The Chosen One

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Hybrid Chamber

(Kara looks at the Hybrid.)

Hybrid: ... All these things at once and many more not because it wishes harm but because it likes violent vibrations to change constantly then shall the maidens rejoice at the dance structural integrity of node seven restored repressurizing the children of the one reborn shall find their own country the intruders swarmed like flame like the whirlwind hopes soaring to slaughter all their best against our hulls ...

Starbuck: I'm here. You wanted me here, so...

Hybrid: ... Replace internal control accumulators 4 through 19 they'll start going ripe on us pretty soon compartmentalize integrity conflicts with the obligation to provide access FTL sync fault uncorrected no ceremonies are necessary ...

Hybrid: ... then shall the maidens rejoice at the dance structural integrity of node seven restored repressurizing the children of the one reborn shall find their own country. End of line, reset. Track mode monitor malfunction traced recharge compressors increase the output to 50% assume the relaxation length of photons transfers contact is inevitable leading to information bleed FTL sync fault stands uncorrected no ceremonies are necessary...

Starbuck, crouching: I don't understand.

Hybrid: ... Centrifugal force reacts to the rotating frame of reference the obstinate toy soldier becomes pliant the city devours the land...

Leoben, kneeling: You can't hurry her. You have to absorb her words. Allow them to caress your associative mind. Don't expect the fate of two great races to be delivered easily.

Hybrid: ... Assume the relaxation length of photons in the sample atmosphere is constant the intruders swarmed like flame like the whirlwind hopes soaring to slaughter all their best against our hulls...

(Helo paces the Demetrius CIC; Gaeta is looking rough in his makeshift sickbay.)

Hybrid: ...All these things at once and many more not because it wishes harm but because it likes violent vibrations to change constantly then shall the ...

Athena: Hey, we're rigged and ready. It's time to pull her offline and get out of here before we miss our rendezvous.

Hybrid: ...Reset...

Athena: Any luck, Captain?

Starbuck: Not a frakkin' thing.

Hybrid: ... But you are a spark of God's fire core update complete...

Starbuck: Frak it! Unplug the damn thing. Let's get the frak out of here.

Hybrid: ... Threat detection matrix enabled dendritic response bypassed the received dose is altered by the delayed gamma burst going active execute the children of the one reborn shall find their own country, end of line.

(An Eight opens a panel and unplugs the Hybrid, who shouts in an unceasing scream. A Centurion steps forward, converting guns.)

Natalie, angrily: Stop!

(The Centurion fires, dropping the Eight. Kara and Athena destroy it.)

Anders, entering: ...What the hell happened?

(The Eight's blood pollutes the water in the Hybrid tank; she's still screaming.)

Starbuck: What do you want from me? Please, I need you.

(She finally stops, and pulls one hand from the water with a calm smile.)

Hybrid: ...Thus will it come to pass the Dying Leader will know the truth of the Opera House the missing Three will give you the Five who have come from the home of the Thirteenth you are the harbinger of death Kara Thrace you will lead them all to their end.

(Kara is stricken.)

Hybrid: End of line.

(The Hybrid goes limp, and Athena fully unplugs her; the room goes dark.)

Comments

[scifishipper.livejournal.com]

I really dislike the "harbinger of death" moniker. Makes me feel so sad for her. She's already been through hell in her life and now she has to lead them all to their end. It sounds so miserable. :(

[damao2010.livejournal.com]

I dislike pretty much everything that has to do with Kara Thrace and her special destiny. I believe in free will and that destiny is what you make of it. However, Leoben and the hybrid pulled Kara into that all that craziness and by doing that they started to make it true. All in all, I think it was more of curse and a self-fulfilling prophecy. She would have been happier without all of that burden to fulfill that so-called destiny.

[rachelindeed.livejournal.com]

I actually really love this scene. I think it is so effectively done, especially in the acting and the beautiful lighting, from the moment the hybrid starts screaming to her gentle recitation of the prophecy (incidentally putting the lie to Leoben's advice about associative thinking and that you can't expect the fate of two great races to be delivered easily -- she gets it in one sentence that is almost totally literal! Don't bother listening to Leoben, Kara, he doesn't know what he's talking about). The scene really works for me, as drama. It is effectively eerie and haunting. It was the high-point of the Demetrius story arc for me -- that and the unexpected outbreak of violence between Barolay and one of the Sixes. I thought both those scenes were very effective mixtures of horror and compassion and they surprised me the first time I saw them.

I am not among those who take the mythic elements of BSG too seriously; I don't think the show is saying or even trying to say anything profound about free will or fate, particularly, I think it's playing around with long-standing fantasy elements and a free-floating grab bag of religious themes. I'm fine with that in the moments when it's used to good dramatic effect (like the Tomb of Athena sequence in season 2, which carries a real sense of awe). For me, the problem is not that Kara has a destiny, I think the problem is that it turned out to be a destiny that 1) confused and killed her, not necessarily in that order, and 2)did so for no good reason as far as we can tell by the rules laid out within the BSG mystical canon.

I was reading a JB interview the other day in which he said that the mystical elements of the show, including the Tomb of Athena sequence, made him uncomfortable because they seemed to take sides too definitively in the storytelling: after that, what kind of sense does it make to question the existence of supernatural gods? It seems like the story has definitively decided profound questions that should have been left open; in the BSG world, it doesn't make much rational sense to be an atheist. I'd say that has been true pretty much since season one and Roslin's supernaturally accurate visions. Now, as I say, I don't mind it when writers create their own mythos -- Star Wars is famous for doing so, and it's fine with me if BSG wants to have real Greek gods or a single over-ruling deity, malevolent or otherwise -- it's their fictional universe, they can do whatever serves their story. But I think maybe the problem was that the writers liked the idea of being ambiguous and leaving religious questions open to debate, but they had already closed that door from a plot perspective (in the story, prophecy, destiny and the gods have worked accurately from season one onwards), so they thought the way to keep things "mysterious" and to "leave the debate open" was to not specifically explain much of anything about the way the god or gods worked or their motives. So what we wound up with was a really vague and contradictory picture of these mystical forces and destinies. But leaving the audience with that jumbled picture does feel more like lazy plotting and not knowing where the story was going than it feels like genuinely thought-provoking religious/existential commentary. I have thought a fair amount about free will and predestination in my own real life and beliefs, and nothing I saw on BSG struck me as a serious examination of either.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

OK, basically rachelindeed summed up my thoughts on your thinky thought! I just wanted to say that I LOVE the icon that you posted with!!