How I Finished Battlestar Galactica and Got Back to my Life

Do not read if you are concerned about Spoilers. I am going to talk about the ending. ***SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS***

I finally finished. And I felt perhaps a small tickle of dissatisfaction at the ending. Don’t get me wrong, there was much to love and much that I expected, but some of the major items were not clearly resolved, or perhaps more accurately, not resolved to my liking.

Item 1. Who/what was Kara Thrace?

Was she an Angel come back to guide humanity to a new beginning? Clearly she died and was reborn/reissued, that was established. So why did the cylon hybrid and Sam go on about her being the “harbinger of death.” Were we to understand that as the harbinger of death to the bad cylons? Because she was a part of that, but Racetrack and her nukes were probably more directly responsible, weren’t they?! Or the harbinger of death to technology and the Caprican culture? I don’t know. I’ve read some theories where they speculate that Kara is the daughter of a human mother and a rogue #7 that escaped (the Daniel model that we never met). And I like that idea, even if it wasn’t verified by the finale. To paraphrase Starbuck herself, I don’t know what she was, but she’s certainly not an angel (at least not in my book).

One definition of harbinger according to the OED is to “One sent on before to purvey lodgings for an army.” Which certainly does make sense. But why then of death?

So, yes, in case you’re wondering, I did want someone to say, “kara is the harbinger of death because…” some things should be spelled out for me.

Item 2. Gaius Baltar.

I loved Gaius. He added some great comic relief and totally propelled the plot along. What I did not love was that the Six he saw in his head turned out to be some sort of angel vision. Or that Caprica, “his” six saw some sort of extra douchy “Gaius Angel” in her head. Can angels be douchy? Here, the answer is apparently yes, although had anyone consulted me I might have answered no. I don’t need them to be in white flowy glowy togas, but please, not that. Truthfully, I really really really would have preferred them to be imagined visions instead of Godly messengers, simply because it raises problems for me. I can accept a God who doesn’t get involved and isn’t on “any one side”, but by sending angels to direct behavior he certainly got his fingers dirty in this one. Obviously religion played a huge role in this series from the beginning. I just didn’t like the way it was wrapped up. I thought it was messy and perhaps a little preachy.

Item 3. Mitochondrial Eve.

Hera is the Mitochondrial Eve for humanity. Excellent! Loved this! It was an awesome answer as to why Hera was so important. One thing bothered me though, either life started in Africa and spread out (with the help of Hera and her progeny) OR the survivors spread out and repopulated the planet separately (as they did in the show – because it seemed like they were dropped off and/or walked to separate places). I can’t reconcile those two things. And the inter-breeding thing with earth’s residents wigged me out. It seemed sort of strangely racist like we’ll breed with the savages and bring them up to our level. Yuck.

Item 4. Techology is Eeeeevil.

Yes, it turns out that in order to live in a state of grace we need to relinquish technology. Because if we don't, then we'll just build us a new cylon race...or something like that. This bothered me. Technology is only as bad as the way it is used. Getting rid of the Battlestar and the fleet? Yes! I think that was great. No way to run away from the inevitable problems that will arise. Getting rid of medical advances? Ack! Getting rid of technology to build appropriate shelters? Egad!

Why didn’t they use their knowledge and tools to create a better society? And I’m not talking about some utopia – because where there are humans there are those messy human emotions. I’m talking about using your technology to live better within the environment. Living in a sod hut on the prairie does not make a person/society better. It makes a person cold and probably bug infested.

And then that montage of Artificial Intelligence that was real? I love me a happy ending, and I don’t mind that everything that has happened will happen again because yes, history repeats itself. But gag me. So, um, this entire series was to warn us that we are building our own cylon race and will have to start this entire thing all over again? Sigh. Disappointing and trite.

And now the real question. Do I have it in me to watch Caprica? Only time will tell!

Buffy Season 8 - Volume 1. The Long Way Home by Joss Whedon

I’m a big Buffy fan. Although not someone you could call a fanatic. I do own the DVDs, I don’t own other merchandise. You won’t catch me saying things like “Buffyverse” or “Scoobies” and I don’t read any fan fiction (although I would assume it exists and is thriving…just seems like it would be). Nevertheless, I was really excited about the Buffy comic books coming out even though I was a little unsure about how it would work. Buffy, after all, was in large part so great because of the incredible casting and the ensemble cast and I didn’t know if that would transfer to another format. Another reservation was that the last season of Buffy was my least favorite of them all. I found the new slayers annoying and would have much preferred it just be the original group. With cameos by beloved characters that were no longer on the show. Sure the series finale was fantastic, but wouldn’t it have been even more fantastic with Oz? So, in short, I wasn’t sure the continuation of a story line (as in the 1000s of slayers) I didn’t really enjoy in the first place would even interest me.

To give you fair warning there will be ***SPOILERS*** so stop reading if you don’t want to be spoiled. That’s right spoiled. Turn away now. Consider yourself warned!

I was pleasantly surprised. I still think the legions of slayers are distracting and I can’t remember who is who (nor do I even really care too), but I was drawn into the last story of one of the decoy slayers. I liked her, I loved her story, and to my utter astonishment actually wanted more. I hope we get a continuation of her story…although I fear she’s dead. We’ll have to wait and see.

The main storyline really felt as though it was an episode or two of Buffy. It starts off with the death of some sort of monster/demon which leads to the discovery of a strange symbol we know will play a large part in the rest of the story arc. Dawn has been turned into a giant, possibly for attention. There is a military organization, seemingly not connected to the Initiative that wants to take Buffy and her legion of slayers down. And then there is the reintroduction of several characters. Ethan Rayne shows Buffy around the “dreamverse.” Amy the rat/witch magically survived the destruction of Sunnydale and is wickedly angry and out to get her revenge along with her new boyfriend. Who, get this, just happens to be skinless Warren!?! Turns out Amy was watching in the shadows when Willow went crazy and flayed him. She protected Warren with magic so he didn’t die and then apparently got it on with him. He looks suitably gruesome.

And of course there is the introduction of a new love plot. Someone secretly loves Buffy. It’s either Willow, Xander, or one of the several new slayers who happened to be in the room. My hope is on Xander just ‘cause that would make it wonderfully complicated and perfect for the never allowed to be happy in love world of Buffy.

Finally, I really enjoyed the artwork in the comic book. I like that the drawn characters look so much like their actor counterparts. It helped me buy into the story.

From what I can see next up is Faith. I’m really looking forward to that!

I just read that Whedon’s now going to be continuing the stories not only of Angel, but also of Serenity in comic book format. Let’s hope he doesn’t get too many irons in the fire like he did when he was shooting TV shows.

See a preview from Dark Horse Comics.