Monday, March 26, 2007

Some Thoughts on the Season 3 BSG Finale

I enjoyed watching the episode while it was running, but I haven't really enjoyed thinking about it afterwards.

I don't like the idea that the heads of the resistance were all cylons, as though humans didn't have it in them to defend themselves, only cylons could do that effectively and with leadership.

Or, on the other hand, for people who found those methods unpalatable, that all those mistakes could be chalked up to the cylons as opposed to an actual resistance.

I'm also having mixed to negative feelings about Adama being unable to separate his own feelings of guilt, imperfection and inadequacy as an officer and an Admiral from ruling on Balthar. True, he did not live up to perfect standards at all times. But Balthar really was a traitor and collaborator and Adama knew that. Should his self knowledge of his limitations determine his perspective on judging others?

True, he took the more humane approach, at least in the short term. It won't be more humane, however, if it leads to more human deaths and destruction in the longer term.

At least we know Adama is consistent. This choice parallels the one he made last year, in the finale, about the election. And we already the outcome of that choice. His choice, though more satisfying to his conscious, led to the death of 1000s. Yet here he is faced with the same sort of choice and, once again, he steps up to the line, but then retreats hastily. This also parallels what happened with Admiral Cain. He gives orders to execute her, and then steps back from that. That situation ultimately led to a good result, but only because fate lent an immediate hand and created the result he desired - her death. Adama has a horror of becoming like Admiral Cain - a healthy one, considering her final incarnation and the kind of untempered military justice she meted out.

But he is the leader of the military and at times he must assert decisive control in that position.

And if even the head of the military can't differentiate in his public role between his own shortcomings and those of others, which have led to more serious problems than the ones that he caused or feels guilty about causing, I think the remains of the human race are in serious trouble.

It is poor leadership; Adama is merely creating conditions that will continue to incubate the same kind of problems that they have had. The cycle will run on continuously, one imagines, until he can overcome this issue of his, his false guilt about launching the cylon war made more poignant by the fact that if, as think we just learned, that Tigh is a cylon, the intent by the cylons to go to war had been going on for decades. In any case, as I have argued before, it is naive to believe that the cylons could respond in force like the way they did if they had not been separately building up their armies to go to war. Does Adama really believe the cylons weren't simultaneously spying on them? How absurd and naive of him, a point I also made at the time.

Moreover, how soon until Balthar attempts to step into a political role once again? And causes more trouble?

And why didn't the prosecution think to charge him with some lesser charge as well as treason and collaboration?

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posted by Alcibiades @ 2:27 PM