DPP: His Destiny

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Since yesterday's discussion skewed towards Kara, I have a more Lee-centric topic for today.




What if after his brush with death during the Resurrection Ship battle, Lee left the military for politics instead of becoming the cammonader of Pegasus? How woudl Kara have reacted to Lee changing course at that point in the war? Would she have become the cammander of Pegasus? How would that have changed their relationship?

Comments

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Well, given Lee's depressed state of mind at that time I'm not really sure he would have made a very good politician at that point -- I don't know if he'd have held on to his democratic ideals or gone against Roslin as strongly as he did later in the series when he joined the Quorum. But, then again, he seemed relatively self-confident and successful as Commander of the Pegasus up until the events of Unfinished Business knocked him flat again, so maybe I'm wrong about that.

I'm trying to think what political issues would have come up at that time in the series? There is Roslin's decision to kidnap Hera and fake her death, which I am really really glad Lee had no part in. I can't really see Laura sharing that decision with Lee if he were a Quorum member; she seems to have kept it between her and Cottle (and possibly Bill -- I can't remember if he signed on to that plan). Then there is the election stealing, which I suppose Lee would have had to discover if he had been in a political storyline at that time. It probably would have served to break him up with Dee, and I don't know if he would have appealed to Roslin's conscience the way Bill did and then helped her cover up what she'd done, or if he would have publicly outed her.

He probably would have stayed on New Caprica during the Occupation, which would make the whole situation with Baltar later on more complicated. Would he still have defended him, having lived through the atrocities on New Caprica? Would his loyalty to democratic and legal rights have withered if he felt responsible for helping Baltar win the election in the first place, seeing how catastrophically it turned out?

I have a feeling a lot of the things I admire in Lee in seasons 3 and 4 would have been different if he'd gotten involved, and disillusioned, with politics at this stage. I think he might have turned out a lot closer to the way Laura did, and personally I wouldn't want to see that.

Kara, on the other hand, would be a kick-ass Commander of Pegasus :)

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling a lot of the things I admire in Lee in seasons 3 and 4 would have been different if he'd gotten involved, and disillusioned, with politics at this stage. I think he might have turned out a lot closer to the way Laura did, and personally I wouldn't want to see that.

There's likely a lot of truth in this idea. Although I tend to think that Lee would have had a different experience during the occupation of New Caprica than Laura had because of his military background.

Yes, Kara would have been a totally kick-as commander. hee.

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

I love the thought of Kara as Commander of the Pegasus while Lee goes into politics. I could imagine them sort of replicating the Bill-Laura military and political relationship in the next generation, but with a different spin.

[kdbleu.livejournal.com]

Interesting to speculate too on how they would have functioned as a foursome too with the very different dynamic between Kara and Bill vs Lee and Bill.

Kara/Lee/Pegasus.

[(Anonymous)]

I have to disagree, Kara would have made a horrible Commander for Pegasus. The reason being that being a fighter pilot leaves lotts of room for improvising, where being a day in and day out commander of a battleship takes a wide variety of skill setts. Organization, Leadership, Patience, and Diplomacy. All of these are traits that Kara struggled with (With the exception of when she was C.A.G.) and even then she wasn't that fantastic at it (Showing up drunk for example.) Kara is Chaos in the flesh and that worked as a fighter pilot and it's what made her a better pilot than Lee. But Lee had all the right skills for leadership in and out of the Military. If you look at his charachter throughout the series you see that he repeatedly takes on new roles and masters them. C.A.G., Major, Commander, LAwyer, Politician and finally president briefly. He is a man who learns one thing and then moves onto the next. the only other person i could have seen Commanding Pegasus would have been Helo.