DPP: Call Signs

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love all the call signs on BSG. Some of them are ridiculous, some of them are practical, all of them are cool. But of course I have my favorites ;-). Starbuck and Apollo! There are so many interesting takes on how they got their call signs. What's your theory? Got a favorite fic that explains them? Don't even care how they got them but wanna talk about the personas they shrug on with the names? Go for it!

(This is woefully short and needs a pretty graphic. I'll get on that in a minute.)

Comments

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

I have never been able to come up with a head!canon for starbuck. I did read a fic once where starbuck came from a child's book that might have been given to her by Lee? Ringing any bells???

As for Lee, I always thought Apollo was a sarcastic callsign given by other pilots because he was cocky and Husker's son. I think he was never comfortable with the implications, and rightly so, it was given because he was being mocked. I think he grew into it a bit later.

[word-vomity.livejournal.com]

I did read a fic once where starbuck came from a child's book that might have been given to her by Lee? Ringing any bells???

Aww! That's so sweet. I totally wanna read that now.

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever read this fic. I hope someone is able to identify it.

I too think Apollo was a sarcastic callsign given by other pilots because of his cocky or superior attitude or something like that. (And also because of his boyish good looks, of course. Perhaps mostly because of that. hehe)

In my mind it doesn't have anything to do with his father, though. I mean, in their pre-war existence, I don't think Bill Adama was such a big legend or important big shot in the fleet to justify that.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I actually have no theories on how in the 12 Colonies they got their callsigns! *is ashamed*


eta: Apollo is a little easier to have thoughts about since it's a 12 Colonies thing and I assumed Lee getting that for a callsign was because of the obvious, with maybe a little joke thrown in because in my head, callsigns are generally a result of ribbing:) But Kara's callsign is completely open-ended for me, I just assumed her fellow recruits came up with it and it stuck.

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

All of my theories on Starbuck have to do with verb phrases like
"bucking authority." But Dirk Benedict (boo hiss)--whilst making incredibly derogatory comments--was calling our Starbuck "Stardoe" and I was like "...........a.) you're an asshole and I hate you. b.) I never thought of it in that context before. Interesting." In fact it threw me so hard that at first I was like "wtf even is he talking about?"

[wicked-sassy.livejournal.com]

I like the notion that Apollo got his call sign from sunbathing naked. :D (Did someone say that on N_T last week, maybe?)

As for Starbuck, I've read the idea she got her name because she was super wild as a cadet, but she couldn't buck the stars.

[word-vomity.livejournal.com]

Did someone say that on N_T last week, maybe?

Yup! And I've been picturing it ever since! ;)

[n-e-star.livejournal.com]

::Raises hand::

Sunbathing nude was something the acolytes in the Temple of Apollo did. See, mythology is fun!

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

Definitely my favorite theory whenever it cropped up last week. And the Starbuck theory is a much more succinct version of the theory in my head for her. I like the idea that she got in trouble so much that she got her name for it. It's mentioned down-thread (http://no-takebacks.livejournal.com/255161.html?thread=13490105#t13490105) that her origin story in the BSG comic books is pretty much this. (Which I simply take as proof that our little enclave of fanfic writers is even better than the official folks half the time.)

[kag523.livejournal.com]

It's just easier for me to give you the story here rather than retell. I've got a couple theories, but this one's my head!canon for Kara. Enjoy! K :)
(From Chapter 25, The Officers' Club (http://kag523.livejournal.com/10821.html) )

: : : : : : : : : :

She glanced over to him, where a wrinkle had emerged between his eyebrows. She smiled, “you know why I got my callsign, right?”
Lee thought back slowly to his time at the Academy... he’d heard the story at some point. “Star of the C-Bucks. Wasn’t that it?” Kara laughed loudly.

“May the gods bless you, Lee Adama, you naive fool, for believing that spin...”

She shook her head, as if considering how much to share. Lee bumped her again, grinning deviously. “I’ll only think the worst if you don’t tell me, you know.” She shrugged, her breasts pulling tightly against the thin fabric, distracting Lee, before beginning her story.

“I was just good at running away... didn’t matter what it was. Didn’t really need a reason, either... I was just a bit chicken-shit... First year at the Academy, it got around that I’d try to buck about anything, before I actually did it...” Kara glanced up at Lee. He was watching her with a tender smile on his face. She smiled back at him, heart tightening and she continued as they left the wide tree-lined street to walk up the main sidewalk.

“Didn’t matter that I’d spent my entire life wanting to fly. Came the day to crawl into a sim... blew it off, skipped class. First day of we were supposed to analyze engines... same thing. Anything different, anything I didn’t know how to do... Anything that scared me... If I was unsure, I’d run.” She sighed; her lost breath left her slightly deflated. Lee put an arm, comfortingly, around her shoulders.

Kara’s story began again. “So I had this one prof, first year, a real bad-ass veteran of the cylon war, and he just started calling me on it... called me on it in front of everyone. ‘Oh yeah, there goes Kara again, gonna buck this off too.’” She mocked his accented voice angrily, cheeks flaming with colour. “The group of us had passed all the sim requirements for Basic Flight, but had never taken up a real bird. I was already pretty good,” she glanced up at Lee who was watching her. He nodded; that didn’t surprise him in the least. No one learned to be as good as Kara was; people like her were born with part of that gift. “So anyhow, this prof says that given my scores, I’m gonna go first... but I tried to walk away from it... tried to bail on him...” Kara’s voice had gotten quieter, and Lee slowed the pace of their walking, to give her time.

“And so the prof started taunting me in front of the entire class, making clucking noises... Buck-buck-buck-buck...” Kara frowned suddenly, and straightened up, as if reliving the moment, and its embarrassment. “I was so gods-damned angry, I couldn’t even think straight, Lee... I got in that frakking bird and pulled off one amazing manoeuvre after another, pissed as I’d ever been at anyone.” Lee watched her, wondering that she could be that good, and still be so scared... Ready to run away from her future. There were parts of Kara he still didn’t really understand. She laughed once more, bitterly.

“And when I landed the viper that day, everyone on the ground was cheering. The prof called me a ‘star’... adding in the buck so I’d never frakking forget how close I’d been to blowing it all off.” She shrugged, “...and suddenly I had a new callsign.” Kara shook her head, sending the bad memory back into the archives of her hidden past. She grinned at Lee then, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course I spent the rest of the year telling everyone who’d listen that it was because I’d almost been drafted by the C-Bucks the year before...” She chuckled. “I was good at pyramid, Lee. But not that frakking good.” And the two of them began laughing together in earnest as they finally reached the front doors of the Veterans’ Hall.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

This makes perfect sense to me :)
I admit, the C-Bucks thing has been my theory for a long time.

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I do love that story.

I think you have come up with other theories in other stories, though, haven't you? I don't remember if you have ever explained Lee's callsign, though. *shame one me , mixing up lots of stories and forgetting important details* ;)

[wicked-sassy.livejournal.com]

What an excellent story! Oh, Kara, always doubting herself and still kicking everyone's asses--and making up a good cover story. :D

[imbitchpuddin.livejournal.com]

I like this theory so much... I think I'm going to just have to make it my personal canon. And I also think I'm going to have to read this fic. :)

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

I like this theory! I could see Kara trying to squirrel her way out of everything and then finally getting called on it. (Also, yaaay excerpt :-D!)

whale-hunter

[pennyante.livejournal.com]

OK. Call me a huge nerd, but I had to read Moby-Dick in college, with the most awesome professor. And I think the resonance of Starbuck with her namesake (obviously, the callsign comes from the fact that one of the writers for the original series was a Moby-Dick fan, in the days before the coffee chain existed) is interesting.

In the book, Starbuck is the *reasonable* first mate, and the honorable counterpart (in terms of leadership) to Captain Ahab, on the Pequod. He's the one who tries to talk everyone out of chasing a whale out of vengeance, 'cause that'd be silly--whale-hunting has a purpose, and it's to get oil. He just wants to get home to his wife.

Melville makes a big point about the kind of courage that Starbuck has. "'I will have no man in my boat,' said Starbuck, 'who is not afraid of a whale.' By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward."

So my head!canon owes something to all of that--the idea that the name Starbuck indicates the seriousness, the depth of character, and the pragmatism that undergirds Kara's surface volatility and recklessness. It's like the writer's secret way of telling you to take her seriously even when she doesn't seem to deserve it.

Re: whale-hunter

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

I also think the Moby Dick reference is interesting. To me, both literary!Starbuck and Kara are the kind of people who tell their superior officers, to their faces, that their plans suck, but then put themselves on the line anyway out of loyalty. "This is going to get me killed. I'll do it, but let me put on record first that YOU ARE AN IDIOT AND YOU SHOULD FOLLOW MY PLAN INSTEAD." That kind of strikes me as a plausible general attitude of Kara in flight school :)

Re: whale-hunter

[requialexa.livejournal.com]

You totally beat me to it, and much more genuinely, as I have never read Moby Dick :D I just did some wikiresearch when I fell in love with Kara Thrace and have held that info as true ever since :)

Re: whale-hunter

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

You have just made me add Moby Dick to my reading list. :)

Re: whale-hunter

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

I love the way you've resolved the Melville Starbuck and Kara because that's always what I struggled with when I thought about her callsign in that context.

Also, YOU'RE A HUGE NERD ;-) buuut I think a whole hell of a lot of us here are. I know I am! (I recently ended up in a literary soliloquy to an entire class of Library School students about the literary function of Watson in Sherlock Holmes stories. Everyone else was just trying to have a nice discussion about a TV show and a popular movie so I kind of stopped the room cold. It happens.)

[n-e-star.livejournal.com]

Well, my theory about Apollo has already been mentioned (and if anyone wants to write that scene, feel free).

As for Starbuck... I have no real clue. The name is from the Norse ('Stor-Bokki') and originally meant 'great river', so maybe something like like she is a powerful force of nature? ::shrugs::

Or maybe it started of as some kind of drunken slurring that became a group joke that stuck? Like "I'll start back after this one" but it came out "I'll star buck afta this'n"?

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

ooo the Norse meaning of Starbuck has me thinking about all of Leoben's crazy rivers and streams. That makes it even creepier somehow.... I didn't know Leoben could get creepier.

[apodixis.livejournal.com]

Not sure if anyone has read any of the BSG comic books (I have...they're pretty bad). I know that they're not written by Ronald D Moore or anything so they're pretty much just illustrated fanfiction. BUT, there are a few issues about Kara's 'Origin' and it shows her in bootcamp (with Helo! and then they totally frak) and her training to be a pilot and her instructor is like "...blah blah You can buck me and you can buck the rules, but you can't buck the stars." I always liked that because a) it makes sense, b) who doesn't imagine Kara as a wild cadet?

[word-vomity.livejournal.com]

I've kinda always thought about it this way too...only slightly less cheesily said. ;)

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of taking the definitions of "buck" with this, because it basically has her rebelling against the stars. And the stars are an immovable constant, but damned if Kara won't rebel against them anyway! So perfect to me.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

Another thing I've thought about Kara's call sign: It has the feel of being a sci-fi-ish equivalent of the term "swashbuckler" (which, before it was more of a genre label, used to refer to a boastful rowdy swordsman).

[useyourlove.livejournal.com]

Oooo I've never thought of that, but you're so right!! Omg, I'm gonna start using that in universes where there is space travel. "This character is such a Starbuck!" Ahha, perfect.