From Ron Moore interview: Source: Battlestar Galactica: Watched The Finale? Still Got Questions? We’ve Got Answers! Question: What exactly was Kara, and were people chasing down a rabbit hole when they assumed her father was Daniel, the missing 8th model cylon? Answer he gave on Kara: Moore: Kara is what you want her to be. It’s easy to put the label on her of “angel” or “messenger of God” or something like that. Kara Thrace died and was resurrected and came back and took the people to their final end. That was her role, her destiny in the show… We debated back and forth in the writers’ room about giving it more clarity and saying definitively what she is. We decided that the more you try to put a name on it, the less interesting it became, and we just decided this was the most interesting way for her to go out, with her just disappearing and [leave people wondering exactly what she was].
I'm drawing a blank there as well. Starbuck being the harbinger of death seems like a whole lot of hot air unless I missed something.
That was one thoroughly satisfying resolution, in addition to the aforementioned Stockwell suicide. The Stockwell suicide makes absolute sense; why the heck did they need the infrequently braindead cylon to pilot into the sun? Just to remove the impediment of marriage to the hologrammy disappearing act? How does that begin to work? I liked the show because, with a few exceptions, it kept the mystical within the realm of possibility. Yes, the best character on the show is having visions of his now-lost roboto love, but that's a perfect representation of aching memory / lost connection. Sure, the president is having messianic visions, but that's ok, she's hopped up on painkillers. This show was the best television response to 9/11 & the Iraq War, and the role of religion in disparate cultures played into that well. This last episode removed that (or any) doubt, to its detriment, I think. I thought they were setting the Starbuck arc (seeing her own corpse/re-emergence from exploration/She has become Death the destroyer of worlds) as a time travel/wormhole/creation-destruction infinite loop sort of thing. Nope. She's a spiritual glyph, who disappears when her work here on earth (2? 3?) is done; just accept it. Baltar's tormented vision of 6 is now explicitly stated: she's an "angel." Overall, it's still the best science fiction show I've seen on tv (that wasn't cancelled 11 episodes in, though that one tended toward camp), and that it dared to explore the metaphysical is a mark in its favor. I don't know what resolution I would have preferred to the one aired, and still enjoyed the ride. Also, I really hope they sent a big fat check to Dylan for "All Along the Watchtower." With such an otherwise great score, never understood that particular choice.
The only thing I can gather is these characters were all pawns in a chess match by a God or Gods. Here you have Baltar, a supposed human, starting fresh on new planet Earth from scratch. Then, flash forward 150,000 years and there is Baltar with Six fixing to give out access to the military defense computer network again to Six's "employers". Then, you have Kara who is obviously a really important chess piece to be resurrected and fulfill her role. And, the show definitely said the cycle was repeating itself over and over (i.e. the dream)...with the characters who figured it out hoping if they did something different enough to where the outcome would be different (like a Matrix idea rip-off...Kara is Neo...lol)...another cyclon/human holocaust/war would not happen again. However, we can never be sure because the peace they were making ended with Tyrell pulling out his information hand and choking his wife's killer to death. It almost seemed like it was the same scenario with the same characters repeating itself regardless...and the end game was always the same. Then they went off trying to say the outcome could change as the end game doesn't always have to be the same due to whatever...blah blah blah. And, the whole song thing was actually something ingrained in the cyclons and Kara...to actually get to the promised land to start the cycle again. I would expect all those same characters to be in the "150,000 years later" scenario just like Baltar was with Six. Who knows? It's not black and white. Obviously, there were higher powers at work here and, when that is the case, anything goes.
Surf - you have the timeline messed up. The computer defense conversation was in the past on Caprica. We already knew about that. The 150,000 years in the future was our present day Earth and those were the "angel" versions talking, not the real Baltar and 6.
I shared this interpretation. To be clear: we are to believe that the Capricans did not originate on our future "Earth," but on another "Earth" (Third from the Sun-like) light years away, hundreds of thousands of years ago in the past, and that their Hera or Baltar/6 offspring was the DNA forebear of all current humans on our planet. And the frequently mutinous population universally agreed, just like that, to give up their jump drives / space lasers forevermore in order to trip out on the pastoral scene / hump Cro-Magnon hunter-gatherers / build the pyramids by hand? Is this the first time in sci-fi history where time travel would actually have been simpler? On a side note, I'm pretty sure this was the first ever machina ex deus ending.
Yea...I gaffed. The angel versions were just rehashing that stuff and talking about how it could turn out different this time. I was getting confused because I was starting to believe the angel versions were the future Baltar and Six or something.
What a complete *YAWN* fest . . AT BEST Craptastic in reality I don't even know where to start . . it was so ridiculously pathetic Kara thrace goes from trying to bone her fiance's brother which her fiance is passed out on the couch . . .to the savior of humanity . . . . to . . nothingness [Why did she not stay on the sun-bound ship since she was going anyway] I don't mind leaving questions unanswered but the whole part with Baltar and the six in modern times [i.e. Angel and devil maybe] Hell . . SPAWN tied up its God V Devil angle better than this. . . Rocket River never been so disappointed
I thought all of it was great. I thought more main characters would die, but thought they wrapped everything up nicely. I could understand how some people would be impatient with the flashbacks. I like fleshing out characters and showing the different sides up until the end. Ultimately it'll make rewatching the whole series more interesting. Especially Tyrols progression. Compare Chief at the beginning from Chief on New Caprica to at the end... If you were dissatisfied with the conclusion what would you have done differently? Keep in mind it's not as if they had the whole 4 seasons planned out from day one. A lot of other shows would've ignored what the show did early on and pretend certain things never happened. I'm glad they weren't lazy in this regard. Caprica doesnt look that good based on the previews, but I cant wait for The Plan.
I was disappointed with the last half, but it does fit with the whole annihilation of races theme. There's no way for a simple handshake deal to long lasting peace. It's hella rough around the edges. Just patch those spots with Baltar God's will. That Hallucination repeated throughout the series? Well it was all a misunderstanding! Cylons being dead-ended because of Tyrol's hamfisted rage? Well how else would Kara input those jump coordinates.... Yeah, I also loved the show because of the metaphysical questions of whether Baltar and 6 were crazy or talking to angels. It's like with all those unanswered questions to the series, that was one they shouldn't have answered, or they should've defused in a way that wouldn't enrage fans who wanted resolution without giving it away. I also agree on not knowing a better way to resolve the series. I did want an extended cutscene of Galactica blowing up in the sun though. Put the crew on the basestar to send it off or something. There was a lot built upon on its destruction over the last 3 episodes. What they showed didn't really do it justice.
I thought it was a pretty good ending as well. It actually managed to tie up all the loose ends for the most part, even if they weren't satisfactory to everyone. And it is what I kind of expected. I mean, they've been pounding us over the head with religious stuff throughout the series, so no surprise that that is how it ended. I was wondering if they were going to do some massive twist, but I'm glad they didn't. And the return of psycho Tyrol was funny as hell.
wut a crappy end to what could have been one of the best shows of all time...you broke my heart ron moore.
But WHY was it bad? It's not good enough to say that it sucked. What would you have done or suggested differently? I'm not saying everyone should be able to write a 4 year series, but in particular, what was disappointing? I don't understand the negative feedback, especially as a skeptic who thought the mystical aspects only added to the storytelling. If they explained half the things you guys wanted them to it would've felt hollow and contrived. How many horror movies are ruined when they show the face of the bad guy? It deflates the suspense and mystery. Hell, we only have atheists like myself bc people pretend to know the answer to certain questions and the explanation is less interesting than the question itself. If these sky hook explanations arent good enough for this groundbreaking series, I dont know why its good enough for people in real life. When its real.. OK its a perfect explanation, but when its a pretend world, oh foul they said God did it. Would more explosions have been better 2nd hour? That's all I could think of to please the unsatisfied. They told a great story. Other series envy how they went out.
Well, as I said, I liked it. But, yeah, I could see how some people could have been thrown off by how the show kinda slowed down in the whole 2nd half... you know, it didn't necessarily need action throughout, but people were probably expecting the drama to be at least tense and fast-paced up until the very end. And one last nitpick.. for several seasons they built up that whole opera house dream to be some really really big thing. I was imagining Six and Balter taking the child into the black hole and time warping back to Cobol or something... instead they take her into the CIC.... yeah, that was kind of a let down.
I've read before that, unlike most series (which, ha-ha, get cancelled after five episodes), BSG didn't have a five-year plan/outline. Moore et alia were just kind of winging it. That paid off extremely well for the most part, allowing for more tangents & creative exploration, but not here. (Supposedly, when they first discovered the oracular planet/altar, Moore wanted original Starbuck Dirk Benedict to walk out: "Hey wassup. I'm God, how's it going?" Wiser heads prevailed.) To me, this ending did feel "hollow and contrived," because it did resolve many of the questions that were best left unresolvable. Starbuck vanishes into thin air, after remembering her awesomest piano recital once again (ignoring the very real human frailties which plagued her during her latest return). Hallucinations, the greatest of acid trips, were made whole. As Phreak mentioned, the opera house group-stroll led only back to the con. The all-too-human Gaius Baltar, or at least the memory of him by another, is indeed the angel Joseph Smith, with a sexy she-angel to keep him company. In summation: if I wanted to watch "Touched by an Angel," I'd have written reams upon reams of bad Roma Downey slashfiction, instead of the 8-on-8-on-8 action ("Darest they call it infidelity, when 'tis both my own flesh and my own CPU?") the interwebs have come to accept/admire. I didn't want more explosions onscreen; I wanted my head to explode. I wanted one final payoff from a series that consistently delivered dozens of them. This ending just didn't do that for me. Oh well, at least the Capricans, by coming to our planet, were able to inspire Bob Dylan to write 150,000 years later, even if they did apparently rape &/or enslave our feeble ancestors. At least we got that out of the exchange.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20090321/en_tv_eo/105383 Battlestar Galactica Series Finale Redux: So Do We Live Happily Ever After? Battlestar Galactica, a visually grim and philosophically dark series for the duration of its run, had no obligation to end with twittering birds, romantic curlicues and happy, healing Helo. It was a gift, then, that it ended on such a triumphal, thoughtful note, and for that gift plus the entirety of four epic years with this great story, we offer a sincere and hearty thank you to the creators, cast and crew. But enough niceties. Let's get cracking into what went down in the series finale of Battlestar Galactica and, more importantly, what series creator Ronald D. Moore has to say about it... Look Homeward: So at last Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) goes to her hard-earned rest. She found Earth, yo! For the record, though, that man teaching her piano (and therefore giving her the FTL-drive coordinates to our new home) was not Daniel. According to Ronald D. Moore at the BSG finale event last week, "Daniel's definitely a rabbit hole" that fans fell down and not the key to Kara's everlasting mystery. Instead, says R.D.M., "Kara is what you want her to be. It's easy to put the label on her of angel or messenger of God. Kara Thrace died, was resurrected, and came back and took the people to their final end. That was destiny in the show." The Vixen and the Geek: Well, after four years of sex, lies and hallucinations, we've learned that both Caprica Six and Gaius Baltar were haunted by each other, but what they were haunted by remains unclear. According to R.D.M., "We never tried to name exactly what we called the Head-Baltar and Head-Six throughout the show internally, and we never really looked at them as angels or demons, because they would periodically say evil things and good things, and they tended to save people and tended to damn people. There was a sense that they worked in service of something else—you could say a higher power or you could say another power—that was guiding and helping, sometimes obstructing, sometimes tempting the mortal people in the show. The idea at the very end was whatever they are in service of continues and is eternal and is always around. And they too are still around, and they too are still here with us, with all of us who are the children of Hera, and in one way, shape or form they continue to walk among us and watch, and at some point they may or may not intercede at a key moment. That was the concept behind the last images." And if you ask us, those last images were quite magnificent. Also magnificent? Caprica's declaration that she'd always wanted to be proud of Baltar, the revelation of their genuine love and affection for one another, Baltar's speech to Cavil about a leap of faith, and Baltar weeping in Caprica's arms about...farming. Were you happy with that coupling finally coming to be? Post in the comments. Mountain Men: Were you happy with the lonely fates of the Chief and Lee Adama? The Chief is apparently off to be a great Scot, and Lee wanders the world...Was that the right ending for those two? Heart: It's hard to call Helo and Athena a fairy-tale couple when there was that time that Athena was punitively raped for being a Cylon, and then that other time when Helo frakked Athena's "evil twin" Boomer, but still...Gotta love where those two started and that they ended up together, bickering adorably. Not to mention the fact that their cutest-kid-in-the-fleet moppet Hera turned out to be mitochondrial Eve. —Reporting by Bryan Reesman
Yeah, you could say that the same hallucination occured for a different purpose each time, but when it really did happen, it was Athena who misunderstood what it really meant. Baltar God's will ftw...
