What Am I?
Hey and welcome to Forget Me Not, a small personal dedication to "Starbuck" Kara Thrace from the hit television series Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck is a character that I really didn't care for in the beginning of the series, but as the show went on, especially in the last season, I began to really appreciate her. This isn't a huge shrine to every aspect of her character, and if you were hoping this was, sorry to disappoint. Through this tribute I analyzed the parts of Starbuck I found most appealing. I wanted to write about what made me start liking her so that maybe others could appreciate her too. Having said that, this page is intended for people who have seen the Battlestar Galactica series and is full of spoilers for all four seasons, so read with caution if you are new to the show. I hope you enjoy the read. When you're done, let me know what you think in my guestbook.
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Personality & Past
Kara is very rough around the edges to say the least. She's a hard-ass, she goes after what she wants, and she doesn't put up with any crap. At first I was turned away by those characteristics as I felt she was just really obnoxious. Who would know that her rough exterior was actually a defense mechanism? I draw that conclusion, anyway.
Kara had a rough childhood. Her father left her and her mother when she was young, and her mother physically abused Kara growing up. There is a flashback of her mother slamming Kara's fingers in by a door. One could probably break down from such abuse, but I think it made Kara stronger. I think she's so hard on the outside because she doesn't want to get hurt anymore. Kara doesn't have the heart of stone she would like people to think she does. At several points in the series we get to see Kara's softer side with people like Admiral Adama, Sam, Lee, and Kat. In varying levels, they are able to bring out the real Kara, and it's when she's like that that we see her really happy.
I think Kara's past has other affects on her personality, too. Kara was never good enough for her mother. Even surpassing her mother's career and becoming an officer in the Colonial Forces, Kara never got the satisfaction of her mother being proud of her. I think it pushed Kara. Because she never felt good enough, Kara put a hundred and ten percent into everything she did, and was hardly satisfied otherwise. It also made her stubborn, never wanting to give up until she got everything she sought for.
Kara has a connection with piano music, and it's largely due to her father who was a pianist. Not much is revealed about Kara's early life with him, but they were apparently close enough where Kara finds solace in music when she's down. Music is often the switch to Kara's flashbacks, and oddly enough, music plays a huge role in Kara's destiny.
Her Destiny Begins
Kara's character is one heavily controlled and influenced by destiny. Kara often goes with her gut feeling rather than rational thought, and acts on instinct. She feels like her destiny has already been written, and that there's nothing she can do about it. Even still, she has constant inner battles with what she is and what she is meant to do.
Kara is told she has a destiny by Leoben in the very first season. Since that episode, destiny is a very important element in Kara's story. She finds that almost everything means something, and that many things in her life that just were to Kara are actually pieces of a large puzzle. One of the first things Kara finds tied to her destiny is the Mandala. She finds that a pattern of circles she had always drawn as a child is actually the Eye of Jupiter. She sees the Mandala a couple more times after and is drawn to it. Chasing a Cylon Raider only she was able to see, she dove into the first Earth through a Mandala to her death. Right before she dies, she tells Apollo that she will see him on the other side and to just let her go. He witnesses her viper's explosion. At first I thought Kara had lost it, but looking back on everything, I don't think Kara would have been able to lead the fleet to Earth had she not died. In Kara's life especially, everything happened for a reason.
Resurrection & Purpose
After two months go by and the fleet has mourned Kara's death, she reappears in the fleet in a viper in immaculate condition feeling like she was only gone for six hours. She exclaims that she has been to Earth, and that she is back to lead the fleet to it. This event is really the beginning of her destiny becoming fulfilled. She "feels" Earth, and loses more and more of the feeling as the fleet doesn't believe her and jumps away. Admiral Adama ends up trusting her enough to give her a small group and allows them to search for Earth. Even though she becomes unsuccessful on the mission, Kara knows that leading her people to Earth is her life's purpose.
Along the way, Kara becomes hugely responsible for bringing the group of Cylons the fleet ends up aligning with into the fleet. Through them, she encounters their hybrid who tells her that she is the Harbinger of Death and will lead her people to their end. She learns that she is destined to lead them to salvation and destruction. It's then that Kara starts to really wonder what she is, and what it all means. She even finds her dead body on the first Earth.
The hybrid was right. The first Earth is found through Kara's raptor that she brought back, and the second is found by Kara inputting jump coordinates. She used numbers for notes of a song that Kara and her father used to play when she was younger, the same song that happened to “switch” the Final Five into knowing they were Cylons.
It's weird how it played out, because when I first learned that Kara was the Harbinger of Death that would lead her people to their end, I imagined that she'd end up wiping out the human species somehow. It ended up being a lot more literal, though. Kara ended up leading her race to their technological end, and ending the way they lived life. They started life on Earth much simpler, without their technology, and without war.
Important People
Lee Adama - Kara and Lee are obviously attracted to one another, and they obviously care about each other. They don't let anything get between them. Kara and Lee were drawn to each other even when Kara was with Lee's brother Zak, and even after they both married different people. Putting their romantic relationship aside, though, I think Kara and Lee care about each other on a much deeper level. They are best friends, and no matter how mad one makes the other, they always find a way to fix their friendship.
Bill Adama - Kara looks to Admiral Adama as a father figure. In the first season, Kara felt heavy guilt around Admiral Adama. She had a romantic relationship with his son Zak who died in a flying accident. Kara was Zak's flight instructor and passed Zak for basic flying because of their romantic relationship even though she knew he wasn't ready. Kara blamed herself for Zak's death for the longest time. The Admiral and Kara had a falling out due to this, but after Kara got lost on a mission, the Admiral realized how important Kara was to him. Since then, Admiral Adama treated Kara like his own daughter. I think Adama is one of the few people who actually get Kara, and she is one of the only people with his complete trust and support.
Sam Anders - As Kara's husband, Sam sort of has an on and off relationship with Kara. Even though she pushes him away, Kara obviously loves Sam. She told him once that if she found out he was a Cylon, she would kill him. Oddly enough, though, Kara is one of the only people to stick by Sam's side after he realizes he's one of the Final Five. Regardless of how Kara treats him, Sam is always there for her, and I think Kara realizes that. One of Kara's softest and most real moments on the show is when she is saying goodbye to Sam. It was beautiful and it was sad.
Leoben Canoy - It's said in the show that Leoben knows Kara better than she knows herself. He sees that she has a destiny, and he thinks it's his destiny to help Kara reach hers. Leoben sort of becomes the face of Kara's destiny as she has nightmares and visions with Leoben that somehow connect her past to her future. It's never really explained how Leoben knew Kara was special, but the two were connected from the very first season. It's fun to watch their relationship go from hatred and mind games, where Kara was killing Leoben over and over and Leoben was deceiving Kara, to a sort of mutual respect.
Being Forgotten
In the very last episode of the series, there's a flashback to the night Kara met Lee. The two start talking about fear, and I think in just that couple minutes of dialogue, Kara's entire character is explained. That scene is the reason this page even exists, because it's that scene that made me appreciate Kara.
Lee: You're tempting fate.
Kara: If I have a fate then it is set and thinkin about it isn't gonna make it happen any faster.
Lee: Flying when you're thinking about dying isn't a great way of doing business. You're gonna get scared, you're gonna start second guessing yourself.
Kara: I'm not scared
Lee: But you said you think about dying every time you get into a cockpit.
Kara: Uh huh.
Lee: Well, hello...
Kara: It doesn't scare me, Lee. That's what you don't get.
Lee: What, so it's Kara Thrace: fearless warrior, right?
Kara: No. I know fear. And I get scared. Just not in that way.
Lee: So what does scare you?
Kara: ...Being forgotten.
Kara has been through so much in her life and has lost so much. She doesn't long to be thanked or recognized for her actions; she simply wants to have made enough impact in someone's life to be remembered.
After the second Earth is found and Lee and Kara are on its surface, I think Kara realizes that her destiny has been fulfilled. She says a final goodbye to Lee and tells him that she will not be coming back. She then disappears into thin air. Lee gets to live and enjoy Earth because of Kara, someone I think he actually wanted to share his life on Earth with. While he can't, I know to Lee, Kara won't be forgotten.
Tribute & Credits
This site was actually a spur of the moment thing. Like I said at the beginning of this page, Kara wasn't a character I liked a whole lot at first. In fact, she was just sort of there for me throughout most of the series. She began to become really interesting near the end of season 4, though, especially in the very last episode. It's there where I truly appreciated Kara, and everything in her character just kind of fell in place for me. I like Kara a lot now, and I kind of wanted to explore the areas of her character I like best. I hope you found it interesting.
Some legal information: Forget Me Not was created and is maintained by me, Todd, and is part of Dragonzord,net. This shrine was made for fun and is entirely non-profit. Sadly, I don't own Starbuck or Battlestar Galactica. They are property of SciFi. Please don't sue me. Textures used in the layout are from Discolore and Rhythmique.
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