DPP: It's Me

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

As one who has never quite been satisfied with Kara coming back as a ghost, I’d like to explore the other two options that are already more or less set up in the BSG universe…



Kara comes back as head!Kara
One my favorite fics The Breathe Between by shah_of_blah explores this idea. Kara comes back and only Lee can see her.

Kara comes back as a cylon
I actually can’t think of any recs for this one. But I love this idea. The way it would completely change how Kara and Lee related to Cylons, each other and everything.

Or if you’d like, make an argument for the ghost/avatar Kara we got in canon.

Comments

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

How about: Kara comes back as the Goddess Aurora of Kobol (which she really was all along)? That's my personal favorite.

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

I am on the phone so I can't write a proper comment, but I'll only say that if Kara had to die, she should have come back as a cylon. I was never a fan of her special destiny storyline, but that makes so much sense to me, not the angel nonsense we got instead.

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

I am an unashamed HUGE fan of angel!Kara. I was satisfied with what happened in canon because I like her guiding the fleet (and not being quite sure how or why) and then staying with Lee until she realizes he's going to be okay and has a plan. Of course, when I'm writing K/L, she comes back. Staying Solid (http://plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com/155489.html) is my favorite fic I've written where this happens. She still isn't sure what she is here (and the line between angel and goddess is semi-blurred - I'm going for sort of a divine being without being A GODDESS).

Um, I don't really mind it?

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

When it comes to the ghost/angel thing, I have heard people over the years express several different kinds of objections to it, each of which I understand but none of which have bothered me personally.

One thing that bothers people is that they feel cheated by the fact that, instead of using pre-established supernatural (head!characters) or sci-fi (Cylon) tropes in the series to bring her back, they brought her back in a way we hadn't before seen on the show. But I guess that doesn't really bother me, because since we've known for ages that there are gods/God/supernatural-beings orchestrating the human and Cylon's journey, who have already engaged in godlike behavior like sending consistently accurate visions of the future, transporting people mystically to Earth so they could see its constellations, and blowing up suns on cue, I guess I didn't have any difficulty believing that they could bring a person back from the dead. That seems like a pretty standard godlike power in a number of religious systems and mythologies, so it didn't really phase me. I didn't have a problem believing these pre-established supernatural beings could do that.

(The problem of why they chose to ask Kara to dive into the Maelstrom and what it ultimately accomplished is a whole other kettle of fish, but that plot problem would be the same if she returned as a Cylon or a head!character as well).

Another thing that bothers people is that they don't like the loss of ambiguity surrounding the mystical side of the storyline. I understand that, but firstly I always thought that ambiguity was lost way before this point; Roslin's been a prophetess since season 1 and I don't think any of us were supposed to think she was either crazy or somehow amazingly lucky in the accuracy of her hallucinations. She was getting real visions, and the entire fleet's policy for years had been to follow them. Also, BSG has a totally fictional mystical storyline, so I don't see it as being some meta argument about how religion (let alone any particular religion) is true in real life or anything like that. It's clearly as much a part of the fantasy as the Cylons are. I'm religious in real life, but there is nothing about the mystical story in BSG that ever made me think: oh, my faith-in-disguise is being validated! Nope. Not remotely. My faith is completely different from the stuff that goes on on BSG! :)

Also, I know that some people are bothered by the thought that it can't really be Kara if she's come back in an angelic form. This one is a powerful objection, especially since by all accounts Katee was basically instructed to play the character as if it was someone pretending to be Kara and ultimately totally confused about her own identity. But I guess I felt like the general storyline about Kara in season 4 was about her moving through her initial confusion and coming to accept that she was herself, perhaps even with an expanded consciousness rather than a reduced one, but fundamentally she was Kara. Anyway, that's the message I've always taken from the scene with Lee in Islanded: "I'm Lee and you're Kara, and the rest of it isn't worth a damn." So I feel like the story resolved this identity crisis in her favor, and I don't have to worry about it too much. Also, I don't see how you could avoid an equal identity crisis if she discovered she were a Cylon or a head!character.

Lastly, people hate this storyline for the overriding reason that it ended up meaning that Kara's death was real and that she couldn't stay in the land of the living after her unfinished business (getting her people safely home) was done. They hate how it robbed her of any chance at a happy ending with the people she loved on Earth. Again, I totally understand why people hate this ending, and I'm not all that happy with it myself. But my problems are with the execution, not with the basic storyline. I think it could have been truly moving and soaringly tragic if they had written and played it with the emotion it deserved.

So there you go. More than you wanted to know about why the angel thing doesn't bother me as much as it does most fans.

Re: Um, I don't really mind it?

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

(The problem of why they chose to ask Kara to dive into the Maelstrom and what it ultimately accomplished is a whole other kettle of fish, but that plot problem would be the same if she returned as a Cylon or a head!character as well).

Sometimes I actually think this is my biggest problem. Why Kara out of the blue and why I would have been more comfortable with her coming back as a Cylon or a head!characters because the show that already set-up that "out of the blue" concept.

I also think that my biggest problem with this use of the mystical is that TPTB simply didn't convince me. Up until Kara's resurrection, I really like it. It felt more subtle and in and out. But ultimately why it was good until Kara's death and bad after with something better than they frakked with my girl. Because Kara stopped being Kara when she came back and for most of S4 I didn't like her. I get arc, I just didn't like it. :/

As always however, I love when you explain it. I just wish I had watched that show instead of the one I watched. :)

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I do really like Staying Solid. Maybe I'll just reread and be happier. :)

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I wish the mystical explanations worked for me, because desite my whigning I love the idea. But the execution on screen was so fail for me. :(

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I have come to really, really like the Kara as Cylon fix. Although the first time I ever mentioned it, it was kind of for shock value, as in "I'd rather Kara had been a cylon than whatever she was when she came back." The more I've thought about it though, the more it fixes a lot of my issues with S4.

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of help. :D

Gah, I have GOT to finish that sequel.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Yes you do!!!

[bristow1941.livejournal.com]

Wasn't she supposed to be half cylon at one point? The daughter of Daniel who we never had any resolution on?

There's an RPF fic I like a lot that has her coming back as a Cylon. I'll have to find the link.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Ooh, link please.

I would have loved Kara to have been half cylon. So many good ways that could have gone.

[bristow1941.livejournal.com]

And here's part 1 (http://bsgrpf.livejournal.com/32539.html#cutid1) and part 2 (http://bsgrpf.livejournal.com/32989.html#cutid1).

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

I am not a fan of Kara as angel. It seemed rather pointless to me. I am in favor of Kara as a cylon or as an overt head-character. She seems instead to be something not seen before (and why?). IDK. They wrote themselves into a corner. It is not "cool" to me that the writers and RDM can't say what she was. Really? That's just lazy.

*rant* ;)

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Realy it makes me want to bang my head. I can't believe they killed a major character without knowing what the endgame for that was going to be. If they can't say what she was then they don't know.

*trying not to rant* ;)

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Yummy. I haven't read that one in a while. :D