Why do people like Adama senior on the Galactica?

[lesbiassparrow]

Actually this is a serious question rising from the comment that Moore gave that the Galactica was not really staffed with the brightest and best so I started wondering why would the crew be so insanely fond of him on the show. I don't mean just fond of him but devoted to him personally.



Let me note before I list this that I actually like the character of Adama. But I'm not sure why, really.

Pro:
1. He was a war hero and seems to have gotten screwed over by the government, so admiration and sympathy points there
2. There's a lot of backstory that we're not seeing about how well he ran the ship and dealt with the government
3. Who doesn't like Olmos?
4. He never kicks puppies He has great personal charisma
5. Olmos! Olmos! Olmos!
6. He says he knows the way to Earth
7. Military command structure encourages devotion to your leader

Anti:
1. He picked an idiotic and obviously drunken second in command and doesn't seem know when to fire him
2. It's not like before the show the crew outside of Tigh had served with him in a war situation so there's no pre-show bonding in the face of fire to connect them all in some dramatic manner
3. He seems to play favourites (I'm thinking of the 'lets use all of our resources for Starbuck!' but perhaps that wouldn't be the crew perception at all)
4. He hasn't really done anything great military wise yet that I can recall. I mean, he would have charged into battle all heroically and died fighting the Cylons but the President had the much better idea of running away
5. The crew seems pretty young; they can't have been with him long enough to have some deep connection
6. Have I mentioned the selection of Tigh?

Comments

[k-julia.livejournal.com]

I like Adama, too, without thinking he's perfect. I think 4. on the pro list is really a big deal, and outweighs a lot of cons. Unless you coerce Starbuck or anything like that, he also is really quite fair and... well, nice.

That the crew have never bonded with him in a war situation also means that they've never had to be afraid of a catastrophic mistake. The few times we've seen him do the military leader thing, like "rolling the hard six" over the tyllium (sp?), he was lucky.

I also wonder if Tigh being an asshole (not necessarily incompetent -- he's not a bad XO) wouldn't rather reinforce people liking Adama. Like Tigh says in...33, I think: he's making the Old Man look good.

I also think that with Adama being such a "personal" kind of guy, I could see the playing favourites bit play out to his advantage, in a peacetime situation. I can easily see him pulling strings for "his people" when he can, which would make him popular and create this sense of a father figure.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I agree about the charisma - which is much the same thing as Olmos! because a lot of it is down to the actor being really convincing as someone who I would admire. And Tigh making him look good is true...but you wonder if someone is one day going to say 'hey, Adama picked him! And we were stuck with mad coffee riots because of that choice!'

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

I really do think it's all about the charisma. He always seems like he's making the right decision, even when it's sometimes the wrong one (or the risky one). He very rarely loses his temper, at least in public. He's insanely confident. Confidence carries you a long way.

...I want an Adama icon.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

The confidence and charisma are appealing, though I think I'll probably be more wary of them if he leaves Tign in situ.

A nice Adama icon looking all in command would be very nice. I can't do icons sadly as Photoshop makes me very grumpy.

[psalm-27.livejournal.com]

Here via galactica_news

I initially liked Adama because it was clear that his crew loved him. Starting with the miniseries, we really don't get a reason why they love him so, but as Tyrol told us in the latest episode, "I love the Old Man".

He is a true military leader. My take on him is that he doesn't pull punches, doesn't tell you things just because you want to hear them and is brutally honest. These characteristics probably led to his time away from the military, as we saw with Tigh's flashbacks.

He puts his crew ahead of everything else (including unfortunately his family). People, me included, respond to that kind of leadership. His crew becomes his family.

He is compassionate. His behavior with Starbuck, whom he's kept under his wing since Zach's death, is an example. He continued this even after finding out that she was partly responsible for Zach's death. You see his compassion with Tigh, who he considers a friend, but also recognizes as a drunk and all around menace, but knows that he's got potential...which leads me to...

He's loyal. See comments about Tigh. He's loyal to his role as leader and to those he is responsible for.

He makes the tough decisions that no one else wants to make and accepts the consequences that come with them. That, alone, I think makes him likable.

Finally, its Olmos, how could you not like him?

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Olmos is great and I think that's got a lot to do with why I like Adama. And it was a great idea to have the crew obviously love and trust him so much - it brings you along with it.

I think you're dead on about the loyalty, but that seems to me at the moment to be a weakness and I'm wondering if it will look so to the crew. If he leaves Tigh in place it just seems like you're asking for a disaster down the line - what if Adama is incapacitated again? The Cylons have had one go at him and there's no reason why they wouldn't have another. And I think that an XO is supposed to be capable of taking command... So maybe the loyalty thing will backfire?

[psalm-27.livejournal.com]

You bring up an interesting point in regards to loyalty and the XO in general. With Tigh's track record, any other commanding officer would probably relieve him of duty. Adama doesn't have much choice though, considering the state of the fleet and lack of XO choices (convienient that Lee has just left the ship...). I think the next few weeks will be very interesting to say the least!

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's what Adama meant by asking where Lee was...