Ah snap!

This week TVSquad named Laura Roslin the second Most Memorable TV Character ever. Now, understand, I live and breathe Science Fiction and by 'live and breath' I mean I don't watch movies that lack spaceships, robots, time travel, superheroes or anything OTHER THAN sex, drugs and rock and roll and confused people doing ordinary stupid shit.

So, when it comes to heroines, you also have to understand that this girl (moi!) who grew up on the classics (Carol Burnett, Cagney and Lacey and Lucille Ball) understands the importance of groundbreaking female characters in an industry (and WORLD) that prides itself on male energy.

So imagine when I was in my mid-20's and Ronald D. Moore created a female hero who had no gun, no superpowers, no supersecret destiny that eluded to godlike parents or the like, who would basically save humanity. That is what happened when Mary McDonnell took on the task of portraying the great and powerful Laura Roslin.

I thought Xena kicked ass. Then Buffy. Then Dana Scully. But nothing, and I mean... NOTHING... prepared me for Laura Roslin. Here was a middle-aged, average (or so we are led to believe) woman, portrayed by, honestly one of the more beautiful actresses on TV... Mary McDonnell, who was cursed with the task of bringing humanity back from the brink of annihilation.

People who never watched BSG will never understand and that is their curse. Honestly, especially for the young women who are mad at the final decision TVsquad made to elect Laura Roslin to the 2nd tier of 100 other choices, because they fail to realize that a woman they can actually aspire to be and aspire to admire actually graced the small screen and saved the world.

She may not have been so and so's girlfriend... and maybe for them, she wasn't a SOAP OPERA-esque character guaranteed to give viewers nothing but fluff, candy-colored visuals and cheesy story lines, but for me, she saved the whole world. She saved it while she was dying. She did it selflessly and she did it with the soul of one of the best actresses of our generation.

How can you even try to argue with that?