Kara Thrace

This article discusses the Re-imagined Series character with the pilot callsign of "Starbuck." For information on Kara Thrace's counterpart in the Original Series, see Starbuck (TOS).

Kara Thrace
Name	{{{name}}}
Age
Colony	Caprica
Birth place	{{{birthplace}}}
Birth Name	Kara Thrace
Birth Date	{{{birthdate}}}
Callsign	Starbuck
Nickname	{{{nickname}}}
Introduced	Miniseries
Death	Maelstrom
Parents	Socrata Thrace (mother)
Siblings
Children
Marital Status	Married to Samuel Anders (formerly engaged to Zak Adama†)
Family Tree	View
Role	Squadron leader (formerly: Commander Air Group), battlestar Galactica
Rank	Captain
Serial Number	{{{serial}}}
Portrayed by	Katee Sackhoff Erika-Shaye Gair (child)
Kara Thrace is a Cylon
Kara Thrace is a Final Five Cylon
Kara Thrace is a Human/Cylon Hybrid
Kara Thrace is an Original Series Cylon
Related Media
		@ BW Media
Additional Information
[[Image:|200px|Kara Thrace]]

Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, serial number 462753, is a gifted Viper pilot — and knows it. This leaves her with an attitude that has at times thwarted her career advancement. However, thanks to William Adama, Thrace's skills in battle have extended beyond the cockpit to greatly aid the Fleet.

Background

• In an unhappy childhood, Thrace was so frequently beaten by her mother Socrata Thrace, that she came to accept pain as a way of life (Flesh and Bone).
• Her father was a pianist (Valley of Darkness).
• Thrace left home to join the military.
• One of her first postings prior to being a flight instructor was aboard the battlestar Triton (The Son Also Rises).
• She was a very talented pyramid player (Resistance), and received a scholarship to the Fleet Academy to play pyramid. During this time, she injured her knee and was no longer able to play pyramid at a professional level. During that time, however, she discovered a passion and skill at being a fighter pilot (Podcast:The Hand of God). On graduating from Colonial Flight School, she undertook a period of active duty before returning to flight school as an instructor.
• Thrace fell in love with a young recruit, Zak Adama. Despite his mediocre performance, she passed him on his final flight examination, despite failing three of the required maneuvers (Act of Contrition).
• Thrace's engagement to Zak Adama ends when he was killed during a routine mission shortly after graduating. At the time, Lee Adama, Zak's elder brother, blamed their father for Zak Adama's death. In her guilt, Thrace did little to alter this idea. She did, however, meet William Adama shortly after the accident, and the two struck up such a strong rapport that they stood together at the funeral (Act of Contrition).
• Thrace resigned from flight school as a instructor and transferred as an operational pilot aboard battlestar Galactica under the command of William Adama, where she served for some two years prior to the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Before the Cylon attack, she was second in command of the remaining pilots, subordinate to the CAG, Jackson Spencer.
• At the time of the Cylon attack she has an run-down apartment in Delphi that overlooks a parking lot and a Colonial version of a Humvee which she and Helo use to escape the city and get to the country where she meets her husband-to-be Anders. She rarely used the dilapidated apartment. She was also a very avid painter, and her apartment was cluttered with her paintings and a poem is written on a wall (Valley of Darkness).
• Despite her reckless approach to life, Thrace hides the fact that she is deeply spiritual. She frequently prays (or talks) to the Lords of Kobol, particularly Aphrodite and Artemis in times of need (Miniseries, "Flesh and Bone", "You Can't Go Home Again").

Character History at a Glance

• Thrace's attitude quickly runs her afoul of Colonel Saul Tigh, Galactica's Executive officer. Their open mutual dislike of one another leads to the point where blows are exchanged, with Thrace ending up in the brig. After the Cylon attack she is released from the brig and returns to duty as Galactica's Viper pilot.
• Thrace manages to keep two of three nuclear missiles from striking Galactica in their first Cylon sortie, and saves Captain Adama from doom in an innovative maneuver in the Battle of Ragnar Anchorage.
• Her skills in saving Apollo brings her grudging respect from Colonel Tigh, but she is unable to accept his offer of the olive branch - an act that will have repercussions for her later (Miniseries).

Starbuck as acting CAG with Boxey as assistant (Bastille Day).

• Thrace participates in a hostage rescue mission aboard the Astral Queen. Following the successful mission, Thrace tries to mend fences between herself and Colonel Tigh with a toast (consisting of water), apologizing in much the same way as Tigh himself had tried after their initial escape from Ragnar Anchorage. But Tigh rejects Thrace's apology, stating that her flaws are professional, while his flaws were personal (Bastille Day).
• Thrace eventually admits her secret about Zak Adama to William Adama himself, an act that brings their close friendship almost to the breaking point (Act of Contrition).
• During a surprise encounter with Cylons during nugget training, Starbuck destroys several Cylon Raiders, but her ship is damaged and tumbles towards a small red moon with an unbreathable atmosphere. With her Viper in a fatal flat-spin, Starbuck is forced to eject from her Viper (You Can't Go Home Again).
• Thrace (nursing a damaged knee) repairs the downed Cylon Raider found on the inhabitable moon and returns to Galactica, giving the Fleet a vital piece of Cylon fighter technology for study and use.
• The recovering Thrace, off flight status, is asked by Commander Adama to plan a special attack on a Cylon tylium refinery. The tactical planning role is not something she relishes, and she frequently shows resentment towards others for her condition (The Hand of God).
• During Thrace's undesired interrogation of a Cylon prisoner, a copy of a known Humanoid Cylon named Leoben Conoy, she uses some drastic acts to try to extract the information from the Humanoid Cylon (Flesh and Bone).

Starbuck retrieves the Arrow of Apollo (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II).

• Thrace is assigned to plant a nuclear device on board a basestar in orbit around Kobol. Disobeying orders to retrieve the Arrow of Apollo by President Roslin's request, disillusioned by Commander Adama, she Jumps to Caprica (Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I), landing in Delphi.
• In the Delphi Museum of the Colonies with the Arrow, she is violently attacked by a copy of Number Six. Despite being heavily outmatched in the fight, Thrace luckily defeats the Cylon.
• At the museum, she reunites with Helo, whom she thought dead, and discovers a second copy of Sharon Valerii, realizing instantly that the woman is a Cylon.
• Valerii, fearing for her child, steals Thrace's Raider. In exasperation, Starbuck could only mutter: "Bitch took my ride" (Scattered). Like Helo, Starbuck was left with no way to return to the Fleet unless she could find her Raider or another Cylon spacecraft, as enemy FTL engines were the only ones sufficently powerful to reach the Fleet.
• Starbuck berates Helo's love for the Caprica copy of Valerii. Thrace finds the keys of her surplus military utility vehicle in her old jacket in her old apartment. Thrace has a ride again, if only to move more efficiently about Caprica (Valley of Darkness).
• Thrace and Helo meet a resistance movement on Caprica. Thrace and Samuel Anders strike up a rapport as fellow pyramid players and end up as lovers.
• During planning to steal a Heavy Raider, Thrace is shot in a military action, waking up in a hospital on Caprica. Thrace is told by her doctor, Simon, that Anders died from wounds he suffered in getting Thrace to safety.
• Thrace discovers that Simon is working with a known Humanoid Cylon. She overhears that the next day he plans to extract her ovaries for use in the Cylon's attempts to study and create a hybrid Cylon/human embryo. Simon also makes the mistake of calling Thrace by her callsign, Starbuck, which she had never revealed.
• Staggering and in pain, Thrace kills Simon and escapes the hospital, but not before clocking a Six copy with a fire extinguisher and destroying the local farm power supply, mercy-killing Sue-Shaun and several other women in the facility.
• Another Simon copy appears just as the Resistance attacks the facility. The second Simon, now revealed as a Humanoid Cylon himself, is immediately killed by the Resistance, but a squad of Cylon Centurions appear and pins the Resistance down. Luckily, Helo's copy of Sharon Valerii swoops in with a stolen Heavy Raider, destroys the Centurions and flies the Resistance and Thrace out of harm's way.
• Thrace promises to Anders that she'll return with a rescue mission for the remaining survivors. Anders returns the Arrow of Apollo to Thrace, which he hid on the resistance grounds for safekeeping (The Farm).
• Thrace, Helo and the pregnant Valerii land on the Astral Queen in the Heavy Raider. Finding the Laura Roslin faction in orbit of Kobol, Thrace is reunited with Lee Adama. He kisses her impulsively, catching Thrace by pleasant surprise, but a tense standoff follows when Adama discovers that another Valerii copy has returned with them. Roslin helps defuse the situation, and Thrace delivers the Arrow of Apollo to the President.
• Temporarily removed from miltary protocol, Lee Adama playfully teases Thrace by stealing a pyramid ball she took from Caprica. Adama senses her depression about Caprica and tells her that he'd be happy to hear about any problems she had. He also let slip that he loved her, which brightened Thrace's mood to the point where she teased him back about his slip.
• With a team led by Laura Roslin, Lee Adama, and, later, joined by the recovered Commander Adama, Thrace enters the Tomb of Athena and successfully uses the Arrow of Apollo to activate a hologram that shows constellations of the Twelve Colonies' ancient symbols.
• Thrace realizes that they are on a recreation of Earth. Together with Lee Adama, they locate the Lagoon Nebula, a celestial body known to Commander Adama and Lee Adama, and gather sufficient information to begin an actual course to Earth (Home, Part II).
• Thrace shows off the impressive stealth abilities in the new Blackbird fighter in her maiden flight (Flight of the Phoenix).
• With the arrival of Pegasus, Admiral Helena Cain summarily assigns Thrace (and Lee Adama) to Pegasus after digesting the reports of Galactica's officers.
• The Pegasus CAG removes Thrace from the Cylon recon mission. Lee Adama secretly tells her to use the Blackbird to take recon photos of the Cylon Unknown (Pegasus).
• Returning from her very successful mission, the Blackbird's lack of a Colonial transponder is mistaken for a Cylon Raider on DRADIS, and Starbuck is nearly confronted and shot at by Vipers from Pegasus and Galactica. After narrowly avoiding certain death by declaring herself a friendly, Thrace transmits her recon photos to Pegasus.
• Admiral Cain is very impressed with Starbuck's performance and promotes her to Captain and Pegasus CAG.
• Thrace is assigned the task of planning the joint attack on the Resurrection Ship, but successfully asks to have Lee Adama on her team, restoring him to flight status.
• After she briefs Cain and Commander Adama on her battle plan, Adama asks Thrace privately to assassinate Cain after the battle is complete. Adama fears that if Cain continues to command, the Fleet would be in mortal jeopardy from Cain's draconian command (Resurrection Ship, Part I).
• Thrace's battle planning, as before on the tylium mine, works to near-perfection, with the Resurrection Ship destroyed and its supporting basestars.
• As a result of the battle events, Thrace is left without backup as she walks to the Pegasus CIC to shoot Cain, obviously afraid and apprehensive. When Commander Adama calls, Thrace slowly moves her hand to her sidearm but, to her relief, Adama does not give the kill order and cryptically instructs her to stand down (Resurrection Ship, Part II).
• Starbuck and Kat are involved in the protection of a mining operation from periodic Raider attacks. One Raider, nicknamed Scar, fuels an intensive rivalry for the pilot's "top gun" honor. Thrace, still depressed over her inability to convince Fleet command to initiate a rescue for Samuel Anders and his resistance, drinks heavily and obsesses over removing Scar from the sky, even at the cost of her life. Fortunately, Starbuck realizes the futility of her actions, and works together with Kat to destroy the remarkably dangerous Raider (Scar).
• A few weeks later, Thrace takes leave on Cloud Nine when she was dragooned into rescuing Lee Adama and several other Galactica crew and residents after terrorists take them hostage in exchange for the incarcerated Sharon Valerii. Thrace gathers intel on the situation, but her cover is blown. In the retreating firefight, Lee Adama is caught in the crossfire. After the situation is resolved, Thrace intended to sit at Adama's bedside, only to discover that Dualla beat her there (Sacrifice).
• Later, Thrace is assigned to Pegasus as a flight trainer. Though the pilots like her, Commander Barry Garner does not, eventually confining her to quarters for "insubordination." Following the ill-fated rescue and retreat from a Cylon ambush (where Thrace leads the fighters), Thrace informs new Pegasus Commander Lee Adama that she was taking over his old CAG post aboard Galactica (The Captain's Hand).
• Thrace gets her wish: The Caprica rescue is approved, and she leads a large Raptor squadron to the planet. The group soon met up with Anders, who reports that their HQ had been destroyed and Thrace's timing was just perfect. A squad of Centurions ambush and pin down the group moments later (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I).
• Still pinned down from attack fire, Starbuck and Anders agree to kill each other to avoid capture and interrment at a farm. But the attack stops, and a man appears, praising the Gods as he announces that the Cylons not only have ceased fire, but are abandoning the Twelve Colonies. Starbuck isn't really surprised to discover that the man, known as Brother Cavil, was a Cylon upon their return to the Fleet.
• Starbuck and Anders proceed to get drunk, and host a disastrous visitation with Lee Adama. This apparently led to a rift between the two comrades.

Leoben with Kara.

• The evening of the founding of New Caprica, Thrace slept with Lee Adama and proclaimed her love for him as she was uncertain regarding her feelings toward Anders. The following morning she quickly married Anders in a ceremonry near the river. This caused a rift between Kara and Lee that lasted for over a year.
• Life on New Caprica tempered Thrace, and she often behaved in ways Starbuck never would have, including hugging Colonel Tigh and pampering Anders during his bout with an illness.
• She watches in horror at the sudden arrival of hundreds of Cylon ships in the sky over New Caprica. A few of Galactica's former crew gather near Thrace, looking to her for guidance. Starbuck responds the only way she knows how: "Fight 'em until we can't" (Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II).
• After Baltar's surrender of New Caprica, Conoy keeps Thrace prisoner in an apartment located within the Cylon-built New Caprica Detention Center in an attempt to convince Thrace that she loves him and also convert her to the Cylon monotheistic religion. She repeatedly kills Conoy a total of five times in an attempt to convince him to let her go (Occupation, Precipice).
• Conoy introduces Thrace to a small child named Kacey, who appears to be approximately two to three years in age, whom he claims is their biological daughter. He explains that the child was created using one of Thrace's extracted ovaries (The Farm) and his genetic material. Conflicted, Thrace leaves the child unattended, which later results in Kacey falling down the apartment's stairs (Precipice). After the fall, Thrace begins to change her attitude towards the child and begins to offer affection towards Conoy (Precipice, Exodus, Part I).
• Upon her return to Galactica after Admiral Adama's daring rescue attempt, Thrace heartbreakingly discovers that Kacey was simply another manipulation on Conoy's part — Kacey is merely a human child whom the Cylons had abducted months ago (Exodus, Part II).
• Bearing the psychological scars of her four month ordeal with Leoben and Kacey, Thrace is recruited by Seelix as a last minute replacement juror in the Circle after Samuel Anders' resignation. She is the fifth vote to find Gaeta of treason and collaboration. Thrace's involvement in the Circle precipitates the breakup of her marriage with Anders. Later, when Gaeta is about to be sentenced and executed in one of Galactica's launch tubes, she demands him to beg for his life. Thrace physically assaults him and goes down the litany of "lies" that Gaeta told her earlier about him helping the insurgency. As she does so, Galen Tyrol, one of the Circle's jurors and the sixth vote to convict, overhears this and confirms the story. In a sense of confusion after learning that Gaeta was telling the truth, Thrace leaves the launch tube (Collaborators).
• During a combat exercise between Vipers, Thrace breaks formation and collides with another pilot, forcing an end to the war games and causing Apollo to revoke her flight status. Later, at her bunk she is met by Kacey and her mother, whom she dismisses, telling Kacey's mother not to visit her again. In the pilots' rec room, Thrace and Colonel Tigh begin to sow dissent between the survivors of New Caprica and the crew that stayed behind on Galactica, insinuating that those who stayed behind did not suffer like those on New Caprica did, and that the crew of Galactica took too long to organize a rescue. Admiral Adama, upon learning of this from Karl Agathon, confronts Thrace and Tigh on their behavior. He challenges them to shoot him, as their constant complaining is tantamount to pulling the trigger. When neither do, Adama throws Thrace off her chair and demands that both she and Tigh shape up and move on with their lives. Spurred by Adama's words, Thrace cuts her hair and returns to duty. Later, in uniform, she visits Kacey and her mother on the converted hangar deck (Torn).
• Thrace enters an illicit affair with Lee Adama, rekindling their romance on New Caprica (Unfinished Business). Both Anders and Adama's wife, Lieutenant Dualla, are more than vaguely aware of the pair's sexual tension. Major Adama soon ends the affair and reconciles, but Thrace refuses to give Anders any further attention than a periodic sexual fling.
• Starbuck is involved with the defense of the Temple of Five but is severely injured, leaving her rescuer, Dualla, to return them to Galactica (Rapture). Helo recognizes the strange circular mandala (created 4,000 years before) in the Temple and its resemblance to a symbol that Thrace painted in her apartment. When shown the symbol, the recovering Thrace is darkly reminded of Leoben's prophesy.
• During refueling operations above a gas giant, Starbuck is continually attracted to what she believes is a Cylon contact, which she chases to find a planetary storm that resembles the mandala. She dives into it, almost losing control before coming to her senses and returning.
• Command staff and Thrace question her competency to continue flying, but Major Adama volunteers encouragement and offers to fly as her wingman on her next CAP.
• Starbuck finds herself attracted by another apparent Cylon contact. As she descended, her Viper is struck by debris and she, while unconscious, experiences a revelation about her mother, Socrata Thrace, and guided through the vision by what looks to be a Leoben copy.
• Starbuck regains consciousness but chooses to continue her descent despite Apollo's desperate pleas to ascend. "I'll see you on the other side (...) Just let me go" were her last words as her Viper explodes. A grief-stricken Apollo tells CIC that he did not see any ejection (Maelstrom).

The Destiny

The nature of Kara Thrace's specific destiny has not been revealed in the series as of the episode, "Maelstrom". Indications from the series' events strongly suggest that Thrace has an unknown connection to one or more locales or entities: The Temple of Five, the Cylon's final five, the Thirteenth Tribe and the The Lords of Kobol.

Thrace is told of her part in a destiny by the second Leoben Conoy agent in the season 1 episode, "Flesh and Bone" during his interrogation. The lines suggest that Thrace's destiny also involves the Leoben Cylon himself:

"This is not your path, Starbuck. You have a different destiny."

"All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again."

"You kneel before idols and ask for guidance and you can't see that your destiny's already been written. Each of us plays a role, each time a different role. The last time, I was the interrogator and you were the prisoner. The players change, the story remains the same. And this time...this time, you're wrong. [. . .] You have to deliver my soul unto God. Do it for me. It's your destiny, and mine."

In this same dialogue, the Leoben Cylon talks of the abuse that Thrace suffered at the hands of her mother, Socrata Thrace.

Fewer elements are noted about the destiny in season 2. In the episode, "Valley of Darkness", Helo and Thrace enter her old apartment, where, among other paintings, is a noticeable "bullseye"-like painting. Several episodes later, in "The Farm", the Cylon later to be known as Sharon Agathon tells Thrace after her rescue from the farm, "They know who you are, Kara. You’re special. Leoben told you that. You have a destiny." The Simon Cylon also reflects knowledge of Thrace's child abuse through a medical examination in the same episode.

By late into season 3, the episodes "The Eye of Jupiter" and "Rapture" reveal the Eye of Jupiter, a symbol left by the Thirteenth Tribe in the Temple of Five. As the home star of the algae planet went nova, the star's discharge was very similar to one that occurred in the Ionian system at the time of the Thirteenth Tribe's journey, and greatly resembled the symbol of the Eye in the temple. Only Helo had seen what is now called the "mandala" by the Fleet leadership before, and shows Thrace the photo of one mandala from the Temple of Five, comparing it to Thrace's symbol. Thrace remembers the words of the Leoben from "Flesh and Bone."

By "Maelstrom", viewers find Thrace seeing the mandala in many objects: the dripping of wax, and as the colors of a gas giant's planetary storm. Thrace becomes increasing distracted by and attracted to the symbol whenever it appears. When Starbuck is knocked unconscious during her last flight and "awakens" in her old apartment (where the mandala again appears), a person in Leoben's likeness greets her and allows Thrace to relive the last moments with her mother. This section vaguely alludes to information that Socrata knew about her daughter's path in life and tried to prepare her for it as best she knew how. The podcast for the episode by Ron D. Moore supports this by stating:

[. . .]"(In) this episode, you could see that there was really something behind it. That Kara really does have a destiny. That Kara really was fated for a particular end. And that mom was trying to prepare her for that. And prepare her for those roles, on some level, even if she couldn't quite articulate why and what she was doing to her daughter, that her mother believed and had seen oracles and had felt that Kara was special, and that out of her desire to toughen her daughter and make her daughter strong enough to take on the challenges that she was gonna face one day, she had really stepped over the line and had abused the daughter and had created this really toxic relationship between mother and child."

Moore's note on Socrata Thrace's use of oracles strongly support the connection between Thrace and the Lords of Kobol.

When Thrace visits the oracle Yolanda Brenn, the pilot finds a figurine of Aurora, ostensibly a figure of worship in the Colonial faith, if not a Lord of Kobol itself. The oracle tells Thrace to keep the figure until Thrace realizes who should receive it. That person is Admiral Adama. After Thrace's death, Adama places the Aurora figurine on his sailing ship model as a figurehead. The figurehead on a ship given by Thrace may allude to a connection to the path to Earth through Thrace and her destiny, but little more can be determined by this aired information.

The most mysterious element towards the end of the episode involves the revelation by Thrace that the Leoben in her vision was not in fact a Leoben Cylon (nor did it claim to be). What or who the entity was that guided Thrace in the vision is unknown, but "Leoben's" presence with Thrace in her last moments before choosing to die reflects the "Flesh and Bone" line from an actual Leoben: "You have to deliver my soul unto God. Do it for me. It's your destiny, and mine."

There is speculation that Kara Thrace might be one of the five Cylon models.

Notes

• On the Sci-Fi Channel's preview for season 2.5 (US), Katee Sackoff is quoted as saying that Starbuck is "the best Viper pilot...EVER."
• Thrace was a region in south-eastern Europe that was heavily influenced by the ancient Greeks and was eventually conquered by Phillip II of Macedonia. Thracians were considered by most to be the most ferocious fighters and were often highly paid mercenaries for Greek kings.
• After auditioning for the role of Dualla, Grace Park was asked by director Michael Rymer to audition for the role of Starbuck, and she was actually one of two finalists up for the role (the other being Katee Sackhoff, who got the part). Ultimately Park was cast as Sharon "Boomer" Valerii.
• In a TV Guide photo shoot at the BSG studios, Katee Sackhoff explained that the tattoo that Starbuck bears on her left arm is a wing and a circle and has half of the constellation of Capricorn (a reference to Caprica obviously) and a small symbol of the planet as well. It matches a mirror image of the tattoo on Anders' right arm. When the two of them hold each other with their respective arms crossing, the 2 tattoos come together to form an image of a single ring with 2 wings that is supposed to represent their union. According to Sackhoff, Kara and Anders had the tattoos done around the time of their wedding.
• The license plate on Thrace's truck on Caprica is "FB 42 E3" (Valley of Darkness).
• In a recent TV Guid interview, David Eick stated that ..."the events in episodes 16 and 19 will greatly impact the nature of their romance" when asked about the Starbuck/Apollo romance, which appears to support the theory that Starbuck somehow survived "Maelstrom".

References

Preceded by: Cole "Stinger" Taylor	Commander, Air Group, Pegasus	Succeeded by: (unknown)
Preceded by: Lee "Apollo" Adama	Commander, Air Group, Galactica	Succeeded by: Louanne "Kat" Katraine