DPP: Meta Me This!

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Hey folks! It’s good to be back driving the train again! Whoo! Whoo! Glad to see you all have chugged along with us as we reach nearly three months of DPPing. I’ve got some fun topics for us this week, so hope you’ll all hop on board.

So we’ve talked about favorite fics, songs, vids, icons, scenes, episodes, body parts…and I’m sure I’m forgetting some favorites. But we haven’t talked about that other staple of creative expression for fandom:

META

What are some of your favorite meta/essay musings on our little ship? The ones that really tackle a point and slam it home in some amazing, entertaining, fascinating, thought-provoking way you’d never considered before?

Now granted, every bit of conjecture and speculation takes on a bit of rose-colored glass nostalgia now that we did see the (IMO, piss-poor handling of) the resolution of their relationship in canon. But I think it’s still possible to enjoy these essays and know them to be true.

Here are some of my favorite pilots meta posts, and I’ll hope you’ll link and talk about your favorites in the comments.



Rawles’s The Emperor is Bare-ass Naked, Guys (or, A Lee/Kara Manifesto in a way)

Okay so, I’m one of those LJ fools who never “Memories” anything. I mean here and there yes and I’ve gotten better over the years, but I have a piddly list of things memoried in LJ…and three of those things are pilots/bsg meta written by Rawles. Her essays are so frank and candid and confident about pilots being the OTP to end all OTPs that they just are like a huge shot in the arm of pilots!goodwill. This particular one, which is my favorite piece of meta of all time, yo!, was written as we approached the end of the series. Rawles talked about why she thought it was ludicrous for people to worry about Lee or Kara choosing their spouse or only ending up together as a “default”:

People start off statements with some variation on, "I think that Kara/Lee does love Anders/Dualla, but-" and my immediate reaction is LOL NO YOU JUST LOST ME.

I completely acknowledge that meta-wise this is something that the BSG writing staff maybe wanted you to believe to a certain extent at some point, but saying it doesn't make it true! Lee and Kara have never really acted that way! .. Is there like some etiquette thing that is making people say that? Is it internalized personal/fanon representations/ideas of these relationships?! …Is this some universally agreed upon concession that must be made to present a facade of impartiality or something equally unfathomable to me?!

I genuinely don't get it!…And I am not saying that they are apathetic to Sam and Dee. They are attracted to them. I guess they think they're fun/comforting/etc. and are fond of them? I would say that they don't want them to be hurt, but I cannot imagine that anyone has hurt Dee and Sam more horribly than Lee and Kara willfully have done over the course of their relationships. So, maybe I will say instead that they don't wish them physical harm or death. But I cannot, on the strength of nothing but their 90% deplorable treatment of these two people, mentally transform that weird-ass, stunted, dismissed-when-convenient, afterthought of affection into love or being in love.

I guess maybe if you read Lee and Kara as sociopaths obsessed with each other then you could go: well, they love them as much as they are capable of loving anyone that is not each other?!

As you can see, this was clearly the meta that lead to her brilliant AU fic Periapsis. Rawles goes on to argue that there is no possible reading of the Quad or Kara and Lee’s relationship on the show other than that they are each other’s everything and there is no takebacks, ever. And that to that end it didn’t even matter what kind of (sloppy) ending the show tried to tack on to their relationship because pilots are the OTP of all time and you don’t need canon to prove that to you in one final half hour. It’s already been established by all of their actions throughout the course of the show:

The context2 created for Lee and Kara's relationship, by season three and Unfinished Business and its immediate follow-ups and the Quadrangle of Doom, particularly, makes it impossible for them to end up with each other by default. Even if EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE BUT THEM WAS DEAD! Lee and Kara could only end up together by default if the show in all its over-the-top, melodrama, and lack of subtlety had not explicitly presented the fact that these two people are frighteningly in love with, perhaps even dependent upon, each other and want desperately to be together. As such, the removal of other people, while lazy and terrible storytelling, is not defaulting to them. It's clearing away excuses.

And for this same reason, it doesn't actually matter how they end up! Because that context has to inform any reading of their relationship and it's constructed as a really fucking hard one to get around. It's created a passion, a love, a need that persisted through her engagement to his brother, his brother's death, two years of estrangement and separation, the apocalypse, relationships with other people, marriages to other people, another year plus of estrangement and separation, an affair, the cessation of an affair, and HER DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

You can't sell that they just decide to give it up and be friends. The point has been extensively driven home again and again that they CAN'T give it up and haven't been able to from the day that they met. You can't put them with other people because the only reasonable conclusion based on everything they have ever done is that they will just DO IT AGAIN. I suppose you could kill them both but they'll still die as the absolute center of each other's romantic universe.

I guess, what I'm ultimately saying is that there's no takebacks. BSG with its soapy melodrama and misguided cribbing from Lee/Kara fanon has created a connection between the characters that, without literally UNDOING their entire relationship, can justify just about any conclusion as ultimately leading right back to them. And when that sort of justification is built into the canon, I cannot fathom clamoring for yet more validation? Or am I mistaking a (imo futile) desire for skillful execution of the plotline for a desire for validation?

The whole thing (and believe it or not, there’s much more on her LJ) just makes you want to stand up and shout “Amen, Sister Rawles! Preach!”

(I also must recommend the very close runner-up favorite Meta: Lee/Kara is OTP and everything else about BSG is boring and sucks)

Workerbee73’s Pilots are the OTP to End all OTPs
See I fear that I can’t really be objective about this essay because it was the first long meta piece on pilots I’d read that made me want to cheer and write “YES! THIS! 100 TIMES THIS!” afterwards. It was the first time I found something that really nailed down exactly how I felt about pilots and why I loved them so damn much. I felt like I’d found a kindred spirit (as Anne might say) and it was the start of a beautiful and enterprising new friendship.

Bee’s five-point analysis on what makes this particular OTP the OTP to end all OTPs is that it defies traditional romantic conventions, while also being completely and utterly romantic at the same time. This, she argues, is what is special and unique about pilots and that manages to draw us all in for countless hours of squees and rants and everything in between. Here are some samples from her long and well-reasoned case (cause she is a lawyer, don’t you know.)

Fictional couples usually get neat little endings. They get closure. They don't circle each other for years, making the same mistakes. They are smart enough to know that sometimes the best thing to do is just walk away. But our pilots can't. They don't want to. This level of emotional honesty really breaks through to the viewer. Who hasn't been there before? Who can't sympathize with them at some point?

…Although the "wrong person" syndrome is not new in romantic stories, L/K puts a different spin on things. Instead of a detour on the path to true love, the "wrong person" syndrome is actually the relationship you should be rooting for. ("If you're not shipping Lee and Kara, you haven't been paying attention.") On paper, these two seem so wrong for each other. But then you put them together, and you wonder why you ever thought that in first place...

Bee also mentions the forthcoming ending of their story, wondering what it might be, and she argues very clearly that while tragic and apart might be okay, their ending must be fitting and worthy of how truly special they are:

But I think that if we just have a recognition of how great and special this love is, I'll be ok. Even if one of them doesn't make it, or they end up on separate paths, it might still be all right. As long as there is some moment when they can admit to themselves, each other and the world that this is something special, something we are unlikely to see again. I need a nod to the epic, for that is exactly what this relationship is.

Sadly, RDM and co. dropped the ball on this (and set Bee and myself off on some serious paraproxysms of rage for the better part of a few months. Her episode divorce meta is another highlight that all should experience!)


Rachelindeed’s Analysis of How Pilots’ Childhoods Shaped their Personalities and Dynamic

This little bit of comment!meta (yes that’s right, she whipped this out in a COMMENT!) from Rachel (who is brandy new to shipper nation still) became an instant favorite of mine when she posted it a few weeks ago during one of Cosette’s thinky-thought DPPs. It’s a beautiful and clear analysis of the ways in which Lee and Kara’s similarly hard and abusive upbringings (and the presence of Zak in Lee’s life), shaped them in very opposite counterpoints to each other.

I’ve spent three years and read hundreds of posts in this fandom and I’ve never really seen anyone break it down quite so clearly and directly what their issues are and why neither one of them can really take that chance on love that we so want them to take. Here’s a sampling of Rachel’s post, but you should go read the whole thing (it’s the shortest one on the list!)

Both Kara and Lee had crummy, abusive childhoods, but it strikes me that the emotional lesson Lee learned was that he couldn't count on other people, whereas the lesson Kara internalized was that other people couldn't count on her. …She viewed herself as unworthy and unstable, but she also craved approval and love, while Lee learned to stand apart and to value himself even - perhaps especially - when it meant risking disapproval and hostility.…. And having formed these basic tendencies - stand apart vs. seek love/approval, blame others vs. blame yourself - I think you can see the results play out in Kara and Lee's wider relationships. Kara is the one who connects instinctively with others and loves people almost despite herself, whereas Lee rarely emotionally connects with anyone, though he is protective of many. … He's scared that he can't rely on her, and she's scared she can't rely on herself, emotionally.

Has their mutual damage ever been summed up so quickly, cleanly and eloquently? I think not!

Now share your favorite metas in the comments!

Comments

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Oh this is fun! METAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

(just felt the need to get loud there. Hee.)

Aww, my OTP essay was the very first LJ thing I evar posted! And how we met! **wipes away tear**

[thrace-adama.livejournal.com]

Hee, you summed up my thoughts on the matter. Yay meta!