samvara

I spent the better part of the hour reading and thinking about the ideas presented in these comments. Frack, this show is so thought provoking. The layers of this show are peeled away like an onion skin  and sometimes tears get shed. 
 
I don’t know where to begin, so I’ll hop in..
 
I remember Leoben being stuck on her right from the beginning - where did that come from?
 
Let’s go back to Flesh and Bone shall we? When Adama sends Starbuck to interrogate Leoben he tells her that he needs to send someone who cannot be easily manipulated. Kara makes a joke to break her uneasiness. Her face showed she was uncomfortable and unsure if she could do it. I found her dis-ease intriguing. I wondered what that was all about. BSG does nothing randomly! At that point, Adama should have sent Lee. Leoben’s charms don’t seem to work well on men.
 
Also, one of the things I’ve noticed about Starbuck is that she wears everything on her sleeve. Early in the series, Tigh is able to push her buttons so quickly; they are transparent. Not every one sees them but the ones who do can quickly manipulate her. She and Tigh are so completely fracked *because* they can see each others demons. 
 
Leoben just looks through her despite her attempts to hide from him. He doesn’t have to know details about her, he can smell her brokenness.  “You Stink” is a fantastic opening line for their interaction.
 
She doesn’t “stink” so bad now, I bet.
 
Do you think the interest Simon took in her in The Farm was because Leoben had flagged her for his special attentions?
 
There’s something about Starbuck that makes her interesting to the Cylons.  I’m going to take a step and say it’s religious. I will take it a step further and theorize God favors Starbuck. She is integral to their survival and evolution. Six tried to kill her on sight. Simon aggressively wanted her to procreate. Boomer was a little fearful of her even though she was carrying *the* Hybrid. Starbuck softens on as time goes by. It’s a subtle transition, but it’s there. Pay close attention to her interactions with Helo after they return from Caprica.
 
Oh I almost forgot in Flesh and Bone, after Roslin shames her for torturing Leoben the first thing she plays is the religious card, anything to keep him alive and is mortified that Roslin throws him out the airlock. What’s going on there?  
 
Layers..
 
Leoben being patient screams psychopath all the way to me. He's *so* obsessed he can't even being to consider the possibility of his vision being wrong. You just -know- that Starbuck is going to hold him in her arms some time in the future, tell him she loves him and it's going to be hideously wrong and not at all what he expects.
 
I have to disagree here. I don’t find him psychopathic, rather a little on the “whoa dude, that’s crazy side.” However, one thing her ‘incarceration” does is keep her out of the insurgency, which could be part of the larger picture. A clear example of this is Caprica Six’s obsession with Gaius. He is a virtual prisoner of the cylons as well. Is she psychopathic? While that is sort of his own doing, they could have replaced him with another human. He is important to them as is Starbuck.
 
 
God, I’ve written so much .Thanks for letting me jump in.  Great thread!!