by Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Battlestar Galactica It is a wonderful series that helped revitalize science fiction. The first two seasons are filled with great character moments and a tense cat-and-mouse chase between the Cylons and the Colonial fleet. By season three, some believe the show was starting to go off the rails.
As a fan, I was frustrated by the increasing repetition of moments that ruined years of character development, and that was before the Final Five reveal. But as it turns out, showrunner Ronald D. Moore intentionally designed the fate of one character, Starbuck, to be confusing and cause fans to fight about it forever.
This is not speculation. In an interview with SyFy after the finale aired, Moore explained: “I felt like, when I got to the end, the more I pinpointed exactly what it was, the less interesting it became. And so I made the decision to go out on a more ambiguous note and let people argue about it constantly.”
Divine guidance
The penetrating character of Battlestar Galactica The revival, Ronald D. Moore, reimagined Starbuck as a woman, Kara Thrace, casting Katee Sackhoff in the role of the accomplished pilot played by Dirk Benedict in the original series. Although the writers were praised for creating a strong, multi-dimensional character, some of the good faith went out the window in season three's “Maelstrom,” when Starbuck appeared to die in her own viper as it exploded in the atmosphere of a distant planet. She was not gone long, reappearing without explanation in the season finale, “Crossroads, Part 2”, offering to guide the Colonial fleet back to Earth.
If it seems like an abrupt change from the Viper pilot to the presentation of the Moses character to lead the colonists out of exile, that's because it was, and again, “it's what you want to think about,” Moore explains. “It's been deliberately left ambiguous and ambiguous.”
After her death in front of Apollo, Starbuck looked the same, and Katee Sackhoff was still playing her, but as Moore intended, fans were still debating whether or not the character was human. The show's creator weighed in on his controversial opinion: “And I think she was a representative of an entity that didn't like to be called God, but everyone talked about it in divine terms. If you want to call her an angel, you can say that.”
There is evidence of a mysterious force guiding her, even years before the film begins Battlestar GalacticaShe is represented by the Eye of Jupiter symbol that appears throughout her life, from childhood drawings to strange dreams just before her death. The symbol appeared earlier in the season on the walls of the Temple of Five and inside the supernova that led the fleet to its next destination. More directly, Starbuck has visions before her death of her mother, her apartment, and what appears to be Leopine (Number Two), but turns out to be a spirit guide.
Harbinger of death
Starbuck's post-resurrection appearance is overshadowed by Cylon's prophecy in the First War: “Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end. She is a harbinger of the end of the world, a harbinger of death. They must not follow her.”
How does this happen during the final season of Battlestar Galactica It's a bit counterintuitive, because she led the human race to their end by transporting them to Earth. To humans, she was a guide to the Promised Land, but to the Cylons she became Death, the destroyer of worlds.
While all of this is entirely up to speculation, and there is evidence to support almost any reading of the word “harbinger,” I believe that her destruction of the Cylon ship Ressurection and ending their cycle of reincarnation brought about the end of the world. There's also the argument that her choices led others to their deaths, or as shown in one of the deleted scenes from Battlestar Galactica included as a DVD bonus, Starbuck explains to Apollo that the discovery of a destroyed Earth made that part of the prophecy come true.
As Ronald D. Moore intended, there is evidence for every reading of Starbuck's posthumous nature, from fans who believe she was a Cylon to others who believe she was an angel and even a few who go so far as to believe she was God. By “coming out on a vague note”, it's as likely to have ties to the founding of COBOL as it does to The Five, but despite Moore's aim to really leave the matter open, that hasn't stopped Sackhoff from commenting on the matter. Interpretation of it.
There are no wrong answers
Buried in the comments on a photo Katee Sackhoff posted of herself relaxing in the sun was her response to a fan who took shots at her and asked if Starbuck was a spiritual guide. In fact, Sackhoff responded, “She was a spirit who came to guide humanity to Earth and salvation.”
And you can see why more than a decade later Battlestar Galactica The broadcast stops, and fans are still arguing about Starbuck. Moore and Sackhoff have two different answers, and based on the evidence presented in the series itself, neither is wrong.
My belief is that she was an angel sent to lead humanity from exile in a mirror of the story of Moses, but that's also because I don't think the Cylon evidence is particularly strong. Jupiter's eye visions, along with prophecy, seem to indicate a divine spiritual force pushing humanity along a specific path. The theory that Number 7 was her father, and therefore she was a Cylon, is based on many other factors, some of which are explained in the show, particularly that mating with Cylons cannot produce offspring.
But that's just my opinion, and fortunately Ronald D. Moore realized that, unlike what was happening star warsNot everything needs a nice and tidy explanation. When you go back and watch again Battlestar Galactica On Amazon Prime, see what evidence you can find to support Team Angel, Team Cylon, or the lesser-known but still valid Team She Was A Ghost.
