I'm surprised how many didn't like Starbuck's ending. She was atrocious in season 3, and my favorite part of season 4 is how much they redeemed that character. She was fantastic, up to and including that ending.
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What did you think of Battlestar Galactica ending?
- Thread starter SofNascimento
- Start date
I just didn't like the fact humanity is at the end powerless against motions set in place long before the inevitable war between the humans and Cylons.
There was an opportunity to understand the difference between hope for a brighter tomorrow and predestination. That the stigma and baggage of the old world wouldn't save the fleet but instead the shared loss and sacrifice of each individual would temper them and make them stronger.
In the dark void of space, with their homes a distant blip on the star chart, we understand the savagery of what we created and coming to terms with the question, "What is going to far?"and using that question to salvage the remaining humanity and strength that had been eroding since the calamitous escape.
We got the, "Everything has happened and will happen again" ending instead of a cathartic breaking the cycle ending.
So Say We All.
There was an opportunity to understand the difference between hope for a brighter tomorrow and predestination. That the stigma and baggage of the old world wouldn't save the fleet but instead the shared loss and sacrifice of each individual would temper them and make them stronger.
In the dark void of space, with their homes a distant blip on the star chart, we understand the savagery of what we created and coming to terms with the question, "What is going to far?"and using that question to salvage the remaining humanity and strength that had been eroding since the calamitous escape.
We got the, "Everything has happened and will happen again" ending instead of a cathartic breaking the cycle ending.
So Say We All.
Six calls out this cycle in the shit epilogue, and that she believes humanity won't repeat their mistakes this time. It wasn't great, but it's something at least.
Teared up a on the final scenes with Lee and Starbuck, Adama and Roslin, then Baltar and Six. I think others mentioned the final time jump to modern day earth, Wasn't a fan of that either but mainly because it basically ruled out BSG returning (at the time). I had no problem with the earth they found being this earth as that was always going to be the final destination after the episode Starbuck returns from the dead and the view zooms out and ends up showing our solar system.
I really really do not understand the complaints about religion in this series though, Religion and Prophesy are literally plot points from the very first season, With Baltar having conversations with a being calling itself and angel and knows things that not even a cylon chip implanted in his head would know to full on visions on the planet of their gods, then you have a President making all her decisions based on her religious visions, all these in season 1, the spiritual/religious aspects were always going to be central to the plot.
I really really do not understand the complaints about religion in this series though, Religion and Prophesy are literally plot points from the very first season, With Baltar having conversations with a being calling itself and angel and knows things that not even a cylon chip implanted in his head would know to full on visions on the planet of their gods, then you have a President making all her decisions based on her religious visions, all these in season 1, the spiritual/religious aspects were always going to be central to the plot.
I generally love the ending to BSG. It has a few little things I could nitpick but it's emotional and heartfelt and left me satisfied with the endings of all the characters stories. I remember being obsessed with the Final Five and wrote tons of forum posts and theories about who our fifth Cylon was, so all that stuff worked for me too.
Thinking back, I don't enjoy a lot of show endings, but this is one of my favorites.
Thinking back, I don't enjoy a lot of show endings, but this is one of my favorites.
Who was your fifth Cylon pick? My head canon is Daniel, who is also Starbucks father.
The ultimate resolution of them landing on Earth and becoming the ancestor humans (e.g. Shaggy God, as referenced above) annoyed me, if for no more reason that pictures of our modern automation prove out that ultimately they probably fucking fail their reset button (and, no, Six's epilogue doesn't rescue it from that interpretation).
Why doesn't her epilogue rescue the interpretation? We go 4 seasons being hit over the head with "this will all happen again" nonsense, which makes it that much more impactful when Six finally questions this and syays she doesn't believe so this time. I think the execution could have been better, but I don't go with the interpretation at all that humanity just fucks it up again.
The secret Cylon stuff was when BSG rapidly went downhill. There's still stuff to enjoy in those last 2 or 1.5 seasons but a lot of it doesn't work for me. The ending was in line with that downward trend so I wasn't massively disappointed. Still sucks that the show couldn't be as strong as the first 2 seasons + the New Caprica story for its entire run.
Despite the character's insistence, I was confident it was Baltar and I wrote plenty of essay sized forum posts with theories as to why lol.
I watched the series for the first time in 2018 with no knowledge of the backlash or anything. I was a mess during the last epsiode. It had some narrative oddities (so it was all just... god? Okay), but overall it worked for me on an emotional level.
I'm the Baltar in that conversation, shaking my head at the optimist who is saying "oh, it will all be okay" despite all evidence to the contrary.
Tip to showrunners of serialised drama shows: Have an idea of where the story is going before you start. Doesn't have to be an episode-by-episode synopsis, just the major story beats so you can steer towards them.
BSG was literally made up as they went along, with hints and "reveals" that were included with no thought as to how they would be tied up. Like when they're on Kobol and find the "star map" room with the constellation names and the cylon says "we know more about your religion that you ever will" and we're all like "ooh, I wonder what that mystery is?" and it turns out it doesn't mean anything, and they eventually get to Earth so far in the past the constellations wouldn't look like that for another 3 million years.
I don't mind the god/angel stuff, just the chaotic story and random character behaviour towards the end.
Don't get me wrong, I love the show, especially early on. The atmosphere, characters, action are really well done. The 4 episodes on New Caprica are Chef's Kiss. It went downhill from there.
BSG was literally made up as they went along, with hints and "reveals" that were included with no thought as to how they would be tied up. Like when they're on Kobol and find the "star map" room with the constellation names and the cylon says "we know more about your religion that you ever will" and we're all like "ooh, I wonder what that mystery is?" and it turns out it doesn't mean anything, and they eventually get to Earth so far in the past the constellations wouldn't look like that for another 3 million years.
I don't mind the god/angel stuff, just the chaotic story and random character behaviour towards the end.
Don't get me wrong, I love the show, especially early on. The atmosphere, characters, action are really well done. The 4 episodes on New Caprica are Chef's Kiss. It went downhill from there.
It was terrible.
The entire show has the fleet having different factions and never agreeing on anything....yet, at the end, they all agree to abandon technology, doom countless generations to shortened lives and lower standards of living, and everyone agrees to this.
The entire show has the fleet having different factions and never agreeing on anything....yet, at the end, they all agree to abandon technology, doom countless generations to shortened lives and lower standards of living, and everyone agrees to this.
Did they? Or did they kill her off and introduce a new character with her look and name? Felt like the latter to me.
I did love it when Diana (Xena) was in the CIC of the Galactica and started saying the whole "This has all happened before," bit and then Lee cuts her off with "But it DOESN'T have to happen again!"
Again, even though the last 2 seasons were a bit of a trainwreck, the character work was, for the most part, incredible.
show was increasingly gibberish over time, finale is super gibberish and felt like a bunch of random shit to me
Yeah, I can definitely see this. She felt very different, but I liked it. Starbuck was full of anger throughout the show, which really boiled over in season 3. Season 4 feels like a Starbuck who has forgotten most of her anger, and is on a journey for true inner peace, even if she doesn't quite realize her part in it all at first. Maybe it's because Starbuck is my favorite character, but I really wanted her to have that peace, and for me, the moment she disappears is when she gets it.
This is what killed it for me. It made absolutely no sense at all and it really did not fit in the plot at all.
I liked it. I suppose that most sci-fi fans are probably atheist and don't want religious themes in their science fiction. See also Lost - Cuse and Lindelhof in the early seasons said there was a scientific explanation for everything but that turned out to be bollocks.
The show started to lose it with the increasing discussion about God, something that seems remarkable common in American television. It had been getting quite poor, but they could have salvaged something if they'd stopped with the coup attempt but unfortunately it continued after it.
The ending was bad, but not so terrible that it ruined the show. The show was already ruined when they decided to reveal Cylons based purely on what would surprise people and not at all based on what would have made any sort of sense in the story they had told.
Don't know about others but it the complete opposite for me, I actually enjoy religion in my fiction (and the atheist in me scornfully says 'because that's where it belongs') and especially in sci-fi, I like seeing how authors/writers deal with it in a scientific universe.
OP
OP
It might just be me being overly cynic, but I dare say some, maybe just a few or maybe a few more than a few, of the votes for "it ruined the series for me" is just trolls that never watched the series and just clicked in this thread for some reason.
It was.... fine? I mean, it's clear they had no real plan on how to get to the ending but they did a serviceable job sort of hashing it out. A lot of the reveals were disappointing on their way there but the ending I thought MOSTLY stuck the landing.
Yeah they kind of lost me when the 5 were mainly just there to hear a noise and find a fighters nav system (it's been awhile so forgive me if some of that is a little off).
i honestly think most people who say it was a good ending havent watched it in a while or havent watched much good tv in the last 10 years
Sucks to be the guy with treatable cancer whose chemo wasn't scheduled until a week after they decided it's back to witch doctors and grinding up herbs.
On first watch, I wasn't sure what to think.
On rewatch, I actually came to like it a lot.
I understand all the problems people had with it, and can't blame those who dislike it.
But, I appreciated the way in which so many of the fragmented themes of the series were corralled back into something of a definitive landing. The showrunners made the typical mistake for mystery box shows and didn't bother to create an ending. And that was the sin of BSG in the later seasons. It became conflicted and often nonsensical.
The finale also had some pretty fucking iconic scenes for specific character's endings. Some were really emotional, and for those characters, the emotional payoff was earned, I feel. The shit Adama and Roslin went through was legit the whole series - one of the few coherent arcs! - and their finale scenes were some of the best.
On rewatch, I actually came to like it a lot.
I understand all the problems people had with it, and can't blame those who dislike it.
But, I appreciated the way in which so many of the fragmented themes of the series were corralled back into something of a definitive landing. The showrunners made the typical mistake for mystery box shows and didn't bother to create an ending. And that was the sin of BSG in the later seasons. It became conflicted and often nonsensical.
The finale also had some pretty fucking iconic scenes for specific character's endings. Some were really emotional, and for those characters, the emotional payoff was earned, I feel. The shit Adama and Roslin went through was legit the whole series - one of the few coherent arcs! - and their finale scenes were some of the best.
No way! I love it when my sci fi really sticks it to athiests, polytheists, and pagans, with an implicit anti-science message thrown in. Who needs vaccines anyway, might as well throw them into the sun!
OP
OP
Was very good, not perfect.
They hit it right with most of the character wrap ups, with some good tear jerker moments with Adama/Roslin, Apollo/Starbuck, Gaius/Caprica.
I liked the amount of thought going in with how the music of the show had a story impact. That the musical notes as numbers only work as jump coordinates to Earth, if they jumped from the area they were at (The Colony). Those numbers wouldn't put them near earth anywhere else, going by how they explained FTL in the show.
The epilogue was an interesting thought, but was a bit hokey, with mediocre archival footage of "robots".
The worst part of the finale was the odd reasoning/decision to abandon technology. Even the "Starbuck went back to her home planet and died" transition works better than "well, everyone seems to be ok with this, put it all in the sun!" If you still want to put BSG in as the far past of humanity, leave it as another mystery for why that stuff disappeared over the years.
They hit it right with most of the character wrap ups, with some good tear jerker moments with Adama/Roslin, Apollo/Starbuck, Gaius/Caprica.
I liked the amount of thought going in with how the music of the show had a story impact. That the musical notes as numbers only work as jump coordinates to Earth, if they jumped from the area they were at (The Colony). Those numbers wouldn't put them near earth anywhere else, going by how they explained FTL in the show.
The epilogue was an interesting thought, but was a bit hokey, with mediocre archival footage of "robots".
The worst part of the finale was the odd reasoning/decision to abandon technology. Even the "Starbuck went back to her home planet and died" transition works better than "well, everyone seems to be ok with this, put it all in the sun!" If you still want to put BSG in as the far past of humanity, leave it as another mystery for why that stuff disappeared over the years.
that poll is amazing.
The last season was just kinda w/e for me. Didn't hate it, didn't love it. It was fine. I thought the last couple of seasons definitely faded in quality, though. I didn't think going full bore into a religious aspect was the best call. But it was the call they made so w/e.
The first 3 or 4 seasons, tho? Absolutely god-tier stuff.
The last season was just kinda w/e for me. Didn't hate it, didn't love it. It was fine. I thought the last couple of seasons definitely faded in quality, though. I didn't think going full bore into a religious aspect was the best call. But it was the call they made so w/e.
The first 3 or 4 seasons, tho? Absolutely god-tier stuff.
It's not being overly cynical, it's just creating reasons for a poll result that don't really seem to have any proof or backing.
