BSG Finale
Apr. 2nd, 2009 08:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadydaveARRGH THE FINALE FILLS ME WITH RAAAAAAAAAAGE ::crushes walnuts::
I actually really liked the first hour or so. The bits with Galactica falling apart were touching and sad, and the Cylon colony was pretty cool (even though I don't really know why the black hole basically looked like God puked on the screen). I liked most of the flashbacks: Baltar's dad and Zak Adama were AWESOME, Roslin's made a lot of sense with her weird dreams with Elosha earlier this season, and Tigh randomly going "RAAAAAAAAHHHH!" in strip joints will never not be funny. The raid was exciting, and I really liked how the Opera House turned out to be Galactica -- it's nice and symbolic, even if they didn't spell it out onscreen. I like how the faily Dylan cover finally meant something.
And then it all went to crap.
Well, no. I was really glad Roslin got to one up Moses and actually land on Earth Take Two, and I was amused by Baltar having to be a farmer again. I was especially glad Helo didn't die. I thought it was pretty cool they let the Centurions go.
The rest of it? KIND OF SHIT.
Where to start?
MILDLY ANNOYING
- I didn't MIND the plot of Anders becoming a hybrid and finally putting his talent to lose half his forces to good use by leading the spaceship half of the fleet into the sun, but it lacked a lot of emotional resonance because when I think of people emotionally attached to the Galactica, Anders name is nowhere near the top of the list. Adama crying over spilled paint was sad. Lee flipping out at the fleet parceling up the Galactica before she was even gone was sad (yet awesome). Of the Final Five, I think this would have been more meaningful if it had been Tigh or the Chief, who devoted so much of their lives to the Galactica. Or if we had gotten a sense that Anders had cared about the ship. Or if we had gotten a sense that Anders' secret dream was to fly. SOMETHING.
RAAAAAAAAAAGE ::CRUSHES MORE WALNUTS::
- WTF PREHISTORIC EARTH. This is only really a plot twist in that I didn't think they would actually USE this point from the original series BECAUSE IT IS SUPER LAME. CHARIOTS OF THE GODS CRAP STOPPED BEING AWESOME THIRTY YEARS AGO. IT'S LIKE GOING, "WHOA, THIS PERSON HAS AN OEDIPAL COMPLEX! SHOCK AND HORROR!" ALSO, YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER USE THE SAME PLOT TWIST FROM PUMA MAN.
- SERIOUSLY. PUMA MAN.
- WTF EVERYONE IS ALONE. One of the reasons I loved BSG so much when I first started watching was because everyone had such interesting and compelling relationships with everyone else. But no, the only ones that count are your romantic ones, so Adama is alone because he lost Roslin, Lee is alone because Starbuck disappeared (AND WHAT THE FUCK, SHE COULDN'T EVEN HOLD OFF BLIPPING AWAY UNTIL SHE SAID GOODBYE TO HER BFF/OTP??!?!?!?!?!), Helo has Athena and Hera so clearly he won't mind either that he doesn't get to say goodbye to his best friend, the Chief is alone because Boomer and Cally are dead and Nicky isn't actually his son so CLEARLY they can't be a family because they're not related, and Tigh and Ellen go off for a happily ever after because OBVIOUSLY their relationship is SO HEALTHY and LOVE will be enough to get them through, despite the fact that Ellen spent an entire episode shouting that Tigh's soulmate was ADAMA. Ok, I understand why the Chief might want to be a Scottish hermit, BUT WHY THE HELL CAN'T EVERYONE ELSE BE NEIGHBORS? I GUESS THE BEST IDEA WHEN SETTLING A NEW PLANET IS TO ABANDON YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY IF YOU CAN'T MANAGE TO HOLD ON TO YOUR TWU WUV.
- WTF LUDDITES. The only reason there is ANYONE even LEFT ALIVE is because they were on SPACESHIPS. And the reason the Galactica made it was because Adama used technology RESPONSIBLY, not because he gave up on technology COMPLETELY. And one of the things that kept the fleet together was that they tried to remain a civilization. It was hard, and they had to adapt their government, and they didn't always succeed, but they TRIED and were pretty successful -- they never reached the inhumanity of the Pegasus, for example. But NO, let's just chuck it all over and scatter across the world and live like primitive humans, because nothing says peace, tolerance, and acceptance like CAVEMEN.
- WTF GOD. You can't just point at every unexplained loose end and go "God did it!"!!!!! EVEN THE VICTORIANS HAD MORE RESTRAINT THAN THAT. All those mysterious visions, where we were unsure if they were visions or the delusional ramblings of an insane mind, raising interesting questions about faith and pragmatism and unreliable narrators? They were 100% accurate God-given prophecy. ALSO, THANKS A WHOLE BUNCH FOR HAVING THE REPRESENTATIVES OF GOD BE CREEPY HALLUCINATIONS AND THE FLEET'S CHAMPION FRAK-UP, THAT REALLY MAKES FAITH SEEM LIKE AN ATTRACTIVE OPTION. NOT TO MENTION THE WHOLE MULTIPLE GENOCIDES AS PUNISHMENT ISSUE, CLEARLY EVERYONE IS REALLY UP TO DATE ON CURRENT MONOTHEISTIC BELIEFS.
- PS MUCH AS I LOVE BOB DYLAN, HIS MUSIC IS NOT ACTUALLY DIVINE.
- PPS ALSO I'M GLAD THAT YOU ESTABLISHED THAT FREE WILL IS BUNK AND EVERYTHING IS DESTINY, INCLUDING MAKING RETARDED DECISIONS TO GET RID OF YOUR TECHNOLOGY SO THE SAME ISSUE CAN COME UP THOUSANDS OF YEARS LATER.
- PPPS WHY DOES GOD HATE LEE SO MUCH? HE HAD TO SPEND THE ENTIRE EPISODE WITH ACE RIMMER HAIR, AND THEN HE LOSES THE THREE THINGS MOST IMPORTANT TO HIM: HIS DAD, STARBUCK, AND DEMOCRACY. AND ALL HE GETS IS THE SYMBOLIC MEMORY THAT SOMETIMES, YOU BREAK A TON OF STUFF TRYING TO GET RID OF A PIGEON, AND THEN IT GOES AWAY BY ITSELF, AND ALL YOU'RE LEFT WITH IS A TRASHED APARTMENT COVERED IN PIGEON CRAP. AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE LIFE JUST SUCKS, BECAUSE GOD IS TOTALLY AN ACTIVE FORCE. HE JUST HATES YOU EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE AWESOME.
But really, my biggest problem is that, going by all of this, BSG contradicted and/or rendered moot what seemed to be its message: you have to take responsibility for your actions. Adama first stated it in the miniseries, and since then, it's been the basis of the Fleet's struggle to prove they are worthy for survival and maintain their humanity and the Cylons' realization that they have to hold themselves to the same standards to which they held the humans, and it finally came out that the answer to "All this has happened before" CAN be "But it doesn't have to happen again": everyone has the power to learn from their mistakes and make different decisions. But the bad Cylons kill themselves rather than figure out a way to survive without resurrection, the rebel Cylons and humans just get rid of their tech so it's some future generation's problem, and it turns out God was directly interfering the entire time. Instead of keeping a message that's applicable today and in the future, like the best sci fi, we're presented, in the very last scene of Battlestar Galactica EVER, with the moral that you shouldn't build killer robots or God will smite you.
It's stupid, which pretty much stomps on everything I ever loved about BSG.
And that is why I will hate the finale for ever.
I actually really liked the first hour or so. The bits with Galactica falling apart were touching and sad, and the Cylon colony was pretty cool (even though I don't really know why the black hole basically looked like God puked on the screen). I liked most of the flashbacks: Baltar's dad and Zak Adama were AWESOME, Roslin's made a lot of sense with her weird dreams with Elosha earlier this season, and Tigh randomly going "RAAAAAAAAHHHH!" in strip joints will never not be funny. The raid was exciting, and I really liked how the Opera House turned out to be Galactica -- it's nice and symbolic, even if they didn't spell it out onscreen. I like how the faily Dylan cover finally meant something.
And then it all went to crap.
Well, no. I was really glad Roslin got to one up Moses and actually land on Earth Take Two, and I was amused by Baltar having to be a farmer again. I was especially glad Helo didn't die. I thought it was pretty cool they let the Centurions go.
The rest of it? KIND OF SHIT.
Where to start?
MILDLY ANNOYING
- I didn't MIND the plot of Anders becoming a hybrid and finally putting his talent to lose half his forces to good use by leading the spaceship half of the fleet into the sun, but it lacked a lot of emotional resonance because when I think of people emotionally attached to the Galactica, Anders name is nowhere near the top of the list. Adama crying over spilled paint was sad. Lee flipping out at the fleet parceling up the Galactica before she was even gone was sad (yet awesome). Of the Final Five, I think this would have been more meaningful if it had been Tigh or the Chief, who devoted so much of their lives to the Galactica. Or if we had gotten a sense that Anders had cared about the ship. Or if we had gotten a sense that Anders' secret dream was to fly. SOMETHING.
RAAAAAAAAAAGE ::CRUSHES MORE WALNUTS::
- WTF PREHISTORIC EARTH. This is only really a plot twist in that I didn't think they would actually USE this point from the original series BECAUSE IT IS SUPER LAME. CHARIOTS OF THE GODS CRAP STOPPED BEING AWESOME THIRTY YEARS AGO. IT'S LIKE GOING, "WHOA, THIS PERSON HAS AN OEDIPAL COMPLEX! SHOCK AND HORROR!" ALSO, YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER, EVER USE THE SAME PLOT TWIST FROM PUMA MAN.
- SERIOUSLY. PUMA MAN.
- WTF EVERYONE IS ALONE. One of the reasons I loved BSG so much when I first started watching was because everyone had such interesting and compelling relationships with everyone else. But no, the only ones that count are your romantic ones, so Adama is alone because he lost Roslin, Lee is alone because Starbuck disappeared (AND WHAT THE FUCK, SHE COULDN'T EVEN HOLD OFF BLIPPING AWAY UNTIL SHE SAID GOODBYE TO HER BFF/OTP??!?!?!?!?!), Helo has Athena and Hera so clearly he won't mind either that he doesn't get to say goodbye to his best friend, the Chief is alone because Boomer and Cally are dead and Nicky isn't actually his son so CLEARLY they can't be a family because they're not related, and Tigh and Ellen go off for a happily ever after because OBVIOUSLY their relationship is SO HEALTHY and LOVE will be enough to get them through, despite the fact that Ellen spent an entire episode shouting that Tigh's soulmate was ADAMA. Ok, I understand why the Chief might want to be a Scottish hermit, BUT WHY THE HELL CAN'T EVERYONE ELSE BE NEIGHBORS? I GUESS THE BEST IDEA WHEN SETTLING A NEW PLANET IS TO ABANDON YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY IF YOU CAN'T MANAGE TO HOLD ON TO YOUR TWU WUV.
- WTF LUDDITES. The only reason there is ANYONE even LEFT ALIVE is because they were on SPACESHIPS. And the reason the Galactica made it was because Adama used technology RESPONSIBLY, not because he gave up on technology COMPLETELY. And one of the things that kept the fleet together was that they tried to remain a civilization. It was hard, and they had to adapt their government, and they didn't always succeed, but they TRIED and were pretty successful -- they never reached the inhumanity of the Pegasus, for example. But NO, let's just chuck it all over and scatter across the world and live like primitive humans, because nothing says peace, tolerance, and acceptance like CAVEMEN.
- WTF GOD. You can't just point at every unexplained loose end and go "God did it!"!!!!! EVEN THE VICTORIANS HAD MORE RESTRAINT THAN THAT. All those mysterious visions, where we were unsure if they were visions or the delusional ramblings of an insane mind, raising interesting questions about faith and pragmatism and unreliable narrators? They were 100% accurate God-given prophecy. ALSO, THANKS A WHOLE BUNCH FOR HAVING THE REPRESENTATIVES OF GOD BE CREEPY HALLUCINATIONS AND THE FLEET'S CHAMPION FRAK-UP, THAT REALLY MAKES FAITH SEEM LIKE AN ATTRACTIVE OPTION. NOT TO MENTION THE WHOLE MULTIPLE GENOCIDES AS PUNISHMENT ISSUE, CLEARLY EVERYONE IS REALLY UP TO DATE ON CURRENT MONOTHEISTIC BELIEFS.
- PS MUCH AS I LOVE BOB DYLAN, HIS MUSIC IS NOT ACTUALLY DIVINE.
- PPS ALSO I'M GLAD THAT YOU ESTABLISHED THAT FREE WILL IS BUNK AND EVERYTHING IS DESTINY, INCLUDING MAKING RETARDED DECISIONS TO GET RID OF YOUR TECHNOLOGY SO THE SAME ISSUE CAN COME UP THOUSANDS OF YEARS LATER.
- PPPS WHY DOES GOD HATE LEE SO MUCH? HE HAD TO SPEND THE ENTIRE EPISODE WITH ACE RIMMER HAIR, AND THEN HE LOSES THE THREE THINGS MOST IMPORTANT TO HIM: HIS DAD, STARBUCK, AND DEMOCRACY. AND ALL HE GETS IS THE SYMBOLIC MEMORY THAT SOMETIMES, YOU BREAK A TON OF STUFF TRYING TO GET RID OF A PIGEON, AND THEN IT GOES AWAY BY ITSELF, AND ALL YOU'RE LEFT WITH IS A TRASHED APARTMENT COVERED IN PIGEON CRAP. AND IT'S NOT BECAUSE LIFE JUST SUCKS, BECAUSE GOD IS TOTALLY AN ACTIVE FORCE. HE JUST HATES YOU EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE AWESOME.
But really, my biggest problem is that, going by all of this, BSG contradicted and/or rendered moot what seemed to be its message: you have to take responsibility for your actions. Adama first stated it in the miniseries, and since then, it's been the basis of the Fleet's struggle to prove they are worthy for survival and maintain their humanity and the Cylons' realization that they have to hold themselves to the same standards to which they held the humans, and it finally came out that the answer to "All this has happened before" CAN be "But it doesn't have to happen again": everyone has the power to learn from their mistakes and make different decisions. But the bad Cylons kill themselves rather than figure out a way to survive without resurrection, the rebel Cylons and humans just get rid of their tech so it's some future generation's problem, and it turns out God was directly interfering the entire time. Instead of keeping a message that's applicable today and in the future, like the best sci fi, we're presented, in the very last scene of Battlestar Galactica EVER, with the moral that you shouldn't build killer robots or God will smite you.
It's stupid, which pretty much stomps on everything I ever loved about BSG.
And that is why I will hate the finale for ever.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-02 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-07 05:58 pm (UTC)What a guy!
Date: 2009-04-07 10:10 pm (UTC)Go to the 5:00 minute mark :D