Starbuck Debriefing, Briefly

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Posted by Corey on April 1, 2009

karathrace.jpgI have a penchant for fallible heroes, the kind that make perfectionists cringe. Not me. I need flaws. I thrive on the grotesque. Naturally, this attraction is stimulated by heroines, given that there really aren’t many depictions of highly throttled femme superheros in pop culture. Femme-Fatality is only the consequence of disregarding that which is obvious: the greatest heros are flawed.

Friends are asking my ideas about the recent finale of Battlestar Galactica. “You love Starbuck, what do you think of her end?”

My answer has been simple: Kara Thrace’s legacy is my own.

Stop asking me what i think starbuck is.  Kara Thrace is Kara Thrace. That is what she is. That is who she is. That is how she is. That is why she is.

As observers we fall witness to her power. Starbuck’s plight was the focus of the show on most occasions – and Kara had no idea. She was Kara fucking Thrace – and she didn’t know. Her superpower was her earnest fallibility equal to the value of unknown fate. Starbuck is instinct; guided by the gods. Kara Thrace is equally as flawed as me, and you, too. She has issues  in love, drinks too much alcohol, trouble with emotions, problems with authority, mostly keeps male friends, is obsessed with work, is confused about motherhood, is essentially completely alone, afraid of being forgotten, and has a beautiful smile.  And with all that mess of what today’s society considers crazy, she still found her fate, her destiny, and a way to balance herself into wholeness over goodness (see previous post).  Kara had no idea who or what she was, but she knew what she believed.  In her quest to answer the unanswerable, she searched for relics,  scoured photos of herself,  was confused and couldn’t get relief.  In the end, staying true to herself, knowing who she was (and not why), is what brought her  into a world of fated beauty and the ultimate death.  In the BSG finale, her climactic moment of supreme being, occurred with recognition of music from her childhood, literally connecting dots of her life rather than focusing on answering why, or  the why of the lives of others.  Stubborn Kara, so angry and forthright, with all her loneliness and confusion, became Kara Thrace. In the end, she was so balanced, so beautifully whole, that there was no reason to be seen or understood.  She didn’t die, she didn’t hurt herself; our earnestly fallible heroine melted into her destiny at her moment of spiritual perfection, without ever knowing why.

Whether a superhero saves the world or finds a new one, she is still only as good as her flaws and ability to exist above and beyond the judgement of others.

This is a power similar to The Jedi Force, larger than what most social creatures can sustain, and out of reach from the judgement of others.  Venturing outside of judgement and into fallibility with rigorous honesty, Kara Thrace is hard to forget.

Starbuck, Ms. Kara fucking Thrace, you are a super hero to me. That is what you are. You are the harbinger of honesty & imperfection, the death of judgement, the light of fallibility in moments of love, the courage to fail and try again. You are the imperfection of love and the simultaneous acceptance of flaw and destiny.

See you on the other side, if I do this thing right.

Posted in: BSG | 1 comment »

BSG: Starbuck.

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Posted by on March 29, 2009

When BSG began, i fell for starbuck as a femme superhero but needed the entire story to pan out before i declared the distinction. Lo and behold, with the finale of BSG: I have a new femme superhero.

I’ll try to be brief with this one….

A scene i can’t shake from the BSG finale is the one to which i feel the most connection. I think about this scene daily. I write about it in my diary. I actually did re-watch the scene and jot it down word for word, as it was nowhere to be found on any of the wiki quote databases. Without knowing why other bloggers and reviewers aren’t honing in on this scene, i can only imagine that we all connect to different stories. Maybe life is just this simple and this is mine. A toast to Starbuck, one of our new modern femme superheroes. the beautiful, strong and lonely swan song Kara Thrace, fierce enough in the end to remain true to the core of her being. Fearless enough to stay true to herself, to know who she was, to embrace challenge and stay true to her core. I will remember. I never forgot. Focusing on the what of Kara Thrace is the wrong angle. I suggest focusing on the how, who and why – I have found solace in my passion for her character. I am inspired by Kara Thrace as i am Beatrix Kiddo. Staying true to one’s self is not the popular path, but we carve our best futures by knowing who we are and honoring our core selves, even if lonely, challenging and painful. Starbuck’s jungian plight is the balance of light and dark.

I would rather be whole than good.

I am not afraid of who i am. I am not afraid of being alone. I am not afraid of death. I am afraid of disappearing. I am the breakfast club incarnate. I am the girl who makes snow from dandruff. Don’t you forget about me. As you walk on by. Will you call my name?

And thus, the scene from BSG which resonates with me more than any other moment in the entire finale:

LEE ADAMA: “youre tempting fate”
KARA THRACE: if i have a fate then it is set. and thinkin about it isn’t gonna make it happen any faster
LA: “flying when you’re thinking about dying isn’t a great way of doing business. you’re gonna get scared, you’re gonna start second guessing yourself”
KT: i’m not scared
LA: “BUT…you said you think about dying everytime you get into a cockpit”
KT: uh huh
LA: “welll…hello…”
KT: it doesn’t scare me Lee, that’s what you don’t get.
LA: “what, so it’s Kara Thrace: fearless warrior …right?”
KT: No. I know fear. And i get scared, just not in that way
LA: “so what does scare you?”

KT:
(pours drink)
(apologizes for pouring drink)

…being forgotten.



Posted in: BSG, Just For Fun, Quotes | 1 comment »