Ship Manifesto: Kara/Lee
Jul. 14th, 2005 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seldearI said I was going to do Batman/Wonder Woman - Justice League, didn't I?
I lied.
Short and (bitter-)sweet, I present:
Kara/Lee - Battlestar Galactica
I liked the dynamic between these two from their first scene together in the miniseries. She's in the brig, he comes to see her. They talk. Everything from her misdemeanour to Zak is brought up between them in that short conversation, and there's both affection and bitterness between them - and the shadow of the man who lies between them.
It seems fitting that their last scene together in 'Kobol's Last Gleaming' should hold that same affection and bitterness: his jealousy, her regret, and again the shadows of another man between them.
These two are the yin and yang of relationships: opposites, but with a dollop of the other at their core.
When he's reticent, she's forward; when he plays the bad-cop, she's sitting there being polite and pleasant. They're intense and passionate, and when they confront each other, sparks fly like struck steel against stone. He usually goes by the book and she breaks the rules the way she bets - all out, nothing to lose; but when he crosses the line, he certainly doesn't do it by halves!
He's an idealist, she's a cynic; but she can be a believer when led to it - witness her response to Leoben in 'Flesh and Bone' and his bitterness can sting - as his father well knows.
She's blunt and unreserved, he's a 'by-the-book' kinda guy. He has a degree of professional jealousy towards her: she's the acknowledged best pilot, but he's the CAG. She thinks he's too easy on the troops, but her own manner is over-harsh and she has to pull back.
Small cues give us hints as to their individual histories: while it's implied that Kara can't keep her pants on - especially when she's drunk (Kobol's Last Gleaming Pt 1), it's also implied that Lee's something of an innocent when it comes to women - especially when they show unwanted interest in him (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down).
Of course, this is also a relationship that has issues up the wazoo. Other than the fact that the ghost of Zak Adama and his death lies between them, there's also a sense of professional competitiveness between them, and the balance of their relationships with the senior Adama - both as commander and father-figure. After KLG2, it's more than possible that they'll find themselves balancing their relationships with President Roslin as well.
Personally, I'd say the Lords of Kobol had mercy on Zak Adama when they took him young. He'd have been lost between brother and lover - too much the same and yet so contrary to each other, day in, day out, all the time.
The question of how the triangle between Lee, Kara, and Gaius Baltar is going to work out will be an interesting study in Season Two - but we're not there yet and I haven't gone for the spoilers. How it plays out in canon isn't really the point of this essay, so much as why I like this pairing.
I like Kara/Lee in that they're so perfectly balanced and matched; foils for each other, making up what the other lacks. At the start of this essay, I described them as 'yang' and 'yin': in so many ways opposite, but containing the nature of the other at their heart. More than anything else, the word I would use to describe them is not 'insane' or 'beyond insane' as the Kara/Lee shippers of Galactica have named it, but 'balanced' - matched and measured, whether in concord or in conflict.
One of my weaknesses is a sense of balance. It's part of my artistic side: a need for symmetry - or a carefully balanced asymmetry.
Kara/Lee provides that balance in all their messy, inconvenient array.
I lied.
Short and (bitter-)sweet, I present:
Kara/Lee - Battlestar Galactica
I liked the dynamic between these two from their first scene together in the miniseries. She's in the brig, he comes to see her. They talk. Everything from her misdemeanour to Zak is brought up between them in that short conversation, and there's both affection and bitterness between them - and the shadow of the man who lies between them.
It seems fitting that their last scene together in 'Kobol's Last Gleaming' should hold that same affection and bitterness: his jealousy, her regret, and again the shadows of another man between them.
These two are the yin and yang of relationships: opposites, but with a dollop of the other at their core.
When he's reticent, she's forward; when he plays the bad-cop, she's sitting there being polite and pleasant. They're intense and passionate, and when they confront each other, sparks fly like struck steel against stone. He usually goes by the book and she breaks the rules the way she bets - all out, nothing to lose; but when he crosses the line, he certainly doesn't do it by halves!
He's an idealist, she's a cynic; but she can be a believer when led to it - witness her response to Leoben in 'Flesh and Bone' and his bitterness can sting - as his father well knows.
She's blunt and unreserved, he's a 'by-the-book' kinda guy. He has a degree of professional jealousy towards her: she's the acknowledged best pilot, but he's the CAG. She thinks he's too easy on the troops, but her own manner is over-harsh and she has to pull back.
Small cues give us hints as to their individual histories: while it's implied that Kara can't keep her pants on - especially when she's drunk (Kobol's Last Gleaming Pt 1), it's also implied that Lee's something of an innocent when it comes to women - especially when they show unwanted interest in him (Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down).
Of course, this is also a relationship that has issues up the wazoo. Other than the fact that the ghost of Zak Adama and his death lies between them, there's also a sense of professional competitiveness between them, and the balance of their relationships with the senior Adama - both as commander and father-figure. After KLG2, it's more than possible that they'll find themselves balancing their relationships with President Roslin as well.
Personally, I'd say the Lords of Kobol had mercy on Zak Adama when they took him young. He'd have been lost between brother and lover - too much the same and yet so contrary to each other, day in, day out, all the time.
The question of how the triangle between Lee, Kara, and Gaius Baltar is going to work out will be an interesting study in Season Two - but we're not there yet and I haven't gone for the spoilers. How it plays out in canon isn't really the point of this essay, so much as why I like this pairing.
I like Kara/Lee in that they're so perfectly balanced and matched; foils for each other, making up what the other lacks. At the start of this essay, I described them as 'yang' and 'yin': in so many ways opposite, but containing the nature of the other at their heart. More than anything else, the word I would use to describe them is not 'insane' or 'beyond insane' as the Kara/Lee shippers of Galactica have named it, but 'balanced' - matched and measured, whether in concord or in conflict.
One of my weaknesses is a sense of balance. It's part of my artistic side: a need for symmetry - or a carefully balanced asymmetry.
Kara/Lee provides that balance in all their messy, inconvenient array.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-31 11:05 pm (UTC)and it is interesting to imagine an AU in which Zak had lived!
no subject
Date: 2005-08-01 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-21 12:44 am (UTC)