The quality of mercy

[gwyn]

I have so many things I want to say about Battlestar Galactica, the past few eps, but especially last night's, but no real time to do it. Maybe later. It would be nice to get back to reviewing things again. I kind of miss that.

But in the meantime, this is what I thought about last night, especially in regards to Laura Roslin, frequently pushing aside mercy herself in her resolve to lead people and rid them of the cylon threat. It's Portia's speech in The Merchant of Venice, one of the best examinations of the toll revenge and cruelty and survival take on the human soul.

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
 
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself,

And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
 
When mercy seasons justice.


She knows this thing Tom Zarek, and the "tribunal," don't: That it's mightiest in the mighty. It's also something the cylons will never really understand, even when they try.

Comments

[lordshiva.livejournal.com]

Totally! Her speech was the thing that made me burst into sobs of sheer relief and joy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. It was an amazing ride last night. Points at which I was actully getting sick to my stomach. Thanks for the Portia speech.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating to me, because - okay. I don't watch BSG. I've seen a handful of vids, and that's all I really know about the fandom. But there's one song that reminds me intensely of BSG, and it's Mercy Now, by Mary Gauthier. (Here (http://www.sendspace.com/file/bpy8p9), in case you haven't heard it.) So reading this gave me a happy sense of coincidental resonance - I connected something with BSG out of the weirdness of my own brain, and it ties in perfectly with this post.

(This will all be ruined, of course, if it turns ou there's a BSG vid to this song that I might've seen. I don't remember seeing one, but there could be, and that would explain the whole Mystic Fannish Coincidence pretty well.)