DPP: First Impressions (or, pilots alone vs. pilots together)

[winegums.livejournal.com]

We love our pilots, and we love them very much indeed. But what did we think of them, when we hadn't yet seen them together onscreen? Did that change, once we had?

It's been observed, elsewhere in the fandom (over at workerbee73's, in fact) that Kara and Lee in their very first scenes come off as somewhat bratty and abrasive, and more than a little annoying.

But when they are together onscreen, making sarcastic remarks at each other and eyefrakking and exuding enough UST to power a small nuclear reactor in the first brig scene, to many people that is the moment when we first begin to like them unreservedly - or at least a whole lot more than when we already did - and if not then, seeing them together onscreen certainly makes us love them more with time. So what did you think of them alone and together, Shipper Nation?

I'll go first, with an edited version of my thoughts about pilots during my first watch of the miniseries - chip in with your own in the comments:



Oh hey girl, you are kind of an asshole, and do you really like getting in trouble so much? But I like your swagger, and think I am starting to develop some serious girl crush on you. Even if you would probably kick my ass and laugh at me for admitting to that.



You sound like a brat, but I think it is your daddy issues making you act out (and I can sympathise). Also, you are very, very pretty.



You two have some serious tension going on, and I call it - you are going to hook up at some point (also, nice arms, Lee! Who knew that was under your flight suit..). But somehow, you seem less like assholes when you are together. And I refuse to ship you. This show is yanking my chain, and I am too savvy to ship you.

My presence here should indicate how well that worked, but I'm still wondering what everyone else here thought of our pilots when they were each introduced to us separately, and if seeing them together changed the way you saw their characters? Tell us all about it!

Also, anyone who hasn't done so already should check out The Limit, by word_vomity and (ETA) Burns and Bruises by useyourlove, the fruit of yesterday's DPP. That and the DPP before it are still open for discussion and ficcing, if anyone feels like it!

Comments

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

LOL, I loved Kara from the start. I'm not the type to think disobedience and getting into fights immediately makes a character cool or strong or whatever; there was just something else about her. On first impression, I didn't really think Starbuck was all that sexy - charming but not really sexy, and I loved that. She struck me as extremely unconcerned with her appearance and as boisterous and fun-loving as the male characters more often get to be...but flawed, in ways that real women are. I'm not sure if I immediately knew how much I'd like her, but she seemed like a well-written character from the very first scene. If she were male and badly acted I would have dismissed her as a trope, but she was neither of those things on top of not being an object of typical masculine fantasy, so I was a bit drawn to the character immediately.

I don't remember my first impression of Lee nearly as well, but I'm sure he came off as a bit of a stick in the mud, and it was only when it came to the first scene he had with Kara that I understood some of his baggage enough to really sympathize with him. And the mix of aggression and compassion Kara had with him, as well as the apparent familial connection she had with him and Adama, had me intrigued (Kara's complicated triangular connection to both Lee and Bill made me somehow sympathize with the tensions more, I guess because it put it through the eyes of someone who cared about both of them and didn't have a place to take sides).
I, unlike others, didn't think they would ever hook up. I just kind of wanted them to :)

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I get what you're saying - I did in fact find her really sexy in the card table scene, but I loved that she didn't look like your typical TV heroine, and also that the show never questioned her attractiveness because of it. She's the polar opposite of characters like Sydney Bristow who were held up as strong-woman standard before, and I love the writers - and Katee - for that.

I find it interesting that both Lee and Kara's earliest scenes (second in Kara's case, first in Lee's) have them rubbing people the wrong way, though Lee is made to come off looking like more of a brat. The brig scene did so much for both of them, it's amazing how differently I looked at both their characters after that. Though it's probably no surprise, considering the amount of info given/hinted at in it.