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trinityvixenWhat's even the point of dissecting this? Was there any ending that might have satisfied me? Yes, back before this season began. If the series ended with the half season, it would have been better. No answers are better than the answers we got.
Problem the first: God.
I said it before, I'll say it again: it defeats the strength and purpose of faith to say that God really does exist. It is also fucking insulting, grandiose, and arrogant that "He doesn't like to be called that" comes right as the Angels of God are staring over Ron Moore's shoulder. For Ron Moore is our God. GET IT?
Faith is a test of will--the will to believe in the greater, the belief that "this is not all that we are." But if we have proof, belief requires no effort. Having the answers makes for lazy people because they do not have to seek the answers. I think the show used to be better about this, that the question of faith in the beyond versus responsibility to the real was never decided one way or another. But, no, it was God. Sigh.
Problem the second: Technology is inherently evil.
I mean, what other conclusion are we to take from humanity and Cylons both rejecting all technology--either abandoning, forcibly destroying it, or banishing it forever to the coldness of space? But that's a bullshit answer. After all these years of examining Cylon consciousness and society, we've only really determined that any creature with free will can be evil. Anyone with a will to act makes a choice to be good or be bad. Morality is not determined by your innards; technology does not automatically improve or hinder your ability to be a moral person.
This totally invalidates the march towards equality and the merging of Cylon and human societies to go, "Actually, technology is the root of all problems, throw rocks at it." (Rocks, please note, count as tech to the substantially de-evolved species.) There's also the falseness of rejecting technology as a means to prevent the cycle of violence from repeating. Technological progression can be halted and even reversed, but as a trend, as shown on this show, it is an inevitable progression. By repudiating technology, the Colonials and the Cylons lose any chance to learn how to use it responsibly. It remains a taboo, and taboos don't exactly promote healthy, open, moral relationships.
Problem the third: The cycle is not broken. Or is it?
What does the ending mean? The Angels are noticing what I did above: technology is an insidious force, and it cannot be suppressed forever. The challenge is to use it responsibly, not to abandon it and hope that it goes away. So, naturally, New Earth (our Earth?) is back to being everything the stupid Colonials thought they could forever escape. Will they make the same mistakes all over again? No, of course not! Ron Moore has educated us about the importance of being nice to robots! Or something.
All I see is that this has happened before, and I don't see how it's any different or any less likely to happen again. Kobol was a retrograde planet; it got better tech; there was a war; the people left and went to ground on the Colonies. The Colonies started rough; they got better tech; the tech turned on them; they went out into space dependent on retrograde technology... To me, the Colonials going native on New Earth isn't exactly a break with history. So not only are they unnecessarily demonizing the technology that granted them their allies and kept them alive this long in the first place, but they're repeating the exact same errors as before.
Unless God has taught us well enough that we don't repeat our mistakes! I found that ending sort of awfully moralistic--"Don't do the wrong thing!"--while simultaneously feeling totally hopeless since the failure of the Colonial plan to revert is evident in the fact that we have all this tech right now. We're being told what not to do, but not the right thing not to do (which is not tomistreat technology, not to not make it), and we're also seeing how hopeless it is to assume we'll be able to avoid that fate. Blow me, Ron Moore.
Problem the fourth: Starbuck
I'm sure that Ron Moore will give us all the definitive answer, but what the fuck, really? Has she been an Angel this whole time? A mass hallucination who, herself, hallucinated? Angels don't even know they're Angels like Cylons can not know if they're Cylons? What's the point? Remember when she was cool? Just a pilot with problems? Now she's an Angel. Or a mass delusion. Oh, and she wasn't ever cool. Actually? She and Apollo were disgusting from minute one. Thanks for that, show.
Problem the fifth: Making Cylons useless.
It ought to be a crime that fully half the Cylons that ever existed were good for nothing. This is the last showdown between humanity and Cylons, after which they must integrate or die. All of them should be there to make the choice. D'Anna opted out, fine. She had her reasons. Leoben shouldn't have been a no-show except for rubber stamping the Six/Eight decisions. Simon and Doral needed to take their characters back from being warts on Cavil's ass. Daniel should not have been introduced so late only to mean nothing. And the Final Five? Anders entirely undone, no emotional resolution to the tension exploited for the first half season, never allowed to make a decision, sent to die. Tory--never a character in the first place, but when she did anything, it was whorish and evil, and now she's dead. (Because we can't forgive women who make bad choices.) Galen's gone off to be a hermit because he's even worse at being with people than Boomer.
Of course, my real grudge about the marginalization of any, let alone 3/5s of the Final Five is the loss of thousands of years of experience. If anyone was going to lead the charge to integrating (the key, to my mind, to stop the cycle of violence), it was them. They saw how abusing others is a no-no first hand. We lose all of their experiences so that Sam can be a God (and then dead). We never learn any of what he knew, and he knew everything. Ellen is the only one who remembers Earth, now. But there was no time to ever use that knowledge. She was too busy being a catty bitch to Caprica to actually try and forge the peace that she and the others left Earth for in the first place. And that's probably lost when she dies.
I was so pissed when Galen's little shit fit about a wife he no longer seemed to care about (if he ever did) cost the peace. Because technology is evil, and better it not exist. I don't buy it. Half of me wanted humanity to come around to the Cylon point of view the way Natalie and her rebels came around to see mortality as a moral good. If the Final Fiver were born, originally, that implies that it's possible to resurrect humanity. All peoples with resurrection tech would mean murder would cease to be a weapon again. That wouldn't be a bad way to stop violence on the extinction level. Not great, mind, but it would give everyone time to finally fucking get along.
But that couldn't happen. Because it would make Hera obsolete. God forbid.
Problem the sixth: There's always another planet if you blow yours up.
Which your Angel-pilot-as-was magically knows where it is. YAY GOD.
Problem the seventh: Nobody dies, not really. Not important people.
They were already dead, they just didn't know it yet. Also, the only ones who "died" and had names: Roslin, Boomer, Tory, Starbuck. Do we really want to get into this? As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bigscary pointed out, thank the One True God for the white male brigade who will save us all!
This was the chance to hit us up with some dramatic deaths. No such doing. The only people who died were those who were dying (Roslin) or who've had it coming since before this half season began (Boomer, Tory). Or people you didn't know were really dead the whole time. (Starbuck. Oh, fucking Hell.)
Problem the eighth: the flashbacks
Aside from learning the means through which Caprica ingratiated herself with Baltar in the first place, they told us nothing. I could have died without seeing Adama vomit on himself. Or a Caprican strip club. Or Lee and Kara being fucking disgusting. Remember when they weren't? (WRONG.)
Problem the ninth: Appointing "that guy" and "that other guy" to run the military and the government.
Hoshi. Lampkin. Because that makes sense. The guy who dated the lead mutineer and the crazy lawyer who sees dead cats. Doc Cottle was still with the Fleet. He's a damn sight better of a leader than Hoshi. Were none of those ship captains available to lead the government?
Problem the tenth: There never was a plan.
This is the most damning problem of all. Because there were good things that could have been done if Ron Moore and the rest had ever bothered to write more than half a season in advance. They knew for over a year that they were going to have one last season. They knew. The writers' strike caused trouble, but then they had almost as long again to figure out what to do. Even if they only planned half a season at a time, they had time to figure out what to do. They didn't. Don't let the preview for the new movie fool you: no one ever had a plan. And that was obvious from the first few episodes of this half season, such that any attempt to form a coherent story from the results is just wank. And believe me, I've tried to wank this into making sense. All that happens is that it makes less sense and the lack of planning becomes that much more coherent.
Besides which, the wank the show didn't go with made more sense--half-Cylon Starbuck versus Angel Starbuck, for example. But because someone else had ever thought of it, they decided they couldn't do it. Fuck that noise. I'm done.
I have decided, in light of this ending, that, for me, the show ends at the first 10 episodes of season four. I prefer incomplete answers to the ones given. I'm hoping that, in time, with having only watched each episode of this half season once, I will be able to forget it and be happy with what came before. This is the same strategy I've tried applying to The Matrix and its sequels; in time, the stupidity will be lost in my memory and I can enjoy what came before without hating what was done to it. It's not working, but I can hope. Maybe it's just not yet to that part of God's plan where I can forget this idiocy.
Problem the first: God.
I said it before, I'll say it again: it defeats the strength and purpose of faith to say that God really does exist. It is also fucking insulting, grandiose, and arrogant that "He doesn't like to be called that" comes right as the Angels of God are staring over Ron Moore's shoulder. For Ron Moore is our God. GET IT?
Faith is a test of will--the will to believe in the greater, the belief that "this is not all that we are." But if we have proof, belief requires no effort. Having the answers makes for lazy people because they do not have to seek the answers. I think the show used to be better about this, that the question of faith in the beyond versus responsibility to the real was never decided one way or another. But, no, it was God. Sigh.
Problem the second: Technology is inherently evil.
I mean, what other conclusion are we to take from humanity and Cylons both rejecting all technology--either abandoning, forcibly destroying it, or banishing it forever to the coldness of space? But that's a bullshit answer. After all these years of examining Cylon consciousness and society, we've only really determined that any creature with free will can be evil. Anyone with a will to act makes a choice to be good or be bad. Morality is not determined by your innards; technology does not automatically improve or hinder your ability to be a moral person.
This totally invalidates the march towards equality and the merging of Cylon and human societies to go, "Actually, technology is the root of all problems, throw rocks at it." (Rocks, please note, count as tech to the substantially de-evolved species.) There's also the falseness of rejecting technology as a means to prevent the cycle of violence from repeating. Technological progression can be halted and even reversed, but as a trend, as shown on this show, it is an inevitable progression. By repudiating technology, the Colonials and the Cylons lose any chance to learn how to use it responsibly. It remains a taboo, and taboos don't exactly promote healthy, open, moral relationships.
Problem the third: The cycle is not broken. Or is it?
What does the ending mean? The Angels are noticing what I did above: technology is an insidious force, and it cannot be suppressed forever. The challenge is to use it responsibly, not to abandon it and hope that it goes away. So, naturally, New Earth (our Earth?) is back to being everything the stupid Colonials thought they could forever escape. Will they make the same mistakes all over again? No, of course not! Ron Moore has educated us about the importance of being nice to robots! Or something.
All I see is that this has happened before, and I don't see how it's any different or any less likely to happen again. Kobol was a retrograde planet; it got better tech; there was a war; the people left and went to ground on the Colonies. The Colonies started rough; they got better tech; the tech turned on them; they went out into space dependent on retrograde technology... To me, the Colonials going native on New Earth isn't exactly a break with history. So not only are they unnecessarily demonizing the technology that granted them their allies and kept them alive this long in the first place, but they're repeating the exact same errors as before.
Unless God has taught us well enough that we don't repeat our mistakes! I found that ending sort of awfully moralistic--"Don't do the wrong thing!"--while simultaneously feeling totally hopeless since the failure of the Colonial plan to revert is evident in the fact that we have all this tech right now. We're being told what not to do, but not the right thing not to do (which is not tomistreat technology, not to not make it), and we're also seeing how hopeless it is to assume we'll be able to avoid that fate. Blow me, Ron Moore.
Problem the fourth: Starbuck
I'm sure that Ron Moore will give us all the definitive answer, but what the fuck, really? Has she been an Angel this whole time? A mass hallucination who, herself, hallucinated? Angels don't even know they're Angels like Cylons can not know if they're Cylons? What's the point? Remember when she was cool? Just a pilot with problems? Now she's an Angel. Or a mass delusion. Oh, and she wasn't ever cool. Actually? She and Apollo were disgusting from minute one. Thanks for that, show.
Problem the fifth: Making Cylons useless.
It ought to be a crime that fully half the Cylons that ever existed were good for nothing. This is the last showdown between humanity and Cylons, after which they must integrate or die. All of them should be there to make the choice. D'Anna opted out, fine. She had her reasons. Leoben shouldn't have been a no-show except for rubber stamping the Six/Eight decisions. Simon and Doral needed to take their characters back from being warts on Cavil's ass. Daniel should not have been introduced so late only to mean nothing. And the Final Five? Anders entirely undone, no emotional resolution to the tension exploited for the first half season, never allowed to make a decision, sent to die. Tory--never a character in the first place, but when she did anything, it was whorish and evil, and now she's dead. (Because we can't forgive women who make bad choices.) Galen's gone off to be a hermit because he's even worse at being with people than Boomer.
Of course, my real grudge about the marginalization of any, let alone 3/5s of the Final Five is the loss of thousands of years of experience. If anyone was going to lead the charge to integrating (the key, to my mind, to stop the cycle of violence), it was them. They saw how abusing others is a no-no first hand. We lose all of their experiences so that Sam can be a God (and then dead). We never learn any of what he knew, and he knew everything. Ellen is the only one who remembers Earth, now. But there was no time to ever use that knowledge. She was too busy being a catty bitch to Caprica to actually try and forge the peace that she and the others left Earth for in the first place. And that's probably lost when she dies.
I was so pissed when Galen's little shit fit about a wife he no longer seemed to care about (if he ever did) cost the peace. Because technology is evil, and better it not exist. I don't buy it. Half of me wanted humanity to come around to the Cylon point of view the way Natalie and her rebels came around to see mortality as a moral good. If the Final Fiver were born, originally, that implies that it's possible to resurrect humanity. All peoples with resurrection tech would mean murder would cease to be a weapon again. That wouldn't be a bad way to stop violence on the extinction level. Not great, mind, but it would give everyone time to finally fucking get along.
But that couldn't happen. Because it would make Hera obsolete. God forbid.
Problem the sixth: There's always another planet if you blow yours up.
Which your Angel-pilot-as-was magically knows where it is. YAY GOD.
Problem the seventh: Nobody dies, not really. Not important people.
They were already dead, they just didn't know it yet. Also, the only ones who "died" and had names: Roslin, Boomer, Tory, Starbuck. Do we really want to get into this? As
bigscary pointed out, thank the One True God for the white male brigade who will save us all!This was the chance to hit us up with some dramatic deaths. No such doing. The only people who died were those who were dying (Roslin) or who've had it coming since before this half season began (Boomer, Tory). Or people you didn't know were really dead the whole time. (Starbuck. Oh, fucking Hell.)
Problem the eighth: the flashbacks
Aside from learning the means through which Caprica ingratiated herself with Baltar in the first place, they told us nothing. I could have died without seeing Adama vomit on himself. Or a Caprican strip club. Or Lee and Kara being fucking disgusting. Remember when they weren't? (WRONG.)
Problem the ninth: Appointing "that guy" and "that other guy" to run the military and the government.
Hoshi. Lampkin. Because that makes sense. The guy who dated the lead mutineer and the crazy lawyer who sees dead cats. Doc Cottle was still with the Fleet. He's a damn sight better of a leader than Hoshi. Were none of those ship captains available to lead the government?
Problem the tenth: There never was a plan.
This is the most damning problem of all. Because there were good things that could have been done if Ron Moore and the rest had ever bothered to write more than half a season in advance. They knew for over a year that they were going to have one last season. They knew. The writers' strike caused trouble, but then they had almost as long again to figure out what to do. Even if they only planned half a season at a time, they had time to figure out what to do. They didn't. Don't let the preview for the new movie fool you: no one ever had a plan. And that was obvious from the first few episodes of this half season, such that any attempt to form a coherent story from the results is just wank. And believe me, I've tried to wank this into making sense. All that happens is that it makes less sense and the lack of planning becomes that much more coherent.
Besides which, the wank the show didn't go with made more sense--half-Cylon Starbuck versus Angel Starbuck, for example. But because someone else had ever thought of it, they decided they couldn't do it. Fuck that noise. I'm done.
I have decided, in light of this ending, that, for me, the show ends at the first 10 episodes of season four. I prefer incomplete answers to the ones given. I'm hoping that, in time, with having only watched each episode of this half season once, I will be able to forget it and be happy with what came before. This is the same strategy I've tried applying to The Matrix and its sequels; in time, the stupidity will be lost in my memory and I can enjoy what came before without hating what was done to it. It's not working, but I can hope. Maybe it's just not yet to that part of God's plan where I can forget this idiocy.
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Date: 2009-03-21 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-21 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-22 06:42 pm (UTC)I believe there is no canon ending. I'm thinking of several points where this show could have diverged to be more powerful and have harder consequences, and I'll post about it later. But yeah, any other canon is better than this...