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Sunday, October 8th, 2006 10:41 am
Well, well, well.

Well.

Loved the Kara thread; thought playing the munchkin was an unbearably apt and cruel thing to do. Am interested in where Leoben gets his hardon for Kara – Stockholm Syndrome? I don’t get the little hand hold at the end – this is not the act of a woman who has killed Leoben five times in a row over four months.

*loved* Sharon and Adama. Loved it.

Not too keen on Lee. He is a deeply moral man and for him to just give up and be someone who can only function when he has a war doesn’t do justice to the person I thought he was.

Love Tigh, he’s hard and obsessed and utterly focussed. I don’t like him as a person but the character is great.

Interested in the Cylon take on what their mission is. It sounds like Boomer and Six managed to pitch the end of immediate hostilities but didn’t in any way manage to convey a vision where humans and Cylons actually talk to each other. The Cylons turned up as an invading force and seem to have no concept of humans as potential equals. In which case what on earth are they trying to achieve?

Is the vision of human/Cylon relations where humans behave like Centurions?

They need Adama desperately.

Feel a lot of the war commentary is a bit on the cheap side. We already know this, guys, we’ve watched the Americans doing it for years. We know people are stupid and pretty and short-sighted and that it doesn’t work.

Loved the Roslyn/Zarek exchange
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Sunday, October 8th, 2006 11:09 am (UTC)
Agree, agree, agree. Can't wait for the next episode!!
Sunday, October 8th, 2006 11:16 am (UTC)
Hell yeah, there's so much going on! I'm really going to enjoy this.

I do feel the parallels with Iraq are pretty darn heavy handed though.
Sunday, October 8th, 2006 12:07 pm (UTC)
Icon love!

Oh, and yes, Roslyn/Zarek. How long until they're sleeping together? ;-)
Sunday, October 8th, 2006 12:12 pm (UTC)
Thanks!

You know I've never thought of Roslyn as a sexual being; she's been so busy dying and being an inspirational leader that I can't see it. Pity, Zarek is kinda hot.
Sunday, October 8th, 2006 02:25 pm (UTC)
And the way that Baltar doesn't go to the graduation. Is similar to the bombing of Pearl Harbor where it was 'allowed' to happen.
Sunday, October 8th, 2006 06:45 pm (UTC)
Interestingly, I've heard several people argue that the WWII parallels are too heavy-handed.

At this point, my argument is that if you look at almost any modern war -- WWII though current -- they're pulling behaviour from all of them. Not because torture is so right-now in America or because the Nazis had a secret police, but because over and over again people use the same awful, immoral tactics, and that's true if it's Iraq or Vietnam or WWII. I don't think that it's an intentional parallel; it is, as Tolkien says, applicable, not allegorical.

Interesting too that you mentioned Stockholm Syndrome in regards to Leoben, when by the end of the episode I was starting to wonder about it in Starbuck. I can see it going a few ways: one, she's totally playing him; two, she's going all Stockholm and starting to lose her grip on reality (which after four months of this doesn't seem entirely unlikely); three, she's readjusting her priorities and finding a way to bust herself and Kasey out of there. (Okay, I can see it going other ways, too, but those are the fun ones.)

I have a lot of sympathy for Adama (which was predictable) and Ellen Tigh (which was not). I've always enjoyed Ellen's character, but I'm finally starting to really sympathise with her. Also, weirdly, I'm starting to feel bad for Baltar, who's in so far over his head and is so terrified all of the time.

I could do this for HOURS but I will stop. In conclusion: glee, glee, omg glee.
Sunday, October 8th, 2006 06:47 pm (UTC)
I worry that Zarek has just completed his redemption arc, though, and stepped in front of Roslin as the firing squad came, thus saving her at the expense of his own life. I will be cranky if that has happened, but...
Sunday, October 8th, 2006 10:46 pm (UTC)
Yeah there was some passionate discussion in the living room and then in the kitchen.

I think what's happening is that the Cylons, being machines are coming in with some assumptions about how things are going to go that are completely out of whack with what we, the audience, are slowly and painfully learning about war and conflict [again]. It's like they're very young and have no social skills. I like the applicable, not allegorical quote, I'd forgotten he said that.

I can't believe Starbuck would go from killing him with a fork to holding hands with him and meaning it so quickly. I think she could possibly fall hard for the munchkin though. She has so much pain!

Yeah, Ellen. Wow. Cavil pointing out her degrading efforts had nothing to do with Tigh being released and everything to do with her being manipulated was sickening.

So many layers of deception: Jammer! Felix! Baltar! Ellen! Starbuck!

[wibble]
Sunday, October 8th, 2006 10:51 pm (UTC)
That would piss me off! I don't think he's quite that self sacrificing though.

If Roslyn wasn't an utter, utter hardliner before, this will nail it. As the survivor of a mass execution order [signed by Baltar no less] she is going to have so much moral credibility she can hate the Cylons with all her icy heart.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 12:41 am (UTC)
Oddly, the hottest I've ever seen Roslyn was in a tender moment with Adama when she thought she was only a few weeks from death. Can't find the scene at the moment..
Monday, October 9th, 2006 12:55 am (UTC)
Noooooo! Don't even think it!
Bad Sushi!

:)
Monday, October 9th, 2006 01:08 am (UTC)
Interesting too that you mentioned Stockholm Syndrome in regards to Leoben, when by the end of the episode I was starting to wonder about it in Starbuck.

Speculation was that Leoben developed Stockholm Syndrome from when he was captured and questioned by Starbuck, before being flushed out an airlock.

Hence his current unstable / twisted state of reality, where he's returning the favour.

Given the pain everytime he's killed, and that Starbuck's recycled him five times in four months, he must be getting more and more screwed.

Tori pointed out an interesting point last night. As the individual cylons spend more time amongst humans, they begin to grow emotionally. Sometimes in a 'bad' way, sometimes in a 'good' way. But certainly in a stronger sense than any of the 'pure' cylons 'untainted' by human contact.

I wonder how long until the cylons realise this, and start internal purges...

Monday, October 9th, 2006 01:17 am (UTC)
internal purges

Back on Caprica in Downloaded we never got 3's perspective on what to do with Caprica_6 and Galactica_Boomer. They/Baltar assume(s) she wants to box them and behave accordingly.

I like the idea that as Cylons progress through life-death cycles they can grow progressively more unique. In some cases this probably brings perspective and wisdom but in the case of Leoben he was already a mystic and seems to have imprinted on Starbuck.

In Scar, the raider was getting steadily more cunning and showing up as a personality - which is pretty impressive for a raider.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 02:34 am (UTC)
I concur on your Leoben analysis -- I think that the Cylons agree, as well, since when they were all in Baltar's office, we saw every model of Cylon that we're aware of -- Doctor, priest, Xena, Six, Boomer, Doral -- but I'm pretty sure that there was no Leoben. Persona non grata to the Cylons, now?

Also, do you think that she's killed him five times in four months, or do you think that it's four times in four months and the first time was after the interrogation on Galactica?

I almost think that the Cylons have already started internal purges, what with the killing of Caprica Six at the end of 301. We suspected in s2 that they were after boxing her, and since this is the same Three, I wonder if she's tying off a few loose ends.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 03:00 am (UTC)
Oooh good point, I had noticed that he wasn't in with the other Cylons but had assumed he was off being neurotic at Starbuck and didn't care. Them shunning him because he's gone all twisted and they don't understand him makes a lot of sense!

I kinda assumed he meant recently. I'm also struggling to remember if it was Starbuck who actually opened the airlock on him. Darn this being at work thingy. I want to go back and rewatch that episode now. I remember Leoben being stuck on her right from the beginning - where did that come from?

The internal purge thingy is going to be very interesting. Leoben was back in a matter of hours, will Caprica_6 get resurrected so quickly?

Boxing - it was Baltar who brought it up and we have no idea how reliable a narrator he is. Not that I'm complaining; it worked beautifully as a plot device and Caprica_6 thought it was a completely reasonable hypothesis.

Cylon on Cylon violence is going to be plain weird, I mean they can cause physical suffering but really, killing one is just putting them out of the game for a time period [which they may also be able to influence]. For Cylon in-fighting it's going to be about having the access to influence events and about having the ability to decide who gets resurrected and who gets boxed.

Are they really a bunch of individuals who; up till now; have been so similar that they have managed to function as a sort of 'hive'?
Monday, October 9th, 2006 04:07 am (UTC)
Re: Leoben: I thought at first that he was just busy, but then I wondered why there wasn't even another version of him -- it's not like every Leoben is off being crazy with Starbuck, so where are the others? I can't read it as anything but an intentional shunning.

You're right that it wasn't Starbuck who opened the airlock; I hadn't thought of that.

Was Leoben really back in a few hours? I somehow had the impression that it was longer than that, a day or two, but I could be wrong -- I watched it at like three a.m. because the baby had been up forever, but I was desperate to watch. I'm sure that Caprica Six will be back sooner or later, but sort of wonder if they're going to drag it out, you know?

I think that the Cylons, given the opportunity, will develop very different personalities and be no more alike than two given humans. It seems to be what we've been shown so far, for the most part. Until they started interacting with the humans, all Cylons had more or less the same experiences, and now all of a sudden they're not, and it's causing dissent.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 04:56 am (UTC)
Was Leoben really back in a few hours?

That's certainly the impression I got.

Long enough for Starbuck to finish her dinner (what a moment that was) and then wait a bit.

But certainly that night, as Leoben left her with the knowledge that she'd be sleeping in the same building as his corpse.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 05:25 am (UTC)
Shunning: maybe the Leoben's aren't politically minded? I'm not rejecting your argument, just kicking stuff around.

Hey maybe some of the five remaining human models are off doing something non human/Cylon war related. Maybe it's an obsession of only part of the Cylon race and it's actually a subset of a much larger Cylon culture.

Do you think the interest Simon took in her in The Farm was because Leoben had flagged her for his special attentions?

I'd always wondered why the Cylons seemed to be taking a special interest in her and I'd gotten the impression Loeben had heard about her before they physically met on the Galactica.

As to how long it took I'd have to watch it again but my impression was that the action in the all threads was happening over a reasonably short period of time and that he turned up again later on the same night.

It's hard watching them all being so small, petty and cruel after having seen such extremes of goodness as well.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 05:27 am (UTC)
The whole thing was brilliant; the wiping of the hands on the carpet; the way she daintily cut a bite sized piece and ate it with the fork... so civilised and so brutal.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 06:04 am (UTC)
Re: Shunning: I'd buy that if he weren't the only one missing, but every other model is represented, even the ones we've only seen a few minutes of (Simon). Some of them are even there in plural. So it feels more intentional than that to me, somehow.

I love, love love the idea of a larger Cylon culture, though I'm not sure that I buy it. I could see the other five models working on Caprica, though, or something like that. Also, I was tossing around ideas earlier, and we got to wondering if the Cylons even -- I mean, do Cylons automatically recognise all other Cylons? It would actually benefit them not to recognise the ones who are infiltrating humans and that sort of thing, so what if only a few models of the infiltrators were produced at first? I want badly for there to be a reason other than dramatic tension that we haven't seen the other five models at all.

I got the impression that Leoben had heard about her before Galactica, too; he knew way too much about her for it to be guesswork or anything, you know? It had to have been very specific research. It makes me wonder, though, if Six thinks that Gaius is foretold in the Cylon mythos, maybe Starbuck is, too. Leoben is something of a mystic anyhow, more so than even Six's enigmacy. I certainly don't think that Gaius was an unplanned target, and I don't think that Starbuck is either, even if I can't quite come up with the reasons for it yet. There has to be something.

Majority opinion seems to be that it was just a short while before he reappeared, so I probably just misread it -- I suppose that's what I get for watching things in the wee hours of the morning.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 06:05 am (UTC)
Good points, all of them. I watched it far later than I should've been up, so feel like I maybe didn't catch everything. I mean to rewatch, but have to find the time first.

I want a million icons of the dinner scene, though I can't think of a way to capture the brilliance of it. Also, the OPENING, with the heartbeat and the flashes of video, was just stunning.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 06:29 am (UTC)
[grin] We watched them in the afternoon with pauses to discuss so we're fairly tanked up right now.

The intro was great like that, I had this sense of tension and activity and drama right from the start.

I can't think of a way to capture the dinner scene either, it was visual but the context was so stark.

Monday, October 9th, 2006 06:40 am (UTC)
I'm so fantastically jealous that y'all have, like, a watching party, because I'm on my own unless I make my roommate watch it with me (which I did, but she'd never seen any before, and that was -- possibly not my best ever decision).

The editing on this show is just amazing, all across the boards. I keep being stunned by it, but the opening sequence, the supper, and then the sort of extra-contrasting, super-saturated Cylons-attacking sequences just kill me.
Monday, October 9th, 2006 06:44 am (UTC)
I hear ya, he's not represented and there has to be a reason. Actually a Leoben -was- in the pilot in the group that visited the supply depot so he has been seen doing group decision making/policy before.

The purpose of making 12 models was never explained, I propose they all exist to explore slightly different aspects of 'humanity' and as such cover different age, race, sex and obsessions. This would mean that there would be the ones who care deeply about humanity in one way or another (whether to deliver Gods Wrath or Love or just to play with them) and other Cylons who, by the nature of their design have slightly different priorities.

Hrm.

Ron Moore says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylons#Humanoid_Cylons) that "The idea is not that there was likely an original human model that they were copied from. The idea was that these models of Cylon were sort of developed out of their own study of us. The Cylons on some level looked at humanity and said "You know what? There's really only 12 of you." If these are the 12, and sort of if you look at them they each represent different archetypes of what humanity is."

Which should mean that we can apply archetypes to the models - how would you characterise them?

Gina/Shelley Godfrey/Caprica Six - passionate and religious
Sharon Valerii - empathetic and loyal
Leoben Conoy - mystical and obsessed
Aaron Doral - intellectual and manipulative
Simon - practical and scientific
Brother Cavil - Machiavellian agnostic cynic
D'Anna Biers - aggressive and idealistic

Starbuck - Yeah I had that impression too, like they were somehow aware of her and thought she was special.

Hey sleep is important!
Monday, October 9th, 2006 06:46 am (UTC)
[grin] We could Skype you in for the conversations! So long as we start watching around the same time it would be easy.

It was slightly weird, I get totally hyped up about Supernatural but after Occupation and Precipice we were hot to discuss but also exhausted!
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