BSG ponderings (no spoilers)
Mar. 8th, 2005 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
woodfaceIt highly amuses me that some of the male BSG audience seem to feel threatened by the strong female characters in their show. OMG! A female president! This of course is probably a more american reaction as it will take another century or so before the US will have a woman as president (let alone a black woman, and gay is even further away). So yes, it highly amuses and entertains me when another viewer goes on a tantrum how the male characters in the series are weak and the woman are strong. That is, it amuses me when it doesn't annoy me to no end. Just shows how fixated they must be on the issue and how little attention they are paying to the series.
All characters in BSG seem to equally have their strengths and flaws no matter what their gender. This is half of what I truly love about the show. No one is holding out a gender card. Heh, the only one who does seem to be the weak character is Gaius and that's partly because he tends to see women as sexobjects (mind you, only a small part). I find that the only show that does slightly compare to this is Farscape where the Peacekeepers seem to have equality among genders as well. But then they deny all emotions, so that's not very good either. Either way, it's funny how part of the male audience feels insecure because the women have as much balls as the men. Poor them.
On another note, I was wondering about the Cylons. Is it possible that whoever programmed them made them so that they believe in the gods? I was playing with the idea that the Cylons could have been programmed to be religious and that this programming is actually what caused their rebellion. Imagine being a Cylon and being faced with a religion that tells you that all men were made by god. Religion gives purpose to a human's life and explains the origins of it. Only, these Cylons would be faced with the fact that they were made by the humans and not by the gods. Slight snag here because their purpose would be to serve the humans and the sacred scrolls do not give Cylons a soul but only the humans. Identity crisis much? So they leave the humans and come back convince that there is only one God who meant for them to take the humans place. They find a way to say "we do have a purpose and its larger than just serving you and yes, in fact, we do have a soul and not a program".
All characters in BSG seem to equally have their strengths and flaws no matter what their gender. This is half of what I truly love about the show. No one is holding out a gender card. Heh, the only one who does seem to be the weak character is Gaius and that's partly because he tends to see women as sexobjects (mind you, only a small part). I find that the only show that does slightly compare to this is Farscape where the Peacekeepers seem to have equality among genders as well. But then they deny all emotions, so that's not very good either. Either way, it's funny how part of the male audience feels insecure because the women have as much balls as the men. Poor them.
On another note, I was wondering about the Cylons. Is it possible that whoever programmed them made them so that they believe in the gods? I was playing with the idea that the Cylons could have been programmed to be religious and that this programming is actually what caused their rebellion. Imagine being a Cylon and being faced with a religion that tells you that all men were made by god. Religion gives purpose to a human's life and explains the origins of it. Only, these Cylons would be faced with the fact that they were made by the humans and not by the gods. Slight snag here because their purpose would be to serve the humans and the sacred scrolls do not give Cylons a soul but only the humans. Identity crisis much? So they leave the humans and come back convince that there is only one God who meant for them to take the humans place. They find a way to say "we do have a purpose and its larger than just serving you and yes, in fact, we do have a soul and not a program".
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 05:40 pm (UTC)What I did find surprising is that while poking through the boards at theforce.net (at least, I think it was that board; my brain is a bit fried this week), I found a BSG thread. My curiosity piqued, I decided to take a look. Enter nonstop negativity. Everyone was talking down about the new series and how much it sucked. I was a bit surprised, to say the least, but then I have heard some SW friends of mine tear into the original series because they felt it was a SW rip-off. (They feel much differently about the new series.)
A lot of the negativity had to do with what you stated - changing some of the original characters into females. Most stated such thoughts that the only reason it was done was to draw more female viewers to the series. I don't think this holds any truth. If they'd kept characters like Starbuck and Boomer as males, I would have still given it a try.
What can you do but just deal with the fact that there are people who don't like the reimagined series? Frak 'em. I love it, and I love all the dynamics of the male AND female characters. :D
*pets new Starbuck icon* *g*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-16 01:27 am (UTC)But yeah, a lot of people are also entering this fandom with a "we like the old series and must hate any changes" atttitude. It would have been pretty boring if they just stuck to the old series and did it with new characters. I'm glad they cut loose from it and gave the whole thing a different feel.
Actually, maybe it goes so far that one can wonder whether or not they actually needed to keep the names of the old characters? Then again, the original Starbuck was never called Kara, iirc ;o)
*calls your icon god*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-21 03:21 am (UTC)I finally got a copy of the mini (bless Suncoast on the Riverwalk, the only frakkin' store in SA that had it for sale) and watched the lowdown special. I was interested in hearing Mr. Hatch's opinion of the old series compared to the new. It's been easy for me to forget that there are people who grew up loving the original, and feel appalled that anyone would dare try to alter their beloved series from what they remember. But as either Ron Moore or Eddie said (only watched it once so far :P), the old fans who are refusing to have anything to do with the new series are missing out. Their loss.
Oh, yeah - the chat with the original and new Starbuck at Starbucks? Bwah! I think there's a full-length article convering their conversation somewhere.
*bows down before the icon*
no subject
Date: 2005-03-21 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 06:48 am (UTC)The mini DVD didn't have a whole lot on it. There was the mini on one disc, with commentary. Then the second disc had the lowdown special Sci-Fi aired, along with some deleted scenes.
I'm hoping the series DVDs will have lots and lots of goodies.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-24 11:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 06:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 10:24 am (UTC)