Eye Gouging Overplayed?

As I'm sure some of you know, the 3rd season of Battlestar Galactica has started off with bang. 4 months have passed since the end of season 2 when the Cylons took control of the Colonial settlement on New Caprica. Several of the characters stars have been forced to live under the occupation, and were shown the brutality of their situation when we see the fate of Col. Tigh:

Notice anything missing?

[Hint: check the optical region]












The took the poor ol' bastard's eyeball!! His Motha Frackin' Eyeball!!

Wait a minute... Did any other geeks feel a little deja vu right now? This all seems familiar...

...Oh yeah, that's right. Xander lost an eye too, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The evil preacher totally fracked Xander up.







But Wait! G'kar of Babylon 5 also lost an eye. The War hero turned diplomat of the Narn people spent several months being tortured by the Emperor of the Centari Prime, archnemisis of the Narns. Apparently making eye contact with Emperor is a faux pas in Centari society.



And who could forget the chosen one? Neo got both of his eyes burned shut in a fight with Agent Smith.

What's Going on Here?

Has the Sci Fi genre degenerated into a weird torture fest?



This trend has become rather disturbing. I love Sci Fi shows as much as anybody, but the excessive eye-gouging within the genre is getting disturbing. Can we not make our characters more interesting without imposing a permanent physical disability upon them? How often can you go back to "remove an eyeball" well before it starts to become lame.

I'm not saying the Col. Tigh didn't become 1000 times more interesting when he lost his eyeball, but this phenoma places the credibility of the entire genre at risk.

It's not just the act in and of itself that bothers me, the similarity in character archtypes is troubling as well. Col. Tigh, Xander, and G'kar were all behind the scenes kinda character who all become ironically more observant about the world they live in after their "incident." Their ability to command attention and respect of those around them also increases due to the visability of the injury. Afterall, when the guy with one eyeball tells you something, you better pay attention, lest ye meet their fate yourself!

It's all fun and game until someone loses an eye...

it's only afterwards when the drama can really begin!