Fate versus Providence
Jan. 29th, 2010 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniThe last trailer for Caprica had the famous BSG line "It happened before and it will happen again" in it, which made me think of BSG and...Lost whose finale season will premiere soon and whose reruns I still follow on the French cable(yesterday it was season 2 finale which I loved because Desmond was back and Desmond and Penny are one of the most romantic pairings ever portrayed on tv).
Suddenly a few things struck me. It seems to me that BSGverse(and Caprica is part of it) has been playing around/struggling with the opposite concepts of Fate and Providence for a while. And so has Lost, to a certain extent, especially at the end of season 5.
Fate is a concept we inherited from Greek/Roman antiquity while Providence is a Christian notion that St Augustine and, above all, Thomas of Aquinas developed in their work. In this western world, that's our cultural legacy so no wonder that the concepts are still floating around, even on tv shows.
Fate has been prominently featured on both Lost and BSG. Locke and Desmond may have been the characters whose journey was the most connected to that concept.
Locke sometimes thought he had a destiny, other times that he was simply cursed...and his journey was quite tragic indeed.
Being a new Odysseus, Desmond was doomed to wander on the seas, to be stuck on an island, to stay away from his beloved Penelope against his will because some forces kept them apart. Being on the run was his fate.
Kelvin, Desmond, Locke and eventually Eko fell into the Fates' trap when they had to keep pushing the button in the hatch. Like Sisiphus they were dommed to do it over and over, every 18 minutes. There was no escape...until Desmond used a certain key and freed everybody from that fate.
The last season and its time travel, reminded us that there was no escape as well because "what happened happened". Miles who hears the dead knew it. Elloise knew it too and sent her son to die by her own (youngest) hand nonetheless. Fate ruled.
On Caprica Zoe had a plan too. Zoe's plan was to escape from her home planet and go to Geminon with her StO pals. All those particular plans eventually seemed to fit in Baltar's speech in the opera house the CIC when he said that " a force was at work".
Zoe had a plan because, according to Lacy, Zoe knew god. Special agent Duram's speech after the Meglev tragedy, mentioned the STOs as a group that "espouses a monotheistic religious philosophy, advocating the worship of a single, all-knowing, all-powerful God." Omniscience therefore is the prerogative of that single god, something that a science genius like Daniel Graystone can nothing but reject.
The etymomogy of providence is Latin. Providentia means both foresight (pro-videre) and prudence. Providence therefore is a care exercised by the Supreme Being over the Universe, His foresight and care for its future.
In short, Providence is the guiding will of God as a benevolent omniscient caretaker, as opposed to the cold blindness of the forces of Fates. To provide, such deity has to take precautionary measures.
On Lost that idea was less obvious than on BSG, yet we still have clues of something that sounds like Providence.
After he used his key provoking the Swan implosion and freeing them all from pushing the button, Desmond started foreseeing things. He became special. Some rules no longer applied to him. He had "flashes before the eyes", experiencing mind-travel and defying the rules of time! We discovered he was almost a monk once upon a time... So when Daniel Faraday suddenly thought that things could be changed because of variable elements, that the incident could be prevented, he concluded that Desmond was the only one who could save them all.
Unlike the system based on Fate that crushes mankind, the belief in Providence allows man's free will and freedom, and hope, with people becoming actually agents of divine Providence. So I think that Desmond David Hume who used to embody the suffering victim of Greek fate, had his journey completely changed after "Live together, Die alone". By the way I seem to remember that philosopher David Hume wrote on free will and against fatalism...
At the end of "The Incident", Miles still advocates Fate but Jack believes that he could change their past. Juliet was a key variable towards the end too. She had changed Sawyer for good, and she triggered the bomb.
There's a more obvious instance of Providence vs Fate in "The Incident". In the opening scene with Jacob and his anonymous counterpart, white-robed man says he believes in progress and free will while man in black thinks it always ends the same.
Above all, later we see Jacob visiting the main characters and touching them every time as if he were a sort of caretaker, guiding their life like a benevolent god.
Also Rose and Bernard seemed to have defied Fate and had found their own path...
So I really wonder what is going to happen in season 6 and if the show will make a definitve choice between Fate and Providence.
I came across the ending of Blade Runner a few days ago, and had an epiphany about the ending of BSG!
Also it sort of fits in this
The replicants already know they have a short life-span because od their programmed DNA. They were not built to last. We can call it Fate, and it's Roy's main issue and the reason behind his actions, especially his killing Tyrell. In the final beautiful Rutger Hauer/Harrison Ford scene as Deckard is about to fall down, Roy says something about being a slave and then he saves Deckard while still holding a dove in his other hand. The scene that follows is famous with the beautiful line about the things he remembers and that will be lost after his death:
Well, I think that "Daybreak" and the pigeon stuff in Lee's flashbacks in BSG finale was a new tribute to this scene from Blade Runner. The pigeon fits in Kara's storyline but it also had to be a nod at Roy's dove. Starbuck had been stuck in the net of Fate until then ––BTW I'm pretty sure that the character of Leoben was inspired by Rutger Hauer's (Callum Keith Rennie doesn't have the same charisma though)...and Leoben last name was conROY!–– but she had completed her journey at last, she could be freed. She had already died after all. Time to die indeed. The bird could be released and fly away. Kara Thrace was accomplished.
In a way Lee played Deckard's role, a mere witness of her long struggle against Fate and of her final release, someone who will remember in her stead so she won't be forgotten, so tears will not be lost in rain.
Lee was not bound to Fate, he was free (by the way he wanted to explore the new Earth!), he was the one who wanted to start anew, he had hope. Lee belonged to a world ruled by Providence, like Deckard. Kara did not.
Suddenly a few things struck me. It seems to me that BSGverse(and Caprica is part of it) has been playing around/struggling with the opposite concepts of Fate and Providence for a while. And so has Lost, to a certain extent, especially at the end of season 5.
Fate is a concept we inherited from Greek/Roman antiquity while Providence is a Christian notion that St Augustine and, above all, Thomas of Aquinas developed in their work. In this western world, that's our cultural legacy so no wonder that the concepts are still floating around, even on tv shows.
Fate has been prominently featured on both Lost and BSG. Locke and Desmond may have been the characters whose journey was the most connected to that concept.
Locke sometimes thought he had a destiny, other times that he was simply cursed...and his journey was quite tragic indeed.
Being a new Odysseus, Desmond was doomed to wander on the seas, to be stuck on an island, to stay away from his beloved Penelope against his will because some forces kept them apart. Being on the run was his fate.
Kelvin, Desmond, Locke and eventually Eko fell into the Fates' trap when they had to keep pushing the button in the hatch. Like Sisiphus they were dommed to do it over and over, every 18 minutes. There was no escape...until Desmond used a certain key and freed everybody from that fate.
The last season and its time travel, reminded us that there was no escape as well because "what happened happened". Miles who hears the dead knew it. Elloise knew it too and sent her son to die by her own (youngest) hand nonetheless. Fate ruled.
The Moirae (often called the The Fates), in Greek mythology, were the white-robed personifications of destiny (the Roman equivalent being the Parcae, which euphemistically means the "sparing ones", or Fata). They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death (and beyond). Clotho was the spinner, she spun the thread of life. Lachesis measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her measuring rod. Atropos (the inevitable) was the cutter, or if you will, the personification of death.
In the latest episode of Lost, "The Incident", we were showed a white-robed Jacob making a tapestry and his dark-robed counterpart arguing with him. I have parsed the scene in the review I posted at the time. Now I'm thinking that if Jacob represented Clotho, his counterpart was definitely Atropos. He appeared under the guise of dead men (Christian Sheperd, Locke) and eventually he manipulated Ben into cutting a thread's life.
On BSG, Fate has been mostly featured as a loop: "It's happened before and it will happen again", the same tragic fall keeps occurring over and over, first on Kobol, then on Earth, then on Caprica...
Fate was also there through Kara's storyline and Leoben's prophecies about her destiny. Starbuck was special, she had a destiny; Leoben saw it, Socrata knew it, and the Hybrid voiced it. Speaking of hybrids, "end of line" is something that Atropos could have said!
On Caprica Zoe had a plan too. Zoe's plan was to escape from her home planet and go to Geminon with her StO pals. All those particular plans eventually seemed to fit in Baltar's speech in
Zoe had a plan because, according to Lacy, Zoe knew god. Special agent Duram's speech after the Meglev tragedy, mentioned the STOs as a group that "espouses a monotheistic religious philosophy, advocating the worship of a single, all-knowing, all-powerful God." Omniscience therefore is the prerogative of that single god, something that a science genius like Daniel Graystone can nothing but reject.
The etymomogy of providence is Latin. Providentia means both foresight (pro-videre) and prudence. Providence therefore is a care exercised by the Supreme Being over the Universe, His foresight and care for its future.
In short, Providence is the guiding will of God as a benevolent omniscient caretaker, as opposed to the cold blindness of the forces of Fates. To provide, such deity has to take precautionary measures.
On Lost that idea was less obvious than on BSG, yet we still have clues of something that sounds like Providence.
After he used his key provoking the Swan implosion and freeing them all from pushing the button, Desmond started foreseeing things. He became special. Some rules no longer applied to him. He had "flashes before the eyes", experiencing mind-travel and defying the rules of time! We discovered he was almost a monk once upon a time... So when Daniel Faraday suddenly thought that things could be changed because of variable elements, that the incident could be prevented, he concluded that Desmond was the only one who could save them all.
Unlike the system based on Fate that crushes mankind, the belief in Providence allows man's free will and freedom, and hope, with people becoming actually agents of divine Providence. So I think that Desmond David Hume who used to embody the suffering victim of Greek fate, had his journey completely changed after "Live together, Die alone". By the way I seem to remember that philosopher David Hume wrote on free will and against fatalism...
At the end of "The Incident", Miles still advocates Fate but Jack believes that he could change their past. Juliet was a key variable towards the end too. She had changed Sawyer for good, and she triggered the bomb.
There's a more obvious instance of Providence vs Fate in "The Incident". In the opening scene with Jacob and his anonymous counterpart, white-robed man says he believes in progress and free will while man in black thinks it always ends the same.
Above all, later we see Jacob visiting the main characters and touching them every time as if he were a sort of caretaker, guiding their life like a benevolent god.
Also Rose and Bernard seemed to have defied Fate and had found their own path...
So I really wonder what is going to happen in season 6 and if the show will make a definitve choice between Fate and Providence.
I came across the ending of Blade Runner a few days ago, and had an epiphany about the ending of BSG!
Also it sort of fits in this
The replicants already know they have a short life-span because od their programmed DNA. They were not built to last. We can call it Fate, and it's Roy's main issue and the reason behind his actions, especially his killing Tyrell. In the final beautiful Rutger Hauer/Harrison Ford scene as Deckard is about to fall down, Roy says something about being a slave and then he saves Deckard while still holding a dove in his other hand. The scene that follows is famous with the beautiful line about the things he remembers and that will be lost after his death:
Well, I think that "Daybreak" and the pigeon stuff in Lee's flashbacks in BSG finale was a new tribute to this scene from Blade Runner. The pigeon fits in Kara's storyline but it also had to be a nod at Roy's dove. Starbuck had been stuck in the net of Fate until then ––BTW I'm pretty sure that the character of Leoben was inspired by Rutger Hauer's (Callum Keith Rennie doesn't have the same charisma though)...and Leoben last name was conROY!–– but she had completed her journey at last, she could be freed. She had already died after all. Time to die indeed. The bird could be released and fly away. Kara Thrace was accomplished.
In a way Lee played Deckard's role, a mere witness of her long struggle against Fate and of her final release, someone who will remember in her stead so she won't be forgotten, so tears will not be lost in rain.
Lee was not bound to Fate, he was free (by the way he wanted to explore the new Earth!), he was the one who wanted to start anew, he had hope. Lee belonged to a world ruled by Providence, like Deckard. Kara did not.
