beccatoria | BSG: Daybreak II

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.