BSG: Daybreak II

[beccatoria]

The first hour had some beautiful visuals and decent action sequences. Romo Lampkin as President was ridiculous. I liked Cavil. I wish Baltar hadn't proselytized at him, but oddly, I really loved pretty much everything Caprica/Baltar and the show somehow managed that difficult task of getting me to buy into Baltar's fifty-seventh redemption. Perhaps because not buying into it would have broken my heart.

I was a little disappointed that All Along the Watchtower and the Opera House weren't as awesome or weird as they could have been, and most of my points from my last post about my disappointment with the post-humanist technological commentary still stand.

But the Opera House and Watchtower segments were very pretty and that saved a lot for me. I guess I feel that there's a real, objective argument that RDM missed a MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY with Daniel, but if he wasn't going to go that way, at least he didn't prevent that reading. Because I honestly think, regardless of his intentions, any sane person watching the show will at least stop and very seriously wonder if the show was trying to suggest that Dreilide was a surviving Daniel copy. I never thought her Cybrid status was the reason for her resurrection anyway. Different issues.

So yeah. In general, the action and character stuff was largely okay. I was disappointed that most of the Big Questions came down solely to religion rather than also technology.

I still DO NOT UNDERSTAND shooting all their cool shit into the sun. And I find that anti-technological message quite depressing. Even if I thought Kara's goodbye scene with Anders and his final flight into the sun were quite beautiful.

Two things really, really bothered me.

1) Tory's death. It's not the fact that she died, it's how and why and the way everyone treated it. It was gross. It was disturbing in a way I don't think the show intended. It made me feel extremely uncomfortable.

It was the way it was shot, too. Like...like RDM has read the anti-Tory sentiment on the internet and the whole thing was...I don't know. There was no consideration to Tory's viewpoint. I felt that Chief came off simultaneously as righteous avenger and complete fucking violent psycho.

And yeah. The way it was shot and the way he killed her and the creeptacular nature of it pinged all sorts of "Violence against women," alarms with me in ways that a lot of the other deaths of women on this show have not. Maybe also because of the history that they were once romantically involved. I don't know.

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

And can I point out that not three episodes ago, Chief was out a-murderin' innocents to save Boomer? Can I point out SAUL TIGH that actually someone did do that to Ellen, and it was him? Can I ask if it's appropriate to have this...warm hug from Ellen for a man who just murdered someone she was supposed to love deeply because, OH WELL. SHE GOT WHAT SHE DESERVED.

I just...yeah. I've said before and I maintain that what Tory did to Cally was one of the hardest things for me to watch on BSG. It was ugly and terrifying. But this is the show that keeps sympathy for baby murderers and the architects of genocide and collaborators and wife killers. Where the hell was Tory's point of view? Where the hell was the sympathy for her?

I just...most uncomfortable moment ever.

Really, there's nothing that'll make this better.

2) WTFCOLONIALISM?

Did they actually just decide to go to Africa and civilise the natives?

I actually really loved the ending robot montage, even if I found the head characters' final acting to be a little off, somehow. I like the idea we're all cybrids. Which is part of why I wish there were more confirmation that we're descended from many cybrids not just Hera because she's not really much more than a consolation prize for the cylon race if every other contributor to our genetic material was human. But yeah. I like that even if I think they're being overly literal with making it actually, literally, for sure Hera there.

But I do think that the...I dunno. The giving the best parts of ourselves to these noble savages stuff was kind of problematic. In combination with the 268s decision to stay and help contribute to the world because apparently what the Cylon needed to learn to be "good" is that they can CHOOSE to exist to help humans. I really would have liked to see a motivation on their part stronger than, "we want to help you cus you're awesome, humans!"

Cus personally, I'd rather live on that awesome basestar with my metal siblings and hot water watching supernovas with the ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my head.

But that's just me.

To be honest, while the overtones of the writing fail, I think history itself saves the show somewhat on the colonialist front.

Because history proves that they fail. There was no agriculture 150,000 years ago. Nor for a looooong time after that, I think.

For all their grand plans, and their ultimate contribution to the genetic pool, they don't build civilisation. They fade. They teach their children to read and write, but their grandchildren can barely scratch their own names in the dirt with sticks, and their great-grandchildren don't even believe that they ever lived in space. Or maybe the trajectory is longer than that, but you get the point.

I wish it had been...reverse-colonialist more obviously because I could have gotten on board with that. As...an elegy. As a tragedy, but one that...ultimately serves a purpose in us. As a weird, "we're okay with our total lack of future," tragedy.

So yes. I deal with it by laughing my ass off imagining them all running around dirty and naked in ten years when their clothes have worn out with their illiterate half robot neanderthal children.

BECAUSE OMG, the other thing. I HAVE A NEW SHIP, Y'ALL:

CYLON/NEANDERTHALS. Because soon they will be able to bond over their oppression by humans. And the Neanderthals aren't going to hold a grudge against the Cylon for their murderous ways and the Cylon totally won't judge them for being illiterate and unable to speak.

And then we can have NEANDERBRIDS:

Neanderbrid Dave: How many mammoth in herd?
Neanderbrid Bob: One. Zero zero one one. Zero. One.

YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT.

So yeah. I thought the first two-thirds had some gorgeous images, was fairly mainstream but at least didn't wreck anything. The ending was...weird. In that irritating, "you have good ideas yet somehow you've managed to make them suck," way that 4.5 has.

Also, I hope Caprica gets a replacement goldfish baby, that Roslin comes back from BEYOND THE GRAVE to punish Adama for turning her into the Corpse Bride, that Adama was going on about the cabin because he was ACTUALLY SENILE and will momentarily commit suicide (srsly, wtf was going on with that?), and that the Centurions come back in a few years to pick up any of the survivors who've discovered that dying of simple infections and living without toilet paper is kind of sucky.

Oh, also, my theory on why there are humans on Earth? This hasn't just happened on Kobol and Earth (the real one, not this one) and Caprica. It's happened more than that. Many, many, many times. Even on this Earth once before. There's a diaspora of humanity. Didn't they leave people behind on New Caprica by accident? Might there not still be people in the Colonies?

And now it's over and I have no idea what to do with myself.

Also I have no idea whether or not I liked it. I didn't hate it. I did, at times, wonder if it was going to irrevocably change my view of the whole show. I...don't think that's happened, though.

I still think that RECLAIM WITH VIDS is the way to go. But I'm not sure how long it'll be 'til I have another. I've ground to a halt on my D'Anna vid, though if I don't start on it again soon, I'll make an actual effort to make myself.

HMM.

Comments

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Fucking word to the Chief stuff.

ETA: Just read Mo Ryan's interview with RDM. He actually says "It was all coming to a moment of resolution, and you kind of want to condemn him for it, and then you look at what happened after that, and you kind of want to celebrate him for it." So it was okay to turn Chief into a murderous violent guy because that let them defeat Cavil. Sigh.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

I felt that Chief came off simultaneously as righteous avenger and complete fucking violent psycho.

Plus, considering that Chief instantaneously abandoned Nicky as soon as he found out that the kid wasn't BIOLOGICALLY his (as opposed to being emotionally his child, which he so is!) kind of made me wonder WHY HE EVEN CARED ENOUGH TO KILL TORI. Like, he cared enough about Cally to kill her murderess, but not enough to take care of her child? REALLY?

GRRRRR!

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

FUCK THE CHIEF/TORY THING SO HARD. I HATE IT. I CAN'T EVEN TALK ABOUT IT.

I agree with you that the brief stuff involving the primitives was extremely problematic and I'm glad they didn't go into it that much. I think they were going for something entirely different about the repetition of Kobol/Earth/the Colonies, and how each of them tried to restart civilization only for the robotics and A.I. tech and all that downfall to repeat itself (some thoughts here?) They had to stretch reality and logic quite a bit to make this fall into the *real* evolutional history of Earth, and... well, like you said, WTF. In a few generations they'll be forgotten and evolution will just march on the natural way with their Cylon/human hybrid DNA, apparently.

Just... bah, I don't think any of it was *intentionally* racist or Colonialism-type thinking, but the blindness to how squicky it looked is pretty bad.

P.S. Rejection of all technology? Really? When the 145s are still out there somewhere (for the time being) and you're just *trusting* (albeit nicely) that the Centurions will never come back and try to destroy you? Okay.

[cyborganize.livejournal.com]

I MISS YOU OMG. I was thinking about you the whole time. I figured there was stuff that you wouldn't hate for you to cling to, but OW.

I don't think I've even fully processed all the FAIL yet. the POLITICS of the conclusion were horrifying to a degree that I was unprepared for.

I'm OK though, I just can't be near fandom or especially RONALD D MOORE and his epic epic wank. hope you're surviving.

one day we're going to have an brilliant brainstorming session about lambasting it in PSA form and make a kickass Prelinger mashup that will fix everything.

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Um. Word. The whole thing was just so much CRAZYPANTS FAIL that it's not even funny. I feel I must wipe it from my brain, along with most of the rest of 4.5. Except for the two specific bits I want to reclaim with fic.

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!

[asta77.livejournal.com]

I have a second post I've been working on on and off all day trying to get an idea of how I feel about it all because I'm still not sure. Overall, I still like it, but, yeah there are problems. It's like it went off the rails once they landed on earth. But earth isn't the problem with Kara's lack of closure.

Romo Lampkin as president, even for a few hours, was a joke. I think Paula would have been a better choice or one of the ships captains.

'All Along the Watchtower' worked surprisingly well for me. I had my doubts when it was first introduced, but they maintained the thread and tied it to earth.

Personally, I wish they had not relied so heavily on divine intervention, however that aspect of the series has been there since the mini and so it's not shocking that they went in that direction. I'm actually looking at watching Head Six's scenes much more closely on my next rewatch.

I agree with you about Tory and Tyrol, but I'm not feeling the rage you are. On an intellectual level I certainly see your points and even I thought Tory's death was more graphic and disturbing than need be, but I also don't particularly care about the characters.

I was reading a tiny bit about Mitochondrial Eve, populations bottlenecks, and Toba Catastrophe Theory earlier and trying to figure out where the Colonials and Cylons actually fit in all this. They could have created an evolutionary jump, they became us without breeding with those already populating the earth, but then how did all that knowledge become lost?

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

SO MUCH WORD ON EVERYTHING TORY.

I can't even deal with how much I hated that, the show finally marginalized her entirely and destroyed Chief for me all in one moment and its aftermath.

I thought earlier today that I had reached some kind of peace with this as the ending by just forgetting/ignoring/rationalizing a lot of the awful bits. But too many of my constructed readings keep falling down the more I think about it. Even the character bits I enjoyed often go right along
with thematic fail.

The "we are all Cybrids" thing is one of the few aspects that works for me, and I'm loving your notion about how this is one one iterations of many of these cycles of time for humanity. It makes everything more blended in a way the show failed to address. And makes us pretty frakkin' screwed in exactly the same way.

Despite the above statement on us as hybrids, I'm still not sold on the notion that it needed to be literally about us so explicitly. Which I'm aware is crazy because it seems like the plan had always been to end up in our past, but I don't think any of the metaphor falls down if they, you know, don't get to our Earth. Which is one of the reasons I hate the ending sequence still. Because it is about us, but I'm not entirely sure what they're trying to tell us about ourselves right now and I suspect I have issues with it.

For all their grand plans, and their ultimate contribution to the genetic pool, they don't build civilization. They fade.

This? Is why I think that it was actually a really depressing ending, not the hopeful note they may have intended. I dislike the notion of civilizing the noble savage, but having them disappear so completely just makes me sad.

And I want to adopt a Neanderbrid now.

[bop-radar.livejournal.com]

Reclaim with vids, sounds good to me. ;)

[nightxade.livejournal.com]

Neanderbrid Dave: How many mammoth in herd?
Neanderbrid Bob: One. Zero zero one one. Zero. One.

YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT.

OMG I DO! I REALLY DO *laugh!tear*

Tory: Interesting that she'd be the trigger for violence against women issues for you. I didn't take it that way at all. She was poorly written, and so too was Tyrol in the end, but I think his actions were understandable based on what we've known of his path of lostness that began way back when he was first wondering if he was a Cylon (and. um. beat the shit out of Cally...erm. Yeah.) His path has been an aimless spiral that really took a turn further down when Cally died and he had no idea why. We have know he's capable of such anger and violence so it was not at all surprising to me, his reaction immediately, and later to him wanting to just go off and be away from everyone.

But you're right about everyone else's reaction to it, especially Saul. Again, my issues rise with the Tighs being the Happy Couple and if They forgive, then All is Okay. But of course, everyone gets away with murder around here! As much as I love Caprica, her acceptance into the fleet by the main peeps, grudging or no, is questionable. Whether or not they know her key role in the destruction... not to mention Athena. We're evidently working on a 'don't ask what you did during the war before you fell in love with Helo, don't tell.'

and that the Centurions come back in a few years to pick up any of the survivors who've discovered that dying of simple infections and living without toilet paper is kind of sucky.

BWAHAHA <3 Too true. All 39,000 peeps were totally okay with cavorting in their undies with the natives and sending the technology away? (well, except for that one Raptor which people are going to find eventually). I get the concept, but like the entire concept of the rescue mission, I do not accept that everyone was cool with it.

Sending the ships away upset me more because they opted to give Sam moments of coherence first.

As for the native breeding program? Yeahuh. I'd rather we invoke the Prime Directive and wait until the natives get warp technology before we go interfering with them.

Bill on the Mountain? I'm assuming he's going to commit suicide, based on the fact that he took the Raptor and Lee did not expect to see him back but he took no stuff with him. Hey, maybe he was smart and took the Raptor into the sun too, thus negating my concern about the future us finding it and going wtf? There's lots of wtf there anyway since the technology of the ships might have been sent away, but even things like the metal used for containers is going to come into question when the archapologists find it.

I didn't like the social commentary in the end about robotica. This isn't an episode of GI Joe where knowing is half the battle. I know technology and reliance on it is a dangerous thing. I didn't need BSG to throw in the heavy hand with that. Nor did I need the melodramatic narative from the Angels.

[nightxade.livejournal.com]

Forgot to ask: Why did Cavil kill himself? Did he momentarily forget Resurrection was gone and figure he'd pop back up on the Bastestar?

Also also, the sad thing about the whole commentary and the breaking of the Cycle of Violence is that they didn't do so. Cavil's Cylons still existed, and they were going to have a lot of trouble without Res and any female Cylons. That would have given sufficient motivation for them to hunt down the Colonials. BUt I suppose we'll just assume they tried but failed and thereby died out.

[(Anonymous)]

YOU ARE SO RIGHT ABOUT THE TORY THING.

That MAJORLY bothered me. Everything you said is so so right. At best, RDM left all of Tory's character development on the cutting room floor, and realized he needed to solve the Cally/Tory/Chief issue and had like 30 seconds to do it. At worse, (and much more likely), Tory is a female character that got a little too powerful for her britches and needed to be punished/put down. Ew. Ew ew ew. The Tory/Galen backstory clearly had NO REASON TO BE THERE and ended up just making him kill her way more like domestic violence. Totally triggering. NOT OK.

As for the colonialism, I see no silver lining. The humans and cylons can reproduce so there WAS NO REASON TO HAVE "NATIVES" ON EARTH. RDM did not need to do that and made the whole ending really disgusting for me. Him killing off the speaking characters of color (except for Hera/Helo/Athena) in the beginning of the episode just made it feel worse. (Hmmm. What to do... I know, Kill Skulls Again!) Sigh. It was all so unnecessary from a plot POV. >:(

I WANNA GO ON THE PARTYSTAR WITH THE CENTURIONS

On a side note, I love your recaps. They really helped me get thro 4.5!

-Pigeonface