Anders: Just Too Good to Stay Alive
You’re Anders, you’ve just broken up with Starbuck and it’s your first day out in the fleet. This has got to be a different situation for the guy. No one is actively shooting at him. He’s a bright, honest guy that’s not afraid of hard work.
He’s gotta die.
There isn’t room for this guy in the BSG universe; He doesn’t have enough damage. He’s even pretty well adjusted considering the last year and change he justwent through — after which his wife dumps him. I think the last time we saw someone this pure of heart he got shot in a bar while trying to protect the woman that had just dumped him for a fighter jock.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Anders should go. I’m just stating that people of his type don’t last long against the tides of madness that routinely sweep through the fleet. I’ll go on record as saying I do hope that they develop his character more and he remains a part of the show.I just get the feeling they’ll use him like an emotional comma in Starbucks book of destruction.
Galactic Watercooler 
Modern Geek 
Save Eureka 
Eff This Week 
FitSmart
They could use him to just completely screw things up before he dies. Perhaps get a Anders-Roslin-Zarek traingle going.
I also think that we will not see Anders again. The only benefit he brings to the ship is his knowledge of what is going on back on Caprica. Unless they plan on going back to recollect whatever survivors are still running around back there, which is unlikely, I see no viable reason to keep him on board, with the exception of Starbuck. I could see him helping her back to a “real” life again.
She is going to need to deal with the emotional trauma that she has dealt with back on New Caprica and Anders will have to play a part in that.
Don’t be silly!
Starbuck will check her attitude, decide to turn her life around, straighten up and fly right, contact Anders, get all dressed up… and then find that he has moved on. Starbuck, I’d like you to meet my fiancee.
And then we’ll all go back to being heartbroken for Starbuck.
THEN we will not see him again. For a year.
Then, in the next season, he will show up, say “she left me…” There will be a whirlwind rekindling of the romance, and THEN when Starbuck is finally about to be happy, Anders will die in shuttle accident.
See, folks, creating emotinoal desolation is an art and a science.
You’ll know that the series is over when Starbuck and Apollo finally get together.
If they kill off Anders I quit.
Billy was bad *sob*, but Anders!!!!! Good old frak you you frakin’ Cylon Anders.
But not to go off on a tangent, I think we will see him in the next ep. as maybe a Marine or something, I can’t see him of all people just sitting there.
I’m was also thinking that he’d make a good jarhead. The CFMC could easily be a storyline that gets developed, and he’d be a good way into it.
Then Starbuck tries to reconcile and he tells her to frak off.
THEN he dies. (I think the Marine dress uniform has a red shirt.)
Man, does BSG make us cynical and morbid? Or do we watch it because we’re already cynical and morbid?
I think Anders could have a place in the background of BSG. As a marine captain. Sure, he wouldn’t show up in a lot of episodes, but he’d be there if they need him in the story and could play a decent role in episodes where policing of the fleet is necessary such as Fragged, Bastille Day, or Black Market.
“Man, does BSG make us cynical and morbid? Or do we watch it because we’re already cynical and morbid?” Good question, Pike.
My only reason for wishing Anders to stay around is the hope that he’ll show some skin. It is a selfish desire with zero plot advantage, so I’m willing to concede his death (especially now that Apollo is back in his fighting form).
Then again, maybe the writers have a plan for him…I could have sworn they would write off Helo and he has become quite the mainstay. I doubt they will be heading back to Caprica anytime soon, especially now that they have found the Intergalactic Causeway to Earth.
“I could have sworn they would write off Helo and he has become quite the mainstay.”
Originally, the plan was to just abandon him on Caprica, but the writers liked the actor so they came up with a way to continue to use him. Similarly, the character of Cally was a minor one, but the writers took a shine to her, and her character became more important (to the point of dodging the death planned for her in “Bastille Day.”)
From what RDM has said, they like the guy playing Anders, and his role has already grown in a fashion very similar to Helo’s. I expect to see him around for a while.
At least until they need a ‘Billy moment.’
I prefer that they’ll build up backstory and relationships w/minor or guest characters before jettisoning them or killing them off. It beats offing the random officer or guest star on Trek.
Didn’t the “Billy Moment” happen because Paul Campbell (do I have that right?) was getting a lot of offers and had asked out of the show?
As for Anders, unless find somewhere to go with him on the show, I have to share in the suspicion that he will meet an untimely end this season.
They should make anders his own series…kind of like The Unit in space. Trust me I’d watch…Hell I’d even take webisodes {frak you writers Guild!!!!}
“I just get the feeling they’ll use him like an emotional comma in Starbucks book of destruction.”
This comment is a thing of power and eloquence–and I think it’s entirely correct.
T Bill, I don’t recall him asking to leave, but the fact that he was doing other pilots may have contributed to their decision to off him. I do know that they went back and forth a few times earlier (on Kobol, when Elosha bought it.)
Has, “BSG, Above and Beyond?” I like it.
Kara will somehow get him killed. Not on purpose, of course. There’s no need to keep him on. As good as a character as he is, he’s not fracked up enough to be in the BSG world like you mentioned. He’s no Tigh. He’s just not that important. Starbuck’s like the plague. Anything that comes in contact with her bedsheets SHOULD be burned, doomed or exiled (at the very least). Just ask Baltar.
I’m shocked Anders has lasted this long. I was sure that he was going to die from his pneumonia (I think that’s what he had) at the end of Season 2 to make Starbuck really fraked up, but he somehow was magically fine at the start of 3. He was a character created to die, which is sad since he’s a pretty good guy. Maybe he and Kacy’s mom will hook up just to spite Starbuck.
Ok, I gotta respond to some these posts- you guys are too cool. First of all, I agree with John Patrick that we’ll get jerked around for a while with the Starbuck/Anders thing until finally Starbuck and Apollo end up together (at least for a while). Boy I bet the original series writers never saw that one coming!
Aram, I’m with you. Anders is pretty nice to look at. Recently I was thumbing through a magazine and saw a shirtless and buff David Beckham in a milk-moustache ad and I thought at first it was Anders and got all excited. And the Lee money-shot was SO worth it.
13th Cylon – LOL! I never imagined Anders and Kacey’s mom hooking up, but anything’s possible. I feel bad for Starbuck, but after the way she’s treated Anders, I wouldn’t blame him.
My opinion is that he is too good a character to just toss. I think there will be some future scenes of Starbuck and Anders struggling with their relationship but I agree that it will end. After the full breakup, I can see a lot of possibilities for him depending on how things go. He could become a Marine. He could go into civilian life in some capacity though I cant imagine how an ex-jock, ex-insurgent merges back into main stream life. With such a large cast it will be tough to keep him in the forefront.
In response to the Anders/Kacey’s-Mom hook up tangent…
Man that would make Starbuck twice mind-fraked.
1) the original job Leoben did on her w.r.t. Kacey
2) If Anders ‘adopts’ her in spirit if not in letter, then Kacey’s not only the daughter she never really had (but thought she did), would then also represent the daughter she and Anders could have had.
Anders is gonna die playing baseketball fial.
I think Anders is the Cylon identified by Number Three in the temple. I think her “YOU, forgive me, I had no idea” was her saying that she was sorry that she treated Anders badly in Downloaded and wouldn’t have if she knew he was a Cylon. That line obviously made me think back through the episodes to see who she had done something bad to. Anders was the only one I could come up with. Also, Anders has no children and not much is known about him other than he was a pro pyramid player. And being a Cylon would certainly help him physically. And Kara being checked out could be the Cylon checking to see if a human female and Cylon male could have a child. So that’s my guess.
Themosh – you could be onto something about Anders being the one 3 apologized to. I wonder if he was a plant, like Sharon on the planet with Helo, to get Starbuck into bed and knocked up/in love with him? It would be really interesting if they’re both in the final five, but their physiology is somehow different…and at the farm they were indeed doing tests to see if Starbuck and Anders could reproduce. Hmmm…I guess we’ll see! 🙂