An Easterly View....

[rogueslayer452]

I realized I never really talked about the Battlestar Galactica series finale, or gave my opinion on it after it aired. I think due to the incredible polarized reaction by fandom I was kind of standing back from it a bit. Perhaps I will one day give my full overview of my thoughts and everything, but as it stands I will say I absolutely adored it, and the more I rewatch it the more I appreciate and love how it all ended and I couldn't have pictured a better ending to a fantastic series.

But today I want to discuss something that the finale touched on that I've been thinking about lately.

The decision of abandoning technology has been much for debate amongst fans, I have thought about it over and over again and while I do agree that the finale was kind of quick to clean things up a bit, I don't have a huge problem with them abandoning technology and living simple rural lifestyles. I don't think all the humans (and even Cylons) agreed to abandon everything completely, and I'm sure it took much persuasion and they kept certain things they needed to survive, esp if they were going off separately all over the planet, but after everything I think most just wanted good, solid ground underneath their feet. Being on the run, jumping back and forth through space in a confined space as the ships they were on, I think many had their share of technology and wanted a fresh start. Was it the smartest decision to make? Probably not, but I don't think it was unrealistic or illogically done so they could have the cycle repeat with the epilogue meta in the end (which I loved, by the way.)

I'm not denying that the finale wasn't perfect and had its fair share of issues here and there, but overall I wasn't overly bothered by that aspect like a lot of people seem to be, and I don't think it deserves the hate it receives, tbqh.


Yeah, I just have a lot of ~feelings about this finale and this series in general.

On a related note, my Caprica toaster finally arrived! \O/ I contemplated on getting it, going back and forth on "do I really need it?" since I really don't eat toast, but finally ended up going "fuck it" and buying it anyway. Let me say that if it had stayed the original price I wouldn't even bother, but since they lowered it way down I just couldn't resist. ;p

Comments

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

I second your opinion.

[mfirefly10.livejournal.com]

While there were plenty of things that bugged me about the finale, I do think it was one of the stronger episodes of season 4.5 and had many really lovely moments.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I can't help but get emotional whenever I watch it. I just get this very satisfied feeling after watching that finale. So many ~feelings. Are there things I wished we got more elaboration on, things I wished happened and things I wished didn't happen? Of course, but at the end of the day I am satisfied with how everything turned out.

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

I would hope they would at least keep medical technology and medicines. Because otherwise, they would all die out pretty quickly. A new planet with diseases they have no immunity for would be pretty hard to overcome otherwise.

Personally, I loved the final. I loved the way it wrapped up the series and yet still left some questions opened. I loved how each character got a fitting end to their story.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I don't think they would be that careless to not think about the health of the rest of the people. I'm sure Cottle was making sure they understood that and got the proper kind of medical supplies they needed, since they probably didn't want a repeat of what happened on New Caprica. I think there was more preparation in that respect that we didn't see.

Personally, I loved the final. I loved the way it wrapped up the series and yet still left some questions opened. I loved how each character got a fitting end to their story.

Me too. Like, I can understand where people would have issues with it, but as a whole it fits perfectly to how a series should end. I can't imagine it ending any other way, to be honest. It all came full-circle for me and I felt satisfied. :)

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

(hugs) You know I adore the finale - the last 30 minutes of it anyway - and while I mock the technology-into-the-sun thing I think it's mostly a case of RDM going for emotional resonance over nitty-gritty details. I do get annoyed sometimes when people insist all the MEDICINE went away (whatever limited resources they still had of it) because obviously nobody meant to imply that -- authorial intent was that they unloaded a ton of supplies with them, and I never assumed anything else.

I think people also forget what a crap-ass existence it was to live on those spaceships, and while the show often handwaved all the resources and necessities (including booze!) they still had, the final season was dropping anvils left and right that all that technology was unsustainable and Galactica itself was in its death throes. I'm not saying there's no weird reactionary undercurrent to "we're gonna restart our whole civilization and be farmers yay", but I think it fits in the universe with these characters.

YAY CAPRICA TOASTER!

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

I agree so much.

And I don't like it when people say the finale said "technology is bad and we should abandon it". The idea there was that Colonial society had suffered the consequences of being too much in love with technology and its own capabilities (we see this in Caprica) and needed a fresh start, and we 150,000 years later can do better. It ends on a hopeful note with Head Baltar and Head Six's conversation.

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

*nod* I have such a fondness in my heart for that epilogue. And NOT just because my angel babies are strolling around together in modern-day NYC, even though that's literally all I wanted out of the finale. ;)

Because my take on that scene - I think you're right that Six's hope and optimism that things might be different this time is key, and the fact they're sort of rolling the dice and arguing about it. I get where people see the technophobia and silliness*, but I think that was because of imperfect execution, if anything? (Especially after hearing RDM talk about that robot montage; he made it sound much more ambiguous than I think came through.) I don't read it as "OH NO MODERN TECHNOLOGY, OUR ROOMBAS WILL DESTROY US ALL." It's just "Yes, we are on our way to creating Cylons, we're testing the lines between people and machines and the world is going to shift when that happens, please be careful." How are we/future BSG cycle of humans going to deal with that?

(*Although I also love the silliness, because my show is CRACK BEAUTIFUL CRACK and there is Jimi Hendrix and angels and it ends on a big cosmic punchline and I'm not sure you *could* do it seriously. 150,000 years later, it's not like HeadSix and HeadBaltar are going to be less smug and snarky.)

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I don't read it as "OH NO MODERN TECHNOLOGY, OUR ROOMBAS WILL DESTROY US ALL." It's just "Yes, we are on our way to creating Cylons, we're testing the lines between people and machines and the world is going to shift when that happens, please be careful." How are we/future BSG cycle of humans going to deal with that?

That's what I got out from it too.

The meta epilogue is something I love more and more every time I watch it because it just adds more thinky thoughts, because when you look around us we are more technologically advanced than we have been over a decade ago. It's an optimistic hope wrapped in a warning of precaution to our own human curiosities about taking things too far, as we've seen what could happen, now what are we (as a human race) going to do about it? Can we be the surprising shift in the cycle that head!Six talks about?

I just have a huge appreciation for the epilogue in general. I wished more people did, but oh well.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I do get annoyed sometimes when people insist all the MEDICINE went away (whatever limited resources they still had of it) because obviously nobody meant to imply that -- authorial intent was that they unloaded a ton of supplies with them, and I never assumed anything else.

Exactly. It makes me scratch my head in confusion wondering how people made that leap in the first place, since I never assumed they just up and left without any kind of needed medical supplies and other survivalist equipment. It just wouldn't make sense that after everything they went through they would suddenly be careless with their own survival, you know?

I think people also forget what a crap-ass existence it was to live on those spaceships [...] the final season was dropping anvils left and right that all that technology was unsustainable and Galactica itself was in its death throes.

I do think many people forgot that aspect of their lives, as well. I keep hearing arguments about how they could have teared down the ships to make other uses of things that are way advanced to help them instead of reducing themselves to not surviving longer and whatnot. But I think they're forgetting the major point that their technology was disintegrating bit by bit. Them starting anew is something they needed, giving humanity a fresh start, giving themselves a fresh start on life. I can understand the concerns about whether they could have used certain things from the ships themselves or modern weapons when venturing off to new territories, but ITA that it fits perfectly with these characters and everything they had endured over the years.