BSG Finale Spoilers.

[beccatoria]

So. Podcast for Islanded in a Stream of Stars finally went up.

Ron Moore actually says, in actual words, the he DID NOT REALISE how IMPORTANT Daniel would seem and that he TOTALLY DIDN'T ANTICIPATE the massive assumption that Kara would be related to Daniel, and so, ACTUALLY DEBUNKS THIS IN ACTUAL WORDS because he - get this - DOESN'T WANT US TO BE DISAPPOINTED WHEN WE SEE THE FINALE.

Because yeah. Daniel is, apparently, JUST some backstory for Cavil.

Apparently he's sorry and understands this is his fault for accidentally building expectation.

I just... WHAT?

How could you not realise how this would play?

And also, how the hell are they going to explain Dreilide Thrace knowing and teaching his daughter a song that ONLY CYLONS AND MAGICAL HYBRIDS KNOW? Or how come Kara's entire mystic, and apparently human, destiny, is TIED TO ROBOTS.

I fear some mystical explaination that it's a cyclical SONG OF ANGELS or some shit.

Yes, I'm upset about this. I think mainly because this season...they took Laura. They took Liam. I'm pretty sure I'll be disatisfied with the ending for Caprica. They fucking took Tigh in some ways. And now they're taking Kara.

I didn't want much. And I kept downsizing my expectations.

I mean, fine. I'm actually not against Kara as a mystical figure who's not a cylon. I mean, I wasn't actually expecting her to be a hybrid (despite my speculation) before No Exit.

But like, coming up with as cool a retcon as Daniel? And then just...not capitalising on it? Dangling this awesome premise to make up for some of the shitness of other storylines and then taking it away?

I do not want to feel this way.

I love No Exit. I love Someone to Watch Over Me. I love the Cylon on the memorial wall, I love the multifuneral, I love Ellen Tigh as the final cylon which I never thought I would. I liked the brutality of the mutiny. I loved Kara and Laura setting their own funeral pyres. I even liked Dee's suicide.

But yeah. I loved this show almost without reservation from the mini to the end of 4.0. It seems so unfair that in it's final run it could let me down.

I suppose this is what comes of loving it because it was a narrative that dealt with technology and hybridisation in ways no other narrative did: it didn't realise it was doing it either.

And now we're back to Hera as the first and perhaps last of her generation.

I want to love mystic!Kara for what she is, human or robot or half and half. I want to hope for a good ending for Caprica because as I've said, if something loves her, then even with the stupid loss of complexifying robotic babies (because srsly, I still think that Flipper's death was the weirdest non-answer to Cylon reproductive questions ever), her storyline basically works for me. I want to love that I finally felt like Laura was Laura again.

We get down to it: 4.0 was all about destroying all meaningful boundaries between human and cylon and blurring those even further with the existence of Nicky, Liam and potentially Kara - or at least the potential that the final cylon would be biologically related to someone. 4.5 has been all about - biologically - reasserting them via retcons, deaths, and, when the executive producer realises what a RIDICULOUSLY OBVIOUS ANVILICIOUS CLUE he accidentally let slip, USING HIS OWN DAMN PODCAST TO DEBUNK FAN THEORIES because they've gained that much traction on the internet.

And yet. 4.5 teases me with the way it finally does give us social hybridity, and it does so wonderfully.

And I just...I love this show and I'm furious with it at the same time, and I don't know how to deal with that.

Comments

[chaila.livejournal.com]

*LE SIGH*

That there had been 13 Cylons was one of the major reasons why I was clinging to some hope that stuff would Make Sense, because I felt like that really fit in with the established text of the show. If I can't have Laura the way I wanted, I damn well want deep text reading meta awesomeness. Now I just. . . have no idea what to expect. My Laura break-up almost has me wondering whether I was interpreting this show wrong all along. Is that silly? Like, was it totally pointless to be reading it this closely? Did I make stuff up? Was the show never about what I thought it was about? I really don't get it.

4.5 has been all about - biologically - reasserting them

This is the huge, huge reason why the current Hera rescue mission works for me not at all. If I could believe that all these people care enough about this little girl, that could be awesome, but outside of our opera house girls, I don't believe that's true; at best, I guess it's some of quixotic last hurrah for those with loyalty to the ship. But that negates all the necessary hybridizing they've been hammering into our heads. One week they're all, well time to move to the basestar, and the next week, they're all, well Galactica's dying, time for a suicide mission. Better to die than move to the frakking basestar? What? And I suppose that's not the text, but it's at least the subtext of what's going on which is totally at odds with the long arc of the blurring lines.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Well I was always sure that they just made up Seven as a chance to fix continuity, but like you, I also thought it really made sense within the text of the show. Thirteen tribes, with the Cylon as the thirteenth? OF COURSE you can introduce a thirteenth Cylon! It's why I'm honestly shocked that RDM didn't realise what he was setting up here.

But yeah. The more I think about it the more I wonder if I was reading along slightly divergent lines that, during this end game, are becoming...increasingly divergent from the writers' vision of the show.

At this point, I actually hope that they never address how Kara's father knew that music. Because if they don't it's so clearly outlined in the text that he was likely her father (I mean come on, EVERY professional review I've seen has mentioned this possibility, and EVERYTHING magical about Kara save her resurrection, which couldn't be explained by her hybridity anyway, is THE SAME STUFF that Hera's doing) that I can say screw authorial intention, it's an unanswered question with an incredibly compelling, incredibly hinted-at answer right there. It still pisses me off because while I don't want to credit authorial intention when it's crappy, I can't forget it either. But at this point, it's the best I can hope for.

I agree with you about the suicide mission too. I wish that Adama had pointed out that they were rescuing her FROM THE TOP SECRET BASE OF THEIR ENEMIES. Because, you know, then it would even make sense for people like Narcho to join in. One last chance to retaliate kind of thing.

*sigh*

I'm just...waiting to assess the damage and then, if I have the heart, to launch, "BECKA RECLAIMS BSG '09 AND SHE'S TAKING NO PRISONERS, BITCHES!"

If I can do it for Star Wars, the creator of whom I dislike far more and think is far more inept than RDM, I can do it for BSG.

[chaila.livejournal.com]

I'm torn because I obviously want it all to be excessively awesome but "BECKA RECLAIMS BSG '09 AND SHE'S TAKING NO PRISONERS, BITCHES!" sounds really frakking awesome.

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

wow. ron moore is actually that stupid. who could he not have realized that everyone would draw the conclusion that kara's dad = daniel??

ha, they are probably not even going to explain why kara knows that song. i find that entirely possible at this point.

ugh. i think ron moore has been too busy being infatuated with bill adama's mainpain.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I know. I just don't understand how he thought people wouldn't assume that was significant.

At this point, I'm actively hoping that they explain her resurrection but not how her dad knew that song. Because if they don't, then I can ignore authorial intention and go with the ANVILICIOUS CLUES in the text and just decide to believe that of course her dad was Daniel. Just no one ever knew.

At this point, I'd honestly prefer they not explain how she knew the music than explain it with some lame retcon that precludes my fanon. :(

Actually, one of the only good things he said in the podcast was that looking back on the last half season he thought he spent too much time with Adama's pain about the ship breaking down. And I'm like, dude, srsly, YOU THINK? Maybe if we hadn't had so many shots of him ANGSTILY BRUSHING HIS TEETH, we could have seen how Chief ended up in the brig, or where the mutineers are. *sigh*