Adama and passivity

[lesbiassparrow]

I think way too much about BSG, mainly when I should be working on other things that have actual real life consequences.



I find it very interesting that Adama is totally removed from this mess that this season is becoming by reason of his injury. It's strange: it was his arrest of the president that resulted in the Roslin vs. Tigh, Civilians vs. Military facedown of the last episode, but he's detached from its ultimate consequences. It's useful for the narrative, because although it looks like things have become so irredeemably tangled that the various sides of the fleet will have real problems coming to a compromise, Adama isn't involved in the actual detailed fallout of his decision and can step in to calm the situation if needs be. And I'm still unclear as to what he intended by arresting Roslin - temporary measure from anger, or long range plan to depose a civilian government he either thought was dangerous or was too uncontrollable?

In the last season, he and Roslin balanced each other out. Now there is no one with the status to counter-weigh Roslin's authority - especially if she's become a prophetic figure with the added power that comes from that. (And I'm differentiating between authority and power - Roslin has authority while Tigh has power) Tigh is depending upon force, but that's only going to work as long as the Galactica is firmly under his control and his troops trust him enough not to blow the rest of humanity out of the skies because things aren't going his way. Baltar is surely totally compromised now his find-a-Cylon machine manifestly did not find the Cylon it should have.

My question is here: what result does Adama recovering have on Roslin's position? Will he bring back some sort of balance or does he skew things even further? And how strange is it to see a main male cast character in such a passive role for so many episodes.

ETA: I really like Reno 911. My tastes are so low-brow it's deeply shaming.

Comments

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

As I said above to notalgia_lj, I used to have darker thoughts about Adama but for some reason I overcame them (I think I got persuaded out of them) but both of your points are making me think again. As you say, arresting the President looks like martial law. But you know, I don't think Adama is a man with long range plans as a rule. It's all 'go on and fight' 'go and rescue Kara and not worry about our reserves'. I don't think it's what he is good at really - that was shown by starting up the inquiry that then got out of hand and which he had to dismiss forcibly.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

I think you're right -- I think it's very likely that all he was doing in arresting Roslin was taking the only way he could think of to regain control of the situation. He freaked out because someone not himself (or his chain of command) was giving orders to Kara and she was obeying them. And if he hadn't been shot, he and Roslin would have shouted at each other, she might have sat in the brig for a while, and and then he would have let her go. (She'd probably have to come back with something, but that surely wasn't part of his plan.)

Then again, I fully admit that I have a weird viewpoint because the first episode of BSG I saw was "Kobol's Last Gleaming part II" and that got me hooked enough to download the whole first season. My brain is in a weird place with this show.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Then again, I fully admit that I have a weird viewpoint because the first episode of BSG I saw was "Kobol's Last Gleaming part II" and that got me hooked enough to download the whole first season. My brain is in a weird place with this show

Heh! I saw the first season pretty much as it aired (with a few missing eps that I made up later) and I still find it hard to keep things straight. I have no real idea what the timeline is for one.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

Timeline? My grip of the timeline is so not even there.

I'm starting to think I should just re-watch the whole first season again, see if that helps.