Have I mentioned lately how much I love your brain? This whole post is full of win! Your summary of the timeline is among the most concise and lucid ones that I've seen, and I think I agree with you on every single point (except maybe creepy!Tigh, because while I was having a bit of a disconnect at his happiness, it didn't really creep me out), including relief at the lack of A/R--though the fact that I agree with you there makes me sad.
Also, that crack in his quarters is CLEARLY the result of his addiction to CHEWING ON THE SCENERY. Honestly, Adama, your manpain has ruined the ship.
This had me LAUGHING OUT LOUD in a way that would have scared other people, had they heard me. SO TRUE!!!
Also LOL-worthy, of course, is the macro. Oh, Caprica/Tigh!!!!
I'm still struggling to get a handle on Laura and this hurts me in my soul. [...]
Please show. Please. This is me actually begging you, don't take away Laura. Don't do that to me. I love her too much for you to do that to me. Reassure me that you'll address that she's quitting. Perhaps quitting for better reasons. Perhaps even necessary health-related reasons. But you can't say that she isn't still reacting out of a belief that she's a fraud, which is affecting her belief in her leadership abilities in general.
Yes to every word of this. I was almost relieved that we didn't get more Laura in this episode because I hate feeling so uncertain about her, and at least when they don't show her, they can't screw her up. And then that thought itself made me want to cry.
I do hope we get more of a clue about how she's handling the fallout from Earth, because I do think that's still a big part of what she's still dealing with here. As I was commenting to dionusia in her post, I feel like Earth being what it was has disrupted the balance of what Laura has done and why for the whole series, and I still don't have a handle on how she's dealing with that. dionusia had commented that she'd like to see Laura admit to some of the mistakes she's made. My response was that Laura would probably easily rattle off a list of all the wrong things she's done, but she wouldn't see them as "mistakes" and she doesn't regret them: they were the best of all the wrong choices she had, the smart thing if not the right thing. She made them with her eyes open, and she'd make them again. (In a bit of delicious irony, I think the one thing she does regret is not stealing the election--the time she succumbed to the right thing instead of the smart thing.)
But then all of this changes, perhaps, with "Revelations." The whole, fascinating utilitarian calculus of Laura Roslin has been to keep the fleet alive and safe and to get them to Earth. And then Earth becomes a literal dead end. If your entire way of doing things has been predicated on the idea that the ends (safety, home, Earth) justify the means (baby-stealing, attempted genocide, dictatorship), what happens when the ends aren't what you expected? I don't think we're seeing how shattering this must be to Laura being adequately dramatized. She's still giving Lee the advice that has defined her own presidency, but how much does she still believe in that advice? I think she does, she must--this was her m.o. even before there was a rumor of Earth, much less the possibility of the real thing--but I think she's also dealing with a lot of self-doubt and fears that she's a fraud.
We got some of this in "The Oath," that marvelous conversation between Laura and Gaius, but I want more. I desperately need a satisfactory end of her part of the story, in a way that does justice to the strength of her character (and to what her character has been about the whole time--she hasn't always been pretty or palatable, and that's exactly the point).
I feel like despite my relief at a week free of the Laura angst that has been plaguing me, this might still be the week for a big Laura post. I've been a little surprised by some of the reactions I've seen to Laura this season, from both her fans and detractors, and I'm feeling compelled to explain Laura as I see her.
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Also, that crack in his quarters is CLEARLY the result of his addiction to CHEWING ON THE SCENERY. Honestly, Adama, your manpain has ruined the ship.
This had me LAUGHING OUT LOUD in a way that would have scared other people, had they heard me. SO TRUE!!!
Also LOL-worthy, of course, is the macro. Oh, Caprica/Tigh!!!!
I'm still struggling to get a handle on Laura and this hurts me in my soul. [...]
Please show. Please. This is me actually begging you, don't take away Laura. Don't do that to me. I love her too much for you to do that to me. Reassure me that you'll address that she's quitting. Perhaps quitting for better reasons. Perhaps even necessary health-related reasons. But you can't say that she isn't still reacting out of a belief that she's a fraud, which is affecting her belief in her leadership abilities in general.
Yes to every word of this. I was almost relieved that we didn't get more Laura in this episode because I hate feeling so uncertain about her, and at least when they don't show her, they can't screw her up. And then that thought itself made me want to cry.
I do hope we get more of a clue about how she's handling the fallout from Earth, because I do think that's still a big part of what she's still dealing with here. As I was commenting to
But then all of this changes, perhaps, with "Revelations." The whole, fascinating utilitarian calculus of Laura Roslin has been to keep the fleet alive and safe and to get them to Earth. And then Earth becomes a literal dead end. If your entire way of doing things has been predicated on the idea that the ends (safety, home, Earth) justify the means (baby-stealing, attempted genocide, dictatorship), what happens when the ends aren't what you expected? I don't think we're seeing how shattering this must be to Laura being adequately dramatized. She's still giving Lee the advice that has defined her own presidency, but how much does she still believe in that advice? I think she does, she must--this was her m.o. even before there was a rumor of Earth, much less the possibility of the real thing--but I think she's also dealing with a lot of self-doubt and fears that she's a fraud.
We got some of this in "The Oath," that marvelous conversation between Laura and Gaius, but I want more. I desperately need a satisfactory end of her part of the story, in a way that does justice to the strength of her character (and to what her character has been about the whole time--she hasn't always been pretty or palatable, and that's exactly the point).
I feel like despite my relief at a week free of the Laura angst that has been plaguing me, this might still be the week for a big Laura post. I've been a little surprised by some of the reactions I've seen to Laura this season, from both her fans and detractors, and I'm feeling compelled to explain Laura as I see her.