I’VE BEEN WATCHING BATTLESTAR GALACTICA a lot lately. (BSG, the Re-imagining, not the original series.) I don’t have TV programming, so I’ve been getting them otherwise and I’m almost done with Season 2 now. Not having TV has made it clear to me how much of my Internet society (from blogging to Twittering) is actually tied to TV programming, but that makes sense, right? In the future, I would like to be current on the media I review and in general. My comments here stand regardless, though it is probable they could be augmented by what happens in Season 3. (On that note, if you have insight along the points I’m making from being current, I’ll ask that you handle the spoilers carefully, please!) I am watching this aspect intently. And when I say “this aspect” I mean the racial dynamics behind the Cylon in particular. (Note: Despite the fact that my post title might indicate as much, I’m not proposing that the Cylon is a metaphor for people of another race/ethnicity. Not at all. I’ll make myself clearer as we go on.)
Not since watching Tool videos, or seeing Sauron in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings have I seen such a creepy character as this one that guards a table of food in Pan’s Labyrinth, the Pale Man. Beautiful. He sits at the head of a sumptuous meal that our protagonista, Ofelia, is told she cannot eat from—no matter what. (Of course we know what this means.)
The Pale Man does not eat, does not see, has no eyes, no real face, does not move. As if in a dream, a perfectly still and sour nightmare from which there is no escape his presence fills the room regardless. He has only two bloody orbs on his plate and this sits between his bloodstained, blackened, lengthy and pointed fingers; between the feast and himself.
To show your great adoration and appreciation for those who clean up your candy wrappers, tip the usher at will.