More commentary on the unstated implications of Epiphanies, and by exention the Valley of Darkness.
In the flashbacks to the day of the Cylon attack in Epiphanies we see a fair bit of Roslin dealing with President Adar and with the representative of the teachers union on caprica. Now in the United States teachers unions while powerful and politically active often times, are almost never violent. Americans are more likely to think of violent labor organizations in blue collar organizations--classically the teamsters--and not the teachers union. Ron Moore says as much in his commentaries and in fact got a fair bit of a kick out of the idea that these were teachers were out on the streets of Caprica throwing molotov cocktails and busting heads. Adar even talks about how Roslin's "precious teachers" put two policemen in the hospital during violent protests.
I've been thinking about this in connection to the general assumption that Roslin herself wasn't a violent person until she fell in love with her first airlock. However, if the teachers unions on Caprica have such a long-standing history of violence (which I think is safely implied from the context of the episode), than it shouldn't be that far a stretch to presume that Laura Roslin might have been on intimimate terms with a molotov cocktail or a throwing stone or two when she was a twenty-two year old woman.
I doubt she's been involved in union activities in a few decades at the point of that episode, but based on her actions I think it is safe to assume that at some point she was a member of a teachers union if not that teachers union. I wonder if people would think about Roslin the same way if people weren't saying "but she was a teacher" but instead were saying "but she was a teamster."
As a secondary part of this argument about Roslin's relationship and history with violent action, I am anticipating a question about why she would have turned down the offered pistol in The Valley of Darkness given that they were walking through sections of the ship that were infested with cylons.
Now she may or may not know how to use a gun, but there were entirely practical and pragmatic reasons for her to decline the weapon. Given the state that Tigh was in at the time, can you imagin what he would have done had he found Roslin in the infirmary at the end of the episode armed? I'm not entirely sure he wouldn't have decided that it was evidence of insurgency and tossed her out an airlock. I trust Roslin to have had an accute enough awareness of her situation to have realized immediately that whatever happened, she did not want to be found by Galactica marines at the end of the day with a weapon.
In the flashbacks to the day of the Cylon attack in Epiphanies we see a fair bit of Roslin dealing with President Adar and with the representative of the teachers union on caprica. Now in the United States teachers unions while powerful and politically active often times, are almost never violent. Americans are more likely to think of violent labor organizations in blue collar organizations--classically the teamsters--and not the teachers union. Ron Moore says as much in his commentaries and in fact got a fair bit of a kick out of the idea that these were teachers were out on the streets of Caprica throwing molotov cocktails and busting heads. Adar even talks about how Roslin's "precious teachers" put two policemen in the hospital during violent protests.
I've been thinking about this in connection to the general assumption that Roslin herself wasn't a violent person until she fell in love with her first airlock. However, if the teachers unions on Caprica have such a long-standing history of violence (which I think is safely implied from the context of the episode), than it shouldn't be that far a stretch to presume that Laura Roslin might have been on intimimate terms with a molotov cocktail or a throwing stone or two when she was a twenty-two year old woman.
I doubt she's been involved in union activities in a few decades at the point of that episode, but based on her actions I think it is safe to assume that at some point she was a member of a teachers union if not that teachers union. I wonder if people would think about Roslin the same way if people weren't saying "but she was a teacher" but instead were saying "but she was a teamster."
As a secondary part of this argument about Roslin's relationship and history with violent action, I am anticipating a question about why she would have turned down the offered pistol in The Valley of Darkness given that they were walking through sections of the ship that were infested with cylons.
Now she may or may not know how to use a gun, but there were entirely practical and pragmatic reasons for her to decline the weapon. Given the state that Tigh was in at the time, can you imagin what he would have done had he found Roslin in the infirmary at the end of the episode armed? I'm not entirely sure he wouldn't have decided that it was evidence of insurgency and tossed her out an airlock. I trust Roslin to have had an accute enough awareness of her situation to have realized immediately that whatever happened, she did not want to be found by Galactica marines at the end of the day with a weapon.
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