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bedlamsbardNote to self: possibly do not engage with this fandom ever outside of writing fic. I think I just worked out that that's going to be a bad idea.
These are my notes from 4.11 to the finale, including the review written this morning while I should have been studying. Whoops.
4.11: Sometimes a Great Notion
Oh, Dee, honey. I suspect that this may be the ep where she commits suicide. (HI. I WAS SPOILED FOR THAT.)
...you know, it looks like Earth was hit worse with nukes than Caprica was -- I mean, Helo and the Resistance survived, and the Cylons were ready to up and move in. They could probably just go back to the Colonies. (I mean, I am not an expert on nuclear destruction, but just looking at what was in the actual show.)
Kara! That is alarming. And she's surprisingly calm with Leoben, considering that whole "prisoner in his house" thing.
Is that the first time we've ever seen Helo flying a Raptor? It may be. Oh, wait, he was flying in "The Hub", wasn't he?
Oh, Roslin, honey. That little lip tremble.
AGATHONS. SO CUTE.
The thirteenth tribe was Cylon! Weren't the Cylons not invented until fifty years earlier, though?
Ohhhh, that scene with Tyrol is creepy.
Dee and Lee occasionally manage cute very well.
OH MY GOD KARA. And Leoben backing away from her...
Oh, I see Roslin's taking this well.
Funeral pyres on the beach. Shades of the Iliad.
OH GODS DEE.
Admiral Adama storming through his ship with a loaded gun is the most terrifying thing in this show so far.
And we're back to the board. Back to the beginning. All of this has happened before and all of this has happened again. Things come in cycles.
D'Anna, utterly defeated.
Tigh, walking out to sea -- and Ellen! (Yeah, spoiled on that too. Want to know the really sad thing? After two years of remaining unspoiled for it, I was spoiled for it LAST WEEK.)
There are some really great images in this episode. It's really beautiful in some ways.
4.12: A Disquiet Follows My Soul
Cylon-Cylon baby: well, that's special.
...did Helo change his hair?
Nicky's not Tyrol's son! WHOA. Didn't see that coming. BUT WHO IS IT?
Gaeta is Up To Something. (On the other hand, don't tell me that Helo and Sharon weren't having that conversation on a daily basis back in the day.)
It is shocking how dramatic this show has managed to make brushing an old man's teeth. Roslin and Adama = <3
IT'S HOTDOG???? Well, that's one way to break up one of Baltar's speeches. Are we going to get Nicky Has Two Daddies? (And if Cally knew that Nicky wasn't half-Cylon, then why was she standing with him in the airlock? Well, I guess my assumption was that she was going to kill the half-Cylon child, but...no?)
You know, frankly, I'm surprised that the Fleet hasn't fallen apart before. You know, aside from that one time. And that other time. I guess that the main difference is that (a) we're finally seeing it from the opposing side (which isn't our mains) and (b) it's about something more complex than visions v. no visions. And this time we're getting real unrest on Galactica, too.
Dude, if the unrest in the Fleet is about Cylons and the military, I am not sure that the first person I'd send in would be the Cylon military officer (well, considering the circumstances, perhaps I should clarify: Athena), although I guess she's probably considered to be slightly more trustworthy than the others? Or maybe not. WHO KNOWS.
Adama and Roslin!
4.13: The Oath
Oh, Racetrack, not you too! OH ACK I HOPE HE'S NOT DEAD.
THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. WHY DID EVERYONE TELL ME SEASON FOUR WAS TERRIBLE?
Most of my commentary would come down to OMG STARBUCK/APOLLO/ADAMA/ROSLIN IS SO BADASS, so I'll wait on it. Also OH HELO AND SHARON.
4.14: Blood on the Scales
Cat boy!
HOLY SHIT THE QUORUM. The PTB are BADASS.
THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE GODDAMN GUN. Wow, I really hope Anders survived.
Ugh, this show is so fucking epic, I love it. I don't think I have any commentary besides I LOVE IT. (I realize this may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't even care, oh my god.)
Also...Baltar is growing on me. AND CHIEF OMG.
I kind of would have liked to see what happened in sick baby; I wonder if there were cut scenes from this ep that showed it? Because I am loving this and would be down for that. I also would have liked to see more of the resistance than just Starbuck and Apollo and their ninja awesome, but then this would have been a three-parter instead of a two-parter. (AND MORE AWESOME.)
I love Helo, but I also love that Athena is more badass than he is. Here, honey, you have a head wound, you take the baby. I HAVE TO GO KICK SOME ASS NOW.
Ugh, SO EPIC. (Also, I was mis-spoiled, apparently! Unless something changes in the next episode. Or unless I interpreted the spoilers incorrectly, which actually seems likely right now. We'll find out! Not that much more left to go.)
4.15: No Exit
Ellen created the (human) Cylons? Well...okay. This should be interesting.
And Sam is being creepy, I see.
Aww, Chief and Adama.
Boomer! Heh, apples.
I kind of love that corners were cut on the Galactica. And that she's showing the strain of what she's been through.
Huh, the one true god is the centurion god. Interesting.
Oooh! Is Boomer rescuing Ellen? FASCINATING.
Slightly more worried about Galactica than about Sam, even though I love Anders a lot. On the other hand, GALACTICA BABY. I think I would have preferred to see a little more immediate fall-out from the mutiny than to get a long ramble on the Cylon backstory, but it's fine, it's working for me. Let's see where it goes.
4.16: Deadlock
"How many dead chicks are out there?"
So I sense that this should go swimmingly.
...I assume that's Athena in the infirmary. I don't think we've seen her in civvies since that time Helo shot her and she resurrected. Aaaand, that's a little creepy, Ellen. Oh, wait, no, that's a different Sharon.
Heh. Baltar's flock is breaking off.
I love the TOTALLY RANDOM PIANO. And how it's lampshaded.
Ellen's dress is gorgeous, I just want to put that out there. Although she's still creepy as hell.
The vibe I'm getting from this ep is filler.
Adama and Tigh getting drunk together is kind of cute.
Wow, I really hope that if this show had gone on, the Galactica would have developed a kind of minor sentience.
All we need is guns! More guns! Bigger guns!
This is like the ultimate bros before hos episode. After a manner of speaking. (Gods, I would have loved to see them try to bring Athena and Helo in on this discussion. Or at least mention them, instead of just Hera.)
Tigh can love both of them, you know. And babies do not necessarily mean love!
Cylons are adding pictures to the board! That's kind of awesome. But which one has the colonial ID? (Boomer?)
4.17: Someone to Watch Over Me
Hey! We get to see reveille, awesome. I've often wondered if they keep regular hours or if they do navy whatchamacallit hours, bells and watches, but maybe not.
Ah, I see Starbuck's CAG at the moment. IT'S HARD TO TELL OKAY. Since Helo was CAG, like, two eps ago.
Aww, the Cylons are forming a justice system!
Hmm, why do I suspect that they gave Nicky to Hotdog in order to further the Chief/Boomer?
Aww, Helo, you're, like, the nicest person alive. I mean, there's not many left so that's not that hard, but still. And he's still bashed up from the mutiny! SHOCKING. CONTINUITY.
This cell is basically lover's lounge.
WHOA CREEPY. Is this the same house that Adama was hallucinating? (Or filmed in it, at least.) And...it gets creepier when you realize that Boomer invented a child.
Random piano guy is random. Is Kara hallucinating him? (Look, when someone shows up and nobody else talks to them, I automatically assume they're a hallucination. It's that kind of show.)
OH FRAK CHIEF NO.
Oh, shit, not Athena! Not Helo! This is not really what I was going for when I said I wanted to see Boomer and Helo together!
SHIT DID BOOMER JUST KIDNAP HERA?
Well, obviously Kara was hallucinating Piano Man. Everyone hallucinates!
OH MY GODS. HELO AND ATHENA AND BOOMER AND HERA AND CHIEF OH MY GODS.
I wonder if we're going to get any on-screen angst from Helo realizing that he slept with his ex-partner/his wife's doppelganger while his wife watched? Or is it just going to be all about Chief and his angst?
4.18: Island in a Stream of Stars
Am surprised Helo and Athena are not in on this meeting. Oh, wait, that's because they're having a perfectly understandable family meltdown.
OH GALACTICA.
Oh, Adama. "Neither one of my women are dying."
Oh, gods, that's cold-blooded. They're planning on cutting up Galactica and using her for parts before she's even dead yet.
WHOA. DID SAM JUST BECOME GALACTICA'S HYBRID?
I love that Adama is reading with a magnifying glass. And now they're smoking weed. Of course.
Oh, Helo, baby.
BOOMER. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Oh, Hera, honey.
Starbuck and Apollo are so fucking epic.
GALACTICA. BABY.
4.19: Daybreak (Part One)
Oooh, flashbacks. In which -- wow, even Baltar is really sympathetic. OH LAURA HONEY. Aww, Kara and Lee and Zak.
Watching Galactica be torn apart is physically painful.
SO FUCKING EPIC I CANNOT EVEN. (Yeah, don't expect much coherency here.)
4.20: Daybreak (Part Two)
Bill Adama in a strip club. *snickers*
Bubbly cheerful Starbuck is my favorite thing ever omg.
EPIC EPIC EPIC.
4.21: Daybreak (Part Three)
FUCK YOU AND YOUR GODS IS HELO ALIVE.
SO FUCKING EPIC. I LOVE IT.
Immediate reaction: look, y'all, I come out of Narnia; it's really hard to get too much deus in my deus ex machina. This walked the line but ultimately didn't cross it for me.
Okay, so: coming at the finale from the other side, a.k.a. the next morning after the euphoria has worn off:
If I had had to wait a week for Daybreak Part Three after Daybreak Part Two, I would have been so fucking pissed at the ending, I cannot even. As it is now I'm okay with it, but the arrival at Earth Mark Two is so drawn out that it ends up feeling gratuitous and heavy-handed -- I honestly think the show would have worked better if they'd managed out the pacing of Daybreak Part One and Part Two a little better in order to make it a two-parter that ended sometime around the arrival, which, if my estimation is correct without pulling the episode back up, would have been somewhere around the fifteen minute mark. I spend the better part of half an hour wondering how long they were going to drag this out for, and I still ended with, "But what happened to this character?" But I'm one of those people who tends to need a big ending for everyone, rather than a lot of little endings for individuals. The PTB tried to have their cake and eat it too there. I don't think that that long, drawn-out denouement is necessary or even entirely effective, especially with the heavy-handed, "This time, we will make it so it WON'T happen again. OR WILL IT?" Plus it just strikes me as rather sad, in some ways, rather than hopeful. (Except for the fighting Agathons, because I luff them and I was just so happy to see them all together and happy.) The audience is not that dumb, guys. We can figure it out. Also, it's just depressing to find out that Hera died at the ripe old age of "young woman."
On the deux ex machina: like I said earlier, at this point in my life it's hard to get too much deus in my deux ex machina, but this one walked the line based on the last scene alone. I don't think Head!Six and Head!Gaius showing up in Part Two and Part Three necessarily invalidates anything that's come before, because we've been seeing them all along -- something ~wonky has been happening since the very beginning of the show, since Baltar has had Head!Six and Roslin's had her visions and Kara's had her Special Destiny and so on and so forth. I don't like the idea of a One True God, but ultimately I don't think that's what we ended up getting in the show. Destiny, Fate, God, the Gods, the Fates, call it whatever you like -- it was a little more heavy-handed than I'd prefer, but not as heavy-handed as I was expecting based on what I'd heard. The characters kept their integrity; that's what I was afraid of them losing. I mean, granted, I think the show could have worked fine without Head!Six and Head!Gaius showing up, but they did, and -- well, they have been there all along, so what can you really say at that point? I think the same things would have happened. Kara -- yeah, okay, I'll buy it. *hands*
I'm kind of curious about when the PTB found out that BSG was getting cancelled, because it kind of affects how I feel about the back end of S4. I loved the mutiny two-parter, but from there on out it gets just a little confused because there are just too many things going on and they tried to stuff it in too fast. Maybe it would have worked better if there had been another half-season. I don't know. *hands*
Okay, wow, I really shouldn't have started reading post-finale fic while I was still writing this. BAD IDEA. My ultimate thing is: too heavy-handed, would have worked better if the finale ended the moment the Fleet jumped into orbit around Earth, because that keeps hope alive. (Well, at least it wasn't, and then the PTB ended the world. Dude, coming from Narnia you can only go up.)
On the arc of the show has a whole -- I think there were a lot of plot threads that were picked up and dropped or twisted; some of them are ones that I'm attached to, some of them don't make any sense in the context of the last season. On one level I liked the finding Earth Mark One in the middle of S4, but that really twists some of the deus ex machina because it stops making sense -- it makes sense if it's programming, it doesn't make sense if it's ~a higher power. I want to know more about why Boomer made the decisions she did between S3 and the finale. I want more Helo and Sharon, obviously, but that is just me. Also, I should know by now not to engage with the freaking fandom for something I actually like, because my feelings are never the same as anyone else's and then I end depressed and unwilling to engage and convinced that my feelings are invalid. Which is more my problem than anyone else's.
I still love the Big Goddamn Space Battle, though. And since for a while there I was convinced that the thing everyone hated about the finale was going to be a twist reveal of "It was all a dream!", this is a plus.
*
No, seriously. I was legit convinced for a while that the Big Twist Ending was going to be "It was all a dream!" That is how unspoiled I was. (Actually, I remembered some of my spoilers wrong, so there's that. Pleasant surprises.)
*
ETA: Is it less depressing if I choose to believe that they evolved into the Ancients from Stargate instead? Does the timeline match up? Does it matter?
These are my notes from 4.11 to the finale, including the review written this morning while I should have been studying. Whoops.
4.11: Sometimes a Great Notion
Oh, Dee, honey. I suspect that this may be the ep where she commits suicide. (HI. I WAS SPOILED FOR THAT.)
...you know, it looks like Earth was hit worse with nukes than Caprica was -- I mean, Helo and the Resistance survived, and the Cylons were ready to up and move in. They could probably just go back to the Colonies. (I mean, I am not an expert on nuclear destruction, but just looking at what was in the actual show.)
Kara! That is alarming. And she's surprisingly calm with Leoben, considering that whole "prisoner in his house" thing.
Is that the first time we've ever seen Helo flying a Raptor? It may be. Oh, wait, he was flying in "The Hub", wasn't he?
Oh, Roslin, honey. That little lip tremble.
AGATHONS. SO CUTE.
The thirteenth tribe was Cylon! Weren't the Cylons not invented until fifty years earlier, though?
Ohhhh, that scene with Tyrol is creepy.
Dee and Lee occasionally manage cute very well.
OH MY GOD KARA. And Leoben backing away from her...
Oh, I see Roslin's taking this well.
Funeral pyres on the beach. Shades of the Iliad.
OH GODS DEE.
Admiral Adama storming through his ship with a loaded gun is the most terrifying thing in this show so far.
And we're back to the board. Back to the beginning. All of this has happened before and all of this has happened again. Things come in cycles.
D'Anna, utterly defeated.
Tigh, walking out to sea -- and Ellen! (Yeah, spoiled on that too. Want to know the really sad thing? After two years of remaining unspoiled for it, I was spoiled for it LAST WEEK.)
There are some really great images in this episode. It's really beautiful in some ways.
4.12: A Disquiet Follows My Soul
Cylon-Cylon baby: well, that's special.
...did Helo change his hair?
Nicky's not Tyrol's son! WHOA. Didn't see that coming. BUT WHO IS IT?
Gaeta is Up To Something. (On the other hand, don't tell me that Helo and Sharon weren't having that conversation on a daily basis back in the day.)
It is shocking how dramatic this show has managed to make brushing an old man's teeth. Roslin and Adama = <3
IT'S HOTDOG???? Well, that's one way to break up one of Baltar's speeches. Are we going to get Nicky Has Two Daddies? (And if Cally knew that Nicky wasn't half-Cylon, then why was she standing with him in the airlock? Well, I guess my assumption was that she was going to kill the half-Cylon child, but...no?)
You know, frankly, I'm surprised that the Fleet hasn't fallen apart before. You know, aside from that one time. And that other time. I guess that the main difference is that (a) we're finally seeing it from the opposing side (which isn't our mains) and (b) it's about something more complex than visions v. no visions. And this time we're getting real unrest on Galactica, too.
Dude, if the unrest in the Fleet is about Cylons and the military, I am not sure that the first person I'd send in would be the Cylon military officer (well, considering the circumstances, perhaps I should clarify: Athena), although I guess she's probably considered to be slightly more trustworthy than the others? Or maybe not. WHO KNOWS.
Adama and Roslin!
4.13: The Oath
Oh, Racetrack, not you too! OH ACK I HOPE HE'S NOT DEAD.
THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. WHY DID EVERYONE TELL ME SEASON FOUR WAS TERRIBLE?
Most of my commentary would come down to OMG STARBUCK/APOLLO/ADAMA/ROSLIN IS SO BADASS, so I'll wait on it. Also OH HELO AND SHARON.
4.14: Blood on the Scales
Cat boy!
HOLY SHIT THE QUORUM. The PTB are BADASS.
THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE GODDAMN GUN. Wow, I really hope Anders survived.
Ugh, this show is so fucking epic, I love it. I don't think I have any commentary besides I LOVE IT. (I realize this may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't even care, oh my god.)
Also...Baltar is growing on me. AND CHIEF OMG.
I kind of would have liked to see what happened in sick baby; I wonder if there were cut scenes from this ep that showed it? Because I am loving this and would be down for that. I also would have liked to see more of the resistance than just Starbuck and Apollo and their ninja awesome, but then this would have been a three-parter instead of a two-parter. (AND MORE AWESOME.)
I love Helo, but I also love that Athena is more badass than he is. Here, honey, you have a head wound, you take the baby. I HAVE TO GO KICK SOME ASS NOW.
Ugh, SO EPIC. (Also, I was mis-spoiled, apparently! Unless something changes in the next episode. Or unless I interpreted the spoilers incorrectly, which actually seems likely right now. We'll find out! Not that much more left to go.)
4.15: No Exit
Ellen created the (human) Cylons? Well...okay. This should be interesting.
And Sam is being creepy, I see.
Aww, Chief and Adama.
Boomer! Heh, apples.
I kind of love that corners were cut on the Galactica. And that she's showing the strain of what she's been through.
Huh, the one true god is the centurion god. Interesting.
Oooh! Is Boomer rescuing Ellen? FASCINATING.
Slightly more worried about Galactica than about Sam, even though I love Anders a lot. On the other hand, GALACTICA BABY. I think I would have preferred to see a little more immediate fall-out from the mutiny than to get a long ramble on the Cylon backstory, but it's fine, it's working for me. Let's see where it goes.
4.16: Deadlock
"How many dead chicks are out there?"
So I sense that this should go swimmingly.
...I assume that's Athena in the infirmary. I don't think we've seen her in civvies since that time Helo shot her and she resurrected. Aaaand, that's a little creepy, Ellen. Oh, wait, no, that's a different Sharon.
Heh. Baltar's flock is breaking off.
I love the TOTALLY RANDOM PIANO. And how it's lampshaded.
Ellen's dress is gorgeous, I just want to put that out there. Although she's still creepy as hell.
The vibe I'm getting from this ep is filler.
Adama and Tigh getting drunk together is kind of cute.
Wow, I really hope that if this show had gone on, the Galactica would have developed a kind of minor sentience.
All we need is guns! More guns! Bigger guns!
This is like the ultimate bros before hos episode. After a manner of speaking. (Gods, I would have loved to see them try to bring Athena and Helo in on this discussion. Or at least mention them, instead of just Hera.)
Tigh can love both of them, you know. And babies do not necessarily mean love!
Cylons are adding pictures to the board! That's kind of awesome. But which one has the colonial ID? (Boomer?)
4.17: Someone to Watch Over Me
Hey! We get to see reveille, awesome. I've often wondered if they keep regular hours or if they do navy whatchamacallit hours, bells and watches, but maybe not.
Ah, I see Starbuck's CAG at the moment. IT'S HARD TO TELL OKAY. Since Helo was CAG, like, two eps ago.
Aww, the Cylons are forming a justice system!
Hmm, why do I suspect that they gave Nicky to Hotdog in order to further the Chief/Boomer?
Aww, Helo, you're, like, the nicest person alive. I mean, there's not many left so that's not that hard, but still. And he's still bashed up from the mutiny! SHOCKING. CONTINUITY.
This cell is basically lover's lounge.
WHOA CREEPY. Is this the same house that Adama was hallucinating? (Or filmed in it, at least.) And...it gets creepier when you realize that Boomer invented a child.
Random piano guy is random. Is Kara hallucinating him? (Look, when someone shows up and nobody else talks to them, I automatically assume they're a hallucination. It's that kind of show.)
OH FRAK CHIEF NO.
Oh, shit, not Athena! Not Helo! This is not really what I was going for when I said I wanted to see Boomer and Helo together!
SHIT DID BOOMER JUST KIDNAP HERA?
Well, obviously Kara was hallucinating Piano Man. Everyone hallucinates!
OH MY GODS. HELO AND ATHENA AND BOOMER AND HERA AND CHIEF OH MY GODS.
I wonder if we're going to get any on-screen angst from Helo realizing that he slept with his ex-partner/his wife's doppelganger while his wife watched? Or is it just going to be all about Chief and his angst?
4.18: Island in a Stream of Stars
Am surprised Helo and Athena are not in on this meeting. Oh, wait, that's because they're having a perfectly understandable family meltdown.
OH GALACTICA.
Oh, Adama. "Neither one of my women are dying."
Oh, gods, that's cold-blooded. They're planning on cutting up Galactica and using her for parts before she's even dead yet.
WHOA. DID SAM JUST BECOME GALACTICA'S HYBRID?
I love that Adama is reading with a magnifying glass. And now they're smoking weed. Of course.
Oh, Helo, baby.
BOOMER. THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Oh, Hera, honey.
Starbuck and Apollo are so fucking epic.
GALACTICA. BABY.
4.19: Daybreak (Part One)
Oooh, flashbacks. In which -- wow, even Baltar is really sympathetic. OH LAURA HONEY. Aww, Kara and Lee and Zak.
Watching Galactica be torn apart is physically painful.
SO FUCKING EPIC I CANNOT EVEN. (Yeah, don't expect much coherency here.)
4.20: Daybreak (Part Two)
Bill Adama in a strip club. *snickers*
Bubbly cheerful Starbuck is my favorite thing ever omg.
EPIC EPIC EPIC.
4.21: Daybreak (Part Three)
FUCK YOU AND YOUR GODS IS HELO ALIVE.
SO FUCKING EPIC. I LOVE IT.
Immediate reaction: look, y'all, I come out of Narnia; it's really hard to get too much deus in my deus ex machina. This walked the line but ultimately didn't cross it for me.
Okay, so: coming at the finale from the other side, a.k.a. the next morning after the euphoria has worn off:
If I had had to wait a week for Daybreak Part Three after Daybreak Part Two, I would have been so fucking pissed at the ending, I cannot even. As it is now I'm okay with it, but the arrival at Earth Mark Two is so drawn out that it ends up feeling gratuitous and heavy-handed -- I honestly think the show would have worked better if they'd managed out the pacing of Daybreak Part One and Part Two a little better in order to make it a two-parter that ended sometime around the arrival, which, if my estimation is correct without pulling the episode back up, would have been somewhere around the fifteen minute mark. I spend the better part of half an hour wondering how long they were going to drag this out for, and I still ended with, "But what happened to this character?" But I'm one of those people who tends to need a big ending for everyone, rather than a lot of little endings for individuals. The PTB tried to have their cake and eat it too there. I don't think that that long, drawn-out denouement is necessary or even entirely effective, especially with the heavy-handed, "This time, we will make it so it WON'T happen again. OR WILL IT?" Plus it just strikes me as rather sad, in some ways, rather than hopeful. (Except for the fighting Agathons, because I luff them and I was just so happy to see them all together and happy.) The audience is not that dumb, guys. We can figure it out. Also, it's just depressing to find out that Hera died at the ripe old age of "young woman."
On the deux ex machina: like I said earlier, at this point in my life it's hard to get too much deus in my deux ex machina, but this one walked the line based on the last scene alone. I don't think Head!Six and Head!Gaius showing up in Part Two and Part Three necessarily invalidates anything that's come before, because we've been seeing them all along -- something ~wonky has been happening since the very beginning of the show, since Baltar has had Head!Six and Roslin's had her visions and Kara's had her Special Destiny and so on and so forth. I don't like the idea of a One True God, but ultimately I don't think that's what we ended up getting in the show. Destiny, Fate, God, the Gods, the Fates, call it whatever you like -- it was a little more heavy-handed than I'd prefer, but not as heavy-handed as I was expecting based on what I'd heard. The characters kept their integrity; that's what I was afraid of them losing. I mean, granted, I think the show could have worked fine without Head!Six and Head!Gaius showing up, but they did, and -- well, they have been there all along, so what can you really say at that point? I think the same things would have happened. Kara -- yeah, okay, I'll buy it. *hands*
I'm kind of curious about when the PTB found out that BSG was getting cancelled, because it kind of affects how I feel about the back end of S4. I loved the mutiny two-parter, but from there on out it gets just a little confused because there are just too many things going on and they tried to stuff it in too fast. Maybe it would have worked better if there had been another half-season. I don't know. *hands*
Okay, wow, I really shouldn't have started reading post-finale fic while I was still writing this. BAD IDEA. My ultimate thing is: too heavy-handed, would have worked better if the finale ended the moment the Fleet jumped into orbit around Earth, because that keeps hope alive. (Well, at least it wasn't, and then the PTB ended the world. Dude, coming from Narnia you can only go up.)
On the arc of the show has a whole -- I think there were a lot of plot threads that were picked up and dropped or twisted; some of them are ones that I'm attached to, some of them don't make any sense in the context of the last season. On one level I liked the finding Earth Mark One in the middle of S4, but that really twists some of the deus ex machina because it stops making sense -- it makes sense if it's programming, it doesn't make sense if it's ~a higher power. I want to know more about why Boomer made the decisions she did between S3 and the finale. I want more Helo and Sharon, obviously, but that is just me. Also, I should know by now not to engage with the freaking fandom for something I actually like, because my feelings are never the same as anyone else's and then I end depressed and unwilling to engage and convinced that my feelings are invalid. Which is more my problem than anyone else's.
I still love the Big Goddamn Space Battle, though. And since for a while there I was convinced that the thing everyone hated about the finale was going to be a twist reveal of "It was all a dream!", this is a plus.
*
No, seriously. I was legit convinced for a while that the Big Twist Ending was going to be "It was all a dream!" That is how unspoiled I was. (Actually, I remembered some of my spoilers wrong, so there's that. Pleasant surprises.)
*
ETA: Is it less depressing if I choose to believe that they evolved into the Ancients from Stargate instead? Does the timeline match up? Does it matter?
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-01 01:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-01 01:21 am (UTC)Good luck!