Any World (That I'm Welcome To)

Dear fanfic authors,

I know they are etymologically related and it's confusing, but you mean "ravished," not "ravaged."

Love,
Sunny (who is considering ravaging - not ravishing - the cookie supply)



In other etymology news, I just realized something about the new BSG spinoff show Caprica: ( minor spoilers for eps. 1-3 )

Because doing taxes is less fun than wasting time on the internet.

[Poll #1375906]

[Poll #1375907]

It's easy to focus on BSG's daddy issues, what with Papadama and his all-consuming Adama Family Drama. (See also: Dee's last fight with her father, Kara and her deadbeat dad, Cavil as Evil Cylon Father, Tigh and Liam, Baltar and humanity...) But let's look at the mothers for a minute.

( List of BSG moms and their dysfunctions. )

My reactions under the cut. ( The good, the bad, and the WTF? )

Okay, quiz time!

[Poll #1369622]

I think I have figured out why Cavil became the Evil Cylon Leader instead of just another Cylon model. It's because each side must have an egomaniacal old man in charge. ( In which I am sick of Adama's drunk narcissist act. )

The greater presence of the Eights lately reminds me of something Adama said back in the miniseries, something which Athena reminded him of when she was still incarcerated: he asked if humans deserved to survive, and she said maybe they don't. The way the show is going, I'm starting to agree with her. (Besides, it would tie it all together so nicely.) Not that the Cylon do either. Maybe the show will end with the end of all known sentient life! I'm not sure any other show has gone that far yet - it would make television history. And in this case, some fans might be rooting for that ending...

Or maybe I'm just cranky. If you want to be cranky with me, someone has made great Adama macros. Weed: because really, it's not like your decisions could get any WORSE.

Got this from fialleril a while back and decided to try it. For this round, I've picked all female characters, because I felt like it.

List twelve characters without looking at the questions. Then answer the questions by replacing the corresponding number with the character.

1. Susan Ivanova
2. Talia Winters
3. Leia Organa
4. Sharon Agathon
5. Kara Thrace
6. Louanne Katraine
7. Hermione Granger
8. Luna Lovegood
9. Willow Rosenberg
10. Zoe Alleyne Washburne
11. Padmé Amidala
12. River Tam

( Results! )

I've been re-watching Season 3 of BSG, and one of the cut scenes for "Rapture" struck me as particularly interesting. It's an extended version of the scene where Dee is trying to rescue the morph-addled Starbuck, and Starbuck says, "I love Sam, I hate Sam. I love Lee, I hate Lee. I have to cheat just to keep the pieces all nice and neat." In the aired version, Dee slaps Starbuck and says to stay with her because she needs to help her rewire the avionics system.

In the longer, cut version, she continues with a speech which I'll transcribe as well as my memory allows: "Starbuck, this isn't because you're frakked up because of what Leoben did to you on New Caprica, or because you had a tough childhood. You know how I know? Because the Admiral loves you. That means you're not just a frak-up who can't keep her pants on. If you're frakking around with my husband, it's because you chose to."

Please note that Dee's most awesome, insightful, assertive speech in the entire season got cut. Talk about getting the short end of the Quadrangle stick.

But I also find it interesting that Dee knows Starbuck is responsible for her actions not because of her beliefs, or because of her observation of Starbuck's behavior, but because Admiral Adama loves Starbuck. We know Dee doesn't think the Admiral is always right - she's the one who straightened him out over splitting the fleet - so what's this about?

We know that Dee loves Admiral Adama. She tells Lee that one of the reasons she married him is that he's so much like his father. We also know that the last time she spoke to her father, they argued about her joining the military. So we can guess that maybe Dee, like just about everyone else on Galactica, is looking for a daddy who loves her. And since Adama thinks of the crew as his family... well, there's a reason fandom has nicknamed him Papadama. He fits the bill. And he does approve of Dee - he chose her out of everyone to be with him when he was struggling with the fleet break-up in Season 2, so he must have a high opinion of her.

But. He hasn't ever said she's like a daughter to him, has he? That's Starbuck (and Kat). Dee knows that Adama and Lee would risk the entire fleet to rescue Starbuck - they've done it - and that if he were here, Adama would have backed Lee up in ordering her to go risk her life for Starbuck. Here Dee is, Adama's real daughter-in-law, who is not a frak-up and who has always been there for the Adama boys, even when Adama was angry enough to split the fleet (or had a skeevy pornstache) and Lee was mopey and fat - and what thanks does she get? They still love Starbuck more and consider Dee expendable. Dee's still not part of the family. And Dee knows it.

Less of the yay-new-canon! glow today.

Miscellany first:

The blog Hello, Hedonism^* has quite the famous fictional character commenting on one of their entries! In the entry "Kids can be hot, too," which reports on how a 12-year-old girl is the "official ambassador" of a fashion week in Australia and observes that that says some really messed-up things about the current beauty ideal, check out Comment #3: "Humbert says, '12 is perfect.' " I think that sums it up nicely.

ETA: Oh yeah! plasticinecupid posted the most adorable picture of the actors who play Vorenus and Antony in their roles as lovers in another movie. They're so cuddly!

Moving on to the main point, I watched the pilot of Bionic Woman tonight. I almost turned it off after the first few minutes of totally sappy, totally fake-and-scripted conversation between Jamie and Boyfriend (Will? Was that his name?) Fortunately, just then Katee Sackhoff ran into them with a truck. Now we know what Starbuck got up to while on Earth! ( But Kara, seriously, what's with the hair? It looks like wet!Obi-Wan from EII! )




^*I'm not linking because the most recent entry is about a bestiality restaurant in Japan (no, really). It's not graphic, and the blogger doesn't support it at all, but who knows whether the overworked LJ employees would have time to notice the difference if they found me linking to that?

I find Boomer and Athena fascinating characters, but I admit that's partly because there's so much room for speculation about them due to their lack of development. These characters have so much potential, but they have been increasingly sidelined as the series progresses - to the point where when they do show up, I suspect the writers are just making them jump through whatever hoops they need for the plot because some of their actions just plain don't make sense to me without extensive fanwanking.

What follows are some of the reasons these characters intrigue me, where I think their development is most lacking, and what else I think they could have added to the show if the writers weren't ignoring them.

( Boomer: Now that I somewhat accept that I'm a Cylon, you think I'm not interesting? )

( Athena: Did you just get tired of working out my motivations somewhere along the way? )