BSG answers

[jedi_of_urth]

wheatear also asked:

June 24th: Battlestar Galactica, favourite characters/pairings/plot arcs, whatever you like!


Just so we're clear about something starting off, I haven't watched BSG in a while, so these opinions are far from fresh and going by memory. I really liked it in s1, which was excellent, s2 was much more good than bad, s3 was more bad than good, and have complicated feelings for s4; all of which may give you an idea why I don't think I've rewatched it since it ended. But here's what babble I have.

Favorite Characters

Through most of the show Roslin was my clear favorite, up until some point in s4, certainly by the back half I’d kind of lost it. Still for 3-3.5 seasons she was my absolute favorite.

Somewhere in s4 and definitely in s4.5, Tigh of all people became my favorite, and I barely paid attention to him until about s3.

I had a lot of...entertainment affection for Baltar in the first couple seasons. I never liked him exactly but I always found him entertaining...until he went to go hang out with the Cylons, then I didn’t care anymore and I never got it back as I found his s4 arc just about as annoying.

Of course I loved Lee and Kara, mostly together but not exclusively then. But their continued frakked up dance around each other kind of messed up my perception of both of them.

I liked head-Six (ad to a lesser extend head-Baltar) when she (they) was presented most likely as a psychotic break. I HATE that in the end they went with having them mean anything else, but that’s all tied around the fact that I had a TON of issues with the way the story ended.

Honorable mention: Cally, I loved her, even if (okay, especially because) fandom as a whole hated her.


Favorite ships:

I definitely shipped Lee/Kara the longest. I don’t entirely remember when I started (sometime in s1 I admitted to myself I kind of had most all along), but once I did, I never really stopped, even when I kind of hated the fact that I couldn’t let it go. These two were actually quite large contributors to my anger with will they/won’t they ships at the time (then Doctor/Rose swooped in and restored some of my faith in TV romance). Will they/won’t they ships along these lines always keep me very aware that I’m watching characters rather than people; the writing will never allow them to move forward but it will also never let them move on, they’re made so that they’ll never be happy with anyone else but never be allowed to see if they’d actually work together. And yet I *kept* shipping it, right up until the bitter (quite bitter) end.

By contrast I got the most satisfaction out of shipping Adama/Roslin. They were developed much more naturally and resonate with me more on an emotional level. Up until s4.5 when I realized I hated Bill, lost interest in Laura, and so when they were finally allowed to be a couple I only got a fraction of the satisfaction from it I would have gotten a season earlier.

I always felt like I could have gotten behind Kara/Sam if it had been treated like it mattered within the story. They had decent chemistry and could have been a good couple but they were developed all wrong and mostly treated as a sideshow to Lee/Kara.

I supported Cally/Tyrol mostly because it wasn’t Tyrol/Boomer and my previously mentioned come-at-me-fandom attitude towards Cally. (grumble grumble, frakking kid retons that prove no one thought things out ahead of time)

By the time the series ended I was most satisfied with the fact that Tigh/Ellen managed to end up together.


Favorite Plot Arcs:

The Kobol arc probably remains my favorite, mostly for the stuff actually on or involving Kobol, the stuff on Caprica is okay and the stuff with the fleet has its highs and lows, but most of the stuff on Kobol is great. Followed by the New Caprica one, when it was concerned with telling a story about these characters instead of falling over under the weight of its own “relevance.” I’m pretty sure there was never a single episode I loved more than 33, which is kind of...unfortunate since it was the first episode and the series spent the rest of its run reaching for those same heights (sometimes an arc would succeed at matching it, but I’m not sure anything, much less an isolated episode, surpassed it).


Favorite thing to say about it:

I liked it, especially early on, but it’s no Babylon 5.

Comments

[wheatear.livejournal.com]

Lee/Kara & Laura/Bill: yes. I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. In retrospect it kind of cancels out some of what I loved about the rest of the series, but I still loved it while I was watching it.

[jedi_of_urth]

I've wondered sometimes if I'd respond to it better in a marathon watch over watching as the series progressed, but I haven't managed to get myself to rewatch it since the show ended. Even before getting to the finale a lot of things were pissing me off and then the finale just duped a truckload of other things to be pissed off at. But if I hadn't spent so many years with the show before getting to that point it might not have been so...upsetting that I didn't keep the love throughout the show.