I Miss Pilots

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

We've talked in the past about why we love them, why we ship them, how we grieve for their canonical ending. My question today is:

Why Do You Miss Them?

What did they do for you that makes you ache for them? Why do you keep writing fic or making icons or vids or mixes for them? How is it that you still squeeeee over the bits of dialogue and screencaps of scenes you might have watched a thousand times? Why do you check your flist and hope "OMG NEW FIC?????" Why do you still follow Katee or Jamie and keep the squee running hot?

What keeps you coming back for more?

Scenes that make me miss them.

Comments

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

I answered a bit of my own questions by posting pics that give me the achy squeee. But in words?

I guess the short answer is that I fell in love. Indescribable, inebriating, enthralling and passionate love for this frakked up couple who kept missing each other, hurting each other and enduring all kinds of suffering without losing their essential love and attraction.

THAT makes me NEED new fic. I need to see how they might have lived in another environment. I need to know how they might have made it work. I love seeing a little bit of Lee or Kara on a 100x100 icon. I love living inside my memories and hope for them.

But why am I driven so hard: I NEED TO FIX IT. Maybe if I write or read enough fic, it will all make sense. I can rid myself of the poof or the table or that stupid metaphorical flying rat. Or maybe I can work it in to my own version of that craziness.

It's the hope and the pain, all intermingled together that keep me coming back for more. Maybe this time, I think, everything will work out the way I want it to.

*sighs for wish fulfillment*

[aurora-0811.livejournal.com]

OMG I'm here early for once! *waves to all the shippers I miss at the DPP*

So...Why do I miss them? It's almost hard to explain because there are times I say to myself "Self...why do you still care so much about 2 fictional characters on a show that is long gone and also broke your heart on its way out?"

So I suppose the reason I miss them is the reason I fell in love with them. Two really emotionally screwed up people who found strength, friendship, comraderie and love in world that had gone to hell. The odds were against them from the start but they always came back to each other, they always found themselves in each others orbit. I am nothing if not a sucker for a story about soulmates. I laughed with them, I cried for them and at times I wanted to shout my love to the skies for them. How could I not ship a couple that could make me do all that?

Katee and Jamie brought every emotion to life for me. Their joy, pain and sorrow could be conveyed with a look or gesture. You got the sense that they knew Kara and Lee didn't always need words to say what they were feeling. I haven't witnessed that kind of on screen chemistry before BSG or after. They just consistently nailed their characters for me. For that, I will follow them to any show or movie they move on to (while constantly hoping they end up in something again together, however unlikely)

I love the passion pilots brought out in our tiny little corner of the world. The creativity of all of the talented artists, writers and thinky thought bringers can often brighten my day. I can find pretty icons and graphics or fic with canon!pilots, AU!Pilots, and most importantly finale fix it fic all at the click of my mouse. So I guess in a way I don't miss pilots as much as I would without fandom because on any random day I can find someone keeping them alive and relevant in this post-BSG world and be more excited, squeeful and happy than I was waiting for new episodes to air.

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I've ever been able to figure it out in coherent terms. From their first scene in the mini, there are these sparks, even when they aren't necessarily flirting with each other. They were a bright spot in a dark show.

sci_fi_shipper has a point about the hope, too. Their world was mostly destroyed, civilization is eeking by on the run, not sure they'll ever set foot on terra firma again, most of the survivors were simply travelers who happened to not be on a planet during the attacks, and so weren't really cut out for survival on a ship, forever. As a culture, they need to immediately start a new generation so they have time to train their replacements if they still have to fly ships and defend themselves in space. In order for humanity to survive, people need to find a mate in a very small population, and I can't help but be drawn to the ones that obviously have strong feelings for each other.

This is not my first "military" 'ship, either. I spent a lot of time on the Star Trek: Voyager message boards back in the 90s, fixating on how Janeway could have a personal life when there was nothing left but the military organization, and what the fraternization regulations even meant in a world with no shore leave or home. Huh. Switched genders, lower ranks, younger, better looking, but I'll be damned if I'm not 'shipping the same basic storyline all these years later... And the only 2 'ships I've ever really actively participated in online were Janeway and Chakotay and now K/L.

Maybe I have issues with somewhat-arbitrary "rules" that disregard human emotion. I get frat regs in a normal military environment where the US has about 1.5 million people actively serving in some branch or another, at around 820 bases. There are places to transfer to, other people to serve under. Voyager and Galactica alike, though, were part of a locally tiny contingent, with no other ship to transfer to, no other Captain/Commander to server under.

The hopeless romantic in me just can't believe the "right" thing to do when you fall in love with someone an organization says you shouldn't is to transfer far away and forget them. How many people even find real love? I get that judgement is compromised by feelings for people, and man-oh-man did I write tomes on that in the Voyager setting back in the day. Ignoring your feelings for someone you command does not prevent you from making bad decisions about them and their safety (I'm looking at both of you, Adamas. How much tillium went into looking for just little ol' Kara on that planet when she crashed?). So if ignoring those feelings doesn't help, why can't we all just be... friendly?

The chemistry between Jamie and Katee could melt my TV, too, which doesn't hurt. :) They make me want to write very wrong real-person fic about "rehearsing".

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

"I miss us."

Kara lifted an eyebrow at this non-sequitur from Lee.

"You miss 'us'?" Kara asked slowly, trying to gauge where he was going with this. The subject of 'them' was an open field...green, lush and inviting...and chalked full of landmines ready to below anyone who came near to kingdom come.

Lee had stuck his hands in his pockets, looking down at the ground for a second as he smiled. "Yeah. I do." He looked up at her then, shrugging a bit. "We never see each other anymore. I feel like we haven't even really talked in..." he shrugged, trying to find the words.

She saved him the trouble. "You're the president of the Colonies, Lee. I'm Galactica's CAG. We're on the way to Earth. There's not exactly a lot of time to hang out at Joe's and play a hand of triad anymore."

He gave her a withering look that said that's not what he had meant, and she knew it. "There's always something," he said, and that was inching a little close to their usual landmines. He stopped just short of it, though, shaking his head and softening his gaze. "I just miss working together, going out on CAPs, you ignoring my speeches in the ready room, me beating the crap out of you in triad."

Kara laughed at this. "What universe were you living in, Apollo? You could never beat me at triad."

Lee joined her and it hit her all at once that he was right. She missed hearing him laugh, missed the teasing, the constant company.
After everything that they'd been through, all they'd hurt each other and loved and lost...she missed her friend.

She didn't have many of those.

"Tell you, what," she said, "I'll make you a deal. When we get down to Earth, I'm going to pick a direction and we're going to walk as far and as long as I say we will."

Lee looked at her in mock alarm. "Are you saying you're going to take me out to a deserted field and lose me, Starbuck?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "I think I'd be doing too many people a favor." They both laughed again.

"Really, a camping trip. Just the two of us," Kara told him, feeling herself get excited about really being down on Earth, exploring it with her friend, starting a new life.

Lee genuinely smiled, the excitement that registered in his eyes making him look impossibly young. "Just you and me."

She made her way to the door, and he followed, leaving the somberness of his father's empty office and into the busy hallways of Galactica.

"And hey, if it makes you feel any better, no one listens to my speeches in the ready room either."

***END***

[kag523.livejournal.com]

OMG - I absolutely ADORE this. Oh god. This. THIS! would have been the perfect way to end the series. I could have fallen in love with the ending (non-technology and all) if only given this closure. Thanks for this! K :>)

[zenzero42.livejournal.com]

in a few words: because it was a tragic love and it ended badly.

this is the real reason I still want read about them, to make them happy to explore all the possibilities.

I shipped A/R too during the show, but they ended happily (in a bsg way), they had justice. so, if it's true that I love A/R history, I usually find incredibly boring to read fics about them. while Kara and Lee were frakked over and over by destiny and I feel the need to look at them, to give them the chances that they haven't had in their lives.

and this is why at the end of the day I love Kara and Lee tragic ending, it keeps the fire lighted (I know it's an unpopular position between K/L shippers)

Great, immortal, love are tragic, and their love was the greatest.

[aurora-0811.livejournal.com]

So lovely! I wish they had the chance to go on that camping trip. That would have been a lovely ending to the series. Watching them find a clearing, pitch a tent, sit by a fire and stare at the stars without a care or worry in the world is a beautiful thought. *sigh* They deserved all of that and more.

*hugs this comment!fic tight* Great job Lex!

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

I will do everything I can to give you new fic.

:)

cheers.
--Lex

[helikedmyshoes.livejournal.com]

*happy sigh* I love this so, so much. The banter is spot on (love Lee's line about taking him to a deserted field and leaving him) and I just love the idea of them going back to being friends first and foremost and then finally letting something grow from that slowly and organically with nothing in the way and nothing for them to be afraid of.

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

Well, I set this scene as part of "Revelations" where Lee and Kara are in Adama's office, talking about Earth (numero 1). This would have been tacked onto the end of the aired scene where they talk about "walking through those halls together" and whether or not Adama was coming back.
Which, I guess, based on the devastation they found on Earth I, makes this more tragic.

:(

I'm just a downer, aren't I?

Haha.

cheers.
--Lex

[ecstaticdance.livejournal.com]

I could answer, but I'd just be saying this, so I'm going to say, "Yeah, this" instead.

**hugs aurora08_11**

**hugs Pilots**

**hugs All The Shippers**

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

This is going to sound contradictory. Maybe it is, but I imagine that I would still be completely invested in them even if they'd gotten a happy ending complete with sunset-walking, hand-holding et. al. Mostly because I can't imagine NOT having them on my mind all the time.

Still, I think what I miss the most about pilots? Is their POTENTIAL. All of that anticipation, all of that UST, all of that excitement, the way the air just crackled when they were in a scene together (whether onscreen or in fic!)

I would've loved for them to get their happy ending and it will always gall me that the "official public record" (i.e. canon) states unequivocally that they couldn't make it work and furthermore hints that they didn't deserve to, or some such bullshit. But...I think my most preferred ending for them, truly would have been open-ended. The two of them dancing together but not together forever. Sigh.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

Why do I miss them? Goodness, I wish I had a good answer for this one, because to be honest, I’ve never had trouble “giving up” a character story before. Everything that people have posted before this is certainly part of it, but for me, it’s that the story that I believed was the overarching theme of BSG – that it didn’t matter what had happened in your past... that you always had a choice about your future – somehow fizzled out in their last scene together.

My husband has asked me numerous times (usually when I first say “I have a long fic started... you ready to beta again?”) why I can’t move on from it. Writing takes time... I have a job, and kids, and grad school and a husband. And though I try to balance them all, I still feel driven to give voice to those characters, especially Lee and Kara. It bothers me, in some ways that I have this driving need to fix that story. To finish where it is going. To give myself the joy of them in the way I believed – even right up to the second Lee turned away in the field and said “I want to explore” – that it would end for them. Together.

One day, I think I’ll get to a point where I’ve written enough, vidded enough, done enough manips to fill the gaping emptiness that the finale left me with. One day, I’ll embrace my “real” characters enough to begin devoting 5,000 words a day to writing them. (Because yes, I have a doc started for the real novel too.) One day I’ll discover that I haven’t checked LJ for a week – and never even noticed that I hadn’t. The thought of it is both peaceful and a little sad for me. Because this has been an amazing journey. And... at least for the moment... I’m not quite ready for it to end.

(http://s931.photobucket.com/albums/ad159/kag523/No%20Takebacks/?action=view&current=Together.jpg)

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I was thinking it was pretty bittersweet too because of Kara's surety that Earth would be a place they'd want to go camping.

Makes me wonder if she had any trepidation about the second earth. Someone should write us fic where Lee finds her between the jump and the raptors going down to the planet and calms her fears about this being a ruined Earth too.

[kag523.livejournal.com]

No you aren't - It's still beautifully written. Lovely. :>)

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Really sweet. Thanks.

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

You don't even understand...I ACHE for these two.
It's been what...almost 2 years? (OMG)

I ACHE FOR THEM.

And I think I've been crying over their situation even since TABFAYW.

*cries*
*thinks about new fanfic*
cheers.
--Lex

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

THIS.

Tara, you are so right. I have a hard time imagining them with a happy ending...because it's not who they are. Even if they were together, and they were on Earth and happy, they would have ISSUES and fights. There's too much emotional scarring for sunshine and puppies. But I like to think that they'd push and pull and struggle to MAKE IT WORK. Because they EARNED each other. They really did.

It makes my heart ache.

*holds you*

cheers.
--Lex

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Why?

Because they were wronged and I was wronged.

Because if it hadn't been for Lee and Kara, their beautiful screwed up broken characters, I wouldn't have been watching in the first place.

Because their tragic ending was a cheap cop out to cover the decision to disregard character development for over-arching mythos.

Because it's my escape. Sad and tragic, but escapist none-the-less.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

And sometimes I just need a good cry. :'(

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

But I like to think that they'd push and pull and struggle to MAKE IT WORK. Because they EARNED each other. They really did.

This! This!

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

You know, I was wondering about that too.

I can imagine her almost not wanting to walk out of Galactica, terrified of what she'd find.

[amaliak.livejournal.com]

And sometimes I just need a good cry. :'(

It's so true.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

*hugs you*

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

I totally get your answer. I mentioned it briefly in my answer, but, yes, it's the potential of what they could have had that keeps me dreaming of more and better and other. It might be very different if they had gotten their forever ending.