Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Battlestar Galactica)
Title: Crazy Enough to Follow Her
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (new version)
Character: Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Author: brynnmck
Spoilers: Through the final episode of Season 2, including deleted scenes.
Notes: Many, many thanks to danceswithwords, for her thoughts on this essay in particular, and for sharing my frequent need to rhapsodize about Starbuck in general.
Crazy Enough to Follow Her - Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
i. Love at First Sight
KARA: The pilots call me Starbuck. You may refer to me as God.
-- Act of Contrition
I was never a fan of the original BSG, so I didn’t come into the new series with any preconceived notions about the characters. Maybe due in part to that, it took me approximately three seconds to fall in love with the new incarnation of Starbuck. How long till she smiles in the miniseries? Because that’s how long it took me. Charismatic and kick-ass, vulnerable and fallible, Kara “Starbuck” Thrace quickly became one of my favorite characters in all of sci-fi.
ii. So What Is a “Starbuck,” Anyway?
TIGH: “Starbuck.” Now there’s a callsign. Starbuck. How’d you get that nickname anyway? I never did get the full story. Was it before you got thrown in the brig as a cadet for drunk and disorderly, or after?
-- Miniseries, Part I
Kara Thrace, callsign “Starbuck” (which doesn’t appear to mean anything more than “the original creators thought it sounded good, and now we’re stuck with it”), was born to a military mother who abused her extensively when Kara was young. In “The Farm,” we discover that every finger on both of Kara’s hands was broken in her childhood. We don’t know much about her father, except that Kara listens to a recording of a piano piece in “Valley of Darkness” that she says is played by her father. Her difficult childhood informs a great deal of the character we come to know later in her life; with such a start, it's no wonder that the Kara we meet is independent to a fault, has serious issues when it comes to trust and love and close personal relationships, struggles constantly with her incredibly low opinion of herself, and constantly bucks authority while at the same time responding with near-fanatical devotion to the few authority figures she does recognize.
Kara originally planned to pursue a professional Pyramid career (a sport somewhere between basketball and handball), but a knee injury ended her chances, so she went to flight school instead, thereby discovering one of her greatest talents and joys: flying a Viper. She eventually became a flight instructor at the Fleet Academy, where one of her students was Zak Adama. She and Zak fell in love and became engaged, and though we don't know many of the details of their relationship, the fact that Kara was able to let Zak close enough to be planning to marry him speaks volumes about how important he was to her. Unfortunately for both of them, Zak was a mediocre pilot; when it came time for his final evaluations, Kara couldn't stand to disappoint him by failing him. She let her feelings overrule her judgment and passed him, even though he clearly wasn't cut out for flying a Viper. Zak was killed not long after in a training accident, and Kara was devastated with guilt and loss. It was a confirmation of her greatest fears: that she was dangerous, bad luck, not worthy of love or of happiness, and it left a scar in her that has yet to heal. Soon after Zak’s death, she met Zak’s father, Commander William Adama, who offered her a post on his battlestar, the Galactica. And it's at that post-and shortly thereafter, in the brig-that we meet her for the first time in the miniseries. At some point in there which has yet to be defined in canon, she also met and became close friends with Lee “Apollo” Adama, Zak’s brother and Cmdr. Adama’s son; more on him and their relationship later.
iii. A Study in Contradictions
KARA: You know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. And I’m fighting ‘cause I don’t know how to do anything else.
-- Valley of Darkness
Kara’s strengths are many: she’s an exceptional Viper pilot and “the best shot in or out of the cockpit” (as she tells Adama in “Bastille Day”), she’s a frequent winner at the Triad table, she’s a flight instructor and a very good Pyramid player; we also find out in “Valley of Darkness” that she paints and writes poetry (though her level of skill in those pursuits is up for debate :) ). Her unconventional, “outside-the-box” battle tactics help the Colonial Fleet to victory against the Cylons on several occasions. Her love of flying is a joy to behold. She’s fiercely loyal to the people she loves, and takes her responsibility as instructor for the “nuggets” (newly-trained pilots) very seriously. And her gift for banter and her sarcastic sense of humor are pretty endearing, too.
For all her strengths, though, it’s just as much her weaknesses that define her character. Kara is almost entirely ruled by emotion. She’s hotheaded, insubordinate, and arrogant, brimming with attitude that masks an incredible amount of self-doubt. For all her cockiness, she’s secretly terrified that she’s worthless, and that she brings only bad things to the people she loves-a perspective that began with her abusive mother. The Cylon Leoben gives us some fantastic insight into her character in “Flesh and Bone”:
LEOBEN: I know you, you're damaged. You were born to a woman who believed that suffering was good for the soul, so you suffered. Life is a testament to pain, injuries, accidents. Some inflicted upon others, some inflicted upon yourself. Surrounds you like a bubble, but it's not real, it's just-that's just something she put into your head. It's something that you wanna believe 'cause it means that you're the problem, not the world that you live in. You wanna believe it because... it means that you're bad luck. Like a cancer that needs to be removed. Because you hear her voice every day and you want her to be right.
Kara’s combination of badass exterior and interior emotional turmoil makes her very difficult to deal with at times; she can be thoughtless and even cruel on occasion, striking out violently when she’s hurt or scared, and her daredevil ways can be dangerous to those around her (for example, in “Sacrifice,” she foolishly insists on taking point on a sensitive mission and ends up accidentally shooting Lee, severely wounding him-which, of course, just adds to her conviction that she’s poison and bad luck for the people she loves). But it's that combination of strength and vulnerability that I find so fascinating about her (and, for the record, I think Katee Sackhoff does a brilliant job portraying that dichotomy). Kara is sometimes referred to in fandom as "Kara Sue," implying that she's too much, too good, too perfect to be believed, but for me, all of her talents and skills are very much mitigated by the desperate self-doubt beneath. She's larger-than-life in some ways, but she's also dreadfully, messily human, and my sympathy for her struggles is that much more pronounced because of it.
iv. The Adamas
KARA: (approaching Lee and Adama) Is this the self-help group for dysfunctional families and insubordinate officers? (off their looks) Oh, so we're not to the point where we're laughing about it yet? (Adama and Lee look at each other, then can't help laughing)
-- deleted scene from Home, Part II
Commander (later Admiral) William Adama
KARA: Morning, sir!
ADAMA: Morning, Starbuck. What do you hear?
KARA: Nothin' but the rain.
ADAMA: Then grab your gun and put the cat out.
KARA: BOOM-cha-ga-la!
KARA & ADAMA: (together) BOOM BOOM BOOM!
-- Miniseries, Part I
It's almost impossible to talk about Kara without talking about the Adamas. Commander Adama is clearly her surrogate father; he's incredibly kind to her from the moment he meets her, which I suspect is something Kara hasn't encountered often. In giving her the post on Galactica, he likely saves her from a pretty bad downward spiral. He gives her a home and a job and a place to belong, and he gives her his trust and confidence, even when she doesn't deserve it. At first, it's probably primarily because she's a strong tie to Zak, but over time, they become quite close, and she's fiercely loyal to him and clearly worships him. They have a great deal in common in terms of the way they approach things; they're both emotional and prone to take things too personally, and they're both charismatic and opinionated, sure that their way is the right way. Because he has something of a blind spot where Starbuck is concerned, it's possible that Adama's indulgence has led to her getting more leeway than she deserves, but overall, his influence on her is very positive.
In fact, a great deal of Kara's growth in the first season is connected to her relationship with Adama. Early in the series, he asks her to train the "nuggets," the group of barely-experienced pilots they've managed to gather from what remains of humanity. At first, Kara refuses, still haunted by her guilt over Zak's death; since she's never confessed her role in it to Adama (though, somewhat tellingly, she admits it to Lee in the miniseries-even as much as she fears Lee's condemnation, she fears Adama's more), he doesn't realize the source of her hesitation, and orders her to begin flight instruction immediately. She does, and it goes predictably badly. Thanks to some inadvertent blabbing by Lee, Adama gets wind that something deeper is going on, and Kara finally spills out all the ugly details of Zak's death. (The fact that she kept silent about it for as long as she did, despite the problems that it helped foster between Lee and his father [Lee primarily blamed Adama for Zak's death], is indicative of both her terror of losing Adama's love and support and her cowardice when it comes to personal relationships.) Adama is furious at first, and Kara is devastated. Soon after, Kara crash-lands on a planet when her Viper is damaged in a dogfight, and Lee and Adama expend 43% of the fleet's remaining fuel in a fruitless search for her, finally giving her up for lost. Being Kara, however, she eventually manages a daredevil return to Galactica via a hot-wired Cylon Raider. Adama, immensely grateful to have her back, kisses the injured Starbuck on the forehead in a gesture of forgiveness and benediction that's one of the most beautiful moments in the series to date. From that point forward, Kara embraces her role as flight instructor with renewed gusto, and it turns out she's pretty damn good at it, despite the pressure of having so many lives under her care and the inevitable weight of every death that occurs on her watch. In accepting that responsibility, though, in taking that risk in spite of her fear, she's taking the first of what will be many small steps away from her self-indulgent rocket-jockey ways and on to something greater.
She takes another step in “The Hand of God” (one of my favorite episodes in the first season), when her still-healing injury compels Adama to ground her for a major mission. For the first time, she's not in the middle of the action; she's forced to watch from the sidelines as her typically risky plan plays out (with Lee adopting her usual central role-including, as it turns out, her signature recklessness), and she doesn't deal with it particularly well. She sends Lee off with some less-than-inspirational words (namely, "Don't frak it up by overthinking it") and nearly bites her nails off in the situation room as they watch the battle unfold, but Adama knows the real source of her tension:
KARA: I just hope that Lee can…
ADAMA: Lee isn't the problem. You should take a good look at yourself. I had to go through the same transition. When you're in the cockpit, you're in control. It's hard to give it up.
KARA: It would just be a lot easier if I was flying with them.
ADAMA: All you can do now is wait and hope you didn't make any mistakes.
KARA: I never wanted this kind of responsibility.
ADAMA: The Cylons never asked us what we wanted. Welcome to the big leagues.
And, of course, he's right. Despite more than a few tense moments, Kara's plan works, Lee saves the day with some fancy flying, and the Colonials have their much-needed fuel supply. Of course, Kara's back in the cockpit as soon as she possibly can be, but her experience with that different kind of role will stand her in good stead as the series continues.
Adama's influence works a bit differently at the end of the first season, though no less significantly. President Roslin approaches Kara about stealing the captured Cylon Raider-a valuable military asset, which Adama intends for another mission-and jumping back to Caprica in the hope of retrieving the Arrow of Apollo. According to prophecy, which Roslin believes she's a part of, the Arrow is supposed to lead humanity to Earth, where they can finally settle and stop running from the Cylons. Despite Kara's temptation to believe in the prophecy-Kara is, somewhat unexpectedly, one of the more religious characters among the humans; we see her praying to her idols of Athena and Aphrodite on several occasions-her faith in Adama is stronger. She tells Roslin that Adama will lead them to Earth, as he promised to do at the end of the miniseries. Roslin responds that Kara should ask Adama if he really knows where Earth is; Kara does, and it's clear that he's lying. Disillusioned and hurt-not to mention fresh off a particularly vicious argument with Lee-Kara steals the Raider and jumps to Caprica, setting in motion a series of events that will affect her profoundly. And when she returns, Adama forgives her again, his love and support unwavering as always; dysfunctional they might be, but they're family, and nothing that either of them has done so far has done anything to change that.
Lee “Apollo” Adama
KARA: You want something from me?
LEE: Not a thing.
KARA: 'Cause I don't owe you anything.
LEE: No, you don't owe me anything… 'cause I'm just a CAG, and you're just a pilot.
KARA: Right.
LEE: A pilot who can't keep her pants on.
KARA: (bitterly) Right.
LEE: Oh, it is just like old times, Kara. Like when you got drunk and couldn't keep your hands off that Major from wherever-
(She hits him, hard, in the face; he hits her back, just as hard. Silence for a moment, both of them licking their wounds.)
LEE: Why'd you do it, Kara? Just tell me why.
KARA: 'Cause I'm a screw-up, Lee. Try to keep that in mind.
-- Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I
LEE: I just want you to know, Kara, that I'm your friend. I love you. If there's anything you wanna talk about, anything you wanna get off your chest, then I'm here for you. Anyway… whenever you wanna talk, just let me know.
KARA: What was that middle part again?
LEE: Hmm? What do you mean?
KARA: Did you say you love me?
LEE: Well, um-
KARA: Lee Adama loves me.
LEE: No, all I meant was-
KARA: No, seriously. Very sweet. You love me.
(Lee laughs nervously, starts to leave)
KARA: No, you love me. You can't take it back. There's no take-backs.
LEE: (walking toward the door) You're dreaming it, Kara.
KARA: You love me.
LEE: You're dreaming it.
KARA: You love me.
LEE: (over his shoulder, as he leaves) Dreamer.
KARA: (grinning) Mm-hmm. OK.
-- Home, Part I
Kara's relationship with Lee Adama is quite a bit more complicated than her relationship with his father. In the miniseries, having not seen each other in two years, Lee and Kara go quickly from tentative smiles to tension and arguing. It's not an uncommon journey for them. Despite that, though, they're clearly extremely important to each other; Kara's stunned, bereft expression when she learns that Lee is supposedly dead is like a punch in the gut, and their goofy smiles and adolescent jokes at being reunited manage to convey enormous relief, a solid history of friendship… and no small amount of sexual tension. Their relationship is endlessly fascinating to me; at their best, they're best friends and buddy-cops, flying in perfect sync in combat, laughing and bantering, her unorthodox methods complementing his ability to see the big picture, his solidity reining her in when she spins dangerously out of control, each serving as the other's support and confidant, both of them struggling with the challenges of accepting the leadership roles that have been thrust upon them. On the other hand, they have several subscriptions' worth of issues, including their competitiveness (in everything from flying to their relationships with Adama), their fundamentally different approaches to their lives, their history of painful arguments, their total inability to deal with or fully acknowledge-even to themselves-their feelings about each other… not to mention the fact that they are frequently about half a step from ripping each other's clothes off despite the fact that she used to be engaged to his now-dead brother. It's quite a rollercoaster. Whether they're fighting or laughing or not speaking, though, they exert a great influence over each other's lives, and there's much to suggest that they always will.
Between them, Kara and Lee represent one of the key aspects of the BSG story: the idea of growing up, of accepting greater responsibility, of stepping forward in a time of crisis and doing a job you don’t quite feel prepared to do, but that falls to you because there’s no one else. Adama and Roslin are the patriarch and matriarch of the new society, and Kara and Lee are the next generation, the successors. In many ways, the two are on the same journey, but because they have very different approaches to it and lessons to learn, they’re frequently used as foils or as spurs for each other. Each has a way of bringing out the best and the worst in the other. Even more so than Adama, Lee is a part of nearly all of Kara’s significant experiences that we see on the show. Especially in Season 2, he takes on the role of confidant, conscience, and even occasionally role model. He paves the way for her when it comes to leadership, with her ascending the ranks just beneath him as he’s promoted to CAG, then Major, then Commander. He commiserates with her over the pilots they’ve lost, and the unlikelihood of either of them ever seeing the new civilization they’re fighting for. They make each other laugh. She comforts him when he’s plagued with doubt after a near-death experience, and he helps anchor her when she’s spiraling steadily downward in “Scar.” They present a united front to the Pegasus commander even when they can barely speak to each other. Together with Adama and Roslin, they both participate in deciphering the puzzle of Athena’s Tomb and finding a starting place for their search for Earth. It’s difficult to look at their characters completely independently because they’re so entwined, each of them reacting off the other in ways that illuminate them both.
Despite their closeness, though, there’s very often tension between them; Kara, especially, tends to push away pretty violently when she feels that they’re getting too close… which is due to her absolute terror of losing him in combination with her conviction that she’s unworthy of him. At the end of the second season, a jump forward in the narrative finds all the characters a year away from when we last saw them. And among other developments, Kara and Lee have obviously had a major falling-out in the interim. Still, almost as soon as we pick up their story, she’s calling him for help; it’s clear that their story is far from over. No matter how much they’d like to get away from each other at times, they seem to be stuck in a mutual orbit… and a little thing like a serious estrangement is unlikely to shake them out of it.
v. Other Friends (and Sometime Enemies)
KARA: I am a friendly, OK? We’re all friendlies. So let’s just… be friendly.
-- Resurrection Ship, Part I
During Kara’s time on Caprica at the beginning of the second season, she meets Samuel T. Anders, Pyramid-star-turned-resistance-fighter. They flirt, they snark, and before long, they’re sleeping together. However, Kara soon has to return to Galactica with the Arrow of Apollo; Anders stays behind to continue fighting the Cylons and protecting the human survivors. They share an emotional goodbye, with Kara vowing to return and rescue him, though she’s inwardly certain she’s leaving him to his death. At the end of the season, however, she mounts a daring rescue effort, and finds that Anders is still alive. Kara gleefully brings him back to Galactica, where she introduces him to Adama in an adorably “Dad, meet my boyfriend” moment. By the infamous “jump forward” in the last few minutes of the final episode, Kara and Anders are married and settled on New Caprica (a habitable planet that the Colonials hope will hide them from the Cylons), but it isn’t all champagne and roses; Anders is sick, and with medicine scarce, he’s in serious danger of dying. His fate, like everyone else’s, will have to wait until next season.
If you’re wondering why I have a thousand words on Lee and Adama, and only a few hundred on Anders, who’s Kara’s husband, it’s because the poor boy hasn’t had a lot of screen time, and I’m not exactly sure what to think of him, or-more importantly-of Kara’s relationship with him. Some parallels to her relationship with Zak are evident; at one point on Caprica, she’s told that Anders has been killed, and it’s clear that Kara thinks her poisonous touch has done its worst again. But not only does she find him alive, she does so twice, and it’s entirely possible that she sees Anders as her second chance at the happy ending she never got with Zak. He also appears to be much more easygoing than Lee or even Adama; when Kara pushes him, he doesn’t tend to push back, which makes for a much different kind of relationship than she’s used to. And for someone who’s carrying as much emotional baggage as Kara is, it’s not entirely surprising that she’d choose someone who isn’t aware of (or part of) her tangled history. He’s a fresh start, a new beginning, but as of the end of the second season, the jury is still out as to the exact whys and wherefores of their relationship.
Karl “Helo” Agathon provides Kara with a rarity in her life: a close, uncomplicated friendship. Helo is stranded on Caprica during the miniseries, and remains there all through Season 1; the two friends are reunited on Caprica, and their joy at seeing each other is one of the few feel-good moments in the angst-packed season finale. Over the course of the next few episodes, they bicker like siblings, argue and forgive each other, and share a gorgeous moment of much-needed quiet and rest at Kara’s old apartment. Up until the end of the Season 2, he’s the only person on Galactica who understands the trauma that Kara experienced on Caprica, and she trusts him completely. For whatever reason, he seems to be the one person she’s not afraid of losing, and her manner is much easier with him as a result. Helo isn’t always the brightest bulb in the box, but he’s loyal and loving (to a fault), and he provides a much-needed oasis of steady calm and good humor in the midst of Kara’s emotional upheavals.
Colonel Saul Tigh is Adama’s XO, and he’s not too far from being an alcoholic version of Kara: no real desire for a leadership role, serious self-esteem issues, and completely devoted to Adama. Naturally, with all they have in common, he and Kara can’t stand each other. I think that Tigh looks at Kara and sees a younger version of himself, but one who still has all the potential that he’s basically squandered; Kara looks at Tigh and sees what she could become if she’s not careful, many of her weaknesses right there on the surface. It’s a pretty uncomfortable relationship on both sides, though toward the end of the second season they seem to be reaching some kind of tentative truce. Still, the fact that Kara out-and-out hugs Tigh when she sees him on New Caprica is a glaring red flag that she must miss the Galactica desperately.
Louanne “Kat” Katraine, one of the original squadron of “nuggets,” is another mirror for Kara. She’s brash and overemotional and insecure, and she’s also an excellent pilot with a flair for the dramatic. In “Scar,” she and Kara spend much of the episode in an extended pissing contest, while Kara is mired in guilt (and a lot of alcohol) over leaving Anders on Caprica and over the many nuggets whose deaths have happened on her watch. The episode sees Kara at her lowest point yet: despairing, confused, and exhausted from too many months of fighting and loss and painful responsibility. She's buckling under the pressure, and making costly mistakes as a result. In a dogfight with the Cylon Raider they’ve come to call Scar-a sort of Cylon Red Baron-Kara sets herself up for a likely suicide run, but turns aside at the last moment to let Kat deliver the kill shot so that they can both live to fight another day. Kat takes the glory and the Top Gun status from Kara, and despite her obvious frustration and embarrassment, Kara takes Kat’s victory with good grace. In fact, she turns her moment of humiliation into a touching tribute to all the pilots they’ve lost, and it’s one of the greatest displays of true leadership we’ve seen from her so far. There’s a sense that she’s starting to let her Starbuck persona slide away a bit to make way for something new; it’s the lesson she learned in “The Hand of God,” followed through to its logical conclusion. When Lee is promoted to Commander and Kara accepts her role as Galactica’s CAG, it’s with much less trepidation-either on her side or on the viewers’-than would have seemed possible when we first met her.
vi. All of This Has Happened Before
LEOBEN: Are you Lieutenant Starbuck? (Laughing, off Kara’s startled reaction) Yes, you are. I knew it. I was right, I was right. I saw it, I’ve seen it…
KARA: Happy now?
LEOBEN: It all makes sense now, doesn’t it? Now we can talk. Now we can talk about a lot of things.
-- Flesh and Bone
The first indication that the Cylons might be creepily invested in Kara for some reason comes in “Flesh and Bone,” when she’s sent to interrogate Leoben, a Cylon model with potentially prophetic-and certainly manipulative-powers. He somehow identifies her by name, and seems to know things about her childhood and upbringing that are clearly closely-guarded secrets for her. At first, his observations only encourage Kara to use more “vigorous” interrogation methods as she vents her fury and fear on him, but by the time President Roslin has Leoben killed at the end of the episode, Kara has actually developed a connection with him, so much so that one of the final images is of her, with her idols, praying for the soul she’s not sure Leoben has.
Kara is also closely connected to the Cylons through her friendship with the woman she knew as Sharon Valerii, who is revealed at the end of the miniseries to be a Cylon, albeit a sleeper agent who doesn’t realize her true nature. Despite Kara’s rage and betrayal (not to mention grief) at discovering the truth, she’s not entirely able to forget the rookie she befriended; she and Sharon have a moment of sad reminiscence toward the end of the second season that indicates that Kara is capable of being more sympathetic toward a Cylon than many of the other humans, particularly if that Cylon can establish a personal connection with her.
The big question mark when it comes to Kara and the Cylons, however, relates to her experiences on Caprica. Shot in a skirmish, she wakes to find herself in a hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital, as it turns out, is run by Cylons, and before she can escape, the Cylons manage to harvest one of her ovaries. (Yes, it’s true. Ovaries again. I’m not any happier about it than you are.) She is, naturally, traumatized by the experience, even more so when she discovers the vast “farms” of human women hooked up to machines, gestating human/Cylon hybrids. She destroys the farm she finds, but there’s a strong sense her ordeal isn’t over; Sharon tells her casually, ominously, “They know who you are, Kara. You’re special. Leoben told you, you have a destiny.”
Needless to say, Kara has no interest in any destiny the Cylons might have in mind for her, but she might not have a choice. At the end of Season 2, as the Cylons occupy New Caprica, we get a brief scene of Leoben leaning over Anders’ sickbed, asking for Kara Thrace. The exact nature of Kara’s role in the Cylons’ plan remains unclear, but it’s becoming more and more evident that they do have plans for her… and that can’t be good, for Kara or for humanity.
vii. A Hell of a Ride
COTTLE: It's gonna hurt like hell, but it's supposed to.
KARA: (sarcastically) Thanks, Doc.
-- Six Degrees of Separation
Kara Thrace looms large in BSG fandom, and she tends to be a pretty polarizing character-most fans either love her or hate her. And I certainly understand where her critics are coming from. But despite all her flaws-and her talents, which are just as annoying to some-I just can't seem to stop adoring her. She's tough and smart and she likes blowing shit up, she's got a smart mouth and an accurate trigger finger and a mean right hook, and those are all qualities that the twelve-year-old fangirl in me can't help but respond to. She's a strong woman in a cast of strong women, all of whom are interesting in their own way. But she also wears her heart on her sleeve. She loves passionately, believes fiercely, laughs loudly, fears desperately, fails spectacularly, and then keeps going anyway. She's terrified and fucked-up and she makes a lot of mistakes, but she tries, very hard, and I admire that immensely.
There's a moment in "Valley of Darkness" that seems to me a perfect metaphor for Kara's character: she and Helo end up stopping at her old apartment, which is a small mess of a hole-in-the-wall that Helo-though they're pretty close friends-had no idea even existed. The floor is littered with detritus, the refrigerator is near-empty, but the walls are smeared with paint and poetry, and the first thing Kara does when they arrive is put on music. And watching it, I couldn't help thinking: that apartment is Kara's heart, all passion and turmoil and beauty and conflict, all locked away where no one knows about it. There's nothing practical there-not much food, the power frequently turned off-but it's just full of everything that's going on beneath her cocky exterior. And that, at the end of the day, is what I love about Kara: that great heart, that great capacity for love and fear and joy and courage. As I said before, I think a major portion of her story is about her growing up, and she has a long way to go… but I'm very much looking forward to watching it happen.
Some hopefully-helpful links:
Note: BSG fandom is very prone to spoilers, including ones from cast and crew interviews. As a result, spoiler-phobes should tread carefully in the various sites and communities.
Being one of the main characters on BSG, Kara finds her way into a lot of fic, much of which can be found on bsg_creative, bsg2003fics, and/or the_wireless, an impressively comprehensive fic archive newsletter.
There are two LJ communities devoted to Kara--capricas_sun and full_colors--but they don't get much traffic. bsg_women focuses on the many awesome women on the show, and beyond_insane is devoted to all things Kara and Lee.
galacticanews is a round-up newsletter with links to various discussions and goings-on in the fandom.
SciFi's BSG site actually has some pretty good stuff on it, including an episode guide, character bios and ship schematics, deleted scenes, several behind-the-scenes featurettes of varying niftiness, David Eick's video blog, and Ron Moore's infamous podcasts.
There's also the very cool Battlestar Wiki, which has pretty comprehensive information on all incarnations of the show.
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (new version)
Character: Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Author: brynnmck
Spoilers: Through the final episode of Season 2, including deleted scenes.
Notes: Many, many thanks to danceswithwords, for her thoughts on this essay in particular, and for sharing my frequent need to rhapsodize about Starbuck in general.
Crazy Enough to Follow Her - Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
i. Love at First Sight
KARA: The pilots call me Starbuck. You may refer to me as God.
-- Act of Contrition
I was never a fan of the original BSG, so I didn’t come into the new series with any preconceived notions about the characters. Maybe due in part to that, it took me approximately three seconds to fall in love with the new incarnation of Starbuck. How long till she smiles in the miniseries? Because that’s how long it took me. Charismatic and kick-ass, vulnerable and fallible, Kara “Starbuck” Thrace quickly became one of my favorite characters in all of sci-fi.
ii. So What Is a “Starbuck,” Anyway?
TIGH: “Starbuck.” Now there’s a callsign. Starbuck. How’d you get that nickname anyway? I never did get the full story. Was it before you got thrown in the brig as a cadet for drunk and disorderly, or after?
-- Miniseries, Part I
Kara Thrace, callsign “Starbuck” (which doesn’t appear to mean anything more than “the original creators thought it sounded good, and now we’re stuck with it”), was born to a military mother who abused her extensively when Kara was young. In “The Farm,” we discover that every finger on both of Kara’s hands was broken in her childhood. We don’t know much about her father, except that Kara listens to a recording of a piano piece in “Valley of Darkness” that she says is played by her father. Her difficult childhood informs a great deal of the character we come to know later in her life; with such a start, it's no wonder that the Kara we meet is independent to a fault, has serious issues when it comes to trust and love and close personal relationships, struggles constantly with her incredibly low opinion of herself, and constantly bucks authority while at the same time responding with near-fanatical devotion to the few authority figures she does recognize.
Kara originally planned to pursue a professional Pyramid career (a sport somewhere between basketball and handball), but a knee injury ended her chances, so she went to flight school instead, thereby discovering one of her greatest talents and joys: flying a Viper. She eventually became a flight instructor at the Fleet Academy, where one of her students was Zak Adama. She and Zak fell in love and became engaged, and though we don't know many of the details of their relationship, the fact that Kara was able to let Zak close enough to be planning to marry him speaks volumes about how important he was to her. Unfortunately for both of them, Zak was a mediocre pilot; when it came time for his final evaluations, Kara couldn't stand to disappoint him by failing him. She let her feelings overrule her judgment and passed him, even though he clearly wasn't cut out for flying a Viper. Zak was killed not long after in a training accident, and Kara was devastated with guilt and loss. It was a confirmation of her greatest fears: that she was dangerous, bad luck, not worthy of love or of happiness, and it left a scar in her that has yet to heal. Soon after Zak’s death, she met Zak’s father, Commander William Adama, who offered her a post on his battlestar, the Galactica. And it's at that post-and shortly thereafter, in the brig-that we meet her for the first time in the miniseries. At some point in there which has yet to be defined in canon, she also met and became close friends with Lee “Apollo” Adama, Zak’s brother and Cmdr. Adama’s son; more on him and their relationship later.
iii. A Study in Contradictions
KARA: You know, everyone I know is fighting to get back what they had. And I’m fighting ‘cause I don’t know how to do anything else.
-- Valley of Darkness
Kara’s strengths are many: she’s an exceptional Viper pilot and “the best shot in or out of the cockpit” (as she tells Adama in “Bastille Day”), she’s a frequent winner at the Triad table, she’s a flight instructor and a very good Pyramid player; we also find out in “Valley of Darkness” that she paints and writes poetry (though her level of skill in those pursuits is up for debate :) ). Her unconventional, “outside-the-box” battle tactics help the Colonial Fleet to victory against the Cylons on several occasions. Her love of flying is a joy to behold. She’s fiercely loyal to the people she loves, and takes her responsibility as instructor for the “nuggets” (newly-trained pilots) very seriously. And her gift for banter and her sarcastic sense of humor are pretty endearing, too.
For all her strengths, though, it’s just as much her weaknesses that define her character. Kara is almost entirely ruled by emotion. She’s hotheaded, insubordinate, and arrogant, brimming with attitude that masks an incredible amount of self-doubt. For all her cockiness, she’s secretly terrified that she’s worthless, and that she brings only bad things to the people she loves-a perspective that began with her abusive mother. The Cylon Leoben gives us some fantastic insight into her character in “Flesh and Bone”:
LEOBEN: I know you, you're damaged. You were born to a woman who believed that suffering was good for the soul, so you suffered. Life is a testament to pain, injuries, accidents. Some inflicted upon others, some inflicted upon yourself. Surrounds you like a bubble, but it's not real, it's just-that's just something she put into your head. It's something that you wanna believe 'cause it means that you're the problem, not the world that you live in. You wanna believe it because... it means that you're bad luck. Like a cancer that needs to be removed. Because you hear her voice every day and you want her to be right.
Kara’s combination of badass exterior and interior emotional turmoil makes her very difficult to deal with at times; she can be thoughtless and even cruel on occasion, striking out violently when she’s hurt or scared, and her daredevil ways can be dangerous to those around her (for example, in “Sacrifice,” she foolishly insists on taking point on a sensitive mission and ends up accidentally shooting Lee, severely wounding him-which, of course, just adds to her conviction that she’s poison and bad luck for the people she loves). But it's that combination of strength and vulnerability that I find so fascinating about her (and, for the record, I think Katee Sackhoff does a brilliant job portraying that dichotomy). Kara is sometimes referred to in fandom as "Kara Sue," implying that she's too much, too good, too perfect to be believed, but for me, all of her talents and skills are very much mitigated by the desperate self-doubt beneath. She's larger-than-life in some ways, but she's also dreadfully, messily human, and my sympathy for her struggles is that much more pronounced because of it.
iv. The Adamas
KARA: (approaching Lee and Adama) Is this the self-help group for dysfunctional families and insubordinate officers? (off their looks) Oh, so we're not to the point where we're laughing about it yet? (Adama and Lee look at each other, then can't help laughing)
-- deleted scene from Home, Part II
Commander (later Admiral) William Adama
KARA: Morning, sir!
ADAMA: Morning, Starbuck. What do you hear?
KARA: Nothin' but the rain.
ADAMA: Then grab your gun and put the cat out.
KARA: BOOM-cha-ga-la!
KARA & ADAMA: (together) BOOM BOOM BOOM!
-- Miniseries, Part I
It's almost impossible to talk about Kara without talking about the Adamas. Commander Adama is clearly her surrogate father; he's incredibly kind to her from the moment he meets her, which I suspect is something Kara hasn't encountered often. In giving her the post on Galactica, he likely saves her from a pretty bad downward spiral. He gives her a home and a job and a place to belong, and he gives her his trust and confidence, even when she doesn't deserve it. At first, it's probably primarily because she's a strong tie to Zak, but over time, they become quite close, and she's fiercely loyal to him and clearly worships him. They have a great deal in common in terms of the way they approach things; they're both emotional and prone to take things too personally, and they're both charismatic and opinionated, sure that their way is the right way. Because he has something of a blind spot where Starbuck is concerned, it's possible that Adama's indulgence has led to her getting more leeway than she deserves, but overall, his influence on her is very positive.
In fact, a great deal of Kara's growth in the first season is connected to her relationship with Adama. Early in the series, he asks her to train the "nuggets," the group of barely-experienced pilots they've managed to gather from what remains of humanity. At first, Kara refuses, still haunted by her guilt over Zak's death; since she's never confessed her role in it to Adama (though, somewhat tellingly, she admits it to Lee in the miniseries-even as much as she fears Lee's condemnation, she fears Adama's more), he doesn't realize the source of her hesitation, and orders her to begin flight instruction immediately. She does, and it goes predictably badly. Thanks to some inadvertent blabbing by Lee, Adama gets wind that something deeper is going on, and Kara finally spills out all the ugly details of Zak's death. (The fact that she kept silent about it for as long as she did, despite the problems that it helped foster between Lee and his father [Lee primarily blamed Adama for Zak's death], is indicative of both her terror of losing Adama's love and support and her cowardice when it comes to personal relationships.) Adama is furious at first, and Kara is devastated. Soon after, Kara crash-lands on a planet when her Viper is damaged in a dogfight, and Lee and Adama expend 43% of the fleet's remaining fuel in a fruitless search for her, finally giving her up for lost. Being Kara, however, she eventually manages a daredevil return to Galactica via a hot-wired Cylon Raider. Adama, immensely grateful to have her back, kisses the injured Starbuck on the forehead in a gesture of forgiveness and benediction that's one of the most beautiful moments in the series to date. From that point forward, Kara embraces her role as flight instructor with renewed gusto, and it turns out she's pretty damn good at it, despite the pressure of having so many lives under her care and the inevitable weight of every death that occurs on her watch. In accepting that responsibility, though, in taking that risk in spite of her fear, she's taking the first of what will be many small steps away from her self-indulgent rocket-jockey ways and on to something greater.
She takes another step in “The Hand of God” (one of my favorite episodes in the first season), when her still-healing injury compels Adama to ground her for a major mission. For the first time, she's not in the middle of the action; she's forced to watch from the sidelines as her typically risky plan plays out (with Lee adopting her usual central role-including, as it turns out, her signature recklessness), and she doesn't deal with it particularly well. She sends Lee off with some less-than-inspirational words (namely, "Don't frak it up by overthinking it") and nearly bites her nails off in the situation room as they watch the battle unfold, but Adama knows the real source of her tension:
KARA: I just hope that Lee can…
ADAMA: Lee isn't the problem. You should take a good look at yourself. I had to go through the same transition. When you're in the cockpit, you're in control. It's hard to give it up.
KARA: It would just be a lot easier if I was flying with them.
ADAMA: All you can do now is wait and hope you didn't make any mistakes.
KARA: I never wanted this kind of responsibility.
ADAMA: The Cylons never asked us what we wanted. Welcome to the big leagues.
And, of course, he's right. Despite more than a few tense moments, Kara's plan works, Lee saves the day with some fancy flying, and the Colonials have their much-needed fuel supply. Of course, Kara's back in the cockpit as soon as she possibly can be, but her experience with that different kind of role will stand her in good stead as the series continues.
Adama's influence works a bit differently at the end of the first season, though no less significantly. President Roslin approaches Kara about stealing the captured Cylon Raider-a valuable military asset, which Adama intends for another mission-and jumping back to Caprica in the hope of retrieving the Arrow of Apollo. According to prophecy, which Roslin believes she's a part of, the Arrow is supposed to lead humanity to Earth, where they can finally settle and stop running from the Cylons. Despite Kara's temptation to believe in the prophecy-Kara is, somewhat unexpectedly, one of the more religious characters among the humans; we see her praying to her idols of Athena and Aphrodite on several occasions-her faith in Adama is stronger. She tells Roslin that Adama will lead them to Earth, as he promised to do at the end of the miniseries. Roslin responds that Kara should ask Adama if he really knows where Earth is; Kara does, and it's clear that he's lying. Disillusioned and hurt-not to mention fresh off a particularly vicious argument with Lee-Kara steals the Raider and jumps to Caprica, setting in motion a series of events that will affect her profoundly. And when she returns, Adama forgives her again, his love and support unwavering as always; dysfunctional they might be, but they're family, and nothing that either of them has done so far has done anything to change that.
Lee “Apollo” Adama
KARA: You want something from me?
LEE: Not a thing.
KARA: 'Cause I don't owe you anything.
LEE: No, you don't owe me anything… 'cause I'm just a CAG, and you're just a pilot.
KARA: Right.
LEE: A pilot who can't keep her pants on.
KARA: (bitterly) Right.
LEE: Oh, it is just like old times, Kara. Like when you got drunk and couldn't keep your hands off that Major from wherever-
(She hits him, hard, in the face; he hits her back, just as hard. Silence for a moment, both of them licking their wounds.)
LEE: Why'd you do it, Kara? Just tell me why.
KARA: 'Cause I'm a screw-up, Lee. Try to keep that in mind.
-- Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I
LEE: I just want you to know, Kara, that I'm your friend. I love you. If there's anything you wanna talk about, anything you wanna get off your chest, then I'm here for you. Anyway… whenever you wanna talk, just let me know.
KARA: What was that middle part again?
LEE: Hmm? What do you mean?
KARA: Did you say you love me?
LEE: Well, um-
KARA: Lee Adama loves me.
LEE: No, all I meant was-
KARA: No, seriously. Very sweet. You love me.
(Lee laughs nervously, starts to leave)
KARA: No, you love me. You can't take it back. There's no take-backs.
LEE: (walking toward the door) You're dreaming it, Kara.
KARA: You love me.
LEE: You're dreaming it.
KARA: You love me.
LEE: (over his shoulder, as he leaves) Dreamer.
KARA: (grinning) Mm-hmm. OK.
-- Home, Part I
Kara's relationship with Lee Adama is quite a bit more complicated than her relationship with his father. In the miniseries, having not seen each other in two years, Lee and Kara go quickly from tentative smiles to tension and arguing. It's not an uncommon journey for them. Despite that, though, they're clearly extremely important to each other; Kara's stunned, bereft expression when she learns that Lee is supposedly dead is like a punch in the gut, and their goofy smiles and adolescent jokes at being reunited manage to convey enormous relief, a solid history of friendship… and no small amount of sexual tension. Their relationship is endlessly fascinating to me; at their best, they're best friends and buddy-cops, flying in perfect sync in combat, laughing and bantering, her unorthodox methods complementing his ability to see the big picture, his solidity reining her in when she spins dangerously out of control, each serving as the other's support and confidant, both of them struggling with the challenges of accepting the leadership roles that have been thrust upon them. On the other hand, they have several subscriptions' worth of issues, including their competitiveness (in everything from flying to their relationships with Adama), their fundamentally different approaches to their lives, their history of painful arguments, their total inability to deal with or fully acknowledge-even to themselves-their feelings about each other… not to mention the fact that they are frequently about half a step from ripping each other's clothes off despite the fact that she used to be engaged to his now-dead brother. It's quite a rollercoaster. Whether they're fighting or laughing or not speaking, though, they exert a great influence over each other's lives, and there's much to suggest that they always will.
Between them, Kara and Lee represent one of the key aspects of the BSG story: the idea of growing up, of accepting greater responsibility, of stepping forward in a time of crisis and doing a job you don’t quite feel prepared to do, but that falls to you because there’s no one else. Adama and Roslin are the patriarch and matriarch of the new society, and Kara and Lee are the next generation, the successors. In many ways, the two are on the same journey, but because they have very different approaches to it and lessons to learn, they’re frequently used as foils or as spurs for each other. Each has a way of bringing out the best and the worst in the other. Even more so than Adama, Lee is a part of nearly all of Kara’s significant experiences that we see on the show. Especially in Season 2, he takes on the role of confidant, conscience, and even occasionally role model. He paves the way for her when it comes to leadership, with her ascending the ranks just beneath him as he’s promoted to CAG, then Major, then Commander. He commiserates with her over the pilots they’ve lost, and the unlikelihood of either of them ever seeing the new civilization they’re fighting for. They make each other laugh. She comforts him when he’s plagued with doubt after a near-death experience, and he helps anchor her when she’s spiraling steadily downward in “Scar.” They present a united front to the Pegasus commander even when they can barely speak to each other. Together with Adama and Roslin, they both participate in deciphering the puzzle of Athena’s Tomb and finding a starting place for their search for Earth. It’s difficult to look at their characters completely independently because they’re so entwined, each of them reacting off the other in ways that illuminate them both.
Despite their closeness, though, there’s very often tension between them; Kara, especially, tends to push away pretty violently when she feels that they’re getting too close… which is due to her absolute terror of losing him in combination with her conviction that she’s unworthy of him. At the end of the second season, a jump forward in the narrative finds all the characters a year away from when we last saw them. And among other developments, Kara and Lee have obviously had a major falling-out in the interim. Still, almost as soon as we pick up their story, she’s calling him for help; it’s clear that their story is far from over. No matter how much they’d like to get away from each other at times, they seem to be stuck in a mutual orbit… and a little thing like a serious estrangement is unlikely to shake them out of it.
v. Other Friends (and Sometime Enemies)
KARA: I am a friendly, OK? We’re all friendlies. So let’s just… be friendly.
-- Resurrection Ship, Part I
During Kara’s time on Caprica at the beginning of the second season, she meets Samuel T. Anders, Pyramid-star-turned-resistance-fighter. They flirt, they snark, and before long, they’re sleeping together. However, Kara soon has to return to Galactica with the Arrow of Apollo; Anders stays behind to continue fighting the Cylons and protecting the human survivors. They share an emotional goodbye, with Kara vowing to return and rescue him, though she’s inwardly certain she’s leaving him to his death. At the end of the season, however, she mounts a daring rescue effort, and finds that Anders is still alive. Kara gleefully brings him back to Galactica, where she introduces him to Adama in an adorably “Dad, meet my boyfriend” moment. By the infamous “jump forward” in the last few minutes of the final episode, Kara and Anders are married and settled on New Caprica (a habitable planet that the Colonials hope will hide them from the Cylons), but it isn’t all champagne and roses; Anders is sick, and with medicine scarce, he’s in serious danger of dying. His fate, like everyone else’s, will have to wait until next season.
If you’re wondering why I have a thousand words on Lee and Adama, and only a few hundred on Anders, who’s Kara’s husband, it’s because the poor boy hasn’t had a lot of screen time, and I’m not exactly sure what to think of him, or-more importantly-of Kara’s relationship with him. Some parallels to her relationship with Zak are evident; at one point on Caprica, she’s told that Anders has been killed, and it’s clear that Kara thinks her poisonous touch has done its worst again. But not only does she find him alive, she does so twice, and it’s entirely possible that she sees Anders as her second chance at the happy ending she never got with Zak. He also appears to be much more easygoing than Lee or even Adama; when Kara pushes him, he doesn’t tend to push back, which makes for a much different kind of relationship than she’s used to. And for someone who’s carrying as much emotional baggage as Kara is, it’s not entirely surprising that she’d choose someone who isn’t aware of (or part of) her tangled history. He’s a fresh start, a new beginning, but as of the end of the second season, the jury is still out as to the exact whys and wherefores of their relationship.
Karl “Helo” Agathon provides Kara with a rarity in her life: a close, uncomplicated friendship. Helo is stranded on Caprica during the miniseries, and remains there all through Season 1; the two friends are reunited on Caprica, and their joy at seeing each other is one of the few feel-good moments in the angst-packed season finale. Over the course of the next few episodes, they bicker like siblings, argue and forgive each other, and share a gorgeous moment of much-needed quiet and rest at Kara’s old apartment. Up until the end of the Season 2, he’s the only person on Galactica who understands the trauma that Kara experienced on Caprica, and she trusts him completely. For whatever reason, he seems to be the one person she’s not afraid of losing, and her manner is much easier with him as a result. Helo isn’t always the brightest bulb in the box, but he’s loyal and loving (to a fault), and he provides a much-needed oasis of steady calm and good humor in the midst of Kara’s emotional upheavals.
Colonel Saul Tigh is Adama’s XO, and he’s not too far from being an alcoholic version of Kara: no real desire for a leadership role, serious self-esteem issues, and completely devoted to Adama. Naturally, with all they have in common, he and Kara can’t stand each other. I think that Tigh looks at Kara and sees a younger version of himself, but one who still has all the potential that he’s basically squandered; Kara looks at Tigh and sees what she could become if she’s not careful, many of her weaknesses right there on the surface. It’s a pretty uncomfortable relationship on both sides, though toward the end of the second season they seem to be reaching some kind of tentative truce. Still, the fact that Kara out-and-out hugs Tigh when she sees him on New Caprica is a glaring red flag that she must miss the Galactica desperately.
Louanne “Kat” Katraine, one of the original squadron of “nuggets,” is another mirror for Kara. She’s brash and overemotional and insecure, and she’s also an excellent pilot with a flair for the dramatic. In “Scar,” she and Kara spend much of the episode in an extended pissing contest, while Kara is mired in guilt (and a lot of alcohol) over leaving Anders on Caprica and over the many nuggets whose deaths have happened on her watch. The episode sees Kara at her lowest point yet: despairing, confused, and exhausted from too many months of fighting and loss and painful responsibility. She's buckling under the pressure, and making costly mistakes as a result. In a dogfight with the Cylon Raider they’ve come to call Scar-a sort of Cylon Red Baron-Kara sets herself up for a likely suicide run, but turns aside at the last moment to let Kat deliver the kill shot so that they can both live to fight another day. Kat takes the glory and the Top Gun status from Kara, and despite her obvious frustration and embarrassment, Kara takes Kat’s victory with good grace. In fact, she turns her moment of humiliation into a touching tribute to all the pilots they’ve lost, and it’s one of the greatest displays of true leadership we’ve seen from her so far. There’s a sense that she’s starting to let her Starbuck persona slide away a bit to make way for something new; it’s the lesson she learned in “The Hand of God,” followed through to its logical conclusion. When Lee is promoted to Commander and Kara accepts her role as Galactica’s CAG, it’s with much less trepidation-either on her side or on the viewers’-than would have seemed possible when we first met her.
vi. All of This Has Happened Before
LEOBEN: Are you Lieutenant Starbuck? (Laughing, off Kara’s startled reaction) Yes, you are. I knew it. I was right, I was right. I saw it, I’ve seen it…
KARA: Happy now?
LEOBEN: It all makes sense now, doesn’t it? Now we can talk. Now we can talk about a lot of things.
-- Flesh and Bone
The first indication that the Cylons might be creepily invested in Kara for some reason comes in “Flesh and Bone,” when she’s sent to interrogate Leoben, a Cylon model with potentially prophetic-and certainly manipulative-powers. He somehow identifies her by name, and seems to know things about her childhood and upbringing that are clearly closely-guarded secrets for her. At first, his observations only encourage Kara to use more “vigorous” interrogation methods as she vents her fury and fear on him, but by the time President Roslin has Leoben killed at the end of the episode, Kara has actually developed a connection with him, so much so that one of the final images is of her, with her idols, praying for the soul she’s not sure Leoben has.
Kara is also closely connected to the Cylons through her friendship with the woman she knew as Sharon Valerii, who is revealed at the end of the miniseries to be a Cylon, albeit a sleeper agent who doesn’t realize her true nature. Despite Kara’s rage and betrayal (not to mention grief) at discovering the truth, she’s not entirely able to forget the rookie she befriended; she and Sharon have a moment of sad reminiscence toward the end of the second season that indicates that Kara is capable of being more sympathetic toward a Cylon than many of the other humans, particularly if that Cylon can establish a personal connection with her.
The big question mark when it comes to Kara and the Cylons, however, relates to her experiences on Caprica. Shot in a skirmish, she wakes to find herself in a hospital. Unfortunately, the hospital, as it turns out, is run by Cylons, and before she can escape, the Cylons manage to harvest one of her ovaries. (Yes, it’s true. Ovaries again. I’m not any happier about it than you are.) She is, naturally, traumatized by the experience, even more so when she discovers the vast “farms” of human women hooked up to machines, gestating human/Cylon hybrids. She destroys the farm she finds, but there’s a strong sense her ordeal isn’t over; Sharon tells her casually, ominously, “They know who you are, Kara. You’re special. Leoben told you, you have a destiny.”
Needless to say, Kara has no interest in any destiny the Cylons might have in mind for her, but she might not have a choice. At the end of Season 2, as the Cylons occupy New Caprica, we get a brief scene of Leoben leaning over Anders’ sickbed, asking for Kara Thrace. The exact nature of Kara’s role in the Cylons’ plan remains unclear, but it’s becoming more and more evident that they do have plans for her… and that can’t be good, for Kara or for humanity.
vii. A Hell of a Ride
COTTLE: It's gonna hurt like hell, but it's supposed to.
KARA: (sarcastically) Thanks, Doc.
-- Six Degrees of Separation
Kara Thrace looms large in BSG fandom, and she tends to be a pretty polarizing character-most fans either love her or hate her. And I certainly understand where her critics are coming from. But despite all her flaws-and her talents, which are just as annoying to some-I just can't seem to stop adoring her. She's tough and smart and she likes blowing shit up, she's got a smart mouth and an accurate trigger finger and a mean right hook, and those are all qualities that the twelve-year-old fangirl in me can't help but respond to. She's a strong woman in a cast of strong women, all of whom are interesting in their own way. But she also wears her heart on her sleeve. She loves passionately, believes fiercely, laughs loudly, fears desperately, fails spectacularly, and then keeps going anyway. She's terrified and fucked-up and she makes a lot of mistakes, but she tries, very hard, and I admire that immensely.
There's a moment in "Valley of Darkness" that seems to me a perfect metaphor for Kara's character: she and Helo end up stopping at her old apartment, which is a small mess of a hole-in-the-wall that Helo-though they're pretty close friends-had no idea even existed. The floor is littered with detritus, the refrigerator is near-empty, but the walls are smeared with paint and poetry, and the first thing Kara does when they arrive is put on music. And watching it, I couldn't help thinking: that apartment is Kara's heart, all passion and turmoil and beauty and conflict, all locked away where no one knows about it. There's nothing practical there-not much food, the power frequently turned off-but it's just full of everything that's going on beneath her cocky exterior. And that, at the end of the day, is what I love about Kara: that great heart, that great capacity for love and fear and joy and courage. As I said before, I think a major portion of her story is about her growing up, and she has a long way to go… but I'm very much looking forward to watching it happen.
Some hopefully-helpful links:
Note: BSG fandom is very prone to spoilers, including ones from cast and crew interviews. As a result, spoiler-phobes should tread carefully in the various sites and communities.
Being one of the main characters on BSG, Kara finds her way into a lot of fic, much of which can be found on bsg_creative, bsg2003fics, and/or the_wireless, an impressively comprehensive fic archive newsletter.
There are two LJ communities devoted to Kara--capricas_sun and full_colors--but they don't get much traffic. bsg_women focuses on the many awesome women on the show, and beyond_insane is devoted to all things Kara and Lee.
galacticanews is a round-up newsletter with links to various discussions and goings-on in the fandom.
SciFi's BSG site actually has some pretty good stuff on it, including an episode guide, character bios and ship schematics, deleted scenes, several behind-the-scenes featurettes of varying niftiness, David Eick's video blog, and Ron Moore's infamous podcasts.
There's also the very cool Battlestar Wiki, which has pretty comprehensive information on all incarnations of the show.