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As I mentioned in another thread, its been awhile since I stuck my head in here - somebody let me know if this is in the wrong place, or please just move it for me. Thanks.
I watched Razor, and to be honest, Im underwhelmed. First off, Admiral Cain & Gina? Wrong. I could devolve into a whole rant about how come "they" (they being the media/hollywood) always portray powerful women as homosexuals, but that discussion has already been ridden hard and put away wet. Time and again.
But lets, for just a minute. Granted, I give you that this is the direction in which they wanted to take the story for various reasons that we saw in S2 and 2.5 with Baltar and in S3 - but I truly do believe that there is a conspiracy out there that is hell bent on the idea that Authority and Power in and of themselves are male personality traits. Give me a break. Essentially its like this:
Authority = male personality trait
Power = male personality trait
Women + Authority = manly woman (or substitute "butch" in there)
Call me naive, but this pisses me off. One of my great frustrations with this twisted vantage point is the inevitable and unfortunate truth that life imitates art. And so it is that a vast majority of young impressionable girls out there simple enough to take their identity from the movies or television automatically identify power/authority in women as "manly." I do admit that I am philosophically impure on that point, because I do see a certain type/expression of power and authority as a manly or male-like expression of power, and in women it is very unattractive and quite a turn-off - the thought "butch" does often spring to even my mind. MY greatest irritation, and the thrust of my point here is that power itself, or authority itself (not discussing how it is wielded/expressed) is not, and should not be interpreted as a "male" personality trait.
For example: Roslyn Expression of Power vs. Cain Expression of Power
We could say people are just different. We could say that it was different for Cain because she was in the military. But we would be lying. Why? Because Bill Adama is also in the military - and while he wanted to bestow posthumous medals in the benevolence and tolerance shown to the dead, I find it disingenuous of him to have said that simply because Cain & Shaw were in a different position than him, their actions should be understood, their predicament sympathized with (ok, bad grammar). Absolutely not. Cain was in no worse predicament than Bill Adama. He had his son, he had Adama, he had Colonel Tigh. Blah, blah, blah. She, too, had an XO that was her personal friend, who was man enough, and friend enough to stand against her to her face when she decided to fight that impossible battle. Because that's what friends do - they tell you that they cant go beyond this point with you - that they cant respect you beyond this point.
She shot him in face. Remember? That act proceeded to create for her a ship full of Yes Men. And thus began the inexorable slide down the slippery slope - the drifting away from and ultimate loss of the moral compass.
Razor sharp, my rear end - you want to know what I think? I think Admiral Cain got her little heart broken by the betrayal of her lover Gina, and that alone set her on dark path. Cain is hurt - who cares if you get hurt too? Dont you know people are gonna get hurt in this war? Hurt is price you pay, baby, if you wanna play with the big girls and boys. Cain lost her "family" in the Gina betrayal - who cares if you lose your family, if she kills your family? Life is pain, baby - people lose their family in this war. Loss of family is the price you pay if you wanna play with the big girls and boys. This is why they kept cutting back to Cain standing over the beaten/bruised/(raped) Gina when she would callously and cruelly make decisions......like........kill their family.....just get it done!
You can keep the Cain brand of wisdom - its actually a shame that Kendra Shaw was so impressionable as to be bought off by a promotion. (Oh, you're struggling with guilt over that mass murder I ordered you do? Here's a little promotion to make you feel better - now you've really proven yourself to me.) Kendra Shaw lost her soul that day - irretrievably broke something inside of herself - and got a Captaincy in trade for something far more precious and personal: her own piece of mind. She could herald herself as the Cain legacy until the cows come home, but I would venture to find her in the kitchen before her "fix" and ask her why something so great would make a junkie out of her - truly. If you're so great, and so right, why do you feel the need to escape your own head? Self-hate is a bad place to be, and THAT was Cain's legacy to her, not a blade.
Ok - so I've purged the Cain sickness. I do want to say that in this one - I've rekindled a like for Starbuck which is probably amped up in exact reference for my dislike for Shaw. So how about what the Hybrid had to say about Starbuck? Believe it? I dont, and here's why: why tell Shaw what he told her in futility? He basically WARNED her, and then jammed the signal so she couldnt warn the rest of the crew. Makes no sense other than if you view it as the Hybrid's self-preservation drive. My thinking is that he thought Shaw wouldnt detonate the nuke if he told her something earth-shattering like that - I suppose she was supposed to stop what she was doing and try to rush back to Pegasus to save them all. Instead, she completed the mission (her one right act). I guess we'll see what the resurrected Starbuck is up to in S4. I almost dont know if I care anymore.
Can I say as a last word that in S2-2.5 I actually felt sorry for Gina - after Razor? Not so much, though I still wouldnt have sanctioned the rape of another woman. The fact that they had a sexual relationship helps inform why Cain hated her so much (it is a little intense to allow, even champion the rape of another woman on your watch), and was so invested in degrading her. It also informs why this Number Six was so intensely disgusted at the idea of sleeping with Baltar in S2.5 - Im no knowledge holder about the emotional after-effects of rape, but I remember thinking that her revulsion to sleeping with him was almost too extreme. At the end of the day, regarding Cain - betrayal is a painful experience, but you get the idea that it became an obsession for Cain, a closely held and very unhealthy hate. Unhealthy for everyone who worked for her, and everyone she came into contact with. You have to be careful around people like that, because if a person can casually rip a part of their heart out and bleed it to death with pleasure - trust me, you mean far less to them than their own heart, and they'll rip you to shreds without batting an eyelash or losing sleep over it.
Cain? Seriously lacking in objectivity - dangerous, even fatal in a leader. And when Gina shot her - she got her due!
I watched Razor, and to be honest, Im underwhelmed. First off, Admiral Cain & Gina? Wrong. I could devolve into a whole rant about how come "they" (they being the media/hollywood) always portray powerful women as homosexuals, but that discussion has already been ridden hard and put away wet. Time and again.
But lets, for just a minute. Granted, I give you that this is the direction in which they wanted to take the story for various reasons that we saw in S2 and 2.5 with Baltar and in S3 - but I truly do believe that there is a conspiracy out there that is hell bent on the idea that Authority and Power in and of themselves are male personality traits. Give me a break. Essentially its like this:
Authority = male personality trait
Power = male personality trait
Women + Authority = manly woman (or substitute "butch" in there)
Call me naive, but this pisses me off. One of my great frustrations with this twisted vantage point is the inevitable and unfortunate truth that life imitates art. And so it is that a vast majority of young impressionable girls out there simple enough to take their identity from the movies or television automatically identify power/authority in women as "manly." I do admit that I am philosophically impure on that point, because I do see a certain type/expression of power and authority as a manly or male-like expression of power, and in women it is very unattractive and quite a turn-off - the thought "butch" does often spring to even my mind. MY greatest irritation, and the thrust of my point here is that power itself, or authority itself (not discussing how it is wielded/expressed) is not, and should not be interpreted as a "male" personality trait.
For example: Roslyn Expression of Power vs. Cain Expression of Power
We could say people are just different. We could say that it was different for Cain because she was in the military. But we would be lying. Why? Because Bill Adama is also in the military - and while he wanted to bestow posthumous medals in the benevolence and tolerance shown to the dead, I find it disingenuous of him to have said that simply because Cain & Shaw were in a different position than him, their actions should be understood, their predicament sympathized with (ok, bad grammar). Absolutely not. Cain was in no worse predicament than Bill Adama. He had his son, he had Adama, he had Colonel Tigh. Blah, blah, blah. She, too, had an XO that was her personal friend, who was man enough, and friend enough to stand against her to her face when she decided to fight that impossible battle. Because that's what friends do - they tell you that they cant go beyond this point with you - that they cant respect you beyond this point.
She shot him in face. Remember? That act proceeded to create for her a ship full of Yes Men. And thus began the inexorable slide down the slippery slope - the drifting away from and ultimate loss of the moral compass.
Razor sharp, my rear end - you want to know what I think? I think Admiral Cain got her little heart broken by the betrayal of her lover Gina, and that alone set her on dark path. Cain is hurt - who cares if you get hurt too? Dont you know people are gonna get hurt in this war? Hurt is price you pay, baby, if you wanna play with the big girls and boys. Cain lost her "family" in the Gina betrayal - who cares if you lose your family, if she kills your family? Life is pain, baby - people lose their family in this war. Loss of family is the price you pay if you wanna play with the big girls and boys. This is why they kept cutting back to Cain standing over the beaten/bruised/(raped) Gina when she would callously and cruelly make decisions......like........kill their family.....just get it done!
You can keep the Cain brand of wisdom - its actually a shame that Kendra Shaw was so impressionable as to be bought off by a promotion. (Oh, you're struggling with guilt over that mass murder I ordered you do? Here's a little promotion to make you feel better - now you've really proven yourself to me.) Kendra Shaw lost her soul that day - irretrievably broke something inside of herself - and got a Captaincy in trade for something far more precious and personal: her own piece of mind. She could herald herself as the Cain legacy until the cows come home, but I would venture to find her in the kitchen before her "fix" and ask her why something so great would make a junkie out of her - truly. If you're so great, and so right, why do you feel the need to escape your own head? Self-hate is a bad place to be, and THAT was Cain's legacy to her, not a blade.
Ok - so I've purged the Cain sickness. I do want to say that in this one - I've rekindled a like for Starbuck which is probably amped up in exact reference for my dislike for Shaw. So how about what the Hybrid had to say about Starbuck? Believe it? I dont, and here's why: why tell Shaw what he told her in futility? He basically WARNED her, and then jammed the signal so she couldnt warn the rest of the crew. Makes no sense other than if you view it as the Hybrid's self-preservation drive. My thinking is that he thought Shaw wouldnt detonate the nuke if he told her something earth-shattering like that - I suppose she was supposed to stop what she was doing and try to rush back to Pegasus to save them all. Instead, she completed the mission (her one right act). I guess we'll see what the resurrected Starbuck is up to in S4. I almost dont know if I care anymore.
Can I say as a last word that in S2-2.5 I actually felt sorry for Gina - after Razor? Not so much, though I still wouldnt have sanctioned the rape of another woman. The fact that they had a sexual relationship helps inform why Cain hated her so much (it is a little intense to allow, even champion the rape of another woman on your watch), and was so invested in degrading her. It also informs why this Number Six was so intensely disgusted at the idea of sleeping with Baltar in S2.5 - Im no knowledge holder about the emotional after-effects of rape, but I remember thinking that her revulsion to sleeping with him was almost too extreme. At the end of the day, regarding Cain - betrayal is a painful experience, but you get the idea that it became an obsession for Cain, a closely held and very unhealthy hate. Unhealthy for everyone who worked for her, and everyone she came into contact with. You have to be careful around people like that, because if a person can casually rip a part of their heart out and bleed it to death with pleasure - trust me, you mean far less to them than their own heart, and they'll rip you to shreds without batting an eyelash or losing sleep over it.
Cain? Seriously lacking in objectivity - dangerous, even fatal in a leader. And when Gina shot her - she got her due!
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something witty goes here......
something witty goes here......
