Did anyone actually like the ending to nBSG?

[Vympel]

I watched the extended finale last night (as I had only seen the broadcast version) and was once again thoroughly disappointed by the show's last act - i.e. after they jump away from The Colony and go to Earth.

The internet is full of brutal takedowns on just how terrible the ending to nBSG is, but I like this one the best (for sheer bile, there are other, much more thoughtful takedowns, but I bolded the parts that made me LOL):-

I Watched the Battlestar Galactica Series Finale and it made me Retarded

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Alice in Wonderland

I Watched the Battlestar Galactica Series Finale and it made me Retarded
March 22, 2009

Thank you Ron Moore.

Five years of running a SciFi series into the ground ended with two hours. Watching the extended pile of flashbacks set to sentimental New Age music you call a series finale brought that to an end. At least until Caprica airs, and dies horribly, along with the minds of the last deluded fanboys who still think your remake was some staggering work of transcendent genius.

Well you sure showed them.

I watched Daybreak Part 2, and every 15 minutes of it made me more and more retarded. First Adama, the XO, both of the Fleet’s Presidents, and half the useful officers, including the original Final 5, go off on a suicide mission to rescue a little girl. Cute.

Sure it seems like Cylons and humans can have kids anyway, but Adama decides to take everyone down to rescue her, and leaves Gaeta’s boyfriend in command, and makes him Admiral on top of that. Because apparently everyone in the fleet loves and respects him, something that happened while we weren’t looking.

As startling as the sight of humans fighting Cylons is for the first time in many years on the show, this brief diversion from the usual BSG storyline of the characters getting drunk, remembering the good times and yelling at each other is only brief.

Instead we soon head for Earth, the real Earth, or Earth 2. There Adama Jr decides we should break the cycle of violence by giving up all technology and living in caves. Because you know technology is evil. First you invent spaceships, then you invent evil robots and it all goes to hell from here. A point driven home by the conclusion in modern day New York City that ominously plays Bear’s reworked Dylan while kids stare at useless Japanese toy robots.

Oh no! Can’t you foolish Japanese people see you’ve doomed the species all over again by building toy robots that fearsomely clap their hands!

Of course even though the Fleet constantly rebels against the Adamas, this time everyone embraces the plan, even though it means living without basic hygiene or elementary medicine. Because I guess everyone in the fleet is down with having lots of dead babies and a lifespan that ends at 40, in order to have a clean slate.

And technology is bad. That is unless you want to fly your girlfriend around to look at some flamingos while you propose to her. Otherwise it’s BAD. Real bad.

And you know what ends the cycle of violence? Going back to a stone age society and resource scarcities. Because it’s technology that kills people, not people.

BSG isn’t unique in its Luddite approach. It’s just an insult to call Luddite New Age crap like this Science Fiction. Science Fiction was about imagining the possibilities. BSG is about ignoring the possibilities and flying your starships into the sun, and looking cheerfully at stretches of grass that are somehow free of predators and diseases that will kill you the moment you try to drink some standing water. That kind of retarded luddism is what Hollywood producers who think their spa getaways are a return to nature bring to the party.

Oh look, let me go put up a cabin. No need to worry, I won’t drop a log on my foot, develop a gangrene infection and die because I’m miles from help and I flew all my raptors into the sun. No, because I’m from Hollywood.

Of course if all that retardation wasn’t enough, for years now Battlestar Galactica was busy promising to explain all its “mysteries”. And then comes the series finale and there are no revelations. Zippo. Unless you count the “revelation” that the whole opera house vision was nothing more than a metaphor for the time that Hera would run away, Baltar and Captica Six would find her, and then stumble into a standoff, that wouldn’t exist if not for them carrying her into it.

Who’s Starbuck? We’re never told. Instead she mouths some nonsense about how glad she is that her journey is over. Who are the Baltar and Captica that they see in their visions? No answer either, except that they apparently work for some powerful deity.

In between all the flashbacks, which take up half the finale, to such compelling moments as Rosyln deciding not to sleep with a younger man and Adama deciding not to retire, and my eyes deciding to glaze over… there’s one thing that is pretty clear. And it’s that Ron Moore saw Return of the King and decided that it would be really great to end the episode 5 or 6 times. Classy.

Tell you what Ron, forget Caprica. I want to see you follow up the rest of this magnificent finale. Damn it, I want Battlestar Galactica Season 6.

I want to see Adama Jr crapping his pants with dysentery. I want to see the Cylon skinjobs and humans uniting in throwing used coffee cans at him because the drought means they have no food and they’re starving to death. I want to see Adama Sr, get sunstruck and wander around preaching his own religion while swilling imaginary booze. I want to see Chief sexually assaulting goats because he decided to spend the rest of his life on an island with no people on it. I want to see Saul and his slutty girlfriend living in a tree and smacking the hell out of each other because she keeps cheating on him with the natives.

And most of all I want to see a giant pile of bones, the remains of the human race on Earth, eaten by lions, killed by disease and common accidents, hunger, and of course by the friendly natives whose spears couldn’t possibly be used for violence. And then I want to see the list of survivors standing at Zero.

Oh and if you could clear up how Eve, an African woman, is really an Aryan blond robot with a glowing spine, that would be cool too.

Sincerely

Me

Of all the problems with the finale, its absurd luddism is the worst offence, to me. Four years of fractitious inter-Fleet politics and disagreements about everything - and then, with one fell swoop decided solely by the Adamas having a little stroll and a chat - everyone just agrees to abandon all of their technology and go live in mud huts, cooking with their own fucking shit.

No one had something to say about this?!

The parents with children to look after? They had no concern for the best interests of their children?
The diabetics? Heck, everyone who was old, infirm etc or otherwise not healthy?
The handful of invaluable medical professionals?

And where the fuck did Apollo even get this idea from? This was a moderate person throughout the series, and all of a sudden he just decides to become a fucking neo-Luddite?!

Fuck off.

[Junghalli]

I didn't really mind the idea that they arrived at Earth in the past but I thought it could have been done a lot better.

[Thanas]

I actually liked it, but I elaborated the reasons why many times in the past and have no desire to restate them again.

[NecronLord]

Fuck no. What a letdown.

[Havok]

I'm with Thanas. I liked it. I have stated why I liked it and just don't care to go over it again. I only have room in my life for one sci-fi series that I continually nerd out about. I will say that the OP quoted article skips over a bit, and makes quite a few assumptions, to make his points, like the boxes of supplies and such that they brought with them to Earth, but whatever. Tell Uraniun that alias doesn't fool me.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I liked it. I did not find it offensive at all; it seems a lot of the people who do not like it are objecting to it in the context of the nBSG universe the characters inhabit. That very much seems to me to be missing the point -- the show wasn't about the universe and how the characters save it, it was about the characters themselves.

To that end, I found the ending satisfactory. Granted, most of that rested on Athena & Helo as I had found most of the other characters to be absolutely intolerable after season 3.

[Alyeska]

"Five years of running a SciFi series into the ground ended with two hours."

I stopped reading at that sentence. He has an axe to grind. I don't care to read his "brutal" take down.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I disliked it not because of the ludditisim but that it was more "Nihilism"

Being Luddites HAS advantages under certain circumstances. The Amish are modern Luddites who (with some obvious modern help) get by just fine with using about 90% tech from the mid 1800's More to the point they are able to continue their society in a state of growth.

The end to BSG by contrast didn't just rejected their tech, but actively annihilated their civilization. All remnants of their History, their culture their society was destroyed and disposed of. They didn't just reject technology, the destroyed ANY sense of their civilization ever existing. Any Art, CUlture, Music, Literature that may have been saved on computers, databases, their equivalents of MP3 players, all that may have been left was simply destroyed. Worse still the ending DEMANDED it, by stating that their earth became our Earth, and by extension our current civilization, it obviously demanded that no trace of the 12 colonies ever existed.

I can abide rejecting technology, but I can not abide that, after five years of clinging to every last bit of their civilization, clinging tooth and claw to existence and never ever giving up, that after all that when they are finally FREE of the Cylons, finally FREE of running, that THEN the not just reject but utterly destroy everything they had been holding onto so dearly, that I just cannot accept.

[Amazing Raymo]

I didn't mind at all. I just wish Starbuck's story was resolved with more than "Well, I'm done."

[Anguirus]

The only thing worse than the nBSG ending are the spittle-flecked rabid hate rants written about it.

Yeah, I get it, it was a lame ending to the show, but it wasn't some kind of 180 degree turnaround from the show we were watching the whole time. This particular genius even acknowledges it when he says that RDM "ran it into the ground for five years." Apparently he was running it into the ground even as he created it in the first place.

If he didn't like it five years ago, he should have gotten a clue and quit watching.

Frankly, the show was too good for a little last-minute Luddism to ruin it, just as B5's "Sheridan ascends to heaven" was not that much of a big screaming deal just because it was stupid. I liked the flashbacks, I liked the character beats, I liked the way they found Earth2, so I can deal.

(PS they kept the Raptors, kept the radios, kept the guns, kept the antibiotics which they couldn't restock anyway so...yeah.)

[Nephtys]

I have no idea what any of you people are talking about. Battlestar Galactica ended when the fleet used all their fuel for the last jump and ended up in the radioactive bombed-out remains of New York City, then presumably all died of starvation off-camera.

[Vympel]

The only thing worse than the nBSG ending are the spittle-flecked rabid hate rants written about it.

Yeah, I get it, it was a lame ending to the show, but it wasn't some kind of 180 degree turnaround from the show we were watching the whole time.

Of course it was. The entire point of the show was to save their civilization. They didn't. They destroyed it. Just because they executed a massive ass-pull about the cycle at the very end of the show (nonsense about "all this has happened before" being some sort of foreshadowing aside- it was vague religious claptrap, nothing more) doesn't mean there wasn't a turnaround, there very clearly was. Remember Adama telling whatsherface to hold on to those old magazines about Caprica? Yeah, that shit doesn't matter.

Not to mention the insane luddism didn't even make sense in the context of the cycle anyway. Lets all not repeat history - by forgetting about it! We'll rely on our "collective unconcious"!

Frankly, the show was too good for a little last-minute Luddism to ruin it, just as B5's "Sheridan ascends to heaven" was not that much of a big screaming deal just because it was stupid. I liked the flashbacks, I liked the character beats, I liked the way they found Earth2, so I can deal.

I found the flashbacks entirely pointless, but largely inoffensive. I too thought the show itself wasn't ruined by the ending, but this isn't about that, its about the ending.

[Havok]

Goddamnit... 'Just when I think I was out... they pull me back in.'

The only thing worse than the nBSG ending are the spittle-flecked rabid hate rants written about it.

Yeah, I get it, it was a lame ending to the show, but it wasn't some kind of 180 degree turnaround from the show we were watching the whole time.

Of course it was. The entire point of the show was to save their civilization. They didn't. They destroyed it. Just because they executed a massive ass-pull about the cycle at the very end of the show (nonsense about "all this has happened before" being some sort of foreshadowing aside- it was vague religious claptrap, nothing more) doesn't mean there wasn't a turnaround, there very clearly was. Remember Adama telling whatsherface to hold on to those old magazines about Caprica? Yeah, that shit doesn't matter.

No, the entire point of the show was to save what was left of HUMANITY (or whatever they called themselves.) which they did. Their civilization was gone already, or at least taken over by the Cylons. As the show progressed, it became clear that their civilization wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and they began caring more about the people than what their civilization was. By the time they reached Earth, the entire fleet was ready for a fresh start.

[Vympel]

No, the entire point of the show was to save what was left of HUMANITY (or whatever they called themselves.) which they did.

They "saved" humanity by abandoning their technology so a bunch of technologically inclined city-dwellers could eke out a short, meagre, brutal existence as savages before they all died out after the first or second winter? Some saving.

Their civilization was gone already, or at least taken over by the Cylons.

No, their civilization - the remnants of it - could go on if they started a new settlement with all of their technology, knowledge and culture recorded for future generations. That was all farted down the toilet. Instead they doomed their ancestors to generations of pointless scrabbling in the mud, trying not to get eaten by lions and dying of chronic dysentry.

As the show progressed, it became clear that their civilization wasn't all it was cracked up to be

How so?

and they began caring more about the people than what their civilization was. By the time they reached Earth, the entire fleet was ready for a fresh start.

The well-being of their people and the well being of their civilization are the same thing. They killed their people.

[Anguirus]

Of course it was. The entire point of the show was to save their civilization. They didn't. They destroyed it. Just because they executed a massive ass-pull about the cycle at the very end of the show (nonsense about "all this has happened before" being some sort of foreshadowing aside- it was vague religious claptrap, nothing more) doesn't mean there wasn't a turnaround, there very clearly was. Remember Adama telling whatsherface to hold on to those old magazines about Caprica? Yeah, that shit doesn't matter.

Not to mention the insane luddism didn't even make sense in the context of the cycle anyway. Lets all not repeat history - by forgetting about it! We'll rely on our "collective unconcious"!

I can understand your objection, but I think you're going a bit far with it. Remember that it cuts to hundreds of thousands of years later. Colonial civilization obviously survived long enough to perpetuate the "Greek" mythology, monotheism, Mithraism, etc in later civilizations. It's totally out of this world to consider a civilization a failure and a waste because it doesn't survive for hundreds of thousands of years, because such a thing has never happened before in real life.

Give them credit for the smart lines as well as blame for the stupid ones...all of the "pockets" of Colonial civilization are going to remain in radio contact.

And what we discover when we learn that the Colonials are the past is that their efforts are why we exist.

So scientifically and logically, the finale is shite, but thematically it's acceptable. All of the characters we cared about got to live happy lives in paradise, and earned it. (Except for that weird line about Hera having died as a young woman, which I admit does ruin the effect and this may be why I missed it on my first viewing. )

One thing I do think that gets glossed over is what an utterly shit life they were having in those ships. They didn't trade in the ability to make food, water, medicine...they didn't have that ability in the first place. They exchanged tin cans for (to them) an endless resource bounty.

[Balrog]

Frankly, the show was too good for a little last-minute Luddism to ruin it, just as B5's "Sheridan ascends to heaven" was not that much of a big screaming deal just because it was stupid. I liked the flashbacks, I liked the character beats, I liked the way they found Earth2, so I can deal.

This is nowhere even close to "Sleeping in Light" which as far as series endings goes is definitely one of the best. Least of all because he doesn't "ascend to heaven"

But obviously, having a fresh start means saying fuck you to things like transportation and electricity so you can go live in a cave. Which everyone, who spent the entire run of the show arguing with each other over everything, decide as a whole to do. You'd think at least a few people would've said "screw you guys, I'm taking my spaceship with me, enjoy your log cabin when the hurricane comes along." But Luddism/Nihilism wins out in the end.

[Thanas]

See? This is why I refuse to discuss the finale. Because it is the same "discussion" all over again. And apparently both sides are to stupid to remember that some things were conceded by both sides in the last debate.

[Vympel]

See? This is why I refuse to discuss the finale. Because it is the same "discussion" all over again. And apparently both sides are to stupid to remember that some things were conceded by both sides in the last debate.

I didn't really participate in the last debate about the finale, AFAIK. But Balrog is right.

[Skylon]

Any issues I have with the ending are currently overwhelmed by the fact that it seems impossible to have any discussion about the show without the conversation devolving into "BUT THE FINALE SUCKED!!! NERD RAGE!!!!!!!"

[Havok]

No, the entire point of the show was to save what was left of HUMANITY (or whatever they called themselves.) which they did.

They "saved" humanity by abandoning their technology so a bunch of technologically inclined city-dwellers could eke out a short, meagre, brutal existence as savages before they all died out after the first or second winter? Some saving.

What episode did this happen in?

Their civilization was gone already, or at least taken over by the Cylons.

No, their civilization - the remnants of it - could go on if they started a new settlement with all of their technology, knowledge and culture recorded for future generations. That was all farted down the toilet. Instead they doomed their ancestors to generations of pointless scrabbling in the mud, trying not to get eaten by lions and dying of chronic dysentry.

I guess I missed this episode too. And what you call doomed, some may view as a fresh start and a chance to create their own way and civilization without the repeated 'sins' of the past influencing them.

As the show progressed, it became clear that their civilization wasn't all it was cracked up to be

How so?

Did you miss the complete cluster fuck of characters that represented what was left of their society?

and they began caring more about the people than what their civilization was. By the time they reached Earth, the entire fleet was ready for a fresh start.

The well-being of their people and the well being of their civilization are the same thing. They killed their people.

Really? Who did they kill? And no, the people in the fleet was not their civilization. The technology and history and culture was the civilization.

[Havok]

But obviously, having a fresh start means saying fuck you to things like transportation and electricity so you can go live in a cave. Which everyone, who spent the entire run of the show arguing with each other over everything, decide as a whole to do. You'd think at least a few people would've said "screw you guys, I'm taking my spaceship with me, enjoy your log cabin when the hurricane comes along." But Luddism/Nihilism wins out in the end.

Yeah, but the one thing no one argued about was that their destination was Earth. Then they found it and 'OOPS we destroyed it before we even got here, with the same thinking we are using now', so when they got to FIFTH* CHANCE Earth, they decided that, hey, maybe we shouldn't just build New New New New* Caprica.

*SARCASM

[Havok]

See? This is why I refuse to discuss the finale. Because it is the same "discussion" all over again. And apparently both sides are to stupid to remember that some things were conceded by both sides in the last debate.

Damnit... why don't I ever listen to you.

[Balrog]

But obviously, having a fresh start means saying fuck you to things like transportation and electricity so you can go live in a cave. Which everyone, who spent the entire run of the show arguing with each other over everything, decide as a whole to do. You'd think at least a few people would've said "screw you guys, I'm taking my spaceship with me, enjoy your log cabin when the hurricane comes along." But Luddism/Nihilism wins out in the end.

Yeah, but the one thing no one argued about was that their destination was Earth. Then they found it and 'OOPS we destroyed it before we even got here, with the same thinking we are using now', so when they got to FIFTH* CHANCE Earth, they decided that, hey, maybe we shouldn't just build New New New New* Caprica.

*SARCASM

So the message then is, if you wish to avoid self-destruction, give progress the middle finger and go live in a cave?

I suppose then that whenever some bloke comes along yakking about how he had this idea for something called a wheel, knocking him on the head and pretend you didn't hear him?

Hooray sarcasm. And I never took part in the last discussion IIRC, I was too pissed I'd just wasted a couple hours to talk about it.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Of course it was. The entire point of the show was to save their civilization. They didn't. They destroyed it. Just because they executed a massive ass-pull about the cycle at the very end of the show (nonsense about "all this has happened before" being some sort of foreshadowing aside- it was vague religious claptrap, nothing more) doesn't mean there wasn't a turnaround, there very clearly was. Remember Adama telling whatsherface to hold on to those old magazines about Caprica? Yeah, that shit doesn't matter.

Not to mention the insane luddism didn't even make sense in the context of the cycle anyway. Lets all not repeat history - by forgetting about it! We'll rely on our "collective unconcious"!

I can understand your objection, but I think you're going a bit far with it. Remember that it cuts to hundreds of thousands of years later. Colonial civilization obviously survived long enough to perpetuate the "Greek" mythology, monotheism, Mithraism, etc in later civilizations. It's totally out of this world to consider a civilization a failure and a waste because it doesn't survive for hundreds of thousands of years, because such a thing has never happened before in real life.

Give them credit for the smart lines as well as blame for the stupid ones...all of the "pockets" of Colonial civilization are going to remain in radio contact.

And what we discover when we learn that the Colonials are the past is that their efforts are why we exist.

Which doesn't hold ANY scientific logic, Saying that, "somehow" colonial myths and lore survived long enough to get to Greek and other ancient mythology is ludicrous, Trying to say that somehow thier myths survived 100's of thousands of years yet NO other part did, just so you can link the 12 colonies to Eath is both Shit science and shit writing. its forcing together two things which simply make NO logical sense.

So scientifically and logically, the finale is shite, but thematically it's acceptable. All of the characters we cared about got to live happy lives in paradise, and earned it. (Except for that weird line about Hera having died as a young woman, which I admit does ruin the effect and this may be why I missed it on my first viewing. )

No it isn't. Thematically it is nOT acceptable precisely because it does 180 on the way all of the people have been acting for the WHOLE show. And are you being sarcastic about Paradise? I really can't tell, because if you are honestly trying to tell me that these people lived in some sort of garden of Eden because they lived without any form of technology, i'd really like to hear your explanation. More then likely these people all died within a single generation. The only ones who might have had children that survived childbirth were ones who joined the wondering Protohumans.

One thing I do think that gets glossed over is what an utterly shit life they were having in those ships. They didn't trade in the ability to make food, water, medicine...they didn't have that ability in the first place. They exchanged tin cans for (to them) an endless resource bounty.

[/quote]Wait are you serious? Your telling me that the 5 years they were able to Refine fuel, Process crap into food, refine water, refine goods, produce munitions.... That doesn't count More to the point, are you SERIOUSLY going to argue that a crappy life on bored ships gives credence to throwing away your entire civilizations collective knowledge and History?

[Havok]

But obviously, having a fresh start means saying fuck you to things like transportation and electricity so you can go live in a cave. Which everyone, who spent the entire run of the show arguing with each other over everything, decide as a whole to do. You'd think at least a few people would've said "screw you guys, I'm taking my spaceship with me, enjoy your log cabin when the hurricane comes along." But Luddism/Nihilism wins out in the end.

Yeah, but the one thing no one argued about was that their destination was Earth. Then they found it and 'OOPS we destroyed it before we even got here, with the same thinking we are using now', so when they got to FIFTH* CHANCE Earth, they decided that, hey, maybe we shouldn't just build New New New New* Caprica.

*SARCASM

So the message then is, if you wish to avoid self-destruction, give progress the middle finger and go live in a cave?

I suppose then that whenever some bloke comes along yakking about how he had this idea for something called a wheel, knocking him on the head and pretend you didn't hear him?

Hooray sarcasm. And I never took part in the last discussion IIRC, I was too pissed I'd just wasted a couple hours to talk about it.

Who said anything about giving progress the middle finger?
The same society kept repeating the same mistakes. Are you dense? Not a completely new group of humans, but the same connected group of humans/cyclons kept destroying themselves. They were using the same technology, the same languages, the same mythologies and it just wasn't working. Except for the whole not learning from past mistakes and destroying ourselves thing. That was working out OK.

What the humans/cylons of the fleet did was give it all away to start with a fresh slate for whatever future generations they may or may not have. They left what would happen up to chance, the universe, whatever god they believed in, but they severed the ties to their old ways THAT KEPT KILLING THEM OFF. Call it Luddite, nihilism or whet ever you want, but what it is is after generations upon generations of not learning from their mistakes, finally, learning from their mistakes.