Hee. Well you haven't had to suffer in real time through my crazy Lee fangirling yet, but I pretty much adore everything about him including all the shit that fandom hates. These days I do think the writers are kind of rubbish though. ;) Good ideas, bad execution... yes (though Jamie is faultless in my eyes).
Lee is ULTRA complex! And yes, I think he is meant to be (or should be used as) an everyman character. He's not the hero, and that's actually really important to me. I think a lot of times when Lee doesn't measure up to fans' expectations or they get cranky with him it comes down to them expecting him to be a hero character and his heroism, when it does appear (pretty much everyone on BSG gets to be a hero occasionally!) is of an unconventional, unshowy kind. It's not necessarily action-based (though we might expect this from a pilot) but often has to do with his persuasive skills and capacity for self-sacrifice. Those are actually traits one would more usually see in a conventional heroine. (Another reason Kara/Lee is great--it gender swaps the hero/heroine roles!)
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Lee is ULTRA complex! And yes, I think he is meant to be (or should be used as) an everyman character. He's not the hero, and that's actually really important to me. I think a lot of times when Lee doesn't measure up to fans' expectations or they get cranky with him it comes down to them expecting him to be a hero character and his heroism, when it does appear (pretty much everyone on BSG gets to be a hero occasionally!) is of an unconventional, unshowy kind. It's not necessarily action-based (though we might expect this from a pilot) but often has to do with his persuasive skills and capacity for self-sacrifice. Those are actually traits one would more usually see in a conventional heroine. (Another reason Kara/Lee is great--it gender swaps the hero/heroine roles!)