I don't remember how I found this
May. 22nd, 2006 02:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenOr, I lie, and I do remember. I was reading a decent enough Firefly fanfic, and the link to the author's LJ showed a BSG-laden layout (ugh, kill me, it was Lee/Kara-themed). I scanned her journal to see if there was any good fic, and came upon an entry linking to this community, which purports to be a site for the collection of fen essays about favorite characters. Said LJ author had chosen Starbuck, which puts her in my positive column for taste, at least.
Her entry is here. Beware of spoilers through the end of season 2 of BSG.
It's nearly unreadable because it turns Starbuck into a series of cliches. She's got her surrogate father to compensate for her genetic parental problems! Well, duh. She's troubled and has low self-esteem. Okay, what? Are you sure you're talking about Kara Thrace? If the vision that immediately comes to mind is a slight Asian woman, you've mistaken Starbuck for Sharon, stupid. And then there's the inevitable Lee/Kara-shipper moment of denied reality: Starbuck and Apollo rely on each other and that means they need each other.
Like holes in the head. Starbuck and Apollo would be enemies in any other 'verse. They are co-dependent and screwed up, I grant you, but that does not make for one stable unit when they're together. Kara is not unsure of herself in relationships. Essays like this girl's pointedly ignore the fact that Starbuck goes for relationships with a directed intention that Cylons would envy. She never shies from an interaction (the surviving Adama men being somewhat of an exception to the rule); when she wants something, she tries for it. She had no family life worth mentioning? She found Zak and wanted to marry him--was going to and probably would have lasted many years in the marriage content with it.
Same thing with Sexy Mom, aka Sam Anders. He fills a niche for Starbuck, and I would argue a lot of her regrets over losing him stem from the fact that practical circumstance has kept her apart from something that she would otherwise have fought like hell for. Self-esteem issues? Does that remotely sound like Starbuck's issue? I could name many, many problems with Kara--problems with authority, fear of herself (which is so very different from low estimation of her own abilities it frakkin' hurts), arrogance, pride, and a tendency towards violence--but that's not one of them.
Ugh, why do people have to ship Starbuck? She ships herself wherever she wants. Half the problem with her and Apollo being best frenemies is that she knows he loves her, and she knows he's in denial about it, and she doesn't love him back. She counts on him as a formidable pilot (or did when he did more flying and less whining) and competant (if not exceptional) CAG, and they are "friends" in the way that geniuses like to hang together to avoid being abused by having to tolerate stupid people. It does not mean they are any more likely to like each other, just that they have more in common.
But they don't have that much in common, fangirls. Starbuck had no love growing up, true. She actively seeks it out by adopting not only a surrogate Dad (who would otherwise have been her father-in-law, so it's not really her farming out her family issues so much as not giving up on family she would have had in better times), tolerates her screwed-up pseudo-brothers (Helo, Apollo), and mothers as much as she is able (and in her own distinct way) the pilots under her command (little wonder Kara's terrified of having kids of her own, given the way Kat turns out, eh?).
Apollo is her polar-frakkin'-opposite. He had a family. Sure, Daddy Adama is made to be a bit distant, but all that we hear about his supposed "coldness" comes straight from the jackass'--excuse me, Apollo's--mouth. We're told that Daddy Adama stressed the necessity of his sons being in the military for them to be men. How is this abuse? How is this his withholding his love? Yes, it's limiting and intimidating, but you can either challenge him on it and prove your "manhood" in another path and let Poppa sink or swim with the tide, or you can do what he wants for you to be a man and see if it's not the right thing for you (if it isn't, there's always the first option to return to). What does Apollo do? NEITHER. Weanie. He goes on to be a Viper pilot and sits and moans about it and how unfair it is that he was goaded into it. You chose it, dude. Also, you have a birth mother, a step-mother, and a step-father by miniseries start. Do none of these other parental figures matter because they do not provide you ANGST? What's wrong with you could be fixed with a bitch-slap. Which is why you like Kara--because you know you need it.
But seriously, could you imagine worse life companions than these two together? She wants to form a family and be loved; he runs from personal responsibility and obligation. When they're together, the roles flip-flop and they behave completely differently--Starbuck's doing her best to keep Apollo at a sexual-physical distance and keep him as "brother" and Apollo wants to have her in everyway that he possibly can. When the person you want makes you act completely opposite your usual inclination, even if that's better, more emotionally healthy and responsible (as it is for Lee), it's still not right. You can't rely on one person to make you be better. You have to change for yourself, not for someone else.
Sheesh. I am ranting about fandom again. What a surprise. Maybe it's just that I am a tad defensive of my girl Starbuck. She's entirely too awesome for fen. She's like what Aeryn Sun could have been if they'd toned down the angst in Farscape. I cannot believe I just said Starbuck was less angsty than anyone, but there you are...
Her entry is here. Beware of spoilers through the end of season 2 of BSG.
It's nearly unreadable because it turns Starbuck into a series of cliches. She's got her surrogate father to compensate for her genetic parental problems! Well, duh. She's troubled and has low self-esteem. Okay, what? Are you sure you're talking about Kara Thrace? If the vision that immediately comes to mind is a slight Asian woman, you've mistaken Starbuck for Sharon, stupid. And then there's the inevitable Lee/Kara-shipper moment of denied reality: Starbuck and Apollo rely on each other and that means they need each other.
Like holes in the head. Starbuck and Apollo would be enemies in any other 'verse. They are co-dependent and screwed up, I grant you, but that does not make for one stable unit when they're together. Kara is not unsure of herself in relationships. Essays like this girl's pointedly ignore the fact that Starbuck goes for relationships with a directed intention that Cylons would envy. She never shies from an interaction (the surviving Adama men being somewhat of an exception to the rule); when she wants something, she tries for it. She had no family life worth mentioning? She found Zak and wanted to marry him--was going to and probably would have lasted many years in the marriage content with it.
Same thing with Sexy Mom, aka Sam Anders. He fills a niche for Starbuck, and I would argue a lot of her regrets over losing him stem from the fact that practical circumstance has kept her apart from something that she would otherwise have fought like hell for. Self-esteem issues? Does that remotely sound like Starbuck's issue? I could name many, many problems with Kara--problems with authority, fear of herself (which is so very different from low estimation of her own abilities it frakkin' hurts), arrogance, pride, and a tendency towards violence--but that's not one of them.
Ugh, why do people have to ship Starbuck? She ships herself wherever she wants. Half the problem with her and Apollo being best frenemies is that she knows he loves her, and she knows he's in denial about it, and she doesn't love him back. She counts on him as a formidable pilot (or did when he did more flying and less whining) and competant (if not exceptional) CAG, and they are "friends" in the way that geniuses like to hang together to avoid being abused by having to tolerate stupid people. It does not mean they are any more likely to like each other, just that they have more in common.
But they don't have that much in common, fangirls. Starbuck had no love growing up, true. She actively seeks it out by adopting not only a surrogate Dad (who would otherwise have been her father-in-law, so it's not really her farming out her family issues so much as not giving up on family she would have had in better times), tolerates her screwed-up pseudo-brothers (Helo, Apollo), and mothers as much as she is able (and in her own distinct way) the pilots under her command (little wonder Kara's terrified of having kids of her own, given the way Kat turns out, eh?).
Apollo is her polar-frakkin'-opposite. He had a family. Sure, Daddy Adama is made to be a bit distant, but all that we hear about his supposed "coldness" comes straight from the jackass'--excuse me, Apollo's--mouth. We're told that Daddy Adama stressed the necessity of his sons being in the military for them to be men. How is this abuse? How is this his withholding his love? Yes, it's limiting and intimidating, but you can either challenge him on it and prove your "manhood" in another path and let Poppa sink or swim with the tide, or you can do what he wants for you to be a man and see if it's not the right thing for you (if it isn't, there's always the first option to return to). What does Apollo do? NEITHER. Weanie. He goes on to be a Viper pilot and sits and moans about it and how unfair it is that he was goaded into it. You chose it, dude. Also, you have a birth mother, a step-mother, and a step-father by miniseries start. Do none of these other parental figures matter because they do not provide you ANGST? What's wrong with you could be fixed with a bitch-slap. Which is why you like Kara--because you know you need it.
But seriously, could you imagine worse life companions than these two together? She wants to form a family and be loved; he runs from personal responsibility and obligation. When they're together, the roles flip-flop and they behave completely differently--Starbuck's doing her best to keep Apollo at a sexual-physical distance and keep him as "brother" and Apollo wants to have her in everyway that he possibly can. When the person you want makes you act completely opposite your usual inclination, even if that's better, more emotionally healthy and responsible (as it is for Lee), it's still not right. You can't rely on one person to make you be better. You have to change for yourself, not for someone else.
Sheesh. I am ranting about fandom again. What a surprise. Maybe it's just that I am a tad defensive of my girl Starbuck. She's entirely too awesome for fen. She's like what Aeryn Sun could have been if they'd toned down the angst in Farscape. I cannot believe I just said Starbuck was less angsty than anyone, but there you are...
