DPP: Oh, No, They Didn't (ONTD)

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

Well, shippers, this is my last DPP for this week. Thank you all for so much squeeing, thinking, and commenting with me. Driving this train is fantastic. *MWUH*

Now, onto the business at hand. Most of the week has been devoted to squeeable topics like UST, eyefrakking, outmaking, and birthday celebrations. Today, I'm bringing a little more angst to the mix.

There were countless opportunities for Kara and Lee to finally talk about their feelings and to straighten their shit out. Seems, though, every time they tried, something got in the way: Fate, Timing, Frakked up Missions to Caprica, Personal History, Guilt, Death, you know, the small stuff.

So my questions boils down to this: What are the most significant (or just your favorite) moments in the show where TPTB prevent our pilots from achieving their happily ever after? I don't mean RDM's late-series character annihilation, but instead the legitimate, even clever ways that the show kept us watching our pilots, just to see if they'd ever figure things out.

What were the moments that made you want to throw something at the TV (but also gave you that "oooh, this oughtta be good" smile)?

And let's keep it nice, shippers. This is intended to be both squeeable and angsty (if that's possible). Here is one of my favorites (in stills - my gif of this scene is broken):


Jealous!Lee...
  
  

Later....
  
 
 

AND THEN KARA GOES TO CAPRICA. HOLY FRAKKING LORDS OF KOBOL. Laura and her frakking prophecies, Lee and his too-angry-to-admit he's jealous. And "Gaius Frakking Baltar???" AAAAGGGGHHHH. Pilots, why do you do this to me???

What say you, shippers?

Comments

[ecstaticdance.livejournal.com]

I think the one you posted there is probably one of my favorites.

The scene in season 2, where Lee sends Kara off to find Sam (Lay Down Your Burdens?) is another one. There's so much left unsaid in that scene and so much guilt and fear and heartbreak and, and, and... Yeah. Crush me now, kids. 'Cause I'm a glutton for punishment.

[thegreenkitty.livejournal.com]

Oooh, what a great topic!! I love the scene you posted. Let me think on this one...there are so many angst/squee moments that are made of win, but I can't think of any right now. I think it's bedtime since the brain is officially fried.

YES, so much YES, to doing the right thing instead of the smart thing, please, Lee!

BTW, I've loved your DPPs! It is truly a blast driving the train but it is just as awesome getting surprise new topics each day. Thank you!

[baciami2.livejournal.com]

First off, thank you for a fabulous week of Pilot!thinky-thoughts. *smushes Kara & Lee together*

When I first saw the series (seasons 1-3 in one week during the spring of 2008), I was so sure they were going to get together in YCGHA again. I thought the first few epi's were a tease - I mean, the frakkin' end of the world has got to be the best excuse ev-ah to start frakkin', only stopping to eat, sleep & kill cylons. After they started, I was sure that the war/ end of the world would be enough complications for any sort of relationship BUT THEY WOULD BE TOGETHER!!!! Since it didn't happen in 33 or Water or Bastille Day, Kara's pending death/ abandonment would have to make them both declare their (obvious) love. But no, just a bath....and crutches....and jogging...and hours & hours of angst.

Next obvious spot was "The Hand of God" - Lee's outta the box thinking should have been immediately rewarded upon landing with some time in Kara's "box" (crude, but hey, parallel construction). Instead we got a huge phallic cigar and champagne orgasms. Where's an empty dry stowage closet when you need one????

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

There are a lot of fascinating moments of angst throughout the series.

1) "Scar" springs to mind as one of the most epic; I completely love them both in that episode. I love that Kara is torturing herself over once again failing to save someone she promised to protect. Her love for Sam was protective, especially at that stage ~ I've always thought their vibe was probably quite similar to the dynamics she used to have with Zak. If there were sibling elements to her rapport with Lee, I'd say there were maternal elements in her approach to Sam and Zak at various points, though in none of these cases do I think the vibes were icky. I love that Lee completely goes for it at first, you can see how much he wants this to happen (his priceless arched eyebrow expression is the most perfect very-surprised-except-actually-not-at-all emotional note). I love that he knows her well enough to sense that something is off, and that he cares enough about their relationship to stop the physical extravaganza when he feels like he's losing her emotionally. I've complained before that Lee is prone to settle and compromise too much in his romantic life, but Kara is the exception to that rule: he just wants so much from her that he can't be happy with a divided or partial version ~ he wants the whole package. For once in his life, he won't settle for less. I think it rings true that Kara can't give him what he wants at this moment, but I like their argument about it, and especially her apologetic, angry parting kiss (and his HANDS. With the...HANDS. Yeah.)

A lot of people highlight the toast scene at the end of this episode, and I acknowledge its coolness, but I'm about fifty times more in love with the little ready room scene where he asks if she's OK and she wordlessly pulls herself together for him. They are both so quietly beautiful in that scene ~ it's the gentlest angst they ever shared, and I think it really showed their quality, their unselfishness, their genuine mutual caring. It's amazing how seamlessly they got over the makeout-angsting, and how ready they were to keep reaching out to each other. It's lovely.

2) I find the memorial wall scene in "Islanded in a Stream of Stars" one of their most quietly compelling angsty scenes. I'm sure some people don't even view it as angst, but there is something so delicately restrained about the way he touches her - that little hesitation as he raises his hand, and that wry resignation on his face as he releases her - that sets a bittersweet tone. It's the only time he ever tells her that he has no expectations: I'm here, you're here, this is all that matters - he doesn't ask her for anything more. I feel like it's a surrender of old ways of thinking, but also of old hopes, and there is something sad about it in spite of its beauty. Up to that point Lee always demanded more of her, and himself, than anyone else. He's stopped asking, stopped expecting...he's at peace with her just as she is, he has what he needs, and it's like he finally knows that nothing about their relationship and what they feel for each other will ever change. That brings comfort, but also a certain resignation. Plus, I'm fairly sure that this scene constituted the last time they ever touched each other, which gets it automatic angst-points in my book :)

There's something about it that reminds me of a random quote from the movie "The Alamo," of all things:

"You know, if you live five more years, I think you just might turn out to be a great man."

"Maybe. But I think I'll have to settle for the man I am now."

[baciami2.livejournal.com]

Mm, had a late-night thought. How did the series end with Baltar NEVER telling Lee that Kara called out his name when Baltar was with her? I really thought Baltar would 'fess up, 'specially when he said to Lee, "Must everything come down to your personal feelings about Kara Thrace?" Dayam straight...comme il faut... IT ABSO-FRAKKIN-LUTELY MUST !!!

[ninjamonkey73.livejournal.com]

Right from the lingering I-thought-you-were-dead handshake in the mini, I was roped in. I knew the series would be angsty as soon as the best she could say was just that it was good to be wrong. And the handshake just kinda' hangs there. Well, and the little thing she does with her tongue when he walks away...

Colonial Day was huge for my fangirlness, as evidenced in this shameless pimping of my first K/L story (http://dread-pirate.dreamwidth.org/3305.html). I remember scanning the crowd for them while Papadama & Roslyn talked, and fussing over Lee looking lost, all by himself in the crowd, when Kara moved on to Gaius. And the fights in Kobol's Last Gleaming... So many chances for them to say what they weren't saying! I always wondered how exactly Lee KNEW she'd slept with Baltar. In my head, Gaius said more off camera. He had to for Lee to take the drunken card game conversation for anything other that Baltar being turned down. If you watch it and try to hear it from Lee's perspective, Baltar sounds dumped, not frakked-with-another-man's-name-on-her-lips.

And, of course, Scar. I loved, at first, that Lee put on the brakes because Kara seemed off. The fact that he cared enough to stop things was an excellent starting point, but then she deflected with the no us business. I'll admit though that my favorite moment was the slap-kiss. I still don't know what that kiss was FOR in her mind. Apology for the slap, one for the road because shirtless Lee is not something you just walk away from, just an involuntary reaction from still being hot and bothered? I had forgotten how the rest of the episode puts them right back to "normal". *sigh*

I could ramble all day about my love of pilots and their near misses.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Innibis and I were talking about this the other day, and we concluded that..... THEY DON'T NEED NUTHIN TO KEEP THEM APART.

That's right, nuthin.

Why, you might ask? Because all the tension and drama and angst and distance they neeeded was right there. From the beginning. In the backstory. Stupid-ass-table-retcon flashbacks aside, think about the premise. You fall in love with your brother's finance-- or you finance's brother. You both love Zak, and until you met each other he was probably the biggest thing in your lives and then BOOM!-- all that changes once you lay eyes on each other. How do you deal with that? What do you do?

And then to top things off, Zak dies. He's frozen forever, a perfect corner of the triangle whose unimpeachable memory will frak with both of you for a long time indeed. How is anything ever ok after that?

My point is, we just both wish the writers would've really explored the psychology behind their backstory more. I think if they'd done it justice, they never would have had to worry about quadrangles or farfetched reasons to keep them apart. Just overcoming their history would take a long damn time.