It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

Welcome everyone! First of all, thanks very much for joining this comm and the rewatch! Hope you will enjoy the experience and all the piloty goodness ahead of us! Since this is the official launching of the rewatch, today—and exceptionally—we'll post two entries. Mine is a picspammy—and a mishmash of crack and meta—approach to the miniseries, and Bee will be doing one of her gorgeous and patented meta-poetry-fics. So fasten your seatbelts... And enjoy! ;)

Thanks to _snitchbitch  for the beautiful screencaps

 

I definitely remember my first "contact" with BSG and pilots. It was October 2007 and I was looking for some information on-line about a certain sci-fi show with human-looking robots and gorgeous pilots. Sadly, the experience ended up being traumatic, to say the least. Why? They say that an image says more than 1000 words... And if you have any doubts, just take a look at the ugliest and tackiest promo pics I had ever seen...

Awful, aren’t they? Fortunately, I didn’t let that obnoxious spectacle mislead me and, after reading a bunch of enthusiastic reviews, I decided to give the mini a try. Two years later—after tons of squee, anticipation, excitement and tears—those pictures are not so hard on the eye anymore, but hilarious and sort of endearing :)

 

And after this cracky warming up, fellow shippers, let's get serious!

 

We Are All Made of Stars

One of the first things I noticed while watching the mini again was how innocent and clean looks the whole cast. It was so odd to see how young and naîve they all seemed—save Roslin, maybe, who manages to look rather older. It hurts to see characters like Gaeta—it's painfully ironic, but the first scene of Felix shows him telling Adama how he appreciates and respects him—Dee, Billy, Cally, Boomer, and of course, Kara and Lee, back when they were so innocent and hopeful, unaware of the tragedies lying ahead of them.

I couldn’t repress a certain feeling of nostalgia—and a sense of loss—as I realized how much all this characters went through during their four-year journey and how much they suffered and endured… And with that—how little they had after the end of the worlds, how terrifying those first moments were for all of them. How complete the apocalypse.

But that’s why I fell for this show, I guess. Because it was an enthralling tale of human survival that, right from the get-go, put on the table the ultimate question of whether to run or fight when it sinks in that the human race has been reduced to 50,000 people.

Extraordinary Girl

Starbuck. Liutenent Kara Thrace. Even though right now I consider myself first and foremost a Kara/Lee shipper, I must admit that Starbuck was the first character that completely grabbed my interest that first time I watched the mini. And she still does. Every time—needless to say that I have a soft spot for strong, kickass female characters, uh?

I love that first glimpse of Kara, our heroine—or anti-heroine—, an extremely fit girl with very short hair running through the hallways of Galactica. Starbuck is portrayed from the very beginning as a hotshot and cocky fighter viper pilot, gifted with a natural talent for flying for which she is considered the best pilot of the fleet. She is also an avid gambler who enjoys drinking, smoking cigars, and sex. All of them typical “alpha male” traits; paradoxically though, she never was the typical tomboy cliché but an extremely complex, ever-evolving and impossibly human character. It would take us a while to get to know better our heroine and all the cracks hidden underneath that tough surface, but I love that right from the start she is portrayed as a warrior, a good soldier with a natural charisma and with a touch of wilderness and exuberance I had rarely seen before on TV. And these are two of my favorite moments:

a) The triad game

I love the triad scene. I enjoyed seeing how Starbuck owns the game and makes jokes with Helo and Sharon. The animosity floating between Tigh and Kara was also really interesting. And I love Kara’s face when she proclaims she has full colors. So bright and dazzling and joyful .

b) Beyond insane

"You are beyond insane!!", yells Apollo.

She is, indeed. But she is also fearless and daring—and so authentic. A fighter willing to give everything—even her own life—for the ones she cares. She is always going to have his back. She’d go to the hell and back for him. They are Starbuck and Apollo, after all. Right from the start.

The whole scene is priceless—and almost comical. Kara playing the role of the knight in shiny armor who saves the damsel in distress, our pretty boy Apollo. I love how this moment frames Starbuck’s reckless streak, how good pilot she is and how much she cares for Lee.

The Boy With a Thorn in His Side

Pissy Lee—a lovely combination of angst, emoness, daddy issues and undeniable hotness—is utterly adorable and thoroughly enjoyable since the first moment we met him, when he climbs down from his viper—all cockiness and arrogance—and asks Chief why he has to land manually. He is the young romantic lead in terms of conventional television standards, but not the archetypical action hero with the right measure of moral and cerebral thinkiness that is just an excuse for brooding sexily on the screen.



We’ll have to wait until “Bastille Day” to learn a little bit more about Lee and his political conscience, but throughout the mini—especially in all his interactions with Laura Roslin, which I love—we catch glimpses of those traits that make Apollo the non-standard hero, a man defined by his beliefs who is usually placed in the position of having to make hard choices and is constantly shown up on the action hero front by another character. And as far as those issues are concerned, I especially love two moments:

a) Lady is in charge

Roslin: "So we pick up as many people as we can, we try to find a safe haven to put down...Captain? I'd like you to look over the navigational charts for a likely place to hide from the Cylons. That's all"
Apollo: (to Doral) "Lady's in charge"

I love the fact that Lee is the first person in the military who recognizes and supports Roslin’s authority, even before she is officially declared the new President of the Colonies. Doral cannot accept Roslin taking charge of the situation because he believes she is not qualified to be giving orders. On the contrary, Lee immediately understands the value of her leadership. I love that he never challenges Roslin for power, grasping the tactical realities of the situation and supporting Roslin’s calm authority in the crisis. Lee is not interested in power struggles because he shares the same goal with her: protecting the surviving people of the Colonies, gathering the remaining survivors and convincing Adama that the war is over and that the Fleet needs to flee in order to survive. Without Lee and Roslin’s pragmatism, humanity would have been doomed.

b) The ships without FTL drives are left behing

When Colonial One and all the refugee ships are found by Cylon Raiders, Roslin is urged to abandon the ships that have no FTL drives. That implies abandoning thousands of people. That’s when we see Lee and Doral arguing different sides of the argument.

“But we'll be saving tens of thousands. I'm sorry to make it a numbers game, but we're talking about the survival of our race here. We don't have the luxury of taking risks and hoping for the best, because if we lose... we lose everything. And Madame President, this is the kind of decision that needs to be made right now”, Lee points out.

One thing that made BSG a great series is that it didn’t shy away from exploring extremely difficult situations, deliberately making us question what we might do. Lee is often placed in a position of having to argue in favor of painful-yet-necessary choices, proving to be a great asset in a crisis. And here we see again his pragmatic streak, as he suggests the President to abandon the ships without FTL drives for the greater good: the survival of the human race. Roslin ends up following his advice and we are given one of the most creepy, dark and haunting moments of the mini. Raiders appear and launch a battery of missiles against the remaining ships, as the ones with FTL drives jump out.

There is no magic solution, no happy ending. Roslin made her choice. Some people lived, other died. The guilt and responsibility that comes from these impossible decisions—as we'll see more than once throughout the series—is the price to pay in order to maintain a species' existence after the Armageddon.

Can't Get You Out Of My Head

First Kara/Lee scene ever. The brig. Starbuck is doing push-ups. "This looks familiar," Apollo enters the room and finds Kara. Oooooooh, Lee makes it sound sort of dirty! And the scene becomes dirtier when he leans his arms—OMG, those glorious and frankly stunning shoulders and arms—against the iron bars of the cell. Is it just me or all Lee’s extra smugness makes him look hotter? ;). Starbuck jumps up to greet him with a grin, breathing heavily. "Sorry I wasn't there to greet you with the rest of the squadron. Did they kiss your ass to your satisfaction?", she teases with a hint of ferocity. Heh. Very nice.

And here there was. Pilots’ epic banter. A quality I absolutely adore about their relationship—especially in S1 and early S2, when it was at its best.

Apollo: "So, what’s the charge this time?"
Starbuck: Striking a superior asshole.
Apollo: "I bet you’ve been waiting all day to say that one"
Starbuck: "Most of the afternoon, yeah"

So that's pretty cool, I thought the first time I watched this scene. They are friends. Or sort of. And they’ve got the “pretty boy and tomboy girl with more balls than him who—despite the apparent animosity—want to frak each other senseless” kind of interaction. Maybe they are ex of some sort? Because given the way he stares and stares at her invitingly hot, full lips and her breasts… I could swear he has a hard-on. And I’m sure she craves for him too. Mmmm...

Starbuck: "He lost his son, Lee"
Apollo: "And who is responsible for that?"
Starbuck: "Same old Lee. You' haven't changed either"
Apollo: "Zak was my brother"
Starbuck: "What was he to me? Nothing?"
Apollo: "That's not what I meant. And you know that"
Starbuck: "You know, you should go. I'm getting the urge to hit another superio asshole"

Surprise. So Starbuck was not Apollo’s former frakbuddy after all but his younger—and dead—brother‘s fiancée.

Oh, the angst.

LOVE IT.

Because that twist was deliciously angsty and added tons of guilt, pain, anguish and wrongness to Lee and Kara’s relationship—mainly because their dynamic seemed to scream “we have a messy history”, and not of the older-brother-of-the-fiancé variety, by the way. But that is the quality I love most about pilots, I guess; the extremely complicated yet paradoxically simple nature of their relationship. They are almost-siblings, friends, colleagues. But you can’t love your sister. You can’t love your dead fiancé’s brother. You can’t love your superior officer. And you can’t love your pilot. Yet they do. More than anything.

I must sat that the scene which led me slowly but inexorably to my shipper conversion was not the first brig scene though, but the one where Starbuck learns of Lee’s supposed death and secretly prays for his soul. Kara was standing in front of her locker, head bowed, looking broken and vulnerable and beautiful in equal measure, unfolding that picture of her and Zak, and revealing an awkward Lee staring back at her.

"Lord of Kobol hear my prayer,
take the souls of your sons and daughters lost this day,
especially that of Lee Adama
into your hands"

Oh, my gods. She loves him, I thought. And it is wrong, so wrong. But undeniable, too… As if folding that picture and keeping his face hidden, she could be able to deny the only one thought that lingered in her mind since she laid her eyes on him for the first time… and the nauseating crippling guilt that came with that realization.

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

The worlds have ended but that doesn't seem to matter anymore. Not right now. Not for Lee as he glimpses a flock of untamed and wild blond hair under the viper. Not for Kara as Lee reaches for his hand and smiles. “Hey”, he says softly. He is here, he is alive and Kara finds herself not knowing what to say or do, so she simply takes his hand and let him pull her up. “I thought you were dead”, Kara manages to say. But he is not dead and she wants to laugh and scream and kiss him, even though the worlds have ended in fire and blood and fourteen billion people are dead back in the Colonies.

She smiles and he smiles and their eyes lock for a moment as time freezes, the air suddenly heavy and the silence deafening with all the words they are not saying. So they make stupid jokes instead. And there she is. It is the apocalypse and even though Kara is not sure of anything—not anymore—she looks into his blue eyes and it occurs to her that maybe they are going to make it after all.

Who dares to question that they are not in love? :)

So there is it. How was the experience? Have you enjoyed the mini? Myself, I loved it. I was a little bit afraid that I was losing my connection with the show and pilots since the bitterness of the finale, but truth is that… no frakking way. I can’t find words to describe how much I adore Kara and Lee, more than any other pairing. They are the reason why we are doing this rewatch, to begin with. And they don’t disappoint. Right from the beginning we are caught in the middle of a (love) story beyond any labels, challenging all sort of conventions and worn-out clichés: delicious, gorgeous to behold, dark and ominous, epic, heartbreaking, and absolutely enthralling.

Pilots in a nutshell.

Some questions to ponder
1) Taking into account we already know how this story ends, to what extent has your perception of the show (and pilots) changed?
2) What about the first brig scene? Did it give you a different vibe?
3) What's your own view on Kara/Lee previous backstory right now?
4) When you watched the mini for the first time, which one (K/L) was your favourite? Why? And now?

Comments

[bonita-chica71.livejournal.com]

Ay Dios Mio! Those promo photos were horrible, eh? The made Tricia Helfer look 'not her best' and that's hard to do. Eek! :/

Some questions to ponder:
1) Taking into account we already know how this story ends, to what extent has your perception of the show (and pilots) changed?
It shocks me how NOT melancoly it made me feel. It reminds me of the time when there was a Capt. Apollo and Lt. Starbuck who still had not yet found themselves, or each other, completely in the universe. It makes me happy in the knowledge that the best is yet to come. Plus, the fact the everything just looks so new- jamie's hair color, EJO's contacts, the uniforms, dogtags, showers, the Caprica landscape, etc. is awesome. ;) lol

2) What about the first brig scene? Did it give you a different vibe?
Not really; I still LOVE it, mainly because of this- "Maybe they are ex of some sort? Because given the way he stares and stares at her invitingly hot, full lips and her breasts… I could swear he has a hard-on. And I’m sure she craves for him too. Mmmm... " Hot stuff! ;)

3) What's your own view on Kara/Lee previous backstory right now?
I'm at peace with it; I was always saddened, that as someone once said in their own review, "that Zak had to the catalyst of such pain for the two" even from the begining. I <3 you, Zak. ;)

4) When you watched the mini for the first time, which one (K/L) was your favourite? Why? And now?
It was and always will be the brig scene, because it tells you this- "But that is the quality I love most about pilots, I guess; the extremely complicated yet paradoxically simple nature of their relationship. They are almost-siblings, friends, colleagues. But you can’t love your sister. You can’t love your dead fiancé’s brother. You can’t love your superior officer. And you can’t love your pilot. Yet they do. More than anything." Besos! Oh, Pilots! :D

*~*On a side note, upon rewatch, I forgot just how much the jumping away scene owns a little piece of my soul. Aboslutely everything(especially the dialoge) from the camera movement, music, and lighting, to fade out secquence at the end was pitch-perfect. "The guilt and responsibility that comes from these impossible decisions—as we'll see more than once throughout the series—is the price to pay in order to maintain a species' existence after the Armageddon." - So Say We All :D

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

Ay Dios Mio! Those promo photos were horrible, eh?

Verdad que las promo pics eran HORRIBLES??? Tricia looked like a porn star! But I think the think I hate most it is Kara's makeup... all that lip gloss was so un-Kara **shivers**

It shocks me how NOT melancoly it made me feel.

That’s pretty cool! Myself, I felt a pang of melancholy but it wasn’t a bad thing… It was like “oh, they look so young and pretty and I can’t believe they grow up so much during their journey”. And there were all those funny details… as EJO’s contact lenses, Roslin awful hair and lack of glamour, Emo!Lee being so smug and arrogant… And can you believe that I didn't realize that Papadama's eyes were blue to match Lee's until much more later??? Yeah, I never cared very much about his physical appearance... My eyes are all for Lee ;P

For me the rewatching was really happymaking… I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much, really. And as you say, the best is yet to come!!! :D

"that Zak had to the catalyst of such pain for the two" even from the beginning. I <3 you, Zak. ;) .

I love Zak too. And I truly believe that Kara loved him deeply –as much as Lee did-- and could have been happy with him. But at the same time, I have the feeling that both Kara and Lee were aware of their mutual attraction and felt incredibly guilty… However, no matter how much they tried to deny it, what they felt for each other was something stronger than themselves –-yes, I am one of that romantic girls that believe they were destined ;). So I believe that it is true that, to an extent, that Zak always brought them so much pain... It was heartbreking and a tragedy, really.