DPP: Kara&Lee&Zak

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

My turn!! Yaaaay! I solemnly swear that I will keep my upset-getting and angsting to a minimum this week. Also, if any of my DPP's are just boring eternal repeats (ha!) I apologize--I'm still fairly new and so many of you know all the good places and classic fics etc. So I'm basically picking your brain.

After the show bible discussions last week from the lovely wicked_sassy, I got to thinking about all the pre-mini fanon out there and how much better it is than what the writers originally thought up (and thankfully, largely discarded). There are so many possible ways that their backstory could've gone and so many different versions of Zak, Kara, and Lee floating around out there and they're all equally valid and interesting. Pre-mini fics are pretty much my favorite genre. I'm just fascinated by all the "what-ifs" of their story, and how things are almost always canon compliant (because it's really easy to do with these two) and make the whole business richer from the get-go.

So, gimme your fics, your recs, and your head!canon. Tell me how you think their relationship developed. Tell me about your version of Zak. Fill in one of the holes that canon left or explain one of the tiny little references that they leave up to the imagination (my particular favorites are the "this looks familiar" and "this is just like old times with the major from wherever." And that ridiculously awkward picture that Kara has.)

Comments

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

A tiny piece of head!canon - the reason Kara is devoted to both Artemis and Aphrodite when it would be normal to have one particular deity is that Zak was devoted to Aphrodite and she continues to pray to her in his memory.

[apodixis.livejournal.com]

I've never even thought about that before, but it's such a little detail I can totally see being true about Kara.

Awesome observation.

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

Oh that is lovely. I like that. And it is very Kara. :-)

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

I've recced these to two different people already, but not here.

I discovered some very old fics by Foxrayne that include Zak or references to Zak throughout. They are angsty and infidelicious for the most part. I am not a Zak fan at all, but I actually enjoyed these. I imagine they might be quite delicious to those eager to see the dear boy fleshed out. :)

Foxrayne's journal is HERE (http://foxrayne.livejournal.com/). Find the fics with her Kara/Lee, Kara/Zak, and Kara/Lee/Zak tags. Enjoy!

[apodixis.livejournal.com]

Totally going to check those out, thanks for the rec!

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec. *going to add the link to the endless list of things to read*

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

:-D yaay looots! Thanks for the rec(s)!

[apodixis.livejournal.com]

I feel like such a bad person rec'ing my own fic but it seems to fit so much.

I JUST finished and posted an ~18,000 word fic about Kara/Zak's history in my journal yesterday. Lee makes a brief appearance and there's hints about their future, but I will warn that it is definitely Kara/Zak through and through (but would be enjoyed by Kara Thrace fans, I hope!). It is also very canon compliant, I took pretty much every detail we know about Zak (and some things hinted at in the BSG show bible but never said aloud in the show) and worked them in, then took some other details we know about Kara and ran with them, putting them into the story.

On Our Way (http://apodixis.livejournal.com/10791.html): An ode to Kara Thrace and Zak Adama. How they met, who they were, and how they fell in love, told through a series of glimpses into their lives. It's totally kind of fluffy at points and there really isn't any angst. It pairs well with whatever kind of cheesy music that's a guilty pleasure.

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

Oo sounds good! Adding to my never-ending list of things to read :-) (and shameless self promotion is 100% allowed ;-)!)

[wicked-sassy.livejournal.com]

Jumping in here to say that this is a super great fic! Y'all should definitely read it!

[pressdbtwnpages.livejournal.com]

I am super excited to read this! I've had it open in tabs for daaaaaays because Zak is my most favorite shadowy figure who we basically know nothing about tertiary character.

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

IDK about recs - my head is pretty messed up right now in terms of which thing was in which fic. I'll try and remember because there are at least 2 fics at ff.net in which i actually liked Zak a lot. They're pretty AU but still in the same setting - the attacks happened, eveybody is on Galactica, etc.

About head!canon I think that the biggest part I already mentioned last week. In my head Zak wanted so much to became a pilot because Lee was one, and good at what he did. I don't really have facts for it, it;s just a feeling that I got from the DB flashbacks, especially the one in which he tells Kara about Lee. That "next to Lee I'm a kid playing dress up" just breaks my heart everytime.

back with links

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

like I promised I'm back with some links

Finding Purpose by Nytel (it's possibly around here somewhere to but I read it at) http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3041544/1/

This is a story where Zak is found alive. I'll not say more because I'll get spoilery but I did enjoyed it a lot. and it has a couple of nice twists to it.


Possibility: Bright, shiny Future by Mistic 83 (with the same observation) http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2869716/1/Possibility_Bright_Shiny_Future

This one is a little more AU and get's a little darker towards the end. but it's really good

I know for sure that it's another great long story that I read and had a great Zak in it but I can't manage to find it right now. Maybe somebody remembers it. Kara is on Galactica with Zak and Lee is in the Fleet piloting a civilian ship.

[wicked-sassy.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's some bits and pieces.

- I like the version of fanon that says that Kara and Zak broke up before Zak died but she felt too guilty to tell anyone.

- There's a fic out there (sorry, no idea who wrote it) which depicts the awkward photo as having taken place while Kara and Lee were secretly together and Zak having no idea. I like that too.

- My version of Zak is what apodixis has in On Our Way (http://apodixis.livejournal.com/10791.html): sweet, smart, totally in awe of his big brother and in love with the version of Kara he put on a pedestal. I have a soft spot for Zak; I don't think he and Kara could have ultimately worked out over time, but in my mind he was the first man to ever love her like that, and it changed her for the better.

- I don't think Kara and Zak ever lived together.

- I also don't think that Kara's silver thumb ring was Zak's; I read a fic (again, sorry, no idea who wrote it) that talked about it being Kara's father's ring, and that worked better for me. Kara already had the picture of herself with the Adama brothers--I don't see her having a ring, too.

- In terms of "this looks familiar," I think somewhere along the line, Kara beat the frak out of someone--whether it was after she kicked their ass in triad, or if they were inappropriate to her--and Zak asked Lee to go haul her out of hack.

- I like the fics that show Kara and Lee being in the Academy at the same time but not really knowing each other due to age differences until Kara started beating all of Lee's sim records.

Hmmm, I must go back to work for now but will definitely keep thinking about this! Excellent topic!

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

Totally there with this two


- In terms of "this looks familiar," I think somewhere along the line, Kara beat the frak out of someone--whether it was after she kicked their ass in triad, or if they were inappropriate to her--and Zak asked Lee to go haul her out of hack.

- I like the fics that show Kara and Lee being in the Academy at the same time but not really knowing each other due to age differences until Kara started beating all of Lee's sim records.

BTw, there are some good fics out there where one of these (or even both) happen

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

I don't have time to answer your questions right now, but this fic is my head!canon for pretty much all my answers :) Prologue (http://embolalia.livejournal.com/950.html)

[pennyante.livejournal.com]

^And that fic is the main reason why I haven't thought too hard about writing a pre-mini story--it does too much of what my head!canon wants, and does it way too well! Love this one.

[apodixis.livejournal.com]

So in the flashbacks to before Zak's funeral, Adama is walking with Kara and talking about Zak. Adama mentions that Zak said he had a surprise to share with his father when he sees him regarding Kara. Adama sort of just stuffs the words in her mouth, though, and mentions engagement. Kara hesitates with it and finally just agrees with him.

For the longest time, I thought there was going to be some other twist there and I'm not sure if the writers left it sort of dubious and open for the future and decided not to go with it, or if it was just the way the scene was acted/written. Whether it was that they HAD been engaged and Kara broke it off before his death (and that's why it became hard for her to say it--because there was more to it but she didn't want to ruin the thought for Adama) and then there's the totally implausible fanfic-reader in me that's like, nope, she was totally knocked up when he died and without him, made the decision not to keep it on her own. So she lets Adama and everyone else thinks the big secret was the engagement rather than reveal the truth. I think I've read one or two fics that had the same idea in mind, but I can't for the life of me remember them. :(

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

I kind of felt like there was something else possibly going on there too, just because she never actually said herself that they were engaged. I like the idea that she broke it off (in fact, that's taking root in my brain now and running with it) and the knocked up theory is interesting as well. Ah, so much backstory and so little canon. It's like a fangirl free-for-all.

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

There's a great long thread of pre-mini fic recs HERE (http://no-takebacks.livejournal.com/3220.html).

[anamarya.livejournal.com]

Thanks you Rachel! That kind of a link is pure gold.

[pennyante.livejournal.com]

The difficulty in even thinking about a pre-mini fic, for me, is doing Kara's feelings for Zak justice. We arrive too late in their story, and hindsight's myopic, guilty, and nostalgic.

Head!canon Zak is: wounded in ways he's not self-aware enough about to get defensive, highly extroverted in part because he needs acceptance so badly, sunny and almost universally well-liked, kind of a bro but usually not obnoxiously so. He's the kind of dude who threw an arm around the shoulder of a brain or a freshman to casually include them at lunch, you know? Generous by default and not by design, and doesn't know how much social capital he has because he *feels* like an outsider, himself, deep down. He wants to be a valued member of a team, to be part of something.

That's more than I thought I had in my head!canon, but maybe that's various pre-mini fics talking to me? I can't tell anymore why I think what I think about anything.

[pennyante.livejournal.com]

I thought about writing comparative scenes with Kara talking to Zak, and then again to Lee, about her parents, at some point. I played with this story note that highlights how I see the difference between the relationships:

When Kara had told Zak about her mother, it hadn’t changed his feelings for her. But it hadn’t changed what had happened, either. It was like a blizzard swept in and drove their beach party indoors. It had gotten colder. They’d seen what was to be gained from huddling together. And they’d kept drinking.

Telling Lee had been something else. Like a heavy stone slipping past the smooth surface of a vast lake, it had raised the water level to rock her boat as it lifted it, had kicked up some mud in the rougher deeps. And then it settled there, a heavy fact that only the sea could accept. Could, over long centuries beneath them there, turn to back to mud.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

In my head!canon (and everyone else's, it seems) Zak is the one who pursues and initiates the relationship with Kara.

My other piece of head!canon, which came from Katee herself, is that Kara might have been thinking about breaking off the engagement before he died, but never acted on it.

I totally think Lee and Kara were at the Academy/War College at the same time but it was a huge place so they never really ran in the same circles or even found out each other's names.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Oh, and (and most fun) pilots during the Zak era TOTALLY loved to use flying/sim competitions as a substitute for sex, because they are pilots after all.

And if anyone tries to tell me that the Table Incident in Daybreak was not followed up by loads of other UST between Lee and Kara (and maybe some accidentally-on-purpose touching, because they can't keep their hands off each other), I will cut a bitch.

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

I will cut them with you, bb. They will have slasher-girls on their hands. There's just too much UST leftover to think they weren't drowning in it.

[shah-of-blah.livejournal.com]

I really, really love Kara/Zak. I'm weird that way. She just looks so damn happy in that photo, you know? We don't know if they would've worked out in the long run but I believe they were happy. I remember a line from a fic--I believe it was by daybreak777 but I haven't been able to find it again--where Kara and Lee are fighting about something and Kara just says, "He died." And the whole idea in the scene (which I think is very true and interesting to explore) is that because Zak died, Kara's relationship with him became frozen in time, forever preserved as fiance/fiancee without the opportunity for development.

But I do love them together. I just think Zak made her happy. I think he was the first person who made her believe she was worthy of love.

And here are my contributions:
The Rest Of Her Life (http://shah-of-blah.livejournal.com/27357.html) (all Kara/Zak, with just the tiniest hint of Lee)
Say Anything At All (http://shah-of-blah.livejournal.com/21934.html) (snippets from a lot of her relationships)
Five Times Kara Told Someone She Missed Them (http://shah-of-blah.livejournal.com/13934.html) (what it says on the tin)

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

I like Kara/Zak too, but I definitely like them way more when Lee is the picture, even just smirking or being disapproving or whatever other uptight things Lee would do. I feel like they all worked better when the three of them were together (which is ridiculous because there is no way for me to know that at all). Of course, I think how much you like Kara/Zak comes down to your own personal Head!Zak because they give us so little to go on. I really like the Zak in my head, so I like him with Kara. I really like what you say about Zak being the first one to make her believe she was worthy of love! That rings so very true to me.

Yaaaay fics!! *gobbles them up*

[requialexa.livejournal.com]

I've been toying in the back of my brain with composing fic that challenges some of our/my assumptions/fanon about Zak. Just to see what would happen if...
I remember reading a while back, a fic that dealt with sort of that, in which Zak was not a good boyfriend...I just remember after the attacks, Lee telling his dad something along the line of, "Zak hurt her, he wasn't a bad person, but he hurt her, and I won't do that" or something. (Any help in finding that fic would be rewarded with sparkles and many Dragon Blessings)
Whereas he was young enough when he died to not have compromised his character much in life, I just have a hard time with anyone that frakking angelic. Ugh.
Therefore I also like fic that shows Lee battling any sort of resentment towards his lil bro and fic that shows Kara paralyzed by Zak's naivete. I don't have recs, I'm sorry.

Mostly, Premini!pilots are my weakness for all the reasons everyone else already said. I love a triangle, I love the almosts, the "we can't"s and the "Uh oh, we did"s. It's all like caramel on top of my Pilots sundae, and just as bad for me.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I know! It's pilots before things started going badly wrong (well, REALLY badly wrong starting with Zak's death). I always like to imagine whether it was easier or harder for them to be around each other during that time, and how much of their feelings for each other were also tangled up in their feelings for Zak.

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I'm not particularly fond of Zak, essentially because I tend not to be particularly fond of anyone who isn't Lee when it comes to Kara. Kara and Lee are my OTP and that is it. I'm pretty biased that way, what can I say.

Now, having said that I agree with the assessment that he probably was the first person who made her believe she was worthy of love. He just wasn't THE ONE. Therefore, I don't believe it would have lasted and I guess the idea that they might have broken up just before he died or that Kara was at least considering it at the time makes more sense to me than the thought that they were really engaged and she was ready to get married and live happily ever after. Somehow I just don't think that happening. And not just because of Lee. Though he certainly must have shaken her applecart back then.

I just think even then her relationship with Zak was far from perfect. In my head, they were both young and naive and insecure and both dealing with their own issues - he wanted to be accepted in a very exclusive club, where he knew deep down he didn't belong whereas she secretely wanted a normal, stable relationship with a normal, good guy. In my personal canon, though they made each other happy to some extent, there was something fundamentally wrong in a relationship where you cannot be honest with your partner. And she was not honest with him when she passed him knowing fully well that he didn't have what it takes to be a pilot. Even if she had done it because she loved him so much she couldn't bear to hurt him like that, it would still show she didn't have enough faith in him to believe he could take it. But to me, there was also an element of insecurity on her part, as if she felt she couldn't trust him enough to take that truth from her without it shaking their relationship. She was perhaps trying to hard. I also have the feeling she revealed more of her real inner self in her drunk conversation with Lee the very first night they met, they in her relationship with Zak. To me, like Sam, Zak was safe, but unlike Sam, he got a rather tame version of Kara.

His death had a great impact on her, though. Proved once again what a great screw up she was and unworthy of the love of good people like him and froze him in a memory of happiness and perfection that was probably never completely real. Death has the effect because the dead can never prove you wrong.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you said, even though I myself am fond of Zak. Especially this bit:

there was also an element of insecurity on her part, as if she felt she couldn't trust him enough to take that truth from her without it shaking their relationship.

and also this:

I also have the feeling she revealed more of her real inner self in her drunk conversation with Lee the very first night they met, than in her relationship with Zak.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I like to write Zak when he's clearly much younger than/not an issue for Lee/Kara. Lol. Or when he's conveniently off "on a survival mission/at class/etc."

The classic Zak fic that shows him a bit more selfish/less angelic than others is Elly's Circumstance (http://elly427.livejournal.com/157828.html) (which is a remix of Elzed's Decline and Fall (http://elzed.livejournal.com/94052.html)--two completely fantastic, sexy as hell, pre-mini fics).

Oh and a fic about the major from wherever (who happens to show up on the Pegasus--but the fic's really just about Lee's reaction to him and Lee/Kara) is also by elzed: Auld Acquaintance (http://elzed.livejournal.com/116138.html)

I also have a list of pre-mini (and maybe early s1) fic recs here:
http://taragel.livejournal.com/9505.html