Battlestar Galactica: Season 4 - Page 5

It's true, the models so far seem to have certain traits in common--Sharon's the nurturing one, Six is the seductress, Leoben is the most spiritual, D'Anna seems to have a curious/investigative streak, buttoned-down-suit-wearing-guy seems to be the officious and bureaucratic one, the black doctor dude...is the technically inclined one, maybe? And Brother Cavil is, oh-so-ironically, the skeptical one.

Well, "Zeus" has been referred to as "Jupiter", so we know that they do switch around the names sometimes. The Greeks and Romans tended to do that with everyone else's gods, referring to, say, Thor as Zeus, or Horus as Hercules, depending on whom they assumed the local gods were standing in for. So you could carry that over if you wanted.

However, the show seems to go out of its way not to talk about the human polytheistic religion, and while I get why they do that, I do think it's something that's going to need to be addressed by the end of the show, when we find out exactly what the big picture is supposed to be here.

I find it ironic that people spent three seasons ranking on "Lost" (with some justification) for being so elliptical about its mythology, when BSG has been exactly the same way in many areas and it's hardly been mentioned.

Also, I've been fighting it for three seasons, but I just can't anymore. I fucking hate Starbuck. She's a whiny, self-interested, self-destructive, irrational jerk who gets away with it because of the level of privilege she's granted from those in power. What reasons we have to care about her from the first season or so have long since evaporated. And this current cliffhanger just hammers it home. She's emerged from a situation that an 8-year-old would find suspcious, getting furious that people aren't trusting her random, inexplicable feelings over the more concrete evidence they've accrued so far, and not making even the slightest attempt to think things through or make her case. In spite of that, they're letting her run around as if nothing was out of the ordinary, resulting in her pulling a gun on the president because they won't let her have her way.

And that's not even considering the fact that the Razor Hybrid dude told us that she would lead them in the wrong direction. Fuck you, Starbuck.

It seems like the incredibly suspicious circumstances surrounding Starbuck's return should be more than enough reason not to follow her "feeling" that they should be going in a different direction. It would be like begging to fall into a Cylon trap. I mean, girl comes back from the seeming dead, in a brand-new ship modelled to look like the one she was flying, missing time, and with some kind of signal in her head to go along with the visions and crap she's apparently been having for her entire life? She might as well have come up out of the cockpit with "I'M A CYLON" tattooed on her forehead.

And yeah, I know, she's probably not a Cylon and it's probably an elaborate red herring, but even she would have to have doubts. It's one thing to be in denial, it's another thing to expect everyone to do as you say under those circumstances. There may be an argument to be made for Starbucks' case--like "if it is a Cylon trick, why have they made everything so clumsy and suspicious?"--but she's not making the effort. She just expects to be believed, because she's Awesome Starbuck and Adama is her surrogate daddy who spoils her, and everyone is disagreeing with her because they're mean.

By the way, this touches on the question, "What do you do if you find out, or have reason to believe, that you're a Cylon, but still wish to be loyal?" It's nice that TTA&T are talking about putting a bullet in their heads, but since you have no idea when your Cylon programming will kick in and cause you to do something disastrous, what's the point of delaying it? Seems to me the obvious thing to do is come forward and tell Adama and Roslyn everything (since they can't both be Cylons) and then at least offer to sit in the brig for the immediate future.

Of course, then you have the question of whether your programming will let you do that, which I really don't like because it removes free will from those particular characters.

Well yes, like I said. But Starbuck's hasn't thought that through. She's throwing a hissy fit because she's not getting her way.

And yes, you'd think that whoever set up this whole scenario--Cylons, 13th tribe, God, Ben Linus--would have at least tried to give Starbuck a halfway-plausible explanation for why they should believe her. Unless, of course, the whole point is to send her on a rampage.

But if you're a Cylon, and you're loyal to humanity, your life options shrink pretty narrowly anyway. I can easily imagine Tigh, at least, being happy to let them fire him out an airlock if it means he dies being faithful and helpful to the human race.

Furthermore, given the leniency they've shown to the Cylon who shot Adama in the stomach, I don't think I'd worry to much about being airlocked if I played straight with the bosses.

If she would stop and think about it for two seconds, she'd have plenty of reason to be suspicious of her magic Earth-finding signal. She hasn't rationalized it in any way, shape or form, even after trying to come up with explanations that don't involve her being a Cylon. What does she think, that FTL jumps are somehow affecting her memory? Where does she think this magic feeling is coming from, if it's not Cylon-related? The jumps are clearly physically affecting her.

I can buy being in denial over that, but literally expecting everyone to drop everything and do as she says, to the point of threatening the President's life? That's Starbuck being Starbuck. She always expects people to do things her way, and has done so throughout the series. She's a spoiled brat.

Right. If this was the first time she had acted this way, it would be one thing; they're obviously trying to tie it in with her (newfound?) religious faith. But she's always been like that. She does impulsive, irrational things, then expects everyone else to adjust. And they do!

It doesn't matter if she's right, as she often is (like going back to save Anders, probably her noblest deed on the series to date, and still one that was motivated by self-interest)--the deck is stacked in her favour, because she's one of the heroes. It doesn't make her likable, though.

Yes, I know, but it's nitpicking considering that Athena said she had all of Boomer's memories. She's still a member of the race that annihiliated their homeworlds, and was a knowing participant in those events until she switched sides. The point is, if they've shown leniency to her, why wouldn't they do the same towards a group of people who, yesterday, were loyal officers and friends, and are now taking the most logical step to prevent themselves from doing harm?

Starbuck being part of a straightforward Cylon trap obviously seems unlikely, given that they could have wiped out the human race before she showed up, but there's still a lot of other stuff that could go wrong. Especially since the Cylons have said they're looking for Earth. Look at it the other way around: if it's an attempt by the friendly 13th Tribe, or God, or whoever, to lead them to Earth through Starbuck, couldn't they have presented her in a somewhat less suspicious manner?