(no subject)

[trinityvixen]

This is Battlestar Galactica-related. If you don't want to read it, feel free to comment on my shirt-buying needs or the fact that even women hate women in South Dakota.

After rewatching the season three premiere again with feiran last night, I realized she was yet another to express dislike for Cally. Why do people not like Cally? I can honestly say there isn't anyone on Battlestar Galactica that I dislike. I find things that people do alternately heroic and abhorrent (usually in the same episode), but I can't ever stay mad at them or stay in love with them.

Cally is, admittedly, a tad one-note on a show with serious depth to each and every character, but, honestly, I find her no better no worse than, say, someone like Jammer, who's doing the archetypal foot-in-both-worlds double- and triple-agent walk. What about Duck? The emotional wreck with nothing better to live for after the loss of his wife (contrast, to, say Kara, who lost Zak and yet kept on going, maybe not entirely healthily, but she didn't stop living when he did). Saying a character fills one purpose (in-bed-with-the-Devil Jammer again) doesn't mean they're dislikeable.

And the actress playing Cally isn't terrible. She's as good as any other minor on the show, at least. Why hate her? Why hate anyone on Battlestar Galactica? I mean, I haaaaaated Kat for the entire length of "Scar," and, yes, she still annoys me, but I confess I don't actually hate her. She's grown up a frakkin' lot since taking over as CAG, and she's gotten scarily competant (as opposed to hot-sticking it to Starbuck; it mirrors Starbuck's own ability to tame herself to a command position). If I had to pick someone I disliked anywhere near what some of y'all feel for Cally, Kat would take the brunt of that, and the Dee of second half of last season would get some, too, if only for being all up in Apollo's grill about dicking around on her while she was totally doing the same thing to poor Billy. I liked what scenes she had in the premiere because they showed her as tough and honest and not necessarily unloving for it. I admire that.

The shorter version of all that is that this is a poll: who can you say you honestly don't like on Battlestar Galactica? If you can name one, I'll be majorly impressed.

Comments

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Major characters I hate:
Helo. For god's sake. I don't know why everyone likes this guy. I wasn't really into him during his entire stint on Caprica, but once he got back to BSG OH MAN did he get annoying. I am sick of his whiny bullshit love crap. Hate him.
Ho!Dee. Hopefully she'll shape up, soon, but so much of what I loved about her were her interactions with Billy. Oops.

Minor characters I hate:
Kat. I will never, ever like her. She's annoying and stupid and not in a way that's actually interesting (like, say, Ellen Tigh).
Jammer. Where the fuck did he come from? I don't care about him and I'm tired of seeing him.

And I would like to defend Cally. I adore her. I have always adored her. She is a girl who got in way over her head (and it broke my heart when she said all she wanted to do was go to dental school), and has really pulled through everything. I think she changed a lot after the prisoners took her hostage and all that, but what drives her and has always driven her is her love for Chief, even before they were actually together. She has such loyalty, and it's so redeeming and crucial in this kind of world.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I liked Helo on Caprica, actually, but I feel you on being tired of his lovey-dovey stuff on the ship. He's incredibly noble and I believe he is in love, but he does better when he's expressing that with people who AREN'T CapricaBoomer. When he and the Chief are together, when he goads Starbuck about it, that's when I like Helo best.

Word about Kat, though, like I said, I mostly just ignore her. Starbuck-wannabe. Ellen Tigh is awesome. I mean, flawed, not all that bright, but tragic in her own way (she and Tigh are so perfect for each other, I'm glad they are in love actually).

I'm glad you like Cally. I do, too. She's playing the innocent, which is hard to do and not have it be sanctimonious, and I think the actress manages it. In the prison ship episode, she really impressed me, and her shooting Sharon is probably the hardest to reconcile with the rest of her behavior, since she's normally so mild, but with the prison ship episode in mind, it makes so much sense. You can only push Cally so far on what she believes and feels and then she'll react and it won't be safe for the ones assuming her innocence means a meakness that has no mettle underneath.

I still wish the issue of the Chief taking up with a) the woman he beat to a bloody pulp and b) the woman who killed his former lover had been more thoroughly addressed. I hope they get to it in flashbacks, because otherwise, it seems more like a guilt/gratitude trip on his part, and obsession on hers, and they're both better than that.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Ellen Tigh is awesome. I just love hating her. And I think it's okay that the Chief and Cally didn't get all wrapped up in that stuff. It was, by now, a long time ago, and they've both hurt each other a lot--Chief by a) beating her up and b) being visibly in a relationship with another woman while Cally obviously was in love with him; and Cally shooting Boomer. I think that only after all of that was done, after the Chief was really honest-to-goodness over Boomer, and Cally really honestly forgave him for hurting her, were they able to be together in a way that was actually productive and mutual instead of just guilt/ gratitude/ obsession/ whatever.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think one of the best scenes in last season was the Chief calmly deciding in jail and telling Helo that he gave up on Sharon. Okay, so he probably thought he was going to be executed, but I like that he came to the decision, made it in an unemotional way (so not in the heat of any particular moment), and stuck to it. He seemed so over it, really, truly over it, that when the season finale came along, I was shocked to think he wasn't (but I could believe he was still harboring doubt and guilt as a result because some part of him understood, as no one else except GalacticaSharon did, that she had no idea what she'd done).

And yay for Ellen Tigh. Favorite Ellen Tigh bit? When the lady who demanded Adama hand over CapricaSharon took over the bar, and Lee tried to sneak away, taking Ellen with him and she totally went, even though she thought he was taking her into the bathroom for hanky panky. Loved it. I love the assumption that when we don't see her, she's off catting it up, and that's okay with everyone. It's just Ellen.

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

Hahaha I still love when she RAMS her high-heel into Lee's crotch.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

::giggles:: I think she'd slipped the shoe off, actually, and was giving him the full foot rub to the balls. His reactions are priceless.