Roslin believes in democracy unless you get in her way. Apollo was once a great hero and a stand up guy. But was reduced to a snivelling, hypocritical shell of himself because no one is allowed to be a good person on that show. Adama only stopped in his bid to be dictator of the human race after a vision from God. Or whatever the hell that was. Deulla didn't give a crap that her boyfriend was murdered because she was too busy sleeping her way to the top. And Starbuck goes without saying. There's not a single good person among them. They all take turns being The Biggest Asshole of the week, so some are less assholish then others. But they all have to play that role eventually. And it's never fun and enjoyable.
Yeah you really don't understand what "flawed characters" means, do you? It means that they're allowed to make mistakes provided they atone for them and, with 40,000 people left in the whole universe, it means that sometimes things that are black and white for us become a whole different shade of grey for them:
Roslin, for example, tried to steal an election because she knows she'd be a much better president than Baltar for humanity's survival. She's right, of course, but the will of the people is still important, which is what Adama reminds her. In a normal political situation it wouldn't even be up for debate, but when the survival of the species is on the line, maybe they kind of do need the best president in the running, despite what the popular vote says.
Adama led a military coup against Roslin because, similarly, he thought she posed a serious threat to the survival of the species. Again, he was wrong, and he acknowledges that far before they get their "vision from God" (by which I assumed you meant the star patterns in the tomb of Athena). As soon as he sees what the situation has become with Tigh in command he decides to put the fleet back together.
Starbuck most definitely does
not go without saying. She's incredibly damaged, guilt-ridden over the death of her fiancee, an abused child, operated on by Cylons, imprisoned and psychologically tortured by other Cylons, and she's in love with two men at the same time, one who bears a strong resemblence to the fiancee she feels she killed - considering she's the best pilot in the fleet who saves lives on a regular basis and eventually leads humanity to its new home - I reckon she gets a pass for being a bitch sometimes.
And you think Dualla is reprehensible because she wasn't happy in her relationship with Billy? Yes she should have told him this before she started seeing Apollo, but it's not like that kind of thing is unique to BSG, its really pretty common in real life as well - and she definitely did care that Billy was dead. You couldn't have been watching if you thought otherwise.
Not sure what you meant about Apollo: he goes through a lot of changes, but he's consistently been the moral centre of the show and of the fleet, unimportant dalliances with Dualla aside. He is the one who defends the fleet from his cockpit, sides with Roslin against his father's wrong-headed coup, rescues Galactica by sacrificing the Pegasus, his own personal command. He insists on Baltar getting a trial and eventually becomes responsible for the office of the president. Is he a hypocrite because he isn't a pilot anymore? I'm not getting it.
Sorry for that long-winded post. And, once again, I feel compelled to point out that I bloody love Doctor Who, almost as much as Battlestar, but I see far too often people who don't get why the characters in BSG are not necessarily the nicest to each other all the time. There is a big difference between occasionaly doing arseholeish things and actually fundamentally being an arsehole. Is it really surprising, given the situation presented to us in Battlestar, that characters sometimes fuck up more than is ideal? I can totally understand why you wouldn't want to watch it - but if you don't think its realistic, you're pretty much just wrong.
It isn't. Its enjoyable, and it's really well cast, but some of the episodes were just really bad, IMO, with random and unsatisfying endings. Not quite Dues Ex Machinas but not far off. I enjoy it, but I don't quite get the big love it gets...like I say though it'd been built up by the internet that maybe I just automatically rail against it? Love the film though...
I definitely understand the resistance against the internet hype machine. I'm glad I saw the series before I seriously checked out internet opinions about it, but I am really glad I did.
Once again - hooray for Doctor Who! In the Doctor Who forum, talking about Doctor Who!
