*spoilers* Would Lee Adama really do that???

I re-watched Razor a few hours ago and had to log in to see if anyone felt the same. I totally agree with you.

I was completely baffled at Lee's decision. I seriously doubt that he would fire after a few seconds of radio silence (I still remember how traumatised he was by having to fire at the Olympic Carrier in the first season, it's hard to believe he would change his mind so drastically), but I think that perhaps the writers wanted to show that Admiral Adama is much wiser than his son. Still, it seemed wildly out of character for Lee. I don't think he's a cold character, he always seemed driven by duty and morality.

Regarding the bit about Lee choosing Starbuck to be the one that's left behind to detonate the nuke manually, it seemed like a very cold and quick decision, not very Lee-like. Despite that, I think that if he had to choose someone to sacrifice out of the entire team, perhaps he would choose the one person he could truly trust to succeed and obey such an order. And I think he knew he could count on Starbuck to carry on with the mission successfully.

Maybe they just did it to give Kara an excuse to leave Pegasus and go back to Galactica after the events of the film... I can't remember, I should re-watch the whole series and not just this movie.

Lee was all over the place throughout the entire series. I feel like the writers really didn't know what to do with him.

I think Lee's arc was perfect and the writers knew exactly what to do. Lee was a lost soul trying to find his own path both morally and professionally. He wanted to get out of his fathers shadow while at the same time trying to prove he was as good a man but he wasn't quite sure how. He also had big confidence issues being a leader which is why he decided to leave the military.

So it would have been the more moral thing to do if he ordered someone else to stay because he had a personal relationship with her? What I find troubling is that he does it almost unflinchingly and later on it just isn't mentioned again, not even between him and Kara. (Kara and Lee are pretty much my favorite relationship on TV ever, but it got to the point where the writers didn't seem to even be conscious of it except for when it created the drama they wanted.)

You bring up good points and I am agreed, especially when watching this series in the proper order. We all saw how frantic Lee was just a few months earlier trying to locate Starbuck on that planet that she had to eject over, and they were willing to potentially sacrifice the fleet to locate her.

Then in Razor, a few seconds of radio silence and he's ready to nuke the Basestar while she is on it? Something is really off here.

The good news is that even if the nuclear missiles had left Pegasus, the Raiders would have still been able to intercept them and Starbuck and team would have been safe.