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beccatoriaRemember way back, kids? When I loved Lee because he was Laura's boy and clearly they were destined to LOVE EACH OTHER even though I never held any illusions that it was destined at all, and that made me a little sad? Maybe I wasn't even really blogging much back then; maybe I'm the only one who remembers those heady days of early season two when I'd started to sour on Adama and jump 'ship.
Whatever, the point is, I loved him once. And if you told me at the start of season two that I'd have an icon with ANDERS but not Lee icon, I would have been mightily confused.
So today I finally watched this Lee vid that I've had for a while and been meaning to watch but never did because I kind of hate the music. THE VID IS SO AWESOME IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT I HATE THE MUSIC.
Signal to Noise
Go watch. Now. (Note: the link is to a post with four vids; Signal to Noise is the second on that page).
The thing I can't stress enough is that this is a Lee vid, even though probably half of it doesn't even have him in it: isn't even about his storylines. And that's maybe the tragedy of Lee's character, but certainly the triumph of the vid.
Lee Adama is the young man, the Romantic Lead in terms of conventional television demographics. The show politely continues to try and treat him that way, and every time it does, it fucks over his character.
They made this wonderfully surprising man; not the angsty action hero with lip service to cerebral, moral thinkiness that's actually just a front for brooding sexily. A man with an actual conscience, and who is constantly shown up on the action hero front by another character. In the first season, again and again, Lee's political conscience is shown as his defining attribute.
But back in the first season there were two shows - the political show and the actiony pilots soap opera show. Lee was always an excellent fit in the first and a mediocre fit in the second. And rather than running with their success and putting Lee firmly into Laura's political arena and playing up the tensions with him and his father - the civilians versus the military, as they did in the mini and throughout the first season - instead they went a more conventional route, and slowly brought Adama and Roslin together while trying to push Lee back into Pilot Soap Opera country.
I have huge amounts of respect for this show, and this season. I know its change in focus has been unpopular among some, but I've loved it, because I love the crazy insane religious Cylon show. But I honestly think that Lee has been the character who's been the most misused. Not underused (that would probably be the various non-imaginary Sixes), but misused.
After he breaks with Roslin in season two, Lee never really finds his feet. He comes close with the Pegasus but that was always going to be temporary. The writers pretty much admitted his weight issues at the start of season three came from not knowing what to do with him, and I know that I personally think that the bizarre love quadrangle of doom that dominated the middle of season three was BSG storytelling at its worst, at it's most unimportant and tiresome.
I'm not being a 'shipper snob. Love stories are big, important and potentially epic affairs. But something about the way BSG is filmed and its story is told...there was no sense of balance here. Too much attention and time devoted to this unmystical, unearth-shattering quagmire of adolescent idiocy for the sake of drawing out the drama, when everything going on around it was so much more important.
I really think that they've started back on the right track with Lee at the end of season three and during season four - putting him back in the political arena, even if he was woefully devoid of material before the very end of 4.0.
But if that's the case, then why does he, like his father, feel so woefully disconnected and unimportant in the scheme of things?
I think it's because Lee's finally been put back onto the political show, except...now he's the only one on it. Because now the political show has morphed into the metaphysical cylon show. EVERYTHING has morphed into the metaphysical cylon show.
Which is great for me, because I love that show! I've wanted more of it since Flesh and Bone; wait, since we first met Six in the mini. But Lee is the character least connected to that show of anyone. Even more so than his father who at least maintains a tie with it through Roslin and his relationship with her and his status as the military leader on this quest for Earth even if he's not the one with visions in his head.
Everyone except Lee has been moving closer and closer to this show. Kara, Baltar, Laura, the various Cylon models and characters revealed to be Cylon have all been getting tangled up in this Opera House clusterfrak of a vision of repeating time.
And Lee's just there...waving his little flag and saying, "Hey guys? Guys? When did everyone convert? Can't we argue about whether it's ethical to force prisoners into hard labour, or summary executions of POWs for a while? No? We have to decode hybridic prophecy again? Damn."
ETA - there's also the fact that with the revelation that Anders is a cylon Lee's place as Kara's special boy has also been undercut, imho, in terms of the fabric of the narrative. I mean, I know there are as many L/K fanpeople out there as there ever were and I also believe that's the show's endgame, but from the perspective of keeping Lee relevant to the ongoing metaplot of the show, they just took the challenger to the male lead and gave him destiny in common with the female lead. Especially against this backdrop of cylons and humans and final five magical cylons falling in LOVE and hybridity and evolution and...yeah. No offence to people whose 'ship this is, but "they're meant to be," has just taken a huge knock in the context of a show where the cycle of time means that there are actual things that are actually meant to be and Lee seems entirely unmentioned in all of them whereas Kara, and now apparently Sam, are starring mythological figures. That's not to say that the show should therefore do that because I'm all for changing destinies. But moving away from your destiny means there has to be a strong thematic destiny component in the first place. /ETA.
They finally put Lee in the right place for him, but they've moved everyone else out of it.
Poor Lee.
But the POINT! The point is the vid.
The vid is genius because it locates Lee in this wider world where prophecy and religion happen. And also where non-mystical violence and death and rebellion that he wasn't a part of happen.
Most character vids try to relate everything to the character in order to explain that characters behaviour or show us something new about them. This vid does the opposite. It shows us everything that's going on, whether about Lee or not, and then puts Lee down and asks - what is it like to live in this world?
Lee - the one guy who isn't going collectively insane with everyone else as they abandon fleets for love and cylonicity and crazed signals straight into their brains - stands in for the everyman here. In some ways for the civilian we never see.
All around the world is turning to noise.
Of course it would be, for him. I should have seen it sooner.
Plus the vid manages a task I previously thought impossible: making Lee's murder of Phelan actually look like an interesting and worthwhile part of the story.
So...yeah. That's that. My Lee-ifesto.
And since we're on the topic of definitive character study vids - here's an amazing Gaius vid:
The Noose.
It has spoilers for season four and I love it because it tackles an issue that I wish the show would be clearer about, head-on. Namely, you feel redeemed, Gaius, and that's wonderful, but do you actually deserve it?
Also since I'm reccing Baltar vids and this one's great, here's![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nicole_anell's Baltar/Gaeta vid, Another Place to Fall.
/battlestar boys.
Whatever, the point is, I loved him once. And if you told me at the start of season two that I'd have an icon with ANDERS but not Lee icon, I would have been mightily confused.
So today I finally watched this Lee vid that I've had for a while and been meaning to watch but never did because I kind of hate the music. THE VID IS SO AWESOME IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT I HATE THE MUSIC.
Signal to Noise
Go watch. Now. (Note: the link is to a post with four vids; Signal to Noise is the second on that page).
The thing I can't stress enough is that this is a Lee vid, even though probably half of it doesn't even have him in it: isn't even about his storylines. And that's maybe the tragedy of Lee's character, but certainly the triumph of the vid.
Lee Adama is the young man, the Romantic Lead in terms of conventional television demographics. The show politely continues to try and treat him that way, and every time it does, it fucks over his character.
They made this wonderfully surprising man; not the angsty action hero with lip service to cerebral, moral thinkiness that's actually just a front for brooding sexily. A man with an actual conscience, and who is constantly shown up on the action hero front by another character. In the first season, again and again, Lee's political conscience is shown as his defining attribute.
But back in the first season there were two shows - the political show and the actiony pilots soap opera show. Lee was always an excellent fit in the first and a mediocre fit in the second. And rather than running with their success and putting Lee firmly into Laura's political arena and playing up the tensions with him and his father - the civilians versus the military, as they did in the mini and throughout the first season - instead they went a more conventional route, and slowly brought Adama and Roslin together while trying to push Lee back into Pilot Soap Opera country.
I have huge amounts of respect for this show, and this season. I know its change in focus has been unpopular among some, but I've loved it, because I love the crazy insane religious Cylon show. But I honestly think that Lee has been the character who's been the most misused. Not underused (that would probably be the various non-imaginary Sixes), but misused.
After he breaks with Roslin in season two, Lee never really finds his feet. He comes close with the Pegasus but that was always going to be temporary. The writers pretty much admitted his weight issues at the start of season three came from not knowing what to do with him, and I know that I personally think that the bizarre love quadrangle of doom that dominated the middle of season three was BSG storytelling at its worst, at it's most unimportant and tiresome.
I'm not being a 'shipper snob. Love stories are big, important and potentially epic affairs. But something about the way BSG is filmed and its story is told...there was no sense of balance here. Too much attention and time devoted to this unmystical, unearth-shattering quagmire of adolescent idiocy for the sake of drawing out the drama, when everything going on around it was so much more important.
I really think that they've started back on the right track with Lee at the end of season three and during season four - putting him back in the political arena, even if he was woefully devoid of material before the very end of 4.0.
But if that's the case, then why does he, like his father, feel so woefully disconnected and unimportant in the scheme of things?
I think it's because Lee's finally been put back onto the political show, except...now he's the only one on it. Because now the political show has morphed into the metaphysical cylon show. EVERYTHING has morphed into the metaphysical cylon show.
Which is great for me, because I love that show! I've wanted more of it since Flesh and Bone; wait, since we first met Six in the mini. But Lee is the character least connected to that show of anyone. Even more so than his father who at least maintains a tie with it through Roslin and his relationship with her and his status as the military leader on this quest for Earth even if he's not the one with visions in his head.
Everyone except Lee has been moving closer and closer to this show. Kara, Baltar, Laura, the various Cylon models and characters revealed to be Cylon have all been getting tangled up in this Opera House clusterfrak of a vision of repeating time.
And Lee's just there...waving his little flag and saying, "Hey guys? Guys? When did everyone convert? Can't we argue about whether it's ethical to force prisoners into hard labour, or summary executions of POWs for a while? No? We have to decode hybridic prophecy again? Damn."
ETA - there's also the fact that with the revelation that Anders is a cylon Lee's place as Kara's special boy has also been undercut, imho, in terms of the fabric of the narrative. I mean, I know there are as many L/K fanpeople out there as there ever were and I also believe that's the show's endgame, but from the perspective of keeping Lee relevant to the ongoing metaplot of the show, they just took the challenger to the male lead and gave him destiny in common with the female lead. Especially against this backdrop of cylons and humans and final five magical cylons falling in LOVE and hybridity and evolution and...yeah. No offence to people whose 'ship this is, but "they're meant to be," has just taken a huge knock in the context of a show where the cycle of time means that there are actual things that are actually meant to be and Lee seems entirely unmentioned in all of them whereas Kara, and now apparently Sam, are starring mythological figures. That's not to say that the show should therefore do that because I'm all for changing destinies. But moving away from your destiny means there has to be a strong thematic destiny component in the first place. /ETA.
They finally put Lee in the right place for him, but they've moved everyone else out of it.
Poor Lee.
But the POINT! The point is the vid.
The vid is genius because it locates Lee in this wider world where prophecy and religion happen. And also where non-mystical violence and death and rebellion that he wasn't a part of happen.
Most character vids try to relate everything to the character in order to explain that characters behaviour or show us something new about them. This vid does the opposite. It shows us everything that's going on, whether about Lee or not, and then puts Lee down and asks - what is it like to live in this world?
Lee - the one guy who isn't going collectively insane with everyone else as they abandon fleets for love and cylonicity and crazed signals straight into their brains - stands in for the everyman here. In some ways for the civilian we never see.
All around the world is turning to noise.
Of course it would be, for him. I should have seen it sooner.
Plus the vid manages a task I previously thought impossible: making Lee's murder of Phelan actually look like an interesting and worthwhile part of the story.
So...yeah. That's that. My Lee-ifesto.
And since we're on the topic of definitive character study vids - here's an amazing Gaius vid:
The Noose.
It has spoilers for season four and I love it because it tackles an issue that I wish the show would be clearer about, head-on. Namely, you feel redeemed, Gaius, and that's wonderful, but do you actually deserve it?
Also since I'm reccing Baltar vids and this one's great, here's
nicole_anell's Baltar/Gaeta vid, Another Place to Fall. /battlestar boys.
