She was my favorite, ill admit in Sn 4 she was wrong to bypass the Quorum. But out of Zarek and Baltar she really was the lesser evil of the other 2. So why does she get bashed? She truly wanted to help her people.
Renee
She bypasses the laws that she is to follow when it suits her. I really started to dislike her when she said Sharon would be safe and then almost thru her out the airlock. If it wasn't Sharons knowledge of the tomb, she would have been killed. Then there is the rigged election. What's the point of the election if you are going to rig it? and then there was the time she lied to Helo/Sharon about the baby dying, when Hera was alive. You don't do that to people.
shareAlso don't forget it was Sharon / Hera who saved her along with gaius yet she treated those 3 like trash almost always
shareI loved how Adama just walked out of the room, when Roslin was about to explain why she lied about Hera's death. He just walked out like nothing she would say would justify what she did.
shareThat's one of my favorite Adama moments.
'Excuse me', he says and simply gets up.
It's like, 'I completely wasted my time sitting here talking to you and I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to do it but I don't have even one more second to spare on you. Buh-bye...'
I pretty sure it was the smug, holier-than-thou attitude, that turned most people off...
Yep.
And even when she knew she wasn't being 'holier than thou' she still thought she was right simply because she was... Her.
...
I could rant- literally- all day long, about Laura ('You can show yourself out') Roslin.
Miss 'My entire family just died but I can't cry' Roslin.
Madame 'Oh, I have cancer and you're only the forty-seventh person I've told so please feel honored and keep it to yourself while I figure out a way to use you' President.
Madame 'I didn't want to be the "dying leader" until I got beat by Baltar in a free and fair election (and now I just pray to be a cancer patient again)' President.
Madame 'Oh, my great ambitions led us to a nuclear wasteland so I'm just going to go for a jog and forget my lifesaving meds and presidential responsibilities' President.
Miss 'OK, I've volunteered to work in the sick bay during an important military assault but I've abandoned my post and gone running after Hera while Ishay is overwhelmed by dead and dying soldiers' Roslin.
Miss 'Now that I'm dying on Earth within touching distance of pink flamingos and naked early humans I regret not letting Bill do his weird bald-headed woman fetish in bed' Roslin.
...
(And she tried to shoot Starbuck.)
(And she ordered Adama to abandon the search and rescue for Starbuck when she was shot down.)
I could forgive her for not oiling up her bare noggin, but not for trying to put a bullet in Kara.
Frak 'The Plan'.
Oh, now you're just bashing her. Got the point - you hate her.
I didn't like her attitude, even face expressions, almost all of time. But I'd like to believe there was a reason Adama loved her and believed in her. So she wasn't all that terrible human being after all.
Yes, of course. I'm just bashing her. I've been doing it for years.
So what? I know she has her sycophants. I am not one of them.
She was a terrible human.
Frak 'The Plan'.
She was a terrible human.
You judge her how you will.
I'll do the same.
She was a terrible human. Terrible leader too. We don't get to abdicate our humanity just because we are in a leadership position nor should we be forgiven for doing so- even if we claim it is for the greater good.
I am happy you have your opinion. I am happy with mine.
I don't mind if I'm wrong here. You are most likely right.
I have to agree while i get disliking her for her presidential decisions. bashing her for her health decisions seems much. And yes if she was such a terrible woman why would Adama have loved her, her first wife was a psycho who apparently abused their kids.
Renee
I find Roslin a very interesting character. I think there is something confronting about a leader who is a kind of 'benevolent dictator'. Roslin has utter commitment to seeing humanity survive and I respect that. She does some horrible things in the name of humanity's survival, though. It makes me think about what would be the right thing to do in certain situations, and a lot of the time I don't know because I see more than one side. That is one of the things I love about BSG. Roslin's character gives me food for thought and I like that about her. She is strong and determined: no one tells her what to do. I like that about her. At the same time, her attitude toward Baltar is hard to watch, as well as how she treats certain cylons etc. She makes decisions that aren't good, but I understand why she makes them. Similarly, I personally don't feel the need to bash Roslin but I understand the perspective of people who do.
I also really like the Roslin/Adama romance because of how the characters interact. Their power struggle through season 1 is interesting. The Kobol story arc makes the point that it doesn't work for the military to govern civilians. The resolution of their power struggle, with Adama going to Kobol, blew my mind. He is the more powerful one, and for the more powerful party to stop trying to power over the weaker
party was very unexpected to me. The regard they develop for each other is nice to watch. I love the conflict they have over Starbuck at the start of season 4. It is very consistent with who they are.
For me, this is a hard one as to whether she is a benevolent dictator or just using that in order to gain and hold onto personal power. This ambiguity is done to the writing and the wonderful acting of Mary McDonnell. It is her pauses, her reactions and usage of delivering lines whether softer in tone or more louder that makes the character so subtle and gives more meaning to scenes she is in. An example offhand of this is on the Season 1 episode Colonial Day where Adama bluntly says he is a patriot and Roslin pauses and in a tad softer tone says she says 'You really are, aren't you?'. You could imagine that having being through the cynicism of politics she is taken aback by a genuine feeling and/or making a mental note of what use this piece of information would be useful in the future.
I would say that in the aftermath of the attack, she had genuinely believed that as a role of benevolent dictator it was for the good of the human civilisation but as time crept on as she had cemented power she acted in her own self interest but didn't know herself as she also believed in the benevolent dictator role she had earlier created for herself. Regardless if I am right or wrong, even after watching it a number of times, I do still wonder about this solely as I mentioned due to the writing and McDonnell's performance.
She is strong and determined: no one tells her what to do. I like that about her. At the same time, her attitude toward Baltar is hard to watch, as well as how she treats certain cylons etc.
So why does she get bashed? She truly wanted to help her people.
Roslin was a flawed person like ever character in BSG, she definitely did a lot of wrong things particularly when it comes to things like trying to rig the election but I think she always felt what she was doing was in the best interest of the people so her heart was in the right place. And in the end, I don't really think she was any worse than other characters.
Actually I think I like all the characters in this show, at least the 'main' ones. That's one of the reasons I love the show, every character was well developed and interesting.
Though I do think season 4 kinda screwed with the characters too much, I started disliking a few then and not for the right reasons, but overall in the show I liked all the main ones.
I am definitely a mad man with a box!
I agree about the complexity of the characters making them interesting, and also about what season 4 does to them. I don't mind seeing a character's dark side, but I was sad that Gaeta ended the way he did. I didn't like what they did with Statbuck (I liked her character, but not where the story took her). I didn't mind seeing Adama fall apart a bit, it was very relevant to what I interpret the show was trying to say. Baltar, I have never really known what to make of him so I can't comment. I find all the religious stuff a bit strange.
shareBecause she's an insufferable hypocrite.
shareGoing a bit off-topic, if anybody liked the political part of the series, I would recommend the series Borgen. It's a slow moving series and given the length of each episode is nearly an hour, it doesn't have the pace of BSG and isn't ideal for binge-watching.
I'm on episode 3 of the first series (of Borgen) and while the first two episodes feels contrived as the main character, a leader of a minor political party, gets to by Prime minister, while it was easy for her to gain power, it looks like it is a lot harder to keep it. I'm not sure if the creator of the Borgen series watched BSG but the main character is like Roslin in so many ways. Everybody makes the same mistake of underestimates her like Roslin and she has that naive every-person feel to her but that she has a iron streak of ruthlessness that come out when necessity requires it.
Both Borgen made me realise why I like that part of BSG. It isn't the politics but the detail whether it is the building and maintaining of relationships, networking, deals and compromises needing to be made, both seen in the series and imagined where you think about what Roslin needed to do do in order to get to the points that we see when viewing the series. It is interesting and more importantly makes you think in this part of the series rather than just being a passive viewer.
You're kidding right? She is by far the most annoying character in this series, outside of StarBuck. I was hoping both would die within a couple episodes.
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