BSG Home Pt 2

[lesbiassparrow]

Spoilers behind the cut for Home Pt 2.



I made a horrible, horrible discovery tonight. I've realised that it may be that my OTP on this show is Tyrol/Sharon. This is problematic as one of them is technically dead while her copy is shacking up with Helo. And that's really creepy.

I do not trust new Sharon at all, with her superiority complex about the Cylon gods (far too close to Six to be comfortable viewing); you know when the chips are down she'll kill people off with an easy conscience because her god told her to. And her whole self-aware pose just seems that - a pose. I mean the Cylons could hardly think they'd get away with a model that was all 'I have no idea that I'm a secretly programmed killer' so they went for the upfront tell the truth version. I imagine they have them labeled somewhere. (Also I think I am the only person in fandom to prefer Galactica Sharon to the new one, so I am biased).

My favourite moment was not actually the Lee as crown prince thing but the Billy and Roslin moment. I had this horrible sinking feeling with the father son moment that Roslin would be left all damp and soggy and with no one to hug and then along came Billy. I love Billy and I want him and Dualla to live happily ever after and I know that's so not going to happen on this show, so I'm taking my moments where I can.

The Adama and Roslin forgiveness scene was interesting. If I was a more suspicious person I'd think he was trying to get her to admit guilt by taking his forgiveness - but she didn't and thus avoided the trap. Or what I think was a trap of some sort. They're friendly, but I don't think we've seen the total cessation of hostilities between those two yet.

The big reveal at the end surprised me. I thought they might go with Roslin was totally wrong route so I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't. So now she really is that dying leader or something like that, and that makes me worry for the character.

Also Athena as a woman who tosses herself off rocks? I'm a wee bit disappointed in that myth as I like warrior woman Athena. I wonder if she didn't toss herself off but was some sort of pharmakos or scapegoat who had had all of the sins of mankind heaped on her before she was thrown off to die.

ETA: Coming soon: Caprica's Heavy Machinery News interviews Captain Lee Adama about poppet valves, heavy machinery and other items of interest. We are currently accepting suggestions for questions. Please note this is not Caprica's Attractive Men of the Military Weekly; their issue 'Lieutenant Helo: Cute but Dumb' will soon be hitting a newstand near you. (And while we would never suggest they are not a serious newspaper, we do feel there were rather too many questions about when he would take his shirt off and too few about the brand of spanners he would use to fix his Raptor's FTL-Drive.)

Comments

[anonymous_sibyl]

I wonder if she didn't toss herself off but was some sort of pharmakos or scapegoat who had had all of the sins of mankind heaped on her before she was thrown off to die.

Interesting. But scary in a couple of ways for me. If there were a scapegoat bearing the sins of all mankind, I don't think Laura would hesitate to sacrifice that person, especially were it a Cylon. After all, they certainly seem to be acting out our sins: love is all, blind faith in a god. On the other hand, if anyone feels responsible for all mankind, it's Laura.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I feel more worried for Laura, because I think that generally speaking the Greek human scapegoat had to volunteer for it, because they're all the about the sacrifice going willingly to the altar. Either way, I think this episode sealed Laura's doom.

[jennyo.livejournal.com]

What, you mean she's going to sacrifice herself for humanity? Yeah, that one was coming. Now I'm curious what she represents. Does she sacrifice herself to release humanity from destiny in a Destiny vs. Free Will battle? Does she force humanity to Fall so that they can know good and evil (as she seems to fit the trope of a wisdom goddess, and is probably more on the mother/crone side of things)?

I guess what I'm interested in is not so much her doom, because she's been doomed since the first second she showed up, but what she does with her death, because a) we're talking about female divinity here, and there are limited archetypes, b) there's been so much talk of Love and Family, mostly, it's a little curious to me that the Messiah is fairly obviously isolated from both, and c) what she knows and why she's so sad. Most people would have a little bit more of the glow of being special -- I mean, note how the people who Laura touches, the Billys and Lees, feel special, if not in the crazy way Baltar does for Six touching him. Adama views his specialness as a mandate. Kara thinks they're all crazy for thinking she's special. Laura...flinches a lot. Which I can buy, but again, it puts her in a different grouping than everyone else, which screams "Significant!"

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

The thing is that the scapegoat is the low which is made high for a time (fed at the city's expense) before it is made low again and expelled from the city or killed. And these are all people who have become important just by reason of their very survival, but who before (with the exception of Baltar) weren't probably that important.

I don't actually see Laura so much as a messiah/divinity archetype but more as the prophetess type. Which is sort of worse to me because the gods have a place in a family structure (even the ones like Hades who otherwise are all on their own); the prophet is often the person who doesn't fit terribly well within the social structure because they're human but have access to divine knowledge - as with Sibyl in her cave, Cassandra, Teresias (who does all that gender-bending) and Calchas. Also, I like the fact that the famous female seers in Greek myth have very ambigious relationships with the gods (well, they won't sleep with them at any rate in the case of Cassandra and the Sibyl). I’m not sure that makes any difference in the screwedness category of Roslin, though it does make a difference in the relationship to the divine.

[jennyo.livejournal.com]

*shrug* I would be more apt to see Laura as the scapegoat if the subtext weren't what it is. Like, if they don't just admit she was the one running Adar soon, I'm going to roll my eyes hard, because they're saying it without saying it. The Cylons not only didn't try to frak her prophethood, they were like, "go, little prophet, go!" and sent help. In comparison to say, the Callies and Dees and Billys of the world, she was never really low. I would read her position as more of the hidden treasure than the low made high. Which is not to say that at some point, they won't be screaming for her tasty, scapegoaty blood...

...and that, coupled with the part where she's not just a prophet, she's their leader, and she tops all of them, including Adama-Zeus? Makes me suspicious that there's more to her than that. Or will be. I mean, at the very least, Adama's little show at the end of Home 2 suggests that she's potent not just as a prophet, but as a symbol of hope. Stuff like, "every day is a gift...from you" makes me go, "oh. That's a little...oh." Because as far as it goes, her access to divine knowledge has been limited at best. Baltar may have a better claim to it than Laura (what his inner voice/Six tells him is a lot more direct and useful), but what Laura has done with a) a vision of snakes, b) a dream with Callum Keith Rennie, c) some flashes of things on Kobol, that's very...interesting and somewhat creepy.

I think it's one of those cases where the prophecy is part of the package, a la Joan of Arc, but not the whole package. And it makes me suspicious, especially with little anvils like, "the price you pay will be too high" and so on. I mean, I also think we're all well-indoctrinated into the cult of Artemis-as-Savior, and so we're all expecting Starbuck to have her Saving the World role to play? But yeah. I think the relationship to the divine is slowly being built up, in weird ways that say to me there's more to it than that, especially because Roslin's story arc has been far, far too smooth. Her visions work, and the cost is isolation for Laura (a price she'd willingly pay to save the world), and a few dead redshirts (a price she'd willingly pay to save the world). So...you know, that says to me there's something more going on there.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Either way I guess it probably doesn't matter; Roslin is screwed, oh so screwed. They've told us she's screwed and *if* they're going with Starbuck as the hope of mankind they won't have space for two female versions of that to hang on till the end. (It's not Artemis as saviour I go for, as I think that if anyone was least likely to save people it would be Artemis, but that we have been hit with the you're special line with Starbuck so often that I think it's not just a double blind and they mean it).

Before the Farm I would have been more likely to think that the Cylons had some great master plan, but that episode make me think they were a bit stupid and not so good on the old planning front what with the nuking and then the breeding idea. :-)

[aikakone.livejournal.com]

As much as I like Laura/Lee, I kept seeing 'shippy moments for other groups of people, even some couples I didn't want to see. One of the surprising ones was actually Laura/Billy. That look she gave him was priceless.

And weren't you saying on ST how you're doubting Helo's intelligence. The more the show goes on, the more I feel the same despite the pretty.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

There was a lot of shippiness in this, in a nice gentle way for many of the characters.

Helo shows himself more clueless as he goes on. Either that or he's smart but so in love he doesn't really care about rationality. The power of Eros...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

My question to be submitted to Capn. Adama.

What does he think of the shameful lack of sprockets in our fleet? They are crucial, I tell you. If he wants to see my extensive sprocket collection as proof, I'd be glad to show it to him...

Re: Tyrol/Sharon. Nope, I only ship canon and it's not as of now :) Though I am enjoying the messed-uppedness of it all.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

What does he think of the shameful lack of sprockets in our fleet? They are crucial, I tell you. If he wants to see my extensive sprocket collection as proof, I'd be glad to show it to him...

*giggles madly*

Ahem. I hope this is not another attempt to lure the good Captain somewhere for nefarious purposes. To date we have had 327 offers to show him sprockets, spanners, valves and even cogs. Many of which came from people we suspect were not entirely sincere.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

You are most definitely not the only one who preferred old Galactica Sharon. The new one...alternately annoys me and creeps me out.

I adored the Adama/Roslin forgiveness scene -- after all the rest of the happy fluffy family togetherness, they could have been cheap and have them both forgive each other for being asshats, but no, they both still believe they're right. They just want to work past it on some level. (On another level...they both still think they're right. It's their constant power struggle all over again.) (Maybe that was it...Adama realized that without Roslin around, he didn't have anyone to play power games with, and he was getting bored. ;))

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

Yay for someone else who feels like I do the Sharons. Most people seem awfully keen on the new one.

And Adama would be terribly bored without Roslin - he'd have to rely on Dualla to poke him back to reality once in a while, which is not the same thing at all. :-)