From a bit of a left field, first. One of the reasons, I don't have much trouble with 'Daybreak' (though I do have a list of storytelling shortcomings for this episode, unambiguos straightforwardness, for one, of my own), like many seem, is precisely because where it left Lee Adam's character and any allegations of L/K (if such were still even an issue, given all of season 4's worth as a coherent narrative). Among other things, Lee's journey had been about letting go. Letting go of an obsessive delusion of a nonce-romance and accepting the interaction with Kara for what it was (friendship and kinship, namely)) and wasn't, could and couldn't be. Letting go of anger, angst and resentment towards his father. Letting go of guilt and pain over Zack's and Kara's respective deaths. Letting go of convincing himself being a 'soldier who needs a war' and an 'Apollo' had nothing to do with who he was, in and out of the uniform. Letting go of pretending Dee wasn't much more than a detour from his 'one twuuu vuv'. Letting go of believing the Colonial system could or should be upheld blindly without profound adjustments to their impossible circumstances. Letting go of fanatic Cylon haterid and finding ground for compromise. Letting go of inhibitions to embrace the irrational and supernatural and/or divine as plausible dimentions of existense. There is a particualr subtle beauty to the point of equilibrium and liberation he reaches by the 'poof'-scene in Daybreak. To ignore or dispise it, to my mind, is to undermine the most wonderfully complex route this most wonderfully complex character took to maturity.
That is exactly why I tend to care less about fan-fics, picturing Lee to be roaming the brave new Erath 2.0, pining for vanished Kara, or angsting about thier uncarried out 'wuuuv', or facing her repeat return from the other side for a 'happily-ever-after', or paired up with an incarnation of Starbuck in a different lifetime. Because it does just that - undermines the logics of show narrative and one of the messages it managed to transmit. And I'm not even tackling the issue of angel!Kara professing love to her brain-dead husband and looking forward to meeting him on the other side, where both belong at that time, or the fact that her 'mission' was done and destiny fulfilled - she was brought back to lead the fleet to Earth and did just that. Twice. One time too many, already. That's not my point at the moment. My point is the plain and unassuming math of narrative structure and composition.
One of the first things they teach you about text analysis (and sure, a TV show verbal and visual narrative is as much a text) is that juxtaposition matters. If any two elements of composition (exposition and denouement, in this case) are brought together - it's for a *reason* and danm sure *means* something. What preceeds the 'poof'-scene? A flashback into the aborted drunk cheating semi-frak, initiated for and tantamount to a whole world of wrongness. What follows that flashback? Lee's accepting and aknowledging, decidedly undramatic and anticlimatic 'zen' over Kara's dissappearance. What goes in between those narrative points? Right, 5 odd years (before and after the Fall) of coming to terms with the inherent wrongness of that attraction on Lee's part and working their interaction back to ground zero - kinship and partnership. It's worth keeping in mind that through the flashbacks, preceding the 'fling' on the table, Kara assesses Lee as an ultimate cynic and screw-up, much like herself, which, in part, is instrumental to initiating the dare-frak and Lee's going through with it. Embracing the fact that he is *not* a cynic bastard deep down and is *not* irrevocably screwed-up, was also an integral part of Lee's journey. Letting go of an adolecent obsession factored heavily into that.
The second thing they teach you about text analysis is that location matters. Plot-points, characterization, expo, messages etc., placed in pragmatically different text positions acquire different level of significance and credibility. Opening and closure are the strongest text positions. Anything transcribed in there hits the hardest. What do we know about 'Sometimes a Great Notion' episode? It was scripted and filmed as the show finale (for fear of writers' strike prolongation). Whatever is in there, was supposed to be the coda, for the story and characters alike. Incidentally, the latter half of season 4 indeed appears scripted more like an epilogue of sorts to SAGN. So, where does the originally intended denouement leave Lee? First - eagerly looking forward to working his way back to the woman who saw the man he aspired and was proud to be be in him; ultimately - shaken to the core and completely encompassed by painfully grieving her loss. That could have been *the very last thing* we'd ever know about Lee's character! Here be implications galore. Foremost, of the kind suggesting the relationship with Dee was actually dominant, or, at the very least, immensely profound in defining Lee's character.
Even if not to consider the pragmatic viability of 'Daybreak-2' weakened by its 'fallout' post-scriptum quality, we still get Lee aknowledging and obviously having come to terms with Kara's death and otherwordly 'non-presense' alongside having let go of any intimate implications of their interaction.
Ergo, to wind up wayward extended ramblings, whence pages of fanfic had been written on 'bringing Starbuck to Apollo' on Earth 2.0, it seemed to me a lot more narratively justified to try and ponder the possibility of Lee finding solace and peace with Dee again, in the new world she sacrificed herself for him to cling firmly to duty of discovering.
And yes, I just have to admit to a guilty weakness of needing them to reclaim the easy, comfortable, mutually fulfilling happiness Dee's desperation blasted away.
That is exactly why I tend to care less about fan-fics, picturing Lee to be roaming the brave new Erath 2.0, pining for vanished Kara, or angsting about thier uncarried out 'wuuuv', or facing her repeat return from the other side for a 'happily-ever-after', or paired up with an incarnation of Starbuck in a different lifetime. Because it does just that - undermines the logics of show narrative and one of the messages it managed to transmit. And I'm not even tackling the issue of angel!Kara professing love to her brain-dead husband and looking forward to meeting him on the other side, where both belong at that time, or the fact that her 'mission' was done and destiny fulfilled - she was brought back to lead the fleet to Earth and did just that. Twice. One time too many, already. That's not my point at the moment. My point is the plain and unassuming math of narrative structure and composition.
One of the first things they teach you about text analysis (and sure, a TV show verbal and visual narrative is as much a text) is that juxtaposition matters. If any two elements of composition (exposition and denouement, in this case) are brought together - it's for a *reason* and danm sure *means* something. What preceeds the 'poof'-scene? A flashback into the aborted drunk cheating semi-frak, initiated for and tantamount to a whole world of wrongness. What follows that flashback? Lee's accepting and aknowledging, decidedly undramatic and anticlimatic 'zen' over Kara's dissappearance. What goes in between those narrative points? Right, 5 odd years (before and after the Fall) of coming to terms with the inherent wrongness of that attraction on Lee's part and working their interaction back to ground zero - kinship and partnership. It's worth keeping in mind that through the flashbacks, preceding the 'fling' on the table, Kara assesses Lee as an ultimate cynic and screw-up, much like herself, which, in part, is instrumental to initiating the dare-frak and Lee's going through with it. Embracing the fact that he is *not* a cynic bastard deep down and is *not* irrevocably screwed-up, was also an integral part of Lee's journey. Letting go of an adolecent obsession factored heavily into that.
The second thing they teach you about text analysis is that location matters. Plot-points, characterization, expo, messages etc., placed in pragmatically different text positions acquire different level of significance and credibility. Opening and closure are the strongest text positions. Anything transcribed in there hits the hardest. What do we know about 'Sometimes a Great Notion' episode? It was scripted and filmed as the show finale (for fear of writers' strike prolongation). Whatever is in there, was supposed to be the coda, for the story and characters alike. Incidentally, the latter half of season 4 indeed appears scripted more like an epilogue of sorts to SAGN. So, where does the originally intended denouement leave Lee? First - eagerly looking forward to working his way back to the woman who saw the man he aspired and was proud to be be in him; ultimately - shaken to the core and completely encompassed by painfully grieving her loss. That could have been *the very last thing* we'd ever know about Lee's character! Here be implications galore. Foremost, of the kind suggesting the relationship with Dee was actually dominant, or, at the very least, immensely profound in defining Lee's character.
Even if not to consider the pragmatic viability of 'Daybreak-2' weakened by its 'fallout' post-scriptum quality, we still get Lee aknowledging and obviously having come to terms with Kara's death and otherwordly 'non-presense' alongside having let go of any intimate implications of their interaction.
Ergo, to wind up wayward extended ramblings, whence pages of fanfic had been written on 'bringing Starbuck to Apollo' on Earth 2.0, it seemed to me a lot more narratively justified to try and ponder the possibility of Lee finding solace and peace with Dee again, in the new world she sacrificed herself for him to cling firmly to duty of discovering.
And yes, I just have to admit to a guilty weakness of needing them to reclaim the easy, comfortable, mutually fulfilling happiness Dee's desperation blasted away.
