Brad Ideas - Yellow moons, flashing triples and Cylon Christs oh my - Comments

Knowing the future

brad — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:20:52 -0700

Purist that I am, I have always read the concept of destiny in this show as not based on knowledge of the future, nor on actual destiny, but rather due to the actions of powerful unseen beings, such as the Cylon God and Lords of Kobol, and the Final 5.

So they are not destined to repeat the cycle here, I think the lords want them to, and make things happen to assure that they do.

Which is to say “they have a plan” and the Cylon God and First Hybrid know the plan, and thus know what is going to happen because they are going to make it happen.

I admit that it’s possible this is a totally wrong view, that there is just some mystical cycle of destiny in the show, but I would be disappointed.

Flashing Triple Star

JerseyCHUD — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 04:51:15 -0700

I believe the elements Kara remembers are more vision guideposts than actual, physical navigation objects. We know the hybrid is aware of the future in advance, due to the cylon god's incluence, so certainly Kara could have a vision of future events that will guide her to Earth. Specifically, the triple star that Kara painted looks a lot like three cylon baseships. Maybe they are "flashing" because they've been damaged. I suspect Kara will see the "rebel" cylon baseships, recognize that the damaged ships are part of her vision, and then ask for their help in finding Earth. Just a thought!

the final cylon can only be ...

craig — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 19:49:31 -0700

... Hera

That's my theory. This is more gut than factually supported. I think this season is going to explain why it's her so we only have a small fraction of the clues needed right now. It fits the BSG myth of repeating cycles, explains the child's importance, explains why the Cylons felt they had to try to breed with a species they were trying to destroy, etc.

--------

Also Brad have you ever written about the possible relationship between the F5 and the Gods, that this whole saga is just a scripted game played between the Gods and the one God? I have to say it's increasingly going in that direction, feeling like it's an event scripted by godlike beings with knowledge of the future.

It's certainly getting quite

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 07:00:09 -0700

It's certainly getting quite crowded. I understand next episode may be showing a little thinning of the population. I'm looking forward to that because it may be dramatic and I like the character played by Dean Stockwell. He's been quite funny in a dry sort of way. His line on Cylon meetings, an "Oh" of suprise, and whining about cutting his own jugular stand out for me. People think being clowns and villains is easy but it's hard work.

There's also the Cylon Centurians and Raiders, and a couple of the old tin can models floating around. They look like they may have a bigger role to play as the conflict between the humans and Cylons starts building. I don't know how Dean Stockwell will play things in the next episode but I'm thinking he might have a "Why me? Why now? Why today?" sort of attitude. Mind you, if a Cylon Centurion starts playing ball with Romo Lampkin's cat it will probably be stretching it.

That's an interesting question about the human and Cylon elites, and how Tyrol stood up for the workers and how the Cylon Centurians and Raiders might start getting twitchy when people start yanking their limiters. There might be something in that mess of stuff about the human and Cylon conflict and how the different sides may split, and where the Baltar and Hera plotlines go. Ron says Baltar isn't the mainline and I'm guessing that sort of coincides with the Final Cylon emerging from the shadows.

I know that's more spaghetti but Ron's wall of tease kinda encourages it.

13th tribe

brad — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:41:31 -0700

I am not sure there is a real 13th “tribe,” but there is certainly a 13th group of humans, on Earth. And one would have to presume elsewhere too, though I doubt we will see them.

As to who put in the block on the 7 Cylons, we have no idea, but I presume it’s the F5 themselves, or the Cylon God.

But they could have 2 Cylons to go instead of the “1 will be revealed” by using the Cylon Christ motif or other incarnations of the Cylon God. And in fact, there are really more Cylons than that. There’s Hera, and the hybrids, and the first hybrid whose “life will begain anew in ways uncertain.” And Nikolas Tyrol, too. Lots o’ Cylon models now.

I've wondered about the

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:28:12 -0700

I've wondered about the Lords of Kobol, the 13 tribes, and whether there was a missing Cylon. At a guess, would the jealous god be anything to do with the 13th tribe and the Cylons, and Baltar is one of two final Cylons? Could the block on the 7 Cylons be put there by the jealous god?

Back in the early days Ron said the fleet was just being hounded by the Cylons. It was only when the audience started taking an interest did he develop their characters and world. The pit-stop at New Caprica probably came about because of that, so the last series probably shapes up differently to what it would've been.

I'm going to throw some dice here and suggest the original plan would've been a straight chase. The Final Five are, perhaps, ancient Cylons who are pulling a Foundation style psychohistory nudging of humanity towards transcendance but the 13th Cylon has a few control issues. Now, the humanising of the 7 Cylons created a new dynamic that's been folded in and the Hera plotline is symbolic of a shared transcendence.

Now, I reckon, Baltar might be revealed as the Final Cylon but not the Final Final Cylon. Instead of a fake death like Starbuck got dealt with we'll get a fake ascension. I'm starting to handwave like a helicopter here so I'll back off and just see if it survives a shakedown as plausable theory.

Yellow moons, flashing triples and Cylon Christs oh my

brad — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:00:37 -0700

Starbuck comes back from Earth and declares it has a “yellow moon and star” which “matches the description in Pythia.” And we also see a a photo of Earth she took where we see a slightly yellowish moon over a gray Earth. Even more curiously, if you have an astronomical background, you will notice that the image of the moon comes from a partial lunar eclipse, which would make the moon yellow-orange but would only be temporary.

Of course, this makes no sense. Why would Pythia (who wrote the mythologized story of Earth) have described the moon as yellow? Some suggest this is just a flub of a line, and Starbuck or Sackhoff meant to say “yellow star and moon.” Our star is not really yellow to the naked or neutrally filtered eye, that is its colour in the stellar spectrum. And why the eclipse? These happen from time to time but are very short. It would be no accident to encounter one.

Starbuck then recounts a “ringed gas giant, a flashing triple star and a comet.” From Earth her naked eye would not see the rings of Saturn, though a hypothetical viper telescope could. Nothing would see a “flashing triple star.” While Alpha Centauri is a triple, it is not flashing, and the 3rd component is so dim that even people living near the primary would not see it naked eye. These read to me as “signposts” she was shown by the beings who took her on her Earth junket. I suspect the fleet will eventually see this flashing triple and take it as a sign they are on Starbuck’s course. Whether they trust that course is another matter.