Achilles's Heel*

In response to my lackluster appreciation for Battlestar Galactica, an acute observation: "If it was about kittens drifting in space, you'd watch it."

I am so busted. But small fuzzy things make everything better!

Seriously, though, I would be much more upset to see furry creatures die onscreen than a similar fate for a bunch of humans. I am not the only soft-hearted one! It is why directors never kill the dog. Perhaps this is tied to some underlying notion about the role of desert and humans' fates? Dumb animals cannot be blamed and are thus always innocent victims. People, on the other hand . . . sometimes they have it coming.** Is the latter a fundamentally conservative view?

* Does that rhyme if you use the French pronunciation of Achilles?

** "And then the humans ran into my nuclear warhead. They ran into my nuclear warhead ten times!"