How many times did Baltar save Roslin?
February 7, 2012 7:40 AM   Subscribe

How many times did Gaius Baltar actually save Laura Roslin's life in Battlestar Galactica? [warning: here be spoilers]

I've been rewatching Battlestar Galactica (The Reimagined Series) over the last several months now, which has made it easier to notice that Baltar repeatedly asks Roslin some variant of, "I've saved your life how many times now?" That got me to thinking, how many times was it, exactly?

There is the obvious one of injecting Roslin with fetal blood from Hera to stop her cancer from killing her, and the times when he helped save the fleet (indicating the key building in the Cylon tyllium refinery, surrendering to the Cylons on New Caprica so they wouldn't nuke the planet). I'm not sure if convincing the Cylons not to attack immediately at the Algae Planet counts, since the Cylons wouldn't have been there in the first place if it weren't for him either. These details can all be worked out in the thread, though. Anyway, I'm having trouble remembering any other times when Baltar's actions and decisions saved Roslin's life (or the fleet, including Roslin). Ideas?
posted by skoosh to Media & Arts (12 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Don't forget the other side of the equation: If Baltar didn't think with his cock then roslin might not have spent the last years of her life stuck on a tiny spaceship having witnessed the death of billions and the near-destruction of her culture.
posted by biffa at 7:55 AM on February 7, 2012 [5 favorites]


Response by poster: There is that. Also, she saves his life too, eventually... after thinking about it a lot.
posted by skoosh at 8:13 AM on February 7, 2012


skoosh: "surrendering to the Cylons on New Caprica so they wouldn't nuke the planet"

... and then turning around and signing her execution order. I'm not sure that really counts.
posted by mkultra at 8:14 AM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]


Baltare implicated another person that there was a Cyclon device (bomb? listening bug?) in the CIC, which "saved" the fleet. Don't know if it counts, since he was manipulated into revealing the information. Which brings up the point that Baltar was often by helped by outside agents. So did he save others or was he simply a tool?

It should be noted that Baltar was gravely injured at one point and Roslin initially chose to let him die. Minutes later, she changed her mind.

Finally, Baltar can be quite manipulative. His taunting of Roslin with "How many times have I saved your life" should be viewed with that in mind.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:25 AM on February 7, 2012


Response by poster: Perhaps I should have mentioned that I realize that Baltar's motives are rarely (if ever) pure. I was just wondering how many times he managed to save Roslin's life, despite his selfish, flawed self. Whether or not Baltar is Really A Good Person is kind of a separate question.

I forgot about the device in the CIC! Yeah, it was a Cylon transponder, so pointing it out was helpful. However, this was before the Olympic Carrier was destroyed, so I would argue that it didn't ultimately make a difference in terms of the Cylons' ability to track the fleet. But! Baltar did recommend destroying the Olympic Carrier, so does that count?
posted by skoosh at 8:37 AM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]


The real question is how many times did Baltar appear to save Roslin's life and how many times did he actually do so.

You give surrendering to the Cylons on New Caprica as an example. But the reason the Cyclons found New Caprica was because of the nuclear bomb Baltar gave to one of the Sixes. The audience knows the real story, not the characters, so Baltar can and does spin stories in a way that suits him.

Baltar pointing out the correct building at the tyllium refinery was literally and act of God. Baltar had zero to do that success, but the characters don't know that. Thus he's able to brandish it as victory to others, including Roslin.

Injecting Roslin with Hera's stem cells after Roslin ordered the pregnancy terminated may be the only instance of Baltar actually saving her because of his own thoughts and actions. Yet still, since he was part of God's plan, does even that example count?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:54 AM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I guess there's more than one example of saved-everyone's-lives-from-a-peril-that-I-instigated here. Anyway, I've got to go do IRL things now, but I look forward to seeing more responses!
posted by skoosh at 8:57 AM on February 7, 2012


was literally and act of God.
...
since he was part of God's plan,

Brandon Blatcher, you know he doesn't like to be called that.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:15 AM on February 7, 2012 [3 favorites]


Best answer: -Alerting leadership of the the cylon device in the miniseries saved everyone's life. (So did framing Doral, since he actually was a Cylon, but Baltar didn't know that, so that doesn't count.)

-He was a major reason Roslin was convinced to destroy the Olympic Carrier.

-Curing Roslin's cancer.

-Surrendering on New Caprica when there was no chance of winning. (Roslin would not have done that.)

... and then turning around and signing her execution order. I'm not sure that really counts.

He had a gun to his head and he know they were going to try to kill her no matter what. I don't really think Baltar actually put Roslin's life in any more danger that it already was. They would have just shot him and made Felix or somebody president and repeated the process.

-Baltar claims in the 4th season he let Felix pass on information to the rebels during the occupation. Probably a lie, but if true, that would be another time. (His sudden decision not to go the graduation ceremony could be read as him knoing what was leaked to the rebels. I have seen it argued that Baltar was letting information leak not so much because he was secretly for the rebellion, but that it goes with his standard practice of playing both sides, hoping to get his preferred outcome.)

-Convincing the cylons to spare the fleet at the Alge planet (even if temporarily).

-Brokering the (short) truce at the colony saved everyone, including Roslin, although she had less than 2 days to live at that point anyway.


Indirectly:

-Alerting leadship to the fact that there are only 12 cylon models probably saved everyone.

-Setting up the basic structure of fleet life in the early days: Baltar is shown working out the food/water/basic needs of the fleet pretty early on and it's implied he set up or helped set up the rationing system. Vital work that indirectly saved everyone, probably.

-Convincing the Quroum to make him Vice President over Zarek kept Zarek from attemping to assassinate Roslin again. (Or at all, if you believe Zarek that the guy Lee and Starbuck captured wasn't Zarek's guy.)

- All the navigation work he did. Even after he left, Felix based everything on Baltar's work. They probably would have just wandered aimlessly in space, lost and slowly dying without this work.
posted by spaltavian at 10:16 AM on February 7, 2012 [4 favorites]


He had a gun to his head and he know they were going to try to kill her no matter what. I don't really think Baltar actually put Roslin's life in any more danger that it already was.

Oh yeah, Roslin was arrested twice. The first time, Baltar visited her in prison, they talked and he ordered her let go. She was picked up a second time and that's when he was forced to sign her execution order.

But the Cylons never would have been there if his penis had convinced him to give a nuclear bomb to a Cylon, so there's that.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:41 AM on February 7, 2012


Baltar claims in the 4th season he let Felix pass on information to the rebels during the occupation.

Actually, this was the third season.

convinced him to give a nuclear bomb to a Cylon

Yeah, I hate the plotline because I don't believe even Baltar would do that. Neither his desire nor his vanity was ever stronger than his will to live, except in this one case. It was a irrational move from a guy that just wasn't that irrational. Nonetheless, while he bears fault, what happened certainly wasn't his intention.
posted by spaltavian at 12:42 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Spaltavian's got a pretty good list there. A lot of pretty subtle examples, too - I'd forgotten that Baltar had been tasked with figuring out the fleet's basic physiological needs. Kudos!
posted by skoosh at 10:18 PM on February 7, 2012


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