Battlestar Galactica non-spoilery reaction

[amanuensis1]

1) When BSG does indulge in cliché, it does it with style.

2) Watching the finale makes me want to run back and watch the whole series again from the beginning, and that does not always happen with a beloved series. I've turned my back on entire adored series in the past after finales that left me sulking.

3) Thanks for giving me conclusions I wanted, conclusions I liked better than those I thought I wanted, hurting me a little in good ways, and for keeping the ribbons and bows down to a tasteful, albeit sparkly, few.

What a fantastic series.


Spoilers will be indulged in the comments.

Comments

[the-dala.livejournal.com]

Watching the finale makes me want to run back and watch the whole series again from the beginning

This.

Man, what a ride.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

And I'm totally gonna do it, too.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Yes. I've seen people bitching about the cliches, but I like this set of cliches far better than Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies. These characters earned some peace (though I can't imagine subsistence farming being all that easy or peaceful), and I'm pleased they got it.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I was expecting a LOT of deaths, but it felt like we had plenty anyway, yanno?

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

1) Yes, totally.

2) Yes, and OMG Yes (HP anyone? BtVS, though that applies to the entire last season.)

3)Not overly happy with the conclusion of the battle scenes, which came across as a bit 'oh, crap, we need to wrap this up asap to keep this ep under 2hrs', but overall, pretty much agree with this assessment. I liked the circularity of it.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

2. HP tried to do a damn good job killing my love for the series. It couldn't do it completely--too much love for too many of the characters--but when I think of HP I still think of school-age Harry and all the potential. Another example which leaps to mind is Xena.

Funny how pretty much all anime series have left me happy even after their finales!

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

The historian in me made Xena impossible to watch due to the consequent stabbing out my eyes with rusty railway spikes impulse.

And I was thinking the other day that I should re-read the HP books... then I realised that'd mean re-reading DH and that idea died on the vine. The war between my hatred for the book and my completion OCD would probably make my head explode and that would be messy and icky, so I thought best to not even go near it.

Wow. I think this is the goriest lj comment I've ever written. Go me!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I lol'ed. Quite earnestly. :D

[ellid.livejournal.com]

I haven't been able to pick up a single HP book since DH. Not one. I have never in my life been so infuriated by a piece of fiction, especially one ostensibly directed at children. There were many, many fan endings that were superior to Rowling's...and what makes it worse is that I think she knew it and wrote at least some of what she wrote in the last two books in response to the "wrongheaded thinking" of the fans.

[orchidchaos.livejournal.com]

The cliches were handled gracefully. The last five minutes were gold. Pure gold.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

YAY for Adama not suiciding or anything after Roslin's gone. YAYYYYYYYY.

[orchidchaos.livejournal.com]

On the Roslin note: Angsty Schoolteacher Caprica Roslin was frakking sexy as hell.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

God, yes. I was astonished to realize what they can do with makeup, in terms of making Roslin look every bit the dying middle-aged mama, if they could also get her to look that gorgeous at the same time. (Acting doesn't hurt either. ^_^ )

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Clichés or conventions? Maybe there's little difference. When ending a story after five years, conventions sometimes have to be dragged out, but all of the ones in the finale have been hinted at for a while.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I think "story is not set in future but in past and characters end up on primitive planet Earth and the story hints at the repeating cycle of human nature" counts as a cliché, myself. When you're using the same plot as Teenage Caveman... But I think they did as classy a job with that particular ending as one could. And made it their own, really.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

*nods*

The whole "they end up on another planet and hey! it's EARTH and they're Adam(a) and (Mitochondrial) Eve!" is such a cliche that SF magazines stopped publishing variations on it around 50-60 years ago. Maybe it's fresh on television but in print SF? Old old old.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I had said that the one ending I DID NOT WANT was "everyone dies and the only ones left are Hera and some other kid and they do the Adam and Eve thing on some other planet" because, dude, you do not get more painfully cliché than that, but even though they teased us with that particular gem anyway, it wasn't the focus, so, I'm content to see them do a different cliché in a well-done fashion.

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Good point! It has been used before - a lot, actually, but they did do a good job making it unique to the show.

Loved it when Gaius mentioned it was possible to breed with the locals and Adama was like, "You have a one-track mind, dog. Nah, I'm joshing you!"

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

Awesome finale. Frakking AWESOME.

I honestly didn't expect it to end the way it did, for any of the characters. BUT I LOVED ALL OF IT. EVEN THE PARTS THAT HURT. MY HAPPINESS MAKES ME CAPSLOCKY.

Like you, I totally want to rewatch from the beginning now.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Hee, icon love!

Lessee, what random bit should I choose to get capslocky about. OH WAIT I KNOW. THE RING. AIEEEEEE, THE RIIIIIIING.

[demonqueen666.livejournal.com]

Hee, icon love!

Randomly, I loved how they painted the friendlies with stripes so they could ID them on sight and then the Centurions were doing all the marine hand signal thingies!!

...actually, speaking of "friendlies" Gaius basically losing his MIND with the gun was pretty hysterical too. And Caprica's all like, "Honey, you can STOP SHOOTING AT THE PEOPLE ON OUR SIDE now."

Randomness

[dmlpacker.livejournal.com]

Err this has nothing to do with BSG...

Anyway, I just started episode 21 of Kuroshitsuji. I have to say, Maylene's past surprised me like no other O.o

Re: Randomness

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, MAN, they were retconning that like no one's business but CRAP, I HAVE TO FORGIVE THEM 'COS OF THE FINNIAN BACKSTORY. ZING.

[sbbo.livejournal.com]

The only part that really choked me up is when they were reading, at the end, of discovering the body of a girl with her parents. Uhhh. The use of 'girl' is making me think that Hera didn't survive childhood. I then suspect a harsh winter with food die-off. Since we know her parents would cut their arms off before allowing her hurt I have to imagine they all died around the same time. Within a year or two of arriving.

And if it can happen to them then it obviously could happen to many others. Which is tragic, to me.

Also, I have to wonder if they hadn't decided to start with a fresh slate, but instead dedicated their technology to maintaining an accurate history (ie, not the scrolls of Pithia ) they might have avoided the whole enslaving of robots mess that is apparently our greatest weakness.

But maybe I'm giving this too much thought?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, did they say "a girl" like that? I didn't even think about that, if they did! Okay, going back and rewatching. Of course, if she's Mitochondrial Eve, doesn't that imply she had to reproduce?

Never too much thinking! :D *points to icon*