And for people who haven't reached that point with him, I imagine that the terror, the naivety, the fear of Baltar still shine through. Because...that's the thing; those are part of Baltar too. He's not tidy.
Oh I totally know what you mean. I just lost sympathy for him really early (and to make this All About Laura Roslin and Her Long Inescapable Shadow, he's a perfect foil for her, because I find him rather despicable for all the places he's lacking where she's Really Fucking Awesome, which is maybe not the fairest standard--and is totally colored by my own The National vid HOORAY FOR THEM--but it's totally true). This is the sympathy I haven't had for Baltar since he ran for president. Maybe before that I did, but I can't remember. I mean on one hand, yeah they did a really fantastic job keeping him rather sympathetic (um, well, for others) because he's sad and weak and scared and in so far over his head and they do such a good job of making him PASSIVE in all the atrocities he causes/somewhat unwittingly facilitates, but in such circumstances the polite thing to do for the good of humanity is to, I don't know, go to Cloud Nine and whittle away the days with booze and women. But instead, the selfish fucktard runs for fucking president because Laura hurt his ego, and then attributes that selfish power and status seeking desire to his imaginary angel of god telling him it was god's will and fate (which basically means that if any of that turns out to be true, BSG and I are going to Have Words). Somewhere in the back of my head, I did always kind of want Baltar to step up and just say he was SORRY, for you know the nuclear attacks but also for New Caprica, so what The Hub did for me was make me realize the depth of how weak and kind of awful he actually is and that that was never, ever going to happen. And while I actually think that's kind of awesome from a characterization standpoint--of COURSE Gaius Baltar would create AN ENTIRELY NEW RELIGION to justify his own actions and existence and to avoid taking any responsibility for ANYTHING, EVER--and actually give props to BSG for letting him just wallow in his pathetic human-ness and frailty, and rather expect that's going to be important to the end of the story, I just haven't been able to let that excuse him even a little for a long time. But it's very, very much my subjective reaction to Baltar, just because everything that makes me love Laura beyond all rational thought is everything that Baltar lacks, so obviously I'm not going to find much to like in him.
It's also really, really hard for me to appreciate HeadSix, which I feel kind of guilty admitting, just because she's such a manifestation of everything I find to be actually pretty repulsive about Baltar. It's next to impossible for me to separate her from him, I suppose, which kinda sucks.
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Date: 2008-12-18 04:53 pm (UTC)Oh I totally know what you mean. I just lost sympathy for him really early (and to make this All About Laura Roslin and Her Long Inescapable Shadow, he's a perfect foil for her, because I find him rather despicable for all the places he's lacking where she's Really Fucking Awesome, which is maybe not the fairest standard--and is totally colored by my own The National vid HOORAY FOR THEM--but it's totally true). This is the sympathy I haven't had for Baltar since he ran for president. Maybe before that I did, but I can't remember. I mean on one hand, yeah they did a really fantastic job keeping him rather sympathetic (um, well, for others) because he's sad and weak and scared and in so far over his head and they do such a good job of making him PASSIVE in all the atrocities he causes/somewhat unwittingly facilitates, but in such circumstances the polite thing to do for the good of humanity is to, I don't know, go to Cloud Nine and whittle away the days with booze and women. But instead, the selfish fucktard runs for fucking president because Laura hurt his ego, and then attributes that selfish power and status seeking desire to his imaginary angel of god telling him it was god's will and fate (which basically means that if any of that turns out to be true, BSG and I are going to Have Words). Somewhere in the back of my head, I did always kind of want Baltar to step up and just say he was SORRY, for you know the nuclear attacks but also for New Caprica, so what The Hub did for me was make me realize the depth of how weak and kind of awful he actually is and that that was never, ever going to happen. And while I actually think that's kind of awesome from a characterization standpoint--of COURSE Gaius Baltar would create AN ENTIRELY NEW RELIGION to justify his own actions and existence and to avoid taking any responsibility for ANYTHING, EVER--and actually give props to BSG for letting him just wallow in his pathetic human-ness and frailty, and rather expect that's going to be important to the end of the story, I just haven't been able to let that excuse him even a little for a long time. But it's very, very much my subjective reaction to Baltar, just because everything that makes me love Laura beyond all rational thought is everything that Baltar lacks, so obviously I'm not going to find much to like in him.
It's also really, really hard for me to appreciate HeadSix, which I feel kind of guilty admitting, just because she's such a manifestation of everything I find to be actually pretty repulsive about Baltar. It's next to impossible for me to separate her from him, I suppose, which kinda sucks.