BSG Manga: Echoes of New Caprica

[beccatoria]

BSG Manga: Echoes of New Caprica.

SOOO! I actually found this in my local Forbidden Planet a few weeks ago, which was way before the official release of the thing. But it seems it's turning up in other places too now so I'll post my OMG BUY IT post now rather than later.

It's three short stories set during/in the aftermath of New Caprica. One about Laura and her school, one about Tom Zarek (which I confess I haven't read and is written by Richard Hatch) and one about Kara and Kacey after they get back to Galactica (which was a nice little story but I'm not sure I can understand it in the context of the canon we have.)

The best one, obviously, is the one that's all about Laura. It is best for many reasons. Best because it has Laura being an awesome revolutionary teacher. Best because it involves collaboration and fear and what happens when you throw children into the mix as pawns. Best because it has Tory running around with a gun shooting the shit out of things. Best because it's all about Laura, the real Laura.

And selfishly, it will always be best for me, because the author of that story is a friend of a friend and OMG YOU GUYS. LOOK WHAT SHE DID FOR ME.




Note top speech bubble. If you can't read it it says: "That piece was written by Becca Torria, one of Caprica's most famous renaissance musicians."

*explodes from awesome*



AND THEN LOOK! LOOK WHAT SHE DID FOR ALL SEVEN THREE OF US REMAINING LAURA/MAYA SHIPPERS!



Again, in case you can't read or see properly I shall point out the awesome:

1) Laura and Maya live together in their awesome tent of awesome.

2) Maya: "Are all the kids safe?" (in reference to the schoolchildren)

Laura: "As far as I know."

Maya: "And so are we, and so is our beautiful baby girl. So let's get some sleep." (emphasis mine.)

*explodes*

But in all seriousness guys, my own selfish excitement aside, it really is a great little story and I encourage all of you to get it!

Comments

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Awesome.

I wonder if they'll be able to ret-con the ending of the show in comic book form...

[indigo419.livejournal.com]

I second this motion!!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yes! In comic form we discover they only threw the ships into the sun and kept all their awesome tech and batteries and stuff and then there are a million cybrids and Kara reappears occasionally at will because she's really Aurora and Adama throws himself off that cliff, and everyone points out to Tigh that he was a dumb jackass in that last scene, and they allow the aboriginal earthians to develop at their own pace.

That would be nice.

Otherwise I'll be here in my little corner of DENIAL. ;)

[frolicndetour.livejournal.com]

Wait, you mean that's not what really happened? I'LL NEVER BELIEVE IT! ;)

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Hey, I still haven't watched the final half season... and I'm not sure when I will knowing what I do.

Still, lots of people seemed happy with it. Its maybe not all of us who are blown away by the intense STUPID of the finale.

Which is a depressing thought.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's... It's frustrating because there are one or two really good episodes in there and even more frustratingly a lot of good storylines and moments at the same time as the storylines and moments that undermine everything awesome it ever did.

Plus...the ending. I don't know. I am willing to admit that I might be missing something. I certainly don't believe that everyone who liked it, or at least didn't hate it, is stupid or missing the point or whatever. Hell, I wish I liked it. But my overwhelming feeling is that the people who actively thought it was great (as opposed the people who for various reasons simply didn't hate it) are just...

It's the Hollywood trick. It's epic and pretty, and is offering you "answers" and "reasons" so you don't look any deeper at how disturbing and rotten to the core those answers are?

It's like... The show regressed from asking difficult, unanswerable political questions to offering trite answers on an intellectual level comparable with "But computer games make you violent!" And it doesn't shock me that there are vast tracts of TV viewers willing to accept that as "deep" or "true" without comment, because, seriously, look at most of TV these days. It just...it surprises me that Battlestar viewers don't notice, maybe? Or that they're so used to the questions the show asks being good, worthwile questions, they just assumed that it still was? I really don't know.

But blargh. Sorry. Rambling. The whole thing is very weird and even, I guess, kind of upsetting to me. At least deeply, deeply disappointing. :/

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Has there been any response from the writers/creators of the show to fan reaction to their finale yet?

I mean, I'm sure the majority of viewers are, as you say, satisfied with the Hollywood trick ending, I mean otherwise the hollywood trick wouldn't exist as a gambit. Just, it would be interesting if on some level they were aware they had fluffed it...

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

The only post-finale comments from an official person that I'm aware of is when RDM himself showed up (using his wife's username) on the SciFi boards and answered some questions.

While he seemed to understand the criticisms somewhat he really didn't...my reading of it was that he didn't share them or really fundamentally understand that this wasn't a case of people being closed-minded or missing the point and him trying to be gracious about it? But...I could be bitter.

I know that specifically in response to queries about the anti-technological aspects of the final message - and again, I read most of this once and didn't retain much of it because it really annoyed me - he stated that, "he didn't mean it that way." i.e. the ending wasn't supposed to suggest that all technology and, in fact, civilisation, was eeeeevil.

But he also failed to explain what it was supposed to mean and how we can rationally interpret it as something else.

Which suggests to me that RDM has fallen for his own hollywood trick. The big, beautiful ending that means very little. Some idealistic message about hope and unity because someone says it's about hope and unity, even when the events speak very differently.

I know, for instance, that he didn't want to explicate Kara's nature because every time they put a name on it it became more cheesy, etc. While I still can't believe they missed their own foreshadowing about her dad being a Cylon, that is a predicament I have sympathy for. What I don't have any truck with is RDM's assertion that it's "ambiguous" or "open to interpretation." That Kara is whatever we want her to be.

It's the same reason I hate that the most common criticism of people who didn't like the finale's treatment of God is that we must have missed that it was a religious show in the first place. Which, NO. I loved that.

But "God did it," is the least ambiguous answer in the history of answers. "The ultimate power in the universe was responsible for this," reduces our ability to interpret, reduces the ambiguity, down to the nature and name of that power. Which Gaius Baltar tells us, literally, in literal words, in this overly literal episode doesn't matter anyway.

In the end, RDM thought implying Hera's existence was a one-off miracle because God wanted it that way was a more intriguing and ambiguous message than implying she was the first of a generation of half-machines because our relationship with technology and our responsibility toward it is inextricable, complicated and irrevocable. So we're breeding with it.

And I fundamentally disagree and it's a fundamental and disappointing breaking point between the show and I.

Sorry. I'm ranting at you. I just...it was so full of awesome ideas that were, apparently, always about something else.

The basic answer to your question is yes, RDM is at least aware of the disappointment but doesn't seem to fully understand what it is that he did. Or that he muffed it up. He still thinks it's aces.

And then he wife went around saying, "Oh but obviously they didn't ditch the MEDICAL technology!" and I'm like, huh? That...wasn't what the episode said, plus where will they plug all those X-Ray machines in? A tree? They just ditched their ships/power supplies!

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Och, no need to apologise for ranting. I'm just sorry I can't respond in a terribly meaningful way because I haven't seen it myself yet.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Hey, no need to apologise either. You're honestly being really lovely by just serving as a person I can rant at and being understanding about that even though you have no idea what I'm talking about. ;)

*big hugs*

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Soon, soon I will find out what you're talking about! And then I might well rant too.

Trying to find the energy to rant about tonights sdoctor Who too, but... I just can't think of any interesting things to say about it. At all. Except, Tomb raider crossover, how curious.