A Day to Remember

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

OK, so the image is kind of a joke, but for those who are interested in engaging in actual thought this fine holiday, feel free to expound upon your thoughts of Kara's end in Maelstrom. Was she driven mad? Do you consider it suicide? Did she finally accept her destiny? Was hallucinating her mom's beyond-the-grave approval all she needed to shuffle off this mortal coil? Was she looking forward to a free-and-easy afterlife?

Comments

[imelda72.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, for people she loves. Exactly like you say--she's love starved, and she wants the approval of the people she respects and loves.

But that's very few people. On the whole, she's not concerned with her image or her legacy or anything like that, the way Papadama and Lauroslin and Gaeta and Gaius are. To say "I don't want to be forgotten" implies, I think, a desire for acknowledgment beyond your immediate circle. Obviously the people whose lives you share aren't going to forget you. And if that's all Kara wants from them, then that's a pretty damn weak ambition.

So whether she meant she doesn't want the world to forgive her, or her loved ones to forgive her, either way I think it's not true to Kara, and certainly not her greatest fear.

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

Obviously the people whose lives you share aren't going to forget you.

That's...not quite true. And even if it was, I can't see Kara thinking it true. She believes she's not worth love, so why would she be worth remembering? I think the two are very connected, love and being remembered, especially because of her past. If she believes she's damaged, she'll be afraid that she's leaving as terrible a legacy as her mother and father left for her. It's not a matter of image, it's a matter of self-worth, which I think we can all agree Kara struggles with. She wants to be someone that people will remember when she's gone, both a) because it means they cared for her more deeply than just as someone who was there in the moment, and b) to prove that she's worth remembering.

And if that's all Kara wants from them, then that's a pretty damn weak ambition.

How does ambition have to do with greatest fears? My greatest ambition is to be a famous television writer, but my greatest fear is not being rejected by Hollywood. Fears and ambitions can be connected, but aren't automatically so.