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beccatoriaThis is one of those Summer-And-Everyone's-Bored-And-Nothing's-Happening posts. :/
Dammit, why is the internet not alive with fandom excitement about...something?! Well. In the absence of that, here's stuff what's been going on.
1. I got Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon! SAMMO HUNG, PEOPLE. SAMMMMMOOOOOO!
I find it hilarious that the three people on the front of that DVD are the two main characters on either side of...a fairly minor character. Presumably because the actual third main character, Sammo Hung, is considered too old and fat to be cool enough to sell it. FOOLS, I say. Watch him in "Martial Law"! Fat Sammo will kick your damn ass!
Just in case anyone has seen the recent Western cut of Red Cliff, a recently released movie (it was released in two parts over the last few years in Asia) that is based on the same stuff as the above film (the historical Romance of the Three Kingdoms, about China when the kingdoms of Wu, Wei and Shu were all fighting and shit and it hadn't been unified yet), this isn't that film. They just made films about the same thing at the same time. Didn't that happen with a biopic of Truman Capote a few years ago or something?
Anyway, I liked both of the films. Red Cliff gets across the epic scale of the conflict and the level of tactics involved, but I think, in all, I prefer Three Kingdoms because it's more personal. It follows Zhao Yun (or Zhao Zilong, depending on the names they're using), who's my favourite ancient Chinese general anyway, from a young man all through his rise to one of the five tiger generals at the end of his career, sacrificed, despite everything, on a futile campaign, trapped by honour, regretting none of it. Three Kingdoms shows the personal cost of the scope depicted in Red Cliff. And Sammo Hung is brilliant and really, really heartbreaking by the end. He's such a great actor and criminally under appreciated.
Maggie Q plays a fictional character - Cao Ying never really existed, but I did enjoy the role she played here, and it was nice, if slightly historically inaccurate, to get a girl in a major role in this capacity.
Plus it does not hurt that Andy Lau is hot.
Anyway, it's an awesome film!
2. Stephen Moffat is doing his very best to make me watch his new version of Doctor Who, isn't he? I mean, I'm still not sure I'll ever get over how much I dislike David Tennant, the things that happen to David Tennant's companions, general RTD-ludicrousness, or NOT getting Paterson Joseph as the Eleventh Doctor, but I have liked the Moffat stuff and:
1) I approve that at least they're putting the young, pretty boy in proper Old Man clothes.
2) If you've seen pictures from the first days of filming you will know that those pictures show a character I loooooooooooove a great deal AND the filming location is one extremely close to my heart; it's one of my favourite places in the whole world.
I'm trying to be strong though. Every other time I've tentatively crawled back to this universe they've done something like turning the Master from Cadfael into a Tennant Clone or murdering Tosh. :/
3. Unpopular fannish opinions! In an effort at variety, the first 5 are general fandom opinions, the last 5 are BSG-related.
To be honest, I don't really think most of my opinions which would be unpopular on a large scale (OMG DIE, ADAMA. DIE IN A FIRE.) are going to be that unpopular on my flist, but, um, I'm trying!
1. I LOVE GEN. I wish there was more of it. I don't mean, by that, that there can't be any romance. Especially these days, romantic relationships are often woven throughout both character and plot, and that's something I enjoy. By gen I simply mean something that doesn't exclusively focus on a romantic relationship. And I'm kind of talking about something more than <1000 word character sketches too. I mean, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with ship fic or character sketches or anything. Hell, the list of fic I've written is short, but you'll find both of those kinds of things on it. And if we didn't have many of those, I'd be sat here lamenting the lack of THEM. But...I just... In shows such as BSG especially, there's this whole, massive rich world out there and it frustrates me that plotty fics, or plots about mytharc mysteries, or friendships or political scenarios get less attention and play.
GEN, DAMMIT!
I think maybe this is a reason I like vids so much? Gen doesn't get as sidelined there?
(And yes, I wish I were participating more thoroughly in the current Kara gen fic battle; been having a bit of an issue with RL and motivation the last few days, but I do hope to add at least one more entry before it ends.)
2. Porn? Generally speaking, a world of meh. The few explicit stories I've read and thought were really great, usually managed, somehow, to use said explicitness to some narrative/thematic point beyond OMGHOTT.
3. I HATE DAVID TENNANT'S DOCTOR. I might like if I and Harriet Jones got to beat him up one day.
4. I didn't think Farscape: the Peacekeeper Wars was actually all that great. I mean, I liked it. In terms of general story arc it was good and all. But somehow, Bad Timing was so much more of a Farscape ending, even though it took me about two months to come to terms with it. I'm SO, SO GLAD that we got PKW. I mean, I loved that show since I saw the premiere on BBC2 when I was like 16 or whatever. I went on a freaking PROTEST MARCH in London for it. (Where, in a surreal turn of events, my husband (then-boyfriend) shoved about sixty leaflets into Jade Goody's passing limousine, cus she rolled down the window to see what the fuss was about). And there's a lot to like about it. Some gorgeous visuals, some wonderfully acted scenes. But just...in all? It felt kind of rushed, a little pat, and the jigsaw-head people were kind of a boring McGuffin. I still heart Farscape though.
5. Buffy. Meh. Joss Whedon in general. Meh. Doctor Horrible. Eew. (Note: I did love Firefly).
6. Unless he is in a suit (WTF brain?!) I just don't find Jamie Bamber very attractive. :(
7. Sometimes a Great Notion made me retrospectively LIKE Lee/Dee. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still a badly handled mess of messiness that even RDM admits should have been better handled if it was going to work. But in SaGN, I loved them and like...it made me think of how it should have been between them. And now, as long as I'm not actually WATCHING one of those quad o' doom episodes, I can happily imagine it was always like that. (SHUT UP BRAIN, STOP REMEMBERING THE ACTUAL SCENES!)
8. Despite the fact that no Tigh/Ellen scene ever made me cringe and want to gouge out my own eyes, and in fact had they not brought her back as a Cylon, I think that Tigh killing Ellen might have been the most heartbreaking thing the show had ever done, and despite the fact that certain Caprica/Tigh do, in fact, want to make me run screaming into the night (srsly, Americans, when you get your 4.5 DVDs and watch the deleted scenes for Deadlock DO NOT SAY I DID NOT WARN YOU) with their weird creepiness, I still think?
I-see-you-as-my-wife-that-I-murdered/I-want-to-save-you-with-religious-violence > We're-drunken-pirate-hookers. Much as I love drunken pirate hookers. And much as Caprica/Tigh could not possibly exist without Tigh/Ellen.
9. I think that RDM's authorial intention was probably that Hera is the only cylon hybrid ever born and I'm kind of surprised more of fandom didn't pick up on this. Fortunately, on those days when I'm not busy denying Daybreak happened, no one ever says this in words on the show, so I can just pretend otherwise.
10. If we're talking about Billy in the context of Billy and Dee then Billy has all my sympathy and I just want to hug him. But for real? Petty as it is? I've never quite forgiven him for ditching Laura during her mutiny. I know there were actor comittments and stuff, but as a result it really felt pastede on yay and ungrateful on Billy's part. I was left with the uncomfortable feeling that Laura loved him more than he loved her, and DAMMIT BILLY. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO BE ADOPTED BY LAURA ROSLIN? Some of us spend our entire lives and never get an opportunity like that! And I bet you all thought Billy-Love was universal, didn't you? ;)
4. The State of the Vidder.
Well, currently I'm still working on my Farscape vid. Really I should be doing that right now. It's going so slooooooowly. Cus I don't know the source and I'm vidding with a new program, and the program itself is better for playback and crashing than WMM but still slow. So. I'm like 1:20 into a 3:00ish song. But at least I'm pretty happy with it so far.
As to future projects? I dunno. A lot of my pre-finale vid bunnies are still kind of dead, even my D'Anna vid which wasn't ever gonna go beyond 4x11 and which I actually have 45 seconds of already (but would have to remake because I lost the project file *facepalm*).
Instead I'm left with an embarassingly long list of vids that I want to make to various Sage Francis songs (and occasionally others). The VERY VAGUE project list currently goes thusly:
1. Farscape vid (currently working on).
2. Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar engage in a rap battle (4.5 fail vid).
3. Human/Cylon OTP! (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asta77 - yes this is the one we were talking about).
At which point we break down into vagueness and no real intention of sticking to this order.
4. Kara Thrace vid - I kind of still want to do "there's a war going on for your mind, kara" but given a vague lack of impetus post-finale plus capping off Laura's rap triptych with the vid above, I'm also tempted to use another song I've thought of as a Kara song for years, though it's far more um, folk-song and less epic, so maybe less of a good choice for her. Ideally I'd make both but I dunno. We'll see.
5. Sam Anders vid. I have a song and everything for this and am really excited to make it but given a huge number of other projects, I'm currently thinking I'll put it off until The Plan has come out for the extra footage.
6. Fringe. Yes, I have a really insistent but really vague Olivia vid-bunny for Fringe, however, I really, really, really don't think I can do it until I see how S2 plays out and if it'll go in the right direction. So this is quasi-permanently on hold.
7. TSCC. Lower down than Fringe because I'm less certain what I'd do with it. The song and feel I was going to go for and use is now less appropriate given the tone of the finale (which I LOVED and all). I think it'll still work but it is a little less pressing to make than perhaps it was. I don't want to never vid this show though.
Currently permanently on hold, though I may pick them up at some point cus I like the ideas enough not to trash them:
- Aforementioned D'Anna vid about anger at the notion that she has anything to repent for.
- Ellen/Cavil lullaby of twistedness about the genesis of the Cylon. I think if I made this I'd have to pretty much cut off canon at 4.15 or make it a Redactica vid because otherwise my feelings about the finale few episodes might wreck it. We'll see.
If any of you feel strongly about my current prioritisations, or want to make a case for me to bump a vid further up that list or something, go ahead, though obvs I can't promise to listen. Mostly I feel so strange about still having so many BSG vids to make. On the one hand I'm glad; I don't want to be through with this show.
On the other hand, it's kind of weird given my relationship with this show now.
And....I'm done.
Dammit, why is the internet not alive with fandom excitement about...something?! Well. In the absence of that, here's stuff what's been going on.
1. I got Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon! SAMMO HUNG, PEOPLE. SAMMMMMOOOOOO!
I find it hilarious that the three people on the front of that DVD are the two main characters on either side of...a fairly minor character. Presumably because the actual third main character, Sammo Hung, is considered too old and fat to be cool enough to sell it. FOOLS, I say. Watch him in "Martial Law"! Fat Sammo will kick your damn ass!
Just in case anyone has seen the recent Western cut of Red Cliff, a recently released movie (it was released in two parts over the last few years in Asia) that is based on the same stuff as the above film (the historical Romance of the Three Kingdoms, about China when the kingdoms of Wu, Wei and Shu were all fighting and shit and it hadn't been unified yet), this isn't that film. They just made films about the same thing at the same time. Didn't that happen with a biopic of Truman Capote a few years ago or something?
Anyway, I liked both of the films. Red Cliff gets across the epic scale of the conflict and the level of tactics involved, but I think, in all, I prefer Three Kingdoms because it's more personal. It follows Zhao Yun (or Zhao Zilong, depending on the names they're using), who's my favourite ancient Chinese general anyway, from a young man all through his rise to one of the five tiger generals at the end of his career, sacrificed, despite everything, on a futile campaign, trapped by honour, regretting none of it. Three Kingdoms shows the personal cost of the scope depicted in Red Cliff. And Sammo Hung is brilliant and really, really heartbreaking by the end. He's such a great actor and criminally under appreciated.
Maggie Q plays a fictional character - Cao Ying never really existed, but I did enjoy the role she played here, and it was nice, if slightly historically inaccurate, to get a girl in a major role in this capacity.
Plus it does not hurt that Andy Lau is hot.
Anyway, it's an awesome film!
2. Stephen Moffat is doing his very best to make me watch his new version of Doctor Who, isn't he? I mean, I'm still not sure I'll ever get over how much I dislike David Tennant, the things that happen to David Tennant's companions, general RTD-ludicrousness, or NOT getting Paterson Joseph as the Eleventh Doctor, but I have liked the Moffat stuff and:
1) I approve that at least they're putting the young, pretty boy in proper Old Man clothes.
2) If you've seen pictures from the first days of filming you will know that those pictures show a character I loooooooooooove a great deal AND the filming location is one extremely close to my heart; it's one of my favourite places in the whole world.
I'm trying to be strong though. Every other time I've tentatively crawled back to this universe they've done something like turning the Master from Cadfael into a Tennant Clone or murdering Tosh. :/
3. Unpopular fannish opinions! In an effort at variety, the first 5 are general fandom opinions, the last 5 are BSG-related.
To be honest, I don't really think most of my opinions which would be unpopular on a large scale (OMG DIE, ADAMA. DIE IN A FIRE.) are going to be that unpopular on my flist, but, um, I'm trying!
1. I LOVE GEN. I wish there was more of it. I don't mean, by that, that there can't be any romance. Especially these days, romantic relationships are often woven throughout both character and plot, and that's something I enjoy. By gen I simply mean something that doesn't exclusively focus on a romantic relationship. And I'm kind of talking about something more than <1000 word character sketches too. I mean, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with ship fic or character sketches or anything. Hell, the list of fic I've written is short, but you'll find both of those kinds of things on it. And if we didn't have many of those, I'd be sat here lamenting the lack of THEM. But...I just... In shows such as BSG especially, there's this whole, massive rich world out there and it frustrates me that plotty fics, or plots about mytharc mysteries, or friendships or political scenarios get less attention and play.
GEN, DAMMIT!
I think maybe this is a reason I like vids so much? Gen doesn't get as sidelined there?
(And yes, I wish I were participating more thoroughly in the current Kara gen fic battle; been having a bit of an issue with RL and motivation the last few days, but I do hope to add at least one more entry before it ends.)
2. Porn? Generally speaking, a world of meh. The few explicit stories I've read and thought were really great, usually managed, somehow, to use said explicitness to some narrative/thematic point beyond OMGHOTT.
3. I HATE DAVID TENNANT'S DOCTOR. I might like if I and Harriet Jones got to beat him up one day.
4. I didn't think Farscape: the Peacekeeper Wars was actually all that great. I mean, I liked it. In terms of general story arc it was good and all. But somehow, Bad Timing was so much more of a Farscape ending, even though it took me about two months to come to terms with it. I'm SO, SO GLAD that we got PKW. I mean, I loved that show since I saw the premiere on BBC2 when I was like 16 or whatever. I went on a freaking PROTEST MARCH in London for it. (Where, in a surreal turn of events, my husband (then-boyfriend) shoved about sixty leaflets into Jade Goody's passing limousine, cus she rolled down the window to see what the fuss was about). And there's a lot to like about it. Some gorgeous visuals, some wonderfully acted scenes. But just...in all? It felt kind of rushed, a little pat, and the jigsaw-head people were kind of a boring McGuffin. I still heart Farscape though.
5. Buffy. Meh. Joss Whedon in general. Meh. Doctor Horrible. Eew. (Note: I did love Firefly).
6. Unless he is in a suit (WTF brain?!) I just don't find Jamie Bamber very attractive. :(
7. Sometimes a Great Notion made me retrospectively LIKE Lee/Dee. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's still a badly handled mess of messiness that even RDM admits should have been better handled if it was going to work. But in SaGN, I loved them and like...it made me think of how it should have been between them. And now, as long as I'm not actually WATCHING one of those quad o' doom episodes, I can happily imagine it was always like that. (SHUT UP BRAIN, STOP REMEMBERING THE ACTUAL SCENES!)
8. Despite the fact that no Tigh/Ellen scene ever made me cringe and want to gouge out my own eyes, and in fact had they not brought her back as a Cylon, I think that Tigh killing Ellen might have been the most heartbreaking thing the show had ever done, and despite the fact that certain Caprica/Tigh do, in fact, want to make me run screaming into the night (srsly, Americans, when you get your 4.5 DVDs and watch the deleted scenes for Deadlock DO NOT SAY I DID NOT WARN YOU) with their weird creepiness, I still think?
I-see-you-as-my-wife-that-I-murdered/I-want-to-save-you-with-religious-violence > We're-drunken-pirate-hookers. Much as I love drunken pirate hookers. And much as Caprica/Tigh could not possibly exist without Tigh/Ellen.
9. I think that RDM's authorial intention was probably that Hera is the only cylon hybrid ever born and I'm kind of surprised more of fandom didn't pick up on this. Fortunately, on those days when I'm not busy denying Daybreak happened, no one ever says this in words on the show, so I can just pretend otherwise.
10. If we're talking about Billy in the context of Billy and Dee then Billy has all my sympathy and I just want to hug him. But for real? Petty as it is? I've never quite forgiven him for ditching Laura during her mutiny. I know there were actor comittments and stuff, but as a result it really felt pastede on yay and ungrateful on Billy's part. I was left with the uncomfortable feeling that Laura loved him more than he loved her, and DAMMIT BILLY. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO BE ADOPTED BY LAURA ROSLIN? Some of us spend our entire lives and never get an opportunity like that! And I bet you all thought Billy-Love was universal, didn't you? ;)
4. The State of the Vidder.
Well, currently I'm still working on my Farscape vid. Really I should be doing that right now. It's going so slooooooowly. Cus I don't know the source and I'm vidding with a new program, and the program itself is better for playback and crashing than WMM but still slow. So. I'm like 1:20 into a 3:00ish song. But at least I'm pretty happy with it so far.
As to future projects? I dunno. A lot of my pre-finale vid bunnies are still kind of dead, even my D'Anna vid which wasn't ever gonna go beyond 4x11 and which I actually have 45 seconds of already (but would have to remake because I lost the project file *facepalm*).
Instead I'm left with an embarassingly long list of vids that I want to make to various Sage Francis songs (and occasionally others). The VERY VAGUE project list currently goes thusly:
1. Farscape vid (currently working on).
2. Laura Roslin and Gaius Baltar engage in a rap battle (4.5 fail vid).
3. Human/Cylon OTP! (
asta77 - yes this is the one we were talking about). At which point we break down into vagueness and no real intention of sticking to this order.
4. Kara Thrace vid - I kind of still want to do "there's a war going on for your mind, kara" but given a vague lack of impetus post-finale plus capping off Laura's rap triptych with the vid above, I'm also tempted to use another song I've thought of as a Kara song for years, though it's far more um, folk-song and less epic, so maybe less of a good choice for her. Ideally I'd make both but I dunno. We'll see.
5. Sam Anders vid. I have a song and everything for this and am really excited to make it but given a huge number of other projects, I'm currently thinking I'll put it off until The Plan has come out for the extra footage.
6. Fringe. Yes, I have a really insistent but really vague Olivia vid-bunny for Fringe, however, I really, really, really don't think I can do it until I see how S2 plays out and if it'll go in the right direction. So this is quasi-permanently on hold.
7. TSCC. Lower down than Fringe because I'm less certain what I'd do with it. The song and feel I was going to go for and use is now less appropriate given the tone of the finale (which I LOVED and all). I think it'll still work but it is a little less pressing to make than perhaps it was. I don't want to never vid this show though.
Currently permanently on hold, though I may pick them up at some point cus I like the ideas enough not to trash them:
- Aforementioned D'Anna vid about anger at the notion that she has anything to repent for.
- Ellen/Cavil lullaby of twistedness about the genesis of the Cylon. I think if I made this I'd have to pretty much cut off canon at 4.15 or make it a Redactica vid because otherwise my feelings about the finale few episodes might wreck it. We'll see.
If any of you feel strongly about my current prioritisations, or want to make a case for me to bump a vid further up that list or something, go ahead, though obvs I can't promise to listen. Mostly I feel so strange about still having so many BSG vids to make. On the one hand I'm glad; I don't want to be through with this show.
On the other hand, it's kind of weird given my relationship with this show now.
And....I'm done.
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no subject
Date: 2009-07-22 08:22 pm (UTC)Nooo! It's time to seek the help of your vidder friends to ENABLE this impulse! *encourages you shamelessly* Really. It's the only way you'll ever exorcise your vid bunnies.
My folksy Kara one would be to this song (http://www.lyricsmania.com/lyrics/dave_carter_and_tracy_grammer_lyrics_21869/other_lyrics_52502/the_mountain_lyrics_547836.html). "The Mountain" being like, destiny and the fact she's half cylon (SHE SO IS) and shit. I dunno, on the one hand soooooong! On the other, I feel like fandom doesn't need yet more earnest songs to folk music, even though that's hypocritical of me since I never tire of watching them and if I don't make this, I'll just spend the next YEAR OF MY LIFE flooding my LJ with increasingly unoriginal political rap vids. :/
As to "war for your mind, kara," firstly yay, thanks for the nice words about the Laura vid - this wouldn't be to the same song - it's to a mashup of different songs from that album and as a result is like...a lot more choppy and channel changey (by design; I've already made the mashup just was waiting for the end of the series before vidding it and then...meh). So we'll see. I like it but a lot of my visual associations are dying on me, so yeah. We'll see. I don't want it to die though since I've already started work on it.
One nice thing about the complete destruction of any and all sympathy I ever had for Adama is that I did gain a lot of sympathy for Lee. Their different reactions to Dee's death are a perfect example of why.
One of the highlights of 4.5 for me was watching more and more people come around to my way of thinking about Adama...
Yeah, I think that Tigh's "I love everybody!" speech was much like Chief's "we can both be Daddy!" promises. They wanted us to feel okay about how these storylines were being tied up, but they didn't want to deal with them anymore, because ultimately they just wanted to wriggle out of the multiple hybrids/cybrids problem.
Yeah, I think you're right, which like...it emblematic of the disappointments I had with 4.5 - lots of wriggling and easy answers without any follow up. Plus I will never understand why they needed to posthumously trash the horrifying understanding of why Cally did what she did just so Nicky wasn't a hybrid? I mean, really, what did that actually get us, plot wise? Except a psychotic Chief who was willing to murder Tory?
Which I suppose gets us to the real reason I hate the idea of Hera as the only hybrid; less cus OMG MEAN TO CAPRICA (though obvs that too) and more because it seems so...reductive to the story without giving us anything in return. Well, that and the fact it turns a story about evolution into a story about intelligent design.
10. See, if you look at it that way you can kind of see her point, no? ;)
Yes, though I would also have had to consider riling the President who clearly also had her eye on that package... :p
no subject
Date: 2009-07-22 09:21 pm (UTC)Hee, I'm actually writing meta on Tory and Cally right now. Okay, when I was inadvertently spoiled for that retcon I flipped my shit both because it seemed to make hash of her death, and also, like, "vacant-eyed shriek and a slut too? Oh show, never do anything in moderation!" But on the other hand, I always thought a huge part of the reason she was going to take Nicky with her was a (completely insane) need to protect him? Like what Chief said about knowing she would never leave him behind. It doesn't really make sense, but I guess I feel like at the point you've decided that killing yourself is your best option because the world is so horrifying, it's more understandable. I buy that finding our your husband and other people you'd known and trusted for years were literally evil monsters (in your mind) who'd been lying to you all this time would bring someone to that point.
But it's kind of like the Daniel thing; Cally almost killing Nicky because he was a hybrid seemed so clearly implied and then it turns out it wasn't supposed to be.
My folksy Kara one would be to this song.
*reads lyrics* Oh man, that's perfect! The fandom definitely needs more earnest vids set to folk music. I've decided. :D
One of the highlights of 4.5 for me was watching more and more people come around to my way of thinking about Adama...
Ahaha, I totally understand that. I had a little bit of that too, and also, of being able to stop worrying about whether I was being unfair? Because I certainly thought he was flawed - and occasionally useless; "cancer in your heart?" Most inadequate response to a situation ever - but the first time I really hated him was after the way he treated Kara in Torn. I definitely thought he was a crappy father to Lee plenty of times before that, but I always thought we were supposed to see him as being a crappy father to Lee, as opposed to ~awesome.~ But after Torn I started seeing him as increasingly ridiculous and narcissistic and willfully blind to the needs of the people around him, but I could never be sure if this was just my insane levels of Kara fangirling. But after that last season? No, no he objectively sucks, the end. It's liberating, in a way. :D
no subject
Date: 2009-07-22 09:53 pm (UTC)I've always loved Tory; Cally I was kind of indifferent to (thought she was good as a character but never had much personal connection with) pretty much UNTIL her final episode when I was like, "Omg, this is why she's amazing and necessary to this show," and I pretty much straight up thought that scene was the hardest and most uncomfortable thing BSG had ever made me watch, which was impressive, so seeing it...lose nuance is kind of tragic for me since from that scene sprung my entire understanding of Cally?
buy that finding our your husband and other people you'd known and trusted for years were literally evil monsters (in your mind) who'd been lying to you all this time would bring someone to that point.
See, I kind of don't? I mean, I do but not quite with the level of mental instability she was given at that point? Not with a much, much more complex motivation used even throughout the sequence, with the focus on Nicky?
I believe that could bring someone to that point, but equally it makes Cally even weaker than previously on a show where she's already somewhat schizophrenically characterised and demonised. Not that I think everyone can or should be a rockstar in these situations but I guess it just seems an awfully plot-convenient response in place of my preferred reading?
Which wasn't that she was actively trying to kill her son, actually. More just that...well the thing she loves most from the thing she hates most, you know? It's her son and she loves him; she can't ever be free of this or unentangled from it. She CAN'T get away just by outing them or leaving Chief.
Knowing that Nicky wasn't his, my first question, even at the time, would have been...okay, but I want some more info as to why her response is murder-suicide rather than running away.
I guess it doubly frustrates me because even if it HAD been imperative Nicky not be a Cylon, why not have Nicky's human nature confirmed during his stint in sickbay with renal failure? Tests run then could confirm his blood type and species. Cottle could still know the backstory but perhaps Cally chose to have Nicky and then DIDN'T get a paternity test. Same outcome, no trashing of Cally's arc?
Boo. *clings to hybrid Nicky*
*reads lyrics* Oh man, that's perfect! The fandom definitely needs more earnest vids set to folk music. I've decided. :D
Yay! You like! I'm glad.
Also, at least some of those vids should be MADE BY YOU!
As to Adama, YES. Torn was it for me too. I mean, I found him boring prior to that and occasionally outright disliked him but thought his major actual failing was in parenting Lee which I (at that point at least) thought was supposed to be fairly textual.
But MAN did I ever pitch a fucking fit about Torn. I was also so convinced, at the time, it was intentional? Because like, he uses the EXACT same term as her mom; calls her a cancer, disowns her, says she's inadequate, then beats on her. And yet in retrospect it seems we were supposed to be on his side? o_O
Though as an aside, it's so weird. Up until I got a little tetchy with the show in 4.5, while I HATED Adama and the writing for him, it was like this weird little bubble of blindness that the writers had, that, while I also sincerely found frustrating and occasionally rage-inducing, I honestly was kind of zen about in terms of the rest of the show? Like by the time we got to Sine Qua Non and Revelations, I was just so zen about it?
"Guys, this show is amazing, complex, clever, moving, brilliantly written and acted. And then there's Adama; just don't worry about that bit, it's in there for comic relief."
I think it was that liberation you mentioned. I actually kind of still have it too. There is little that will make me laugh as much as rewatching that painting scene. It's amazing.
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Date: 2009-07-24 05:46 am (UTC)Well, more like self-indulgent rambly fic commentary, and you've probably ascertained that we have the exact opposite character biases. But I tried! ;)
Up until I got a little tetchy with the show in 4.5, while I HATED Adama and the writing for him, it was like this weird little bubble of blindness that the writers had, that, while I also sincerely found frustrating and occasionally rage-inducing, I honestly was kind of zen about in terms of the rest of the show? Like by the time we got to Sine Qua Non and Revelations, I was just so zen about it?
Ahaha. Oh, Sine Qua Non. That actually was a moment where I worried about possible suck leakage. Because at first, when he actually said to Athena that sure she (1) Murdered a woman in cold blood, (2) Murdered the leader of their tentative alliance in cold blood, (3) Endangered a bunch of lives, including her husband's and (4) THE PRESIDENT'S, but all of that paled in comparison to her breaking her promise to HIM, I thought "wait, is this deliberate?" And then I realized it couldn't be, because it was TOO EXTREME. And there is no way anyone would deliberately make their main character as unsympathetic as Adama had become. And that was a scary moment. :/
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Date: 2009-07-24 04:58 pm (UTC)YES.
Except for me, that moment was oddly and wonderfully freeing? Because I still loved every other bit of the show I kind of became oddly comfortable in my alternative reading? Because the thing is, he was so CONSISTANTLY fucking ridiculous that I could honestly pretend it was intentional? The problem came in 4.5 when he never got any comeuppance. But really, even until the end, Adama was a remarkably consistant character. It's just that the show seemed entirely unaware of how much of an ass he was.
But yes, I get how it would be a scary moment.
The more I think about it, the more it probably was for me too, except I was near the height of my show-love at that point. And I think my brain sort of recognised that this was a total sheer cliff-face of hilariously wrong and decided to just JUMP OFF IT and hope it learned how to fly before it hit the bottom?
Well, more like self-indulgent rambly fic commentary, and you've probably ascertained that we have the exact opposite character biases. But I tried! ;)
YAY! *runs off to read*
Also, your icon, man. Your icon. That no one ever said that to Gaius (ESPECIALLY post-coitally) is a travesty.