DPP: Rebooting Pilots

[winegums.livejournal.com]

We kicked off this week's DPP by contemplating the possibility of no pilots, and moved on to lament the way they ended, on the third anniversary of the day.
Today, I'd like to offer up a third possibility: what if you got the chance to change things for pilots? Suppose you were given a choice of one point in the story from which to undo the injustices done to them in canon, what would you pick, to give those poor kids a shot at a happy ending? From which point, effectively, would you take them AU?

awwww, look at baby!pilots all happy!

Whether it's having Lee actually admit to Kara that he wants her in Colonial Day/Kobol's Last Gleaming (which is coming up this week in the rewatch!) or averting their marriages, or preventing Kara's death, or even if you're ok with everything all the way till/except for the poof and would only change that, tell us! (or would they be better off being taken completely AU and removed from canon entirely?)

Comments

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

I actually can deal with everything up until the poof. But these days, pilots kind of permenantly live in AU for me. I guess it's my way of making peace with their story. :)

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Same here, bb. I could have taken EVERYTHING up until then, leaving them together in the field would have been enough for me.

Canon-set snippets will always be my kryptonite but for longfic, I MUCH prefer AUs. Especially ones that remove them from this version of canon altogether.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

**FISTBUMP**

[wicked-sassy.livejournal.com]

Bee says it best!

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

**FISTBUMPS FOR EVERYONE**

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Damn straight. *g*

[ddt73.livejournal.com]

I would change Kara dying in Maelstrom. Originally they were going to have L&K falling to the hard deck, when they thought they were both going to die they profess their love to each other, and then at the last minute they are saved.

Where would it have went from there?

I think TAB came about cause once you make the decision to kill Kara you have to try and resolve their ships. Originally TAB was suppose to be a more comedic episode like the title suggested. "Taking a Break from all your worries" (from the theme song of Cheers). It was going to tell how the bar got built. Alot of it is people doing favors for each other to get stuff for the bar.

Bottom line when you make the decision in a series to kill a character and then bring her back you open a huge can of worms. I don't think the show handled it very well. It opened up a lot of questions the show wasn't prepared to answer. It eventually leads to the poof. It also leads to another question if the coordinates for our Earth were hidden in a song her father taught her, then why did she have to die at all?

[winegums.livejournal.com]

I would change Kara dying in Maelstrom.

YES. I can actually live with everything except the poof, but there'd be no justification for the poof if she hadn't had to die, for reasons that are never really made clear. (there still isn't more than a hazy justification for her death, if that, even with the way things stand).

Frankly, I can see TAB still staying the way it was but not necessarily leading to Kara's death. Such a futile, shock-value move - heart-wrenchingly written and superlatively acted, of course - but so futile.

When I first found out that they'd actually considered the idea of having Lee and Kara save each other from the hard deck and Lee talk her out of suicide, it is a very good thing I wasn't in public because you have no idea HOW MUCH I WANTED TO SCREAM. WHYYYYYYYYY, WRITERS? WHY DID YOU NOT PICK THIS OPTION?

Bottom line when you make the decision in a series to kill a character and then bring her back you open a huge can of worms.

So much truth. I've seen it better-handled on Buffy, which only makes it clearer how ham-handed the BSG version of 'dead girl alive' was in the first place.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Bottom line when you make the decision in a series to kill a character and then bring her back you open a huge can of worms. I don't think the show handled it very well. It opened up a lot of questions the show wasn't prepared to answer.

Exactly. Plus they got caught up in the "wouldn't it be cool if?...." downward spiral. So freaking unnecessary.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

That is the spiral that gave us Black Market, the Cylon Parliament: Debates on Baseships edition (and WAY too much time spent watching Cavil-monologues and D'Anna suicides/Crazy Baltar), and finally dancing robots set to All Along The Watchtower.

Yeah, it can get stuffed.

[kballgetlost.livejournal.com]

Hmm, well I too could handle everything up to the poof....that would have made it all okay if she didn't poof at the end. BUT...if I really could go back and change everything?

No marriages....after their night on New Caprica, Kara would have ended things with Sam and Lee would have ended things with Dee. That would have been the spot where I would have changed canon. Yes we would have missed the amazingness that was UB but it would have been worth it to see those two get a better story and ending.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, it makes so much sense but I have real trouble imagining Kara not running the next day, I must be a masochist (well, a certain amount of masochism is required in the continued shipping of pilots, but I digress). I can even accept the marriages, I just wish they'd ended them in TAB instead of having that really frustrating rejection from Lee just to set the stage for Kara's death four episodes later.

[kballgetlost.livejournal.com]

Oh I know, it's definitely in Kara's nature to run, but that would be the moment in their history that I WISH could change. But like you said I can accept (however disdainfully,lol) the marriages....and yeah ending them in TAB would have been another great moment to change. But if I could make pilots do what I want, I would prefer to not see them so brokenhearted after Kara runs and marries Sam.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

That whole arc, LDYB-UB, it just broke me so hard. And yet it makes some sort of sense in the long and painful epic history of pilots, TAB is really the place that I'd like to eliminate and reboot from (resolve their relationship, end the pointless replacement marriages, AVOID HER DEATH and therefore no poof).

[justascrewup2.livejournal.com]

Ideally? Kara meets Lee first. The end. Yes, there would have been ups and downs, but who else doubts that they can handle anything as long as they're together in some capacity? I'm a sucker for AU fics that do this.

Realistically in the course of a show like this? I guess TAB is the best place. You can't put a will they or won't they couple together too soon, as much as the shippers would like the show creators to. As others point out, changing the outcome of TAB would have had the side benefit of preventing Kara from dying.

Last ditch effort? The poof of course. But alas, all we get is happy endings in fic :(

[winegums.livejournal.com]

Yeah, realistically TAB is a good place to do it, especially if you want to show how far they've come - the mistake marriages, the broken friendship, I see all of that as part of their journey. And even then, like I said, I'd have been ok with the last-minute change of the poof. *sigh* it looks like fic and meta is the best we can do, now :(