#baltar x gaeta

[transpidergwen]

idk if Gaeta and Baltar have a ship name but I'm going to start tagging them as penpals

[searider--falcon]

Battlestar Galactica x The Odyssey

15 - The Opera House as Olympus

The home of the eternal Greek gods who watch, discuss, argue over, and meddle in the lives and affairs of humans, such as Odysseus and his crew.

Locations in Battlestar Galactica as stops in the Odyssey. Quotes are from the Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson translations, depending on what I thought fit best.

[jeanie-beanie-98]

Something I did a while back :) Meme template by @mcapriglione-art

[blue-mint-winter]

[3x13] Dee & Lee vs Gaeta & Baltar

These scenes are interlaced with each other and run in parallel. They even use the same body language.

Dee and Gaeta are close friends and they both have these reunions with someone they loved but who disappointed and hurt them. Lee asks Dee for a second chance, but Gaeta is the one giving Gaius second chance. Then both Dee and Gaeta look away, drawing the attention to people who stand in the way of the succesful fixing of their relationships - Kara and Sam at the bar/ Roslin and Adama who watch them through the camera. As a result, Lee is hit again by his feelings for Kara while Baltar realizes Gaeta is not on his side this time and accuses him of treason.

Superficially, it’s only Gaeta and Baltar scene that ends badly, their relationship unfixable and in shambles because of Gaeta’s murder attempt. But this is quite a bad omen for Dee and Lee. Lee’s feelings for Kara didn’t disappear and so he’s doomed to repeat the same mistakes with Dee.

[friendshiptothemax]

The Final Five, ranked by how much I love they’re one of the Final Five. This is NOT a ranking of how much I love them generally, just how much sense I think it makes that they’re a Cylon. SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY.

5. Ellen Tigh. Okay so here is where I am a fandom old and say I remember the period in which we did not know! I remember Christmas 2008 when it was very in vogue to have one of your livejournal icons be ���All I Want For Christmas is for [x] To Be The Final Cylon.” For my part, I wanted it to be Billy, though I also stand by to this day that Dee would have been the best choice. Why didn’t she hear the music with the others? Who knows! But I digress. Ellen. I was actually living on a boat when this episode aired and did not have cable and I literally called home as soon as the episode finished airing and made someone tell me who the Final Cylon was, and after all that I was definitely like “eh.” Is it an interesting moment? Sure. I don’t hate it. I just feel like it doesn’t have much emotional resonance for anyone but Saul, and it’s a little manipulative that, oh, NOW we’re supposed to believe the Tighs are this transcendent love that surpasses lifetimes? And yes, what an interesting character turn that the Tighs are a transcendent love that surpasses lifetimes, but really? Those Tighs? I’ve met those Tighs!

4. Tory Foster. Okay, again, I’m not mad at it, but here’s my thing with Tory: we know very little about Tory before the Cylon reveal, and we know very little about Tory after the Cylon reveal. I do appreciate the scene when they first find out they’re Cylons when Tigh’s like “I will never betray the man I am, I will fight for the Colonies with my last breath, you guys are with me, right?” and everyone is like “Yes, mmhm, totally, we agree” and then Tory goes over to the Cylons the VERY FIRST SECOND SHE IS PRESENTED AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO SO. Like always a literal laugh out loud moment for me that D’Anna is like “Any Cylons, please, come with us” and practically before she finishes speaking Tory is like “I would like to come with you, for...um. Other reasons” and everyone is just like “Nothing suspicious about this at all, sure, go ahead.” Anyway, no shade to Tory, but I feel like she was always the “and Tory” of the Final Five and I wish the writers had done a little more with her.

3. Samuel T. Anders. My Sam. I love Sam. Sam may be my favorite Battlestar character?? It’s either Sam or Helo. And I think he’s up there with Gaeta and Baltar for top three biggest character transformations over the course of the series. He BECOMES THE SHIP y’all! So good. I love Sam. That being said, as a Cylon reveal, there are better (two in fact). Everything that happens to him after the Cylon reveal, I think, is gold, and I love him being a Cylon for all of that. But I feel like the before-the-reveal groundwork wasn’t laid as well for him as for the other two men. Sure, he was in the New Caprican resistance, and sure, he was on the tribunal, but so too were Galen and Saul, so while he adds to the overall “how funny is it that the entire resistance leadership was Cylon,” individually it’s a little bit overkill. But still, I love Sam, never change, Sam (or, I guess, do, your character arc is one of the things I love about you).

2. Saul Tigh. Is there anyone in the entire fleet who would have been more upset to find out they were a Cylon than Saul Tigh? I’d argue no. And his growling “It’s in the frakkin’ ship!” is iconic. And like, yes, Galen and Sam were in the resistance and the tribunal, but no one, NO ONE, sacrificed more for them than Tigh. I think it’s perfect that Tigh is a Cylon. I’ve seen it pointed out that Saul alone among every Cylon we ever meet, never uses any Cylon abilities at all, save the one moment at the end when they have to do the data transfer, and I love that for him. Him as the voice of “I choose the kind of man I want to be” is really great, and I think he gives the Final Five a good perspective. I also want to say, I know it SEEMS ironic that the resistance leadership is all Cylon, but I also think it’s a reveal that works with what we learn of their character and backstory later. They are opposed to war between human and Cylon, they saw their entire world wiped out, they stopped the Cylon War in the Colonies the first time, OF COURSE they would go to the fucking mattresses when their kids fucked up that bad, even if they didn’t know that’s what they were doing.

1. Galen Tyrol. Oh, Chief! I have a theory, which is that if Chief had been the Final Cylon, he would have been everyone’s guess. He’s PERFECT as a Cylon. I know they’ve said they didn’t decide who was a Cylon until fairly late in the game, but re-watching the series it’s hard to believe they weren’t keeping a Chief-is-a-Cylon as a reveal in their pocket for a rainy day. From the way he was drawn to Boomer, to the way he suspected it at various times in the series, to his conversation with Cavil about whether he’s a Cylon (admittedly the Cylons did LOVE to troll people about whether or not they were Cylons), to all the aforementioned resistance/tribunal stuff, to his mystic connection to the Eye of Jupiter... it all works. They’d also built in a good when-was-he-inserted story (being estranged from his fundamentalist religious parents) which I feel mirrored the key foreshadowing they’d done with the Boomer reveal in the miniseries and not something they pulled off as well with every Cylon (PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES DON’T JUST APPEAR OUT OF THIN AIR?? NO REPORTER EVER NOTICED CAPRICA BUCCANEER SAMUEL T. ANDERS DIDN’T HAVE A BACKSTORY? WHERE DID HE COME FROM??). In conclusion, Cylon Chief is perfect, thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

BONUS: People at the time I remember thinking could NOT be the Final Cylon: 1.) Lee Adama because Bill obviously knew him from birth and we had never been given any indication that the Cylons took over the lives of actual people, 2.) Karl Agathon because then Hera would be full Cylon and that seemed to take away from everything they were doing with that storyline, 3.) Gaius Baltar because he wanted it and no one on Battlestar ever gets what they want, 4.) MAYBE Kara Thrace because it was just so damn obvious. But maybe that’s why it would be her? But like they couldn’t spend so much time teasing us with the mystery and then it’s the obvious choice could they?? But like she did maybe resurrect?? Would they really do that??

BONUS BONUS: Kara Thrace is the daughter of the Daniel Cylon and RDM can pry that out of my cold, dead hands.

[philosopherking1887]

Rules: list your ten favorite characters from 10 different things and tag ten people

Tagged by @plush-anon. Thanks! It’s not just gonna be 10 characters, though. I can’t follow instructions.

1. MCU -- Loki, obviously (see: my icon, blog heading). Second favorite: Tony Stark.

2. Avatar: The Last Airbender -- Zuko, also obviously if you’ve seen my blog at all lately. Second favorite: Toph. Legend of Korra favorite: Chief Lin Beifong.

3. Good Omens -- Crowley, predictably. Less obvious: the underappreciated Newton Pulsifer.

4. The Witcher -- Jaskier (show only; he’s terrible in the books). Less popular choice: Istredd (the only Ravenclaw on the Continent, per earlier discussion).

5. Buffyverse -- non-obvious faves for this one: Anya (BtVS) and Lorne (Angel). Honorable mention to the far too short-lived Doyle (Z’‘L).

6. Battlestar Galactica -- Felix Gaeta, Gaius Baltar, and their weird, weird relationship. I ship it so hard.

7. Black Sails -- aside from Flint and Silver, who are wonderful and sexy (especially together), my heart belongs to Jack Rackham. Dishonorable mention to Eleanor Guthrie, who’s a horrible person but I love her anyway.

8. Firefly -- Simon Tam. Soft nerd with a steel spine. (Do I want him or want to be him?)

9. Game of Thrones (seasons 1-6ish) / A Song of Ice and Fire -- obvious choice: Arya. Less obvious: Ygritte. Contrarian choice: Theon Greyjoy, whom I have never hated. Robb x Theon 4eva.

10. Lord of the Rings -- Eowyn (this is definitely a “want” situation, because I don’t really want to be her). Silmarillion: damn right I have the hots for Fëanor.

Tagging: @anais-ninja-bitch, @blancoluna, @closeonmarksnosedive, @iscariotsss, @jaystrifes (welcome to my weird), @pennie-dreadful, @piccolaromana, @sabishiinaq, @wickedjaime, @wnnbdarklord

[drinkupthesunrise]

Posted a thread to twitter today and you know what for posterity, I’m gonna post it here too.

I've been thinking since the last #SwRepMatters chat & this is not explicitly about queer characters in Star Wars, it's about queer characters in another sci-fi franchise that was widely considered progressive re: representation: the 2003 Battlestar Galactica reboot.

And like! They made some pretty good choices in casting and rebooting the characters. Making Starbuck a woman? Inspired. Know what they fell down on? Queer characters.

There are four canonically queer characters who are portrayed in relationships throughout Battlestar Galactica: Admiral Cain, Gina Inviere, Felix Gaeta & Louis Hoshi. Not that you would know that if you stuck to the main series episodes, as they're all in supplementary material

Admiral Cain & Gina Inviere - who initially appeared together in 'Pegasus' - were confirmed to be having a relationship in the made for tv movie 'Razor.' Producer Ronald D Moore was concerned about having BSG's first queer character be ... well, a bad guy.

On the commentary for Razor, he and writer Michael Taylor, had the following to say:

Moore: If anything, it's unfortunate that it's the first time it's happened on the show, that we had never.

Taylor: As far as we know.

Moore: As far as we know! That we had never, actually done anything with a gay or bisexual character before this, and unfortunately this had to be the first time.

Despite being aware of their failings - perhaps - in failing to include queer characters in the series up until this point, season four, the last season of the show, also failed to include any queer relationships.

Whilst also finding PLENTY of time for heterosexual romance. Oh boy. There is absolutely no shortage of people in relationships. Romance? Pretty integral to the whole plot of season four.

A little while after Season Four finishes, they decide to make a bonus webisode series to air in the mid-season break: The Face of the Enemy. A key plot point in Face of The Enemy is that Gaeta is seduced by one of the Cylons. A female Cylon.

There's one tiny problem with this: pretty much all of the fandom thinks that Gaeta is gay. Gaeta's actor, Alessandro Juliani, has consciously been playing him that way since day one. Gaeta has a crush on Gaius Baltar. It's basically fact.

And so, to avoid making Gaeta "straight", they decide to give Gaeta a boyfriend in the same webseries. Originally, it was intended to be Narcho, one of the pilots, but his actor wasn't available. Instead, it was Lieutenant Hoshi.

Hoshi and Gaeta had, at least, interacted on the main show before. They even share a hug in 'Revelations'. They both seem private people. The reveal works. ... until three episodes later where Gaeta stages a mutiny and Hoshi is led out the CIC and never once talks about it.

Ronald D Moore talks about it on the commentary of the episode. And while yes, there's no contradiction - something helped by the fact that Hoshi is barely in the episode - that ... doesn't mean that the lack of impact of this decision is okay.

There is a missing element in the show now… the relationship between Gaeta and Hoshi. In the webisodes we establish that Gaeta is having - has a relationship with Hoshi, a romantic and probably sexual relationship with Hoshi, and if we had known that at the time we were doing this there clearly would’ve been a stronger Hoshi element in these episodes. There would’ve been more fallout. There would’ve been a question of whose side Hoshi was gonna be on. But that just came later… I like the idea of that relationship in Gaeta’s life, and I liked what it did in the webisodes and as we thought back of how it affected these episodes. There’s nothing in here that contradicts that relationship. There’s nothing that says, “Oh, well they couldn’t have been in a relationship because of X, Y, and Z.” And I think it’s - for people listening to the podcasts and people who are presumably fans of the show, I don’t think it takes a tremendous effort to find a rationalization that essentially we’re just not seeing those scenes. We’re just not seeing the moment of decision between Hoshi and Gaeta, and that they did occur off-camera, and that we the audience just didn’t get a chance to see them.

Characters who are incidentally gay? Great. It doesn't need to impact the plot. But lets also recognise where a character's queerness or their queer relationship should be acknowledged by the plot, and that failing to do so is a cop out.

To circle back to Star Wars: I think Poe will be queer. I really really do. I think there's such momentum behind him being queer that Disney aren't going to make him "straight". But it will be in supplementary material. It won't impact on the main course of the story.

Queer characters should not be a 'bonus', a reward for engaging with the extended tie-in materials. It should not be left to fans to write those relationships into the margins of the material - especially when het romance is integral to the fabric of your show.

We're ten years on from BSG and it's half-hearted, we tried but not really, attempts at including queer characters into a big sci-fi franchise. 

We're twenty years on from DS9 looking at the romantic tension between two male characters and stubbornly ignoring it.

It's 2019, Star Wars: make Poe Dameron queer, and put it in the goddamn movie, not some book ten more years down the line.

[omophagist]

hedonism: a baltar/gaeta fanmix (lol, no one asked for this. I decided it should exist)

1.VOLCANO- damien rice/ and what I am to you is not what you mean to me 2. FALLIN' - alicia keys/ just when I think I've taken more than would a fool, I start falling back in love with you 3.HEDONISM- skunk anansie/ just because you feel good, that doesn't make it right 4. SENTIMENTAL GUY- ben folds five/ now I'm haunted by the left unsaid 5. GOD OF WINE - third eye blind/ and there's someone who understands you more than I do

[searider--falcon]

Battlestar Galactica x The Odyssey

14 - The Rebel Basestar as Scheria, Land of the Phaeacians.

Upon being released from captivity on Ogygia, Odysseus is at sea for nine days before washing ashore on the island of Scheria, home of the Phaeacians. Discovered and aided by Princess Nausicaa, Odysseus begs Queen Arete and King Alcinous for help. The Phaeacians are known for their sailing prowess and their magical ships which move at incredible speeds, know all lands, and require no oars. After hosting Odysseus and hearing his stories, the Phaeacians agree to provide him with a convoy of ships back to Ithaca, regardless of any godly wrath such actions might incur.

Locations in Battlestar Galactica as stops in the Odyssey. Quotes are from the Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson translations, depending on what I thought fit best.

Screencaps are from https://frak-that.com/

[searider--falcon]

Battlestar Galactica x The Odyssey

8 - Earth as The Underworld

Odysseus confronts the hungry ghosts of the dead and seeks guidance from the ghost of Tiresias, the blind seer of Thebes.

Locations in Battlestar Galactica as stops in the Odyssey. Quotes are from the Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson translations, depending on what I thought fit best.

Screencaps are from https://frak-that.com/

[searider--falcon]

Batlestar Galactica x The Odyssey

12 - The Maelstrom as Charybdis

With all his men dead and his ships destroyed, Odysseus lashes together bits of mast and keel to form a raft. The stormy seas push him back toward the straits of Scylla and Charybdis. As the raft is sucked into the giant whirlpool, Odysseus catches hold of the lone fig tree which overhangs Charybdis. For almost a day, Odysseus clings to this tree, suspended above the monster. At last, Charybdis spews back up pieces of the raft. Odysseus plunges back into the water, grabs the wooden remains of the raft,and swims past Scylla, escaping death thanks only to the mercy of the gods.

Locations in Battlestar Galactica as stops in the Odyssey. Quotes are from the Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson translations, depending on what I thought fit best.

Screencaps are from https://frak-that.com/

[searider--falcon]

Battlestar Galactica x The Odyssey

10 - The Battle of the Colony as The Strait of Messina, Home of Scylla and Charybdis

Following the instructions of Tiresias and Circe, Odysseus and his men sail between Scylla, a man-eating creature who dwells in a cave in the cliffs, and Charybdis, a monstrous whirlpool which destroys anything that comes within its reach. Odysseus chooses to sail closer to Scylla, for although he is doomed to lose some men to her, getting too close to Charybdis would mean death for the entire crew.

Locations in Battlestar Galactica as stops in the Odyssey. Quotes are from the Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson translations, depending on what I thought fit best.

Screencaps are from https://frak-that.com

[searider--falcon]

Battlestar Galactica x The Odyssey

9 - The Ionian Nebula as The Island of the Sirens

On advice from Circe, Odysseus and his crew sail past the island of the sirens, who attempt to lure sailors to certain death with their song. The crew plug their ears and bind Odysseus to the mast so that he might hear the sirens' song, but not jump overboard.

Locations in Battlestar Galactica as stops in the Odyssey. Quotes are from the Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson translations, depending on what I thought fit best.

Screencaps are from https://frak-that.com/

[searider--falcon]

Battlestar Galactica x The Odyssey

11 - The Algae Planet as Thrinacia, Island of the Cattle of Helios

After passing between Scylla and Charybdis, Odysseus and his crew arrive at Thrinacia, where the sun god, Helios, keeps his cattle. Odysseus warns the crew not to kill and eat the cattle, lest they incur the wrath of the god. After a month stranded on the island, the crew give into temptation and slaughter some of the cattle. Helios begs Zeus for retribution. As the crew set sail once more, Zeus destroys the ship with lightning, killing the entire crew. Only Odysseus is left alive.

Locations in Battlestar Galactica as stops in the Odyssey. Quotes are from the Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson translations, depending on what I thought fit best.

Screencaps are from https://frak-that.com/

[searider--falcon]

Battlestar Galactica x The Odyssey

13 - The Hub as Ogygia, Island of Calypso

After narrowly escaping Charybdis, Odysseus drifts for nine days, clinging to wreckage from his ship. On the tenth day, he washes up on the shore of Ogygia, the island home of the nymph Calypso. For seven years, Calypso keeps Odysseus on Ogygia, even though Odysseus continues hope for a return home. Calypso even offers to make Odysseus immortal like herself, but he stills longs for his wife, Penelope.

Locations in Battlestar Galactica as stops in the Odyssey. Quotes are from the Robert Fagles or Emily Wilson translations, depending on what I thought fit best.

Screencaps are from https://frak-that.com/

[searider--falcon]

I didn't know if baltar/gaeta had a ship name so a few weeks ago I just decided to start calling them pen pals lol, so don't worry you didn't miss anything, as far as I could tell they just didn't have one before.

I fucking love it!