BSG 3.01: Occupation
Oct. 8th, 2006 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieBattlestar Galactica is back! And is it better then ever? Well, pretty close. Of course, the show keeps getting darker and darker and so far, it's really good, but sooner or later, this tendency will lead to the characters doing Brechtian monologues while attempting to slit their wrists with a rusty spoon. I am just saying. But so far, the dark is gooooood.
Oh, BSG music, how I missed you! And that new song playing over that opening montage? Haunting and harsh and beautiful. What language is it in?
I have a lot of nicely metaish stuff to discuss, but let's get the funny out of the way first: Fat Lee!!!! Who is apparently eating his way through his emo! Fat Lee might destroy QoT's soul, but he restores my giggles. And we see him shirtless, with loving close-ups of his love handles (the boy must get a looooot of love) and his gut and his jowls. I am afraid my image of Lee as an emo sex symbol is gone forever. I can't even rewatch Final Cut (cut indeed) towel scene without picturing the contrast. I am afraid our body limits us. What I could have taken as potentially meritorious protest from Cut Lee comes as whining from Fat Lee. And Adama agrees. Terms like "fat ass," "weak, soft mentally and physically" are flung. But Adama should be the one to talk, seeing the excresence on his upper lip.
I am gleeful when Dee (who shockingly is still alive and has not been crushed or eaten) tells him she agrees with his father that he's gotten soft and adds 'and I don't mean the weight.' Yeah, girl, make him hit the gym and even the most rabid Kara/Lee shippers will forgive you. I do love when she is talking sense to him and they indicate that this is his extreme rage at his helplessness and not being able to do things and ever since he had no goal in that peaceful year it's been like this and now with no contact or anything, it's worse. Yeah, yeah, I get it, a reaction to helplessness, aimlessness and stress. So in his own way he is an adrenalin (or challenge) junkie like Kara. What, he couldn't have taken up origami instead? Seriously, I don't know. I can't see Lee do that. Maybe in the lost year because we didn't see what went down, but since? Remember how driven and out of his mind he was when Kara was missing in ep 1.05. Well, this time it's Kara PLUS the whole human race. Shouldn't it be Lee from that time times a thousand? Well, maybe he was like that at first and then nothing happened. Oh well.
Anyway, hopefully Dee (I know they didn't mean it that way but the way she said 'you are a lot like your father' or something to that effect made me think she married Lee because she couldn't have the Old Man and that's clearly not what they were going for) will talk some sense into Lee (who is stuffing his face ROFL). Poor Dee, she thought she married this hunk and got Captain Tubby instead. Kara was clerly prescient in choosing Anders.
Everyone else is a lot hotter though, than they were before. Angst, grime, and poor carbs of rebellion will do that to you. Helo, especially, looks superfine with his cheekbones and the hair. He better be careful, or Fat Lee will eat him.
OK, OK, enough with the snark. I promise to get serious now.
First off, Gaeta. How cool is he? I guess it settles once and for all whether he is a secret Cylon (unless he is a really deep sleeper but that would be odd) or not. He is brave and noble and all of a sudden three times as hot as normally. And it's interesting how his relationship with Baltar progressed from hero worship to this (he was clearly in on the plan to blow him up). Of course, this is a hugely risky thing he is doing. He gets caught? Cylons kill him just like that. And humans win? Unless he can prove he was the source, he gets toasted for being so high up in the collaborating government.
The government situation is a lot like Vichy, isn't it? The weak, puppet government which is merely the front for the real, iron-fisted rulers who perpetrated genocide etc etc. The scene with the Chief (who manages to even rock the beard) and Cally and the Baby is like something out of a 1940s film. And even made a Tyrol/Cally shipper out of me. Please don't die, Chief! I do love how he is now one of the leaders of the resistance.
Well, if New Caprica is like Vichy, does that make Anders De Gaulle? :) Nah, more like Paul Henreid's character in Casablanca. (Of course, Kara is more active than Ilsa and Lee...well, I promised to stop with the jokes so I will). Poor Anders, four months and no word of Kara.
I have to say, suicide bombing plot is stuuuuupid. Humans are irreplaceable. And the whole vibe is of a terrorist training camp. Not so good, Tigh. I love that the Chief is against it. But of course, now that Tigh is back to the Anders-Chief operation, he is the senior and his word goes and he is off his leash. Those weeks/months in detention center has made an already tough and regimented man slip his leash entirely. He's had his eye ground out, and that one scene with Brother Cavil was pretty nasty psychologically so yeah, I can see why he is like that, but still, bad person to have as a leader.
Oh, and how clear is it that Ellen loves Tigh A LOT? And she procures his freedom, the only way she knows how, by sex with the necessary person. That couple might be dysfunctional, but they work.
Of course, the scene with the cylons debating whether to execute Baltar is hilarious. Baltar is being his weaselly self of course. In his defense, what could he have done by protesting? Would it have changed anything? Not really. That's the insiduous lure of any collaborator. 'It can't make any difference if I struggle and maybe I can make life better for my people, even if they don't appreciate it.' And for someone like Baltar, always good with self-excuses, this would have been the siren song.
Under the 'Good Cylons' category, love the scene of Boomer and Adama bonding. Awwwwww. Has she finally earned his trust?
And I've saved the best for last. KARA. KARAKARAKARAKARAKARA. I never thought I could love you more, but I do now. I love the sheer dysfunction of Leoben keeping her in a 'house' with bars on but trying to have a normal, 50s-style type relationship and marriage. And I love how she lashes out, how she doesn't give in.
I love how it doesn't even occur to her to try to kill herself. No, it's always killing Leoben, and she manages to do it even when there are no sharp implements and even though it's futile as he is going to regenerate and come back. She does it because she cannot not fight, because she can only lash out in violence against her helplessness. That's her small but constant rebellion and it's both dysfunctional and in character and fiercely right. The scene where she stabs him with the metal chopsticks and then calmly picks up the knife she is not allowed (Leoben was cutting his meat for her) and starts cutting her own meat, wiping her mouth on her napkin, sitting primly and eating properly, with Leoben's dried blood still on her hands? Wow. In some ways, Kara is relieving her abusive childhood (you are helpless and no matter how much you struggle no one will come and nothing changes and they say they do it because they love you), but n some ways it has prepared her for this. Of course, this is horribly horrible and I think if she isn't out of there soon she will go bona fide insane. Hell, at least Anders is trying to do something to get her. Lee, how about you stop stuffing your fat face with noodles, get off your fat ass and come up with some plan to rescue your best friend?
Leoben in love, treating her as if she is ill or a heathen who knows not what she does is very trippy.
The whole thing has the feel of a surreal scifi horror flick but it's grimly funny and terrifying at once.
Am off to watch Precipice
Oh, BSG music, how I missed you! And that new song playing over that opening montage? Haunting and harsh and beautiful. What language is it in?
I have a lot of nicely metaish stuff to discuss, but let's get the funny out of the way first: Fat Lee!!!! Who is apparently eating his way through his emo! Fat Lee might destroy QoT's soul, but he restores my giggles. And we see him shirtless, with loving close-ups of his love handles (the boy must get a looooot of love) and his gut and his jowls. I am afraid my image of Lee as an emo sex symbol is gone forever. I can't even rewatch Final Cut (cut indeed) towel scene without picturing the contrast. I am afraid our body limits us. What I could have taken as potentially meritorious protest from Cut Lee comes as whining from Fat Lee. And Adama agrees. Terms like "fat ass," "weak, soft mentally and physically" are flung. But Adama should be the one to talk, seeing the excresence on his upper lip.
I am gleeful when Dee (who shockingly is still alive and has not been crushed or eaten) tells him she agrees with his father that he's gotten soft and adds 'and I don't mean the weight.' Yeah, girl, make him hit the gym and even the most rabid Kara/Lee shippers will forgive you. I do love when she is talking sense to him and they indicate that this is his extreme rage at his helplessness and not being able to do things and ever since he had no goal in that peaceful year it's been like this and now with no contact or anything, it's worse. Yeah, yeah, I get it, a reaction to helplessness, aimlessness and stress. So in his own way he is an adrenalin (or challenge) junkie like Kara. What, he couldn't have taken up origami instead? Seriously, I don't know. I can't see Lee do that. Maybe in the lost year because we didn't see what went down, but since? Remember how driven and out of his mind he was when Kara was missing in ep 1.05. Well, this time it's Kara PLUS the whole human race. Shouldn't it be Lee from that time times a thousand? Well, maybe he was like that at first and then nothing happened. Oh well.
Anyway, hopefully Dee (I know they didn't mean it that way but the way she said 'you are a lot like your father' or something to that effect made me think she married Lee because she couldn't have the Old Man and that's clearly not what they were going for) will talk some sense into Lee (who is stuffing his face ROFL). Poor Dee, she thought she married this hunk and got Captain Tubby instead. Kara was clerly prescient in choosing Anders.
Everyone else is a lot hotter though, than they were before. Angst, grime, and poor carbs of rebellion will do that to you. Helo, especially, looks superfine with his cheekbones and the hair. He better be careful, or Fat Lee will eat him.
OK, OK, enough with the snark. I promise to get serious now.
First off, Gaeta. How cool is he? I guess it settles once and for all whether he is a secret Cylon (unless he is a really deep sleeper but that would be odd) or not. He is brave and noble and all of a sudden three times as hot as normally. And it's interesting how his relationship with Baltar progressed from hero worship to this (he was clearly in on the plan to blow him up). Of course, this is a hugely risky thing he is doing. He gets caught? Cylons kill him just like that. And humans win? Unless he can prove he was the source, he gets toasted for being so high up in the collaborating government.
The government situation is a lot like Vichy, isn't it? The weak, puppet government which is merely the front for the real, iron-fisted rulers who perpetrated genocide etc etc. The scene with the Chief (who manages to even rock the beard) and Cally and the Baby is like something out of a 1940s film. And even made a Tyrol/Cally shipper out of me. Please don't die, Chief! I do love how he is now one of the leaders of the resistance.
Well, if New Caprica is like Vichy, does that make Anders De Gaulle? :) Nah, more like Paul Henreid's character in Casablanca. (Of course, Kara is more active than Ilsa and Lee...well, I promised to stop with the jokes so I will). Poor Anders, four months and no word of Kara.
I have to say, suicide bombing plot is stuuuuupid. Humans are irreplaceable. And the whole vibe is of a terrorist training camp. Not so good, Tigh. I love that the Chief is against it. But of course, now that Tigh is back to the Anders-Chief operation, he is the senior and his word goes and he is off his leash. Those weeks/months in detention center has made an already tough and regimented man slip his leash entirely. He's had his eye ground out, and that one scene with Brother Cavil was pretty nasty psychologically so yeah, I can see why he is like that, but still, bad person to have as a leader.
Oh, and how clear is it that Ellen loves Tigh A LOT? And she procures his freedom, the only way she knows how, by sex with the necessary person. That couple might be dysfunctional, but they work.
Of course, the scene with the cylons debating whether to execute Baltar is hilarious. Baltar is being his weaselly self of course. In his defense, what could he have done by protesting? Would it have changed anything? Not really. That's the insiduous lure of any collaborator. 'It can't make any difference if I struggle and maybe I can make life better for my people, even if they don't appreciate it.' And for someone like Baltar, always good with self-excuses, this would have been the siren song.
Under the 'Good Cylons' category, love the scene of Boomer and Adama bonding. Awwwwww. Has she finally earned his trust?
And I've saved the best for last. KARA. KARAKARAKARAKARAKARA. I never thought I could love you more, but I do now. I love the sheer dysfunction of Leoben keeping her in a 'house' with bars on but trying to have a normal, 50s-style type relationship and marriage. And I love how she lashes out, how she doesn't give in.
I love how it doesn't even occur to her to try to kill herself. No, it's always killing Leoben, and she manages to do it even when there are no sharp implements and even though it's futile as he is going to regenerate and come back. She does it because she cannot not fight, because she can only lash out in violence against her helplessness. That's her small but constant rebellion and it's both dysfunctional and in character and fiercely right. The scene where she stabs him with the metal chopsticks and then calmly picks up the knife she is not allowed (Leoben was cutting his meat for her) and starts cutting her own meat, wiping her mouth on her napkin, sitting primly and eating properly, with Leoben's dried blood still on her hands? Wow. In some ways, Kara is relieving her abusive childhood (you are helpless and no matter how much you struggle no one will come and nothing changes and they say they do it because they love you), but n some ways it has prepared her for this. Of course, this is horribly horrible and I think if she isn't out of there soon she will go bona fide insane. Hell, at least Anders is trying to do something to get her. Lee, how about you stop stuffing your fat face with noodles, get off your fat ass and come up with some plan to rescue your best friend?
Leoben in love, treating her as if she is ill or a heathen who knows not what she does is very trippy.
The whole thing has the feel of a surreal scifi horror flick but it's grimly funny and terrifying at once.
Am off to watch Precipice
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-08 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-09 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-08 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-09 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-08 08:09 pm (UTC)This was awesome. I am so in love with Kara. But Leoben - he was so interesting and now he is just some creepy sex-obsessed maniac??????
no subject
Date: 2006-10-09 04:21 pm (UTC)Yes!!!!
Date: 2006-10-08 09:58 pm (UTC)Oh, and how clear is it that Ellen loves Tigh A LOT? And she procures his freedom, the only way she knows how, by sex with the necessary person. That couple might be dysfunctional, but they work.
You know, what's really amazing me is that, while I don't particularly agree with the specific actions either of them are taking, I find myself really *liking* them. I never thought that would happen!
As for Fat!Lee. Overboard. Too, too much. It's just so implausible that it totally throws me out of the story every time I see him. And while I liked him, he was never my main BSG boyfriend, so honestly it's not that I can't stand seeing him marred...
Re: Yes!!!!
Date: 2006-10-09 04:20 pm (UTC)I find myself really *liking* them. I never thought that would happen!
Exactly. I find both of them some of the most interesting characters on BSG and I never thought I'd say that when the show just started.
As for Fat!Lee. Overboard. Too, too much. It's just so implausible that it totally throws me out of the story every time I see him.
I am just treating it as comic relief, honestly. Because you are right in your post in QoT (???) journal. Tubby yes, but that much weight gain? Unless he has a weird metabolism, not likely. Of course, he could be snacking on those high-energy nutritional bars they have or something but...
I am fickles, so bye Lee, until you drop the pounds. I've switched my fickle allegiance to Helo (who already had it), Anders and Gaeta (who really really rocks) for now.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-08 11:08 pm (UTC)Porn 'stache of doom!!!!
He better be careful, or Fat Lee will eat him.
I love you. Marry me.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-09 04:17 pm (UTC)Deal. We can stalk Dean Winchester together.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-09 09:07 pm (UTC)