What a lot of fun, you guys have been real swell

[woolly_socks]

Wow, I'm seeing so much BSG-rage on my flist, with tiny little pockets of squee. Fascinating.

So, I have to put my two cents in, for anyone who cares. I fall into the squee camp, with smatterings of WTF? But there is no rage.

You know what, I always thought the ending would be a little clumsy. I have never quite lost sight of the fact that RDM is a bit of a fuckwad sometimes. Remember when he thought it was a really good idea for Baltar to go into the opera house on Kobol and meet God, played by Dirk Benedict? /o\

So I was steeling myself for some industrial strength WTF, but I'm guessing by the reactions I'm hearing, that most were not. Oh well. *sigh*

I love that the uneasy truce with Cavil fell apart because of something so small and human as a secret murder of someone's wife. I just DIG that, the juxtaposition of the grand and sweeping and epic and the small and (cosmically) petty.

I love that Kara was not explained. There's nothing I hate more than being given ALL the answers. Some is fine, thank you. \o/

(BTW, there are some answers here, if you swing that way. Thanks to sarah_actually for the link)

I'm not going to go through every single little thing I loved and did not love. The thought is just exhausting. Suffice it to say, I was satisfied.

I did giggle my way through the last couple of minutes on contemporary Earth, partly because I was exhausted and hysterical by that point and partly because it was as subtle as a sledgehammer.

I'm happy with the unanswered questions. I like unanswered questions! Isn't that what fandom thrives on? As long as there aren't too many, and I think there was just the right amount here.

The Chief remains my favourite character, and not just because I want to #$!!% Aaron Douglas. I think hermitude is a sensible choice to deal with your anger management issues, especially when there doesn't appear to be any psychologists around to help everyone out with their epic multi-layered PTSD.

Go live on an island! Climb mountains! Have babies! Curl up and die! These are all valid lifestyle choices, after a journey like that.

I only have one very silly thing to say about Kara, which I was about to use for a subject line but then realised how spoilery it was: SHE'S NOT THE MESSIAH, SHE'S JUST A VERY NAUGHTY PILOT!!

Hee. ♥. Nice one, RDM. Goodnight, good work, I'll most likely kill you in the morning. If the rest of the fandom doesn't beat me to it.

Bye bye, show. I'll be seeing you again, over and over, I expect. Except for the episodes that I violently hate, but this wasn't one of them.

Comments

[meresy.livejournal.com]

I fall into the squee camp, with smatterings of WTF?

Me too, mostly. Maybe more WTF than \o/, but my reaction when watching was mostly omgomgomgwhat? Because there was all this tension and awesome battle and then... oooo-kay.

After I let it percolate for a while more things started bugging me, though. >:( But no rage.

[deliaepigram.livejournal.com]

Aw, glad to finally hear from you on the subject. I think I am mostly with you. Didn't like the real earth bit at the end. I cried. A lot. I think I also have to watch it again.

[blue-raven.livejournal.com]

I fall into the squee camp, with smatterings of WTF? But there is no rage.

Yup. As far as endings go, it was a great one. Not Six Feet Under great, but still fantastic. And I even teared up. I really did.

...yeah, I can see where people would feel let down and be disappointed. There were many things I had issues with over the run of the show, but overall, I still found it better viewing than some other shows out there. :)

[whyoffry.livejournal.com]

HEE! I thought it was going to be good, but I can't get up the energy to be ragey. Mostly just disappointed. As you say, RDM is a fuckwad.

[utterfrivolity.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy you enjoyed it! I was actually pretty content. I mean, would I re-write the entire last half of this season if I had the chance? Hell yeah. But I wasn't bothered by most of what happened, and some of it I absolutely loved. I'd been bitching all season about the Gaius/Caprica relationship being neglected; not that I care about that relationship more than others, but I thought it was important, and that it had gone from being central to the series to nearly nonexistent. To see them together again as a key part of the series made me happy enough that I could shrug off some of the most ridiculous elements of the finale (e.g. everyone being super-awesome with giving up all their technology).

I thought Starbuck's ending was fine, aside from leaving poor Lee alone. I just want him to be happy! Sigh. And I absolutely adored Anders's ending. He somehow ended up my favorite character by the end of the series. I would've bet my entire bank account against that when he was introduced, so kudos to the writers for making that happen.

The thing is, as far as I can remember, I've only ever loved one television finale. They're tough to nail even when the show doesn't have a million crazy things going on. What I wanted from this was for most of the plot and thematic elements to be brought together, and I think that happened. If they were going to make the finale brilliant, they would have had to have started setting shit up ten episodes ago, and they didn't. There's only so much they can do in three hours. I'm just glad that only parts of it felt like a frantic race to the finish, as I think the whole episode could've easily fallen into that.

Ok, I realize I've already written as much as you did in your post, but I have to share with someone that this has been a really interesting fandom experience for me. I wasn't in BSG fandom, and while I feel like I missed out on a lot of great squee and discussions over the years, all the rage that's surfaced makes me wonder if I'm not better able to enjoy shows outside of fandom. In this case two of my best friends IRL got me into the show, and I've shared this show with them and my SO. We have plenty of discussions and disagreements, but it never reaches the fever pitch of fandom. Because I didn't watch commentaries or read articles, I didn't develop a feel for the writers or producers beyond what was on the screen, so nothing ever felt particularly personal. I dunno. I like knowing what other people think of episodes, but what tends to happen is that when I don't like an episode, people's positive reactions don't change anything, but when I do like an episode, people's negative reactions affect my enjoyment somewhat. Huh. Something I've got to think about, I guess.