, that one of the other four would kill them. Roslin's secretary is looking distinctly red shirty to me in this scenario.

The fifth Cylon model is still unidentified.

Starbuck was killed 2/3rds of the way through last season. Then in the final seconds of the finale she showed up 3 months later, alive, and in a pristine, mint-condition fighter that was all glowy-white. When she came back on board everyone was freaked out, thinking that the logical answer is that she's a Cylon. After all, Apollo watched her die and they have video footage of her death. Now, she is just sooooooooo offended that anyone could think that she could possibly be a Cylon. She claims that she passed out and woke up orbiting Earth. She then took pictures of earth (and a solar system with a gas giant surrounded by rings...except don't we actually have two of those? Neptune has rings too. Whatever.), she passed out again, and found herself back at Galactica (in a pristine ship). For her, only 6 hours had passed and she has no explanation for any of it. Now, she wants to lead Galactica to Earth, except she doesn't actually remember how she got there, just that she "feels" the way to get there and that they're "going the wrong way" (So she holds a gun to the President's head to insist that they listen to her. Because that always works, doesn't it?)

So even though she doesn't know how she got there. Doesn't know how she didn't die. Doesn't know how her battered up old ship got to be a brand-spanking shiny new one. Doesn't know the actual path to Earth. And is 3 months out of sync with everyone else, she's mortally offended that anyone might in any way think that she even might be a Cylon. Hence, her totally ticking me off. I hate it when characters are so narcissistic that they decide that they're martyrs rather than thinking that maybe other people might have reason to think as they do.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Heh. Glad to help.

I do think this is the reason why I adored Farscape but I'm only a viewer of BSG. Farscape, for all its loopiness, focused on emotion. You always *felt* the ties that pulled at John.

BSG is... I was going to say more hard sci-fi. But it's really not great with the science part of things. it's more like hard military in space. It's intellectually interesting as they do have interesting quandries raised, but it's always so damn cold. For all their quest for Earth, I don't actually care whether they reach Earth or not, and what's more, I'm not sure how deeply the character care. I know they do on one level in regards to escaping Cylons. But I think it's somewhat telling that given their situation they have none of the qualms that drove Crichton to close the wormhole at the end of Season 4. Crichton didn't want to lead the enemy to Earth. This question has seemingly never once crossed the minds of the Galactica crews. I realize it's not quite the same thing since John was from Earth and John realized the difference in levels of technology. But the fact that they've never let themselves ponder the queston of whether it's wise to lead the enemy to the last bastion of humanity says something about the characters.

What's amused me most is that of all the characters, most of the one's I've actually liked to any degree have turned out to be cylons and not humans after all. In fact, the characters that annoy me the most tend to be the ones held up as the most "heroiic" of the humans.