DPP: Daybreak

[lizziec]

Monday's DPP was Celebrations. We have lots of prompts, and one lovely ficlet by kballgetlost. Please go leave some love in the form of reviews :)

Tuesday was pilots picspam day, and there are some glorious pilots moments. Stop by and revel in the pilot-y joy.

Yesterday was Interventions - some really interesting points of intervention in pilots relationship came up :)

Today we're looking at Daybreak. I know, I'm really sorry to do this to you...

Yesterday Mark Does Stuff finished watching allllll of BSG, so I thought this would be a good time to revisit how we see events in Daybreak - and how we saw them when we first watched it. Included under the cut are some of the things that Mark says about our pilots in his Daybreak reviews to get us started (please note, this is not an excuse to get personal, just a way for us to talk about how each of us feel about the ending based on what someone else thinks).

Mark Watches Daybreak Part I

On faith in people and what Kara needed to hear:

I think the first sign that I should have a box of tissues ready was when Adama told Starbuck that he did know what she was: his daughter. Like Lee’s statement before, it’s unconditional love for her, and it’s something that she needed more than anything else.

Mark Watches Daybreak Part II

On the flashbacks:

Part two opens with flashbacks, and in a weird way, it was like another reminder that these characters’ stories were coming to an end. It’s not like this whole goddamn episode didn’t do that, but I realized that this would probably be the last time I’d see Adama and Tigh drunk together. (Side note: Tigh drunk screaming will never not be the most hilarious thing this show has ever produced ever. Which is perfectly fine, by the way, because I love the inclusion of humor that we see here. MORE ON THAT IN A SECOND.) This was the last time I’d see Starbuck and Lee make poor choices in a relationship and awkwardly flirt with one another. This was the last time I’d see Roslin diving headlong into an uncomfortable situation just for the hell of it. This was the last time I’d see Adama in the gutter, looking up at the stars. (OH GOD AN OSCAR WILDE REFERENCE, holy fuck I love this show.)

On Romo becoming president:

But before I could get any sadder, the episode cuts to Lee making Romo Lampkin THE FUCKING PRESIDENT. I’m sorry, this is SO GODDAMN FUNNY TO ME. I mean, what could be more irritating for the man than having to be President? Lee, you are a genius and I love you for it forever.

On not telling Boomer "the plan":

I was thankful for Starbuck’s retort about not telling Boomer “the plan” because it broke the painful awkwardness at just the right moment.

Mark Watches Daybreak Part III

On the blind jump to the Watchtower co-ordinates:

And then Adama orders Starbuck to make a blind jump, and then my entire brain collapses from what transpires from this order. Those notes that made no sense to her or to Cavil turn out to work perfectly as FTL coordinates. (No, seriously, this blog entry has made me love Bear McCreary from now until the universe ceases to be.) I honestly adore how this jump comes with sets of flashbacks: we see her find her body on Earth. We see Leoben call her an angel. We see her tell Lee Adama that she thinks about death every time she gets into the cockpit. We see her claim that her biggest fear is being forgotten. So I started to wonder if any of this were true, or if Kara Thrace had found a way to be remembered.

On Kara's end:

Lee and Kara follow Adama as he carries Roslin to his Mark II, and three of them exchange bizarrely-coded goodbyes. Adama knows what takes Lee a few moments to admit: This is the last time they’ll see him. And so his greeting to Starbuck is a reference to something they’ve said all along, and she knows it’s goodbye. As they wave goodbye to Roslin, the scene focuses on Lee and Starbuck, and it’s here that the one major question left for season four is addressed: Starbuck’s identity.

When she tells Lee she’s not coming back, that she feels satisfied that she’s completed something that needs to be done, she questions Lee: What is he going to do with the rest of his life? I was touched that he decided that he didn’t want to just exist and rest and relax; he was on a new world, and that new world inspired a sense of discovery and desire in him, something he’d not experienced in a while. And then he turns to find that Starbuck has simply ceased to exist. I gasped, and then immediately felt so goddamn satisfied by that image of Lee standing amongst the green, waving grass blades in the field. In that one moment, “Maelstrom” was given the weight and emotional force it had when I first watched it. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace’s actions had a consequence, and her death was real and had meaning. There was no shitty retconning of that plot, there was no attempt to deny her agency or free will, and there was no denial of her experiences in season four. They were still real, she still affected people and the fleet, and whatever “power” sent her back to direct those people to Earth never bothered to intervene and control her. She did what she was “destined” to do, and after saying goodbye in her own way to Lee Adama, she was gone.

The truth is that I don’t want to know the details of who she was. I know others do, and I accept that. We want different things from the show. I hate comparing this show to LOST (though the similarities in their series finales are eerily obvious to me), but mythology only matters so much. I want closure on the characters, and Starbuck’s disappearance gives me that. If she was really an angel, spelling that out would have made me feel disappointed. It would have felt cheap and easy.

So what do you think? Does any of it mesh with how you saw the ending, or even still see it? Has your view of Daybreak changed over time? How?



Oh god, my poor poor heart

Comments

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

the last time I’d see Starbuck and Lee ... awkwardly flirt with one another

immediately felt so goddamn satisfied by that image of Lee standing amongst the green, waving grass blades in the field.

There was no shitty retconning of that plot, there was no attempt to deny her agency or free will

(http://www.threadbombing.com/details.php?image_id=3670)

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

*NODS*

Really?? *heart breaking into millions of tiny pieces*

Feh.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

EXACTLY.

I'm like.... "Um, Mark? Were we watching the same show?"


**CRICKETS**

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I haven't really liked many of Mark's reviews. Too rose-colored glasses, drinking the show's kool-aid to jive with my own take on it.

I do like his praise for Katee though.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Eh, everyone comes at it differently. He wasn't drinking the shippy koolaid, and there's nothing wrong with that. But I feel like he hasn't had enough time to really digest and appreciate the Big Damn Ideas (if he did, he wouldn't have come up with that review of the ending.)

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Actually he was a pretty big shipper of Adama/Roslin, which is fine, but there wasn't much critical thought (IMO) of if the ending fit the show's narrative. He just kind of was so blown away by every single episode that it was all capslock of joy no matter what the show served up.

Which is also fine, but not interesting to me to read because I have such a wildly different view of it.

I do want to think that's true about not having had time to digest or process. But then again there are other brand-new watchers who devour it on DVD and still end up hating the finale, etc. I think there are plenty of valid reasons to dislike the ending, regardless of who you ship, but shippy preference does seem to have a big hand in whether or not you're happy with the ending. If your primary OTP got a fairly nice or even meaningful but sad ending, those folks seem to be okay with it mostly.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

shippy preference does seem to have a big hand in whether or not you're happy with the ending. If your primary OTP got a fairly nice or even meaningful but sad ending, those folks seem to be okay with it mostly.

I think you're right and it also goes back to your level of investment in said ship. I was totally fine with LOST's finale for example, b/c all the folks I liked eneded up sitting next to the right peeps in the church pew, but I wasn't that heavily invested in those characters/ships or in the mythology. And I think if I had been, I would have been a lot more upset. So I think some of it goes back to investment level and some of it goes back to getting an ending that you wanted.

(and then of course there's that tiny matter of telling a good story, but who gives a crap about that? *g*)

[winegums.livejournal.com]

But he does that a lot, so I am really not surprised by this. He goes into things expecting to like them all the way through, and usually does, even if he does have criticisms to make along the way. Which is fine and dandy, and in this case not at all unexpected considering he liked Mockingjay.

But yes, I am glad he appreciated Katee the way she should have been.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Mockingjay. SAY NO MORE. ;) Hee.

I haven't really read his stuff ever before. He's very excitable so I see why people like to read his take on it. I prefer a lot more snark with my reviews. Especially on stuff that I love ;)

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed his Harry Potter reviews, though that was a different experience altogether. He went from snarker to fanboy in exactly five chapters :)

The way he usually reacts to things is, like I said, from a fanboy perspective - more like an expected fanboy perspective, since he's going through things for the first time. I suppose in the end I'm glad he liked the show. If someone can think themselves into being satisfied with the ending, then that's one less unhappy fan, and....good for him.

[lizziec]

I really enjoyed his Harry Potter reviews, though that was a different experience altogether. He went from snarker to fanboy in exactly five chapters :)

I suspect that he started with the snark on Harry Potter because he was coming from Twilight, and that truly made his brain hurt, but everything he's read and seen since he's loved, so he starts in a much more positive frame of mind :)

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

and in this case not at all unexpected considering he liked Mockingjay.

For some reason, this totally cracked me up :P

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Honestly, Daybreak for me STILL >>> Mockingjay. On all levels, including emotionally.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Considering he reviewed the hallway scene in Islanded like Kara's attempt to tell Lee about finding her own dead body in SAGN hadn't happened, YES MARK I THINK YOU MISSED SOME ANVILS, and trust me this show drops BIG ONES.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with him not approving of Lee and Kara's actions especially considering he was pretty much ship-neutral (apart from Roslin/Adama), and different people have different reactions to the finale. But I still do have a big side-eye for the "there was no retconning/attempt to deny her free will" line, because really?

I'm curious to see what he thinks of Kara's death/resurrection plotline after he's been through Buffy, which despite its flaws executed that part of its story better.