DPP: Show, Don't Tell

[winegums.livejournal.com]

 ......is the basic principle of pilots, it seems like. Many moons ago, I remember thinking that pilots and their connection were as much if not more about the things they don't say to each other, as the things they actually do end up admitting (this is quite apart from the fact that they understand each other in a way that often doesn't need words). Which makes sense for pilots as characters  - Lee tends to be a thinker, Kara is more of a doer, but neither of them is much of a talker.

This -------> UST boiling over practically all the time and intensity off the charts, but also mad frustration waiting for them to just say something, dammit! especially given that they both have such a hard time opening up about things that bother them (they'd rather beat each other to a pulp in public than admit to being insecure and heartbroken), and their actual conversations can go disastrously**. On the other hand, sometimes they actually do manage to actually spit it out; Lee admits to Kara that he didn't want to come back from his spacewalk in RS2, and Maelstrom has Kara talking to Lee about her time in Leoben's twisted New Caprica dollhouse as if she's told him the details before. 

Today's question is: if you had take one of the many, many times that pilots end up not telling each other what's really eating them up inside - whether that's to do with their feelings for each other, or something else - and actually make that conversation happen, which one would you pick? Mine is the one below: 




On one hand, I love that the first person Kara went to for help after having to face the fact that she was dead was Lee and not anyone else. It's a statement about how far she's come as a character that she can admit that she needs her friend to share that knowledge, even if she couldn't ultimately share it with him right then - but the way she puts aside her own pain in the face of Lee's so she can be a friend to him, it breaks my heart every time. It also makes the memorial hallway scene in Islanded In A Stream of Stars that much more beautiful because once he did know, even if he was a little late, he came through for her in spades. 

So which pilots conversation would you have steered a little closer to the truth, if you had the chance? Or which one would you make them have?


**two especially depressing examples: Lee confronting Kara in KLG1 and, that painful, awful conversation in TAB.

Comments

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

Would have been better, of course, if she had somehow walked away instead of just waking and marrying Sam. At least Lee would have had a chance to see some of it?

Kara does seem less unsure in the aired version - leaves more room for the explanation that it was a drunken fling type thing instead of something incredibly meaningful. And there's tale of that famous battle between one of the editors who kept trying to keep the little I love yous in the aired version and RDM kept insisting they be taken out. *sigh*

[mserrada.livejournal.com]

The aired version did have that little moment where Katee managed to convey doubt/fear, but it was so short.
I'm glad the other 'I love yous' were cut. It made the one declaration from Kara mean more.

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

For me, one big shouted I love you doesn't quite ring right for me. Not sure why, but it always pinged me as kind of forced a little bit and she looks unsure afterwards - or maybe just nervous. The little I love yous really sealed the deal, IMO.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

People always say this, about Kara seeming unsure, and I agree she does when she asks him "Are you sure I'm what you want?" But when he says Yes and then says the bit about afraid of needing anyone/ and she says "YEAH." all understanding and then they quietly tell each other they love each other, I see no doubt at all on Kara's face. When they hug, she's happy. Smiling.

They should have done a better job showing us the morning after how she makes her decision. The scene with Tigh has never really pleased me or been enough reasoning.

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

She did seem unsure until the quiet I love yous. I agree she seemed very content after their little talk. What happened to her after that, I don't even know. The Tigh thing as NEVER made any sense to me. Blargh.

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

Leaving aside that I love that Tigh laughs at her, the way I understand that scene is that she comes back to where Sam is without a plan and what Tigh says reminds her that whatever they have on the planet is temporary, that there's still a war. And she can imagine surviving if she lost Sam but not Lee. And Lee's not there to explain to her that her logic doesn't (ever) work.