Remembering the Good Times AND Naming Our Baby

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone! Today’s topic is split between high and low time commitments. First, the quick one:

 

Naming Kara Thrace: It doesn’t seem fair that only half of our piloty pair is currently in possession of a middle name. Today, please contribute your suggestions for a middle name that would fit Kara. You can pick a name with symbolic significance, of course, but also feel free to suggest a name just because you find it pretty. I will take all of your suggestions and create a poll (or a few polls if we have too many names to cover in just one) and tomorrow we can vote on them. By the end of the week, Kara will have an official, democratically selected fanon full name.

I will go ahead and propose the obvious choice so that you all can feel free to discuss it and to explore other alternatives in your comments: Artemis. I have a feeling this might be a favorite, both because of the symbolism and the Apollo connection, and because it makes her initials KAT, which is just fun. However, the downside is that it fits her almost too well – it smacks of destiny and/or cosmic irony. It reminds me of a wonderful Harry Potter fanfic in which someone explained that the werewolf who sought out a kid named ‘Remus Lupin’ to bite must have had a really sick sense of humor.

And now here’s a question for those of you who have time for a bit of character speculation:

One of the great strengths of Battlestar Galactica was its commitment to complicated, three-dimensional characters and relationships. In that spirit, let’s revisit our pilots’ troubled parent-child conflicts from a different angle. What were the bright spots in Kara’s life with her mother, what were the moments of connection Lee shared with his Mom and his Dad before the end of the worlds – what were the best parts of their worst relationships when they were growing up? What strengths do you imagine they might have drawn from these troubled and at times abusive people? In what ways might they have found some measure of happiness with them? Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not asking anyone to condone abuse in any way or to whitewash bad parenting, but if BSG was consistent about anything it was in insisting that there are always shades of grey. I can’t believe it was all bad, not even for Kara and Socrata. What do you think?

Comments

[kag523.livejournal.com]

I never changed my name at all. (No hyphen or anything.) It seems a bit radical for some people, but I always felt like I knew who I was when I married, and I didn't see it changing.

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

That' it. You don't become a different person because you got married. I totally respect those who prefer to change names, but it feels kind of sexist to me. And more than a bit old fashioned . It goes back to a time when after you married you litterally left you family/tribe and entered a new one and when women were not seen as individuals but rather as properties of or completely dependent on a strong male figure (first, the father and later, the husband). I would have a big problem if a man ever asked me to do it. And I don't think it would really fit in BSG's universe at all.