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When the show approaches brilliance, it does so largely because of the uncertainty. The characters have to make hard choices in an occassionally morally murky world. Messy. Uncomfortable. That's drama.

I understand that good drama often requires these things, but a lot of the moral murkiness that they use in the show is forced and artificial. There are plenty of true-to-life kinds of choices that these people would have to make without manufacturing false ones.

As an example, and I'm only using this example because it is fresh in my mind from discussion with another poster, was the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, where some of the people start using suicide bombing as a tactic against the Cylons and collaborators. This, of course, leads to a whole discussion among the colonials as to whether suicide bombing is a moral tactic, etc. The discussion consisted of a false choice: either do nothing to resist the Cylons or suicide bomb them. However, there was nothing, absolutely nothing, about the situation that made suicide bombing a more effective tactic than regular bombing, i.e. leaving a bag with a bomb in it at the target and walking away. The whole discussion was very dramatic, but left you thinking that they were all idiots for not being able to see that third possibility (or the fourth possibility, or the fifth, etc.) It was merely the writers that wanted to force some moral murkiness for dramatic effect.

There were some occasions of that moral murkiness that worked. I recall one instance where the fleet was caught with their pants down by the Cylons where, if I recall correctly, one or two of the fleet ships were disabled. Odama had to make the choice of staying and fighting, putting the whole fleet at risk, or leaving those ships behind to die. Those are the kind of choices that seem real. So many of the others seem false.

Actually there WAS something about the situation that made it so suicide bombing was the only thing that would work. It was established that the area was going to have heavily restricted access and be swept before the ceremony and the only people in attendance would be dignitaries (including the target Baltar), security and the graduating collaborator police. They specifically said leaving a bomb behind would not work because they couldn’t get in there and it would probably be found if they could. There was no third choice, combine that with the fact that both Tigh and the volunteer bomber had both crossed the line from being resistance fighters to revenge seekers, and that’s why the decision was made.