More Procrastination! Bigger Procrastination!

[lls_mutant]

1.) OMG, Command structure is making my head hurt. Okay. So, let's say Dee was 22 when the Colonies were attacked. (Jacob says 19, but I don't think that's canon. Kandyse McClure was probably around 22-24 when the miniseries was shot.) That would put Dee at 23-24 during New Caprica.

I know I've addressed this is in A Lot to Live Up To, but seriously? They took an NCO, jumped her up to lieutenant, and made a 24 year old XO?????? To her husband?? And NONE of the Pegasus people had a problem with this? Captain Kelly didn't have a problem with this? Stinger didn't have a problem with this? I mean, I love Dee dearly. I think she could do a great job, and she was certainly smart enough and hard working enough. But REALLY?

ETA: by lieutenant, I mean, Dee was only a lieutenant and she's still XO? I had the impression- especially when Lee promoted Kendra- the XO should be a higher rank.

(Yeah, I know a lot of people mustered out, too. But STILL.)

2.) Speaking of the command structure, where the hell were all the people ranking higher than Captain? We have four majors eventually (Ripper (who dies in the miniseries), Cottle, Lee, and Kendra), a lieutenant Colonel (Jack Fisk), two Colonels (Tigh and Belzan), a Commander (Adama) and an Admiral (Cain). Now, obviously it makes sense we don't have any more Commanders or Admirals running around until the Adamas get their promotions. (Okay, and Fisk and Garner.) And I'm not an expert in military protocol or anything- but shouldn't there be a few more majors and maybe lieutenant colonels running around?

I guess you can make a case with the Pegasus; you can say that most of the rankers had already gone on shore leave, leaving the grunts to do the work. And I don't really mind not seeing a lot of them. It's just when XO or Commander promotions come into play that it makes me scratch my head.

3.) Retcons. Totally switching subjects. Let's talk about retcons for a minute, and how they change a character. But rather than the stupid Cally-was-a-cheatin'-ho retcon (which Lissa prefers to now think of as "Cally and Galen had a threesome with Hot Dog") or "only Cavil was all gung-ho about destroying humanity" retcon, let's talk about what retcons did to Gaius Baltar. Specifically, The Face of the Enemy.

I love to hate Gaius Baltar, don't get me wrong. He's selfish and ambitious and vain and a complete sex addict and he's a pretty pathetic leader, and a lot of times a pathetic excuse for a human being. That said, one thing Gaius Baltar is not is gratuitously violent. Yes, there are some acts of violence that Baltar is responsible for, but he normally does not really condone violence. My problem is coming from Gaius knowing the entire time that the Eight was taking names from Gaeta and killing them.

Now, Gaius knows Felix. He had to have known that Felix was being stupid on this, right? And yet, he knew this was happening and did absolutely, positively nothing to even try to stop it? Because here, he doesn't have to go up against the Cylons. He just has to tell Felix "hey, your booty call is killing people!", and then what Felix does with that is on his own hands. In fact, it's a perfect chance to shift the blame for some of the deaths to Felix's shoulders.

This one, I can come up with reasons why he didn't. But I'd love to see fic about it :)

4.) I think it would be really funny to see a Gaeta vid to Cake's version of "I Will Survive."

5.) Where WAS Kendra getting her drugs, anyway? (Okay, so I really want to write out Addiction as a full story.)




femgenficathon starts posting in a few days. YAY!!!!! I can't wait to post my fic for this one.

I'm also still glowing-slash-blushing over the bsg_kink contest. ::bounces:: Thanks to everyone who voted for mine! :) I'm planning on putting the drabbles and my battle roundup in another post.

And, totally changing topics, a little fun nostalgia! I can't resist the Thirty Days of Harry Potter Meme that's going around!

Question 1. Discuss how you got into Harry Potter.

My mom. I'd heard about Harry Potter, and it came out around the same time as the Pokemon craze. I had little faith in either, especially since everything associated with the latter grated on my nerves. My mom, however, was a fifth grade teacher at the time. All of her kids were reading them, so she picked up the books to find out what all her kids were into. She eventually convinced me that they were awesome and I should try them, and I believe she sent me the first two or three books. (I forget on that part, or if I just bought them.)

I read them and got HOOKED on the books. They were fun and interesting and I really liked Harry and Ron and Hermione, and then JKR really opened up this "what the hell happened?" backstory with the MWPP and the first war, and I was in love.

At the time, I was into Pern fandom. I was also in grad school. Grad school and social life don't always go together, especially when Howard moved two years before me. One of the girls at Lakesedge was really into Remus/Sirius, and kind of got a few others of us convinced. I ended up finding the internet was a good place to geek out, and I found immeritus. That's where I ended up getting into I didn't end up writing HP fanfic until after OotP, and held out for a long time, and then just got sucked in. ::Sigh:: Oh well :)




02. Your favorite book
03. What house would you be in?
04. Your favorite movie
05. Wizard Rock: discuss
06. Your favorite character(s)
07. Drink that reminds you of HP
08. Your favorite ship(s)
09. Fanfiction: discuss
10. Favorite book moment(s)
11. Character you're crushing on
12. Favorite movie scene
13. Least favorite character(s)
14. Moments in the books/movies that made you cry
15. Whatever tickles your fancy
16. How have you participated in the fandom over the years?
17. Your favorite celebs from the movies or fandom
18. If you could change one thing about canon, what would it be?
19. A favorite fanart
20. A favorite quote
21. How has the HP fandom connected you to other fandoms, interests, or people?
22. Your favorite villain
23. Share some HP icons
24. Rant about Steve Kloves something
25. Song that reminds you of HP
26. What aspect of the books has been best translated to film?
27. What aspect of the books has been most poorly translated to film?
28. Hogwarts subject you would most like to take
29. Favorite location
30. Whatever tickles your fancy.



Okay. WRITE.

Comments

[brennanspeaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm . . . well, with regard to 3, I can see Baltar not knowing on New Caprica but finding out during his time on the Basestar. As far as I can remember, we're not given details on what he knew or when or how. Of course, it makes for better angsty fic if he knew on New Cap;)

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. Now THAT's an idea. I like that- that he found out on the Basestar!

[geekbynight.livejournal.com]

2.) So much THIS.
On thing that always blew my mind was that Felix was never at least made Captain. I mean he's practically the nucleus of the ship and he got them passed the red line. A promotion seemed a lot more deserving than wings in my opinion. Hmmmph, I'm retconning that XD

3.) Well it makes perfect sense for Felix to stab him in the neck. And in that light it makes his scene with Felix in Taking a Break particularly vicious and very, very dark.

Umm but honestly, I kind of have a hard time believing Gaius would just willing allow innocent people to be killed when all he'd have to do is warn Felix. Even if he was angry at Felix that seems pretty extreme for Baltar to me( maybe it's because he seems to be appalled by violence). Unless Caprica threatened him. But other than that, it kind of seems OOC to me.

4.) I think it really depends on just what drugs Kendra was even taking. Don't think they ever specified it(I have a theory it's probably psychoactive or at least a depressant) but yeah, is it something you'd see in an infirmary all the time or not??

You should totally expand on Addiction if you get the time!! I loved your take on Kendra and Hoshi's method of using sex as punishment. Gives him a darker edge I think a lot of people on Pegasus carried.

I'm really considering combining Old Fashion Morphine and White Rabbit if I get around to it. It's great that the kink and pornbattle are leading to writers exploring all these new avenues in the BSG verse I haven't seen before.

ETA: Congrats on sweeping the kink contest!! You wrote some real standouts :D

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I think he did get his wings for getting them past the red line. That's a deleted scene, anyway- Tigh makes some comment about this counting as a combat jump and Adama snarks back he'll put everyone in for their wings. For all that we like to make Felix a pilot, I think the big thing for him is he flies the big ships.

3.) Yeah, it's Baltar that seems a bit OOC for me. Not to the point of being utterly ticked off- just to the point where I really want fic.

4.) I really need to watch Razor again. I'm liking the idea of putting Addiction and the Fisk/Hoshi thing in the same universe. It makes Hoshi really fucked up, but that's the point :) And you should definitely write something with those two ficlets- that would be fascinating.

Thanks so much! I really enjoyed yours, too :)

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

In relation to #1, I'm positive that the entire command structure on BSG is a corrupt system. Maybe not explicit in most cases, but seriously, it's the only way it makes any sense at all. And we know certain things were meant to be seen like that, such as Roslin's reascension to power (pointed out by Zarek) and Lee being given the Pegasus (pointed out by Kendra) - whether intentional or not, I have to think the same of the rest.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

It's really seeming that way. I mean, I ADORE Dee and her promotion to Lieutenant makes sense (I don't begrudge that one at all), but XO? REALLY?

::sigh:: Adama, sometimes you're wonderful, and sometimes you are SUCH an idiot.

[grey-sw.livejournal.com]

I know I've addressed this is in A Lot to Live Up To, but seriously? They took an NCO, jumped her up to lieutenant, and made a 24 year old XO?????? To her husband?? And NONE of the Pegasus people had a problem with this?

In the Marines, at least, NCOs who become officers through field commission automatically enter at 2nd Lieutenant no matter what their non-commissioned rank was (that's equivalent to Ensign in the BSG world, which is one rating below where Dee was promoted to). So Dee's skip-one promotion isn't too unrealistic, given the situation after New Caprica.

The XO thing, though, was ridonkulous. :P

I'm not an expert in military protocol or anything- but shouldn't there be a few more majors and maybe lieutenant colonels running around?

I don't think so -- Galactica was just one ship, and not a very important one. There's a pretty good explanation of the Naval rating system here -- it's pretty much one Captain or Commander in charge of the ship and a Captain or Commander as CAG, Chief Engineer, Weapons Officer, Chief Medical Officer, etc., with a bunch of Lt. Commanders and Lieutenants in charge of the different sections below them. The military command structure is pyramid-shaped, so the higher you go, there are far fewer of that rating running around. A huge carrier with five thousand people on it would have maybe 5 or 6 Captains.

The original BSG pretty much made up a bunch of stuff with regards to ratings, and RDM's version stuck with that (Col. and Major aren't even Naval ratings, and Captain/Commander are essentially backward on the show). But it does make good sense for the CAG, Chief Medical Officer, and XO to hold the highest rating below Adama, and for everyone else to have ratings below that. That pretty much matches what we saw on the show (don't forget Major Cottle and Major Shaw!), not counting the officers on the Pegasus -- and since Fisk, Belzen, and Garner all died...

/war nerd

let's talk about what retcons did to Gaius Baltar. Specifically, The Face of the Enemy.

I agree that this one is dumb. The entire Eight/Gaeta plotline is an egregious example of making stuff up after-the-fact. Still, it makes sense that Baltar might have found out late in the game -- either after New Caprica, or after Gaeta stopped speaking to him on New Caprica. Considering Gaeta's opinion of him at the time, he might not have had a chance to do anything about it.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

With Dee, it wasn't so much that they jumped her up to lieutenant- that made sense- it was the XO thing. I emphasized the lieutenant because Kendra got bumped up to major to be XO. Belzan and Tigh were colonels, Fisk was a lt. colonel, Kendra was a major, Helo was a Captain. It seemed like lieutenant was too low a position for the job? (Although rereading it, I see how it looked there.)

Thanks for the info on the upper ranks. That makes more sense. I was feeling like with that many people, you should have more high ranks running around, but if it fits how the real world works, never mind. :)

Baltar finding out later is something I'd never considered. Further up, someone pointed out that Baltar might have found out on the baseship. I find that idea fascinating. It's one of those things where I'm rolling my eyes and begging someone to write fic :)

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

which Lissa prefers to now think of as "Cally and Galen had a threesome with Hot Dog
Hee! Now, that's a prompt. Not for me but I like to giggle at this. :-) And yes, it could have so happened. No wonder Galen was so shocked about Nicky. Probably thinking, "That night?!"

*g*

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Actually, it comes up a lot here (http://mutantwrites.livejournal.com/5028.html), in a Cally/Galen, Cally/Gaeta/Galen one I wrote for porn battle :) (And it's HAPPY!)

[daybreak777.livejournal.com]

I love your porn! The fics are sometimes written in such fun spirit! Thanks for that one!

I'm adding Cally/Galen/Hotdog into my personal canon btw. :-D

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I love how that "sometimes" has to be in there. (Since my other two pornbattle fics were bent on torturing Hoshi.)

I am liking Cally/Galen/Hotdog as well :) Because Cally deserves better than what they gave her!