By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 11 seconds ago

Battlestar Galactic is a fantasy series that helped revitalize science fiction. The first two seasons are filled with great character moments and a tense cat-and-mouse chase between the Cylons and the Colonial Fleet. From season 3 onwards, some believe the series started to go off the rails.

As a fan, I was frustrated by the increasing frequency of moments that ruined years of character development, and that was before the Final Five were revealed. But it turns out that showrunner Ronald D. Moore deliberately designed the fate of one character, Starbuck, to be confusing and keep fans fighting forever.

This is not speculation; in an interview with SyFy after the finale aired, Moore explained, “I felt, going into the finale, that the more I defined exactly what it was, the less interesting it became. And so I just made the choice to go out on a more ambiguous note and let people discuss it perpetually.

Divine guidance

The brilliant character of Battlestar Galactic revival, Ronald D. Moore, reimagined Starbuck as a woman, Kara Thrace, casting Katee Sackhoff as the star pilot played by Dirk Benedict in the original series. Although the writers were praised for creating a strong, multi-dimensional character, some of that goodwill disappeared in Season 3’s “Maelstrom,” when Starbuck appeared to die in his Viper as it imploded in the atmosphere from a distant planet. She wasn’t gone for long, reappearing without explanation in the season finale, “Crossroads, Part II”, and offering to guide the Colonial fleet back to Earth.

If it seemed like a sudden change from the Viper pilot to a Moses figure offering to lead the colonists out of exile, that’s because it was, and again, Moore explains: “She is that what you want to think of her. This has been deliberately kept nebulous and vague.

After her death in front of Apollo, Starbuck looked the same and Katee Sackhoff still played her, but as Moore wanted, fans still argued over whether the character was even human. The series creator brought his own controversial point of view: “And I think she was a representative of an entity that didn’t like to be called God, but everyone talked about it in divine terms . If you want to call him an angel, you can say that.

There is evidence of a mystical force guiding her, even years before the start of Battlestar Galacticrepresented by the symbol of the Eye of Jupiter which appears throughout his life, from childhood drawings to strange dreams just before his death. The symbol had appeared earlier in the season on the walls of the Temple of Five and in the supernova that guided the fleet to its next destination. More directly, Starbuck’s visions before his death of his mother, his apartment, and what appears to be Leoben (number two), but who turns out to be a spirit guide.

The harbinger of death

Above Starbuck’s post-resurrection appearance is the Cylon prophecy from the First War: “Kara Thrace will lead the human race to its end.” She is the herald of the Apocalypse, harbinger of death. They must not follow her.

How it’s going in the final season of Battlestar Galactic is a bit counterintuitive, as she brought the human race to its end by taking them to Earth. For humans, she was a guide to the promised land, but it was for the Cylons that she became Death, destroyer of worlds.

While this is all speculation and there is evidence to support almost every reading of the word “omen”, I believe his destruction of the Cylon Ressurection ship and the end of their reincarnation cycle brought about the Apocalypse . There is also the argument that his choices led others to their deaths or, as explained in one of the deleted scenes from Battlestar Galactica included in a DVD extra, Starbuck explains to Apollo that the discovery of Earth in Ruin fulfilled this part of the prophecy.

As Ronald D. Moore predicted, there is evidence for every reading of Starbuck’s nature after her death, from fans believing she was a Cylon to others believing she was an angel and even a few – some who go further and believe that she was God. By “going out on an ambiguous note,” it’s as likely that she has ties to Kobol’s founding as it does to The Five, but despite Moore’s goal of leaving the whole thing truly open-ended, that didn’t stop Sackhoff to intervene. its interpretation.

No wrong answers

Buried in the comments of a photo Katee Sackhoff posted of her relaxing in the sun was her response to a fan taking her photo and asking if Starbuck was a spirit guide. Sackhoff actually responded by saying, “She was a spirit brought to guide humanity to land and salvation. »

You can understand why, more than a decade later Battlestar Galactic was discontinued, fans are still arguing about Starbuck. Moore and Sackhoff have two different answers, and based on the evidence presented in the series itself, neither is wrong.

I believe she was an angel sent to bring humanity out of exile in a mirror of the story of Moses, but that’s also because I don’t think the Cylon evidence is particularly strong. Visions of the Eye of Jupiter, associated with prophecy, seem to indicate a divine and spiritual force pushing humanity on a specific path. The theory that Number 7 was her father, and therefore she was a Cylon, depends on too many other factors, some of which are explained in the series, particularly the fact that Cylon mating cannot produce of offspring.

But that’s just my opinion, and fortunately Ronald D. Moore realized that, unlike what happened with Star Warsnot everything needs a clear and tidy explanation. When you go back and see again Battlestar Galactic on Amazon Prime, see what evidence you can find to support Team Angel, Team Cylon, or the less popular but still valid Team She Was A Ghost.