Time to forget about Physiology

[G'Kar]

Among all the absurd debate as to whether; Kara could be a half cylon cos of the unknowns concerning her father; Tigh was switched at some point during the war or during the resistance and this accounts for his new cylon status; Adama being a giant monkey cylon in hiding, comes a debate based on more abstract ideas as to the nature of the final five cylons. Despite being more abstract though, they are more realistic considering the nature of the show rather than bland ideas that the final five have been created by the cylon race in a physiological sense. I think its time to put this idea to bed.

Therefore i offer a couple of my own theories about the nature of the final five and hope that people can discuss them and add their own.

One of the biggest arguments against the final five being like the other cylons is the issue of the amount of people that can now be considered for the last place in the cylon final five. Starbuck, Roslin and Baltar can all still be seriously considered for this place due to their visions and apparent destinies. We consider one on the basis of these, but then what of the others' visions? Are they simply hallucinations? The development of Athena having visions leads us to believe that cylons and humans have them and so cannot be unique to cylons or humans. After all Baltar had them all throughout the second season and was most likely going through them along with Caprica, Roslin and Athena. (I wonder whether Hera has them). Because of this i think these characters have a role and destiny that is important to 'the gods' but that they are not cylons. Added to this is the role that Roslin is supposed to carry out as dying leader- to lead the colony/'gang' to earth.

The final five for me are not cylons in a physiological sense. They have not been created by the cylons, they have not created the cylons either. They were born human and have become cylon by being the people that they are. There is really no basis for this idea i don't think. Just speculation. I think this has something to do with the 'Cylon God' that seems to exist in some sort of sense. I think that the final five are chosen by scripture and words spoken before (in the 'this has all happened before...' vein). The virtues held by, at the moment, four: Tyrol, Tigh, Tori and Anders come to represent the virtues that the cylons want for themselves to ultimately be like theor creators. This makes sense when you look at the various personal attributes they possess whether emotional or practical.

Well, what ya think?

LGG

[jdog]

Perhaps the cylon god is kinda like a terroist leader who brain washed people to think what he wants them to think (or an america president-- ohh snap I didn't just go there).

Cylon humans may not be unnatural at all, the final five know this and stand to oppose him.

The sig seven have simple been deceived into who they think they are. The five have not, that's why they are fundamentally different. They are the link between humans and cylons.

Like the clones in star wars, they've been taught that's all they are and even breed that way, but without the emperor's decit they would just be fundamentally a different race of humans.

[ElessarUSMC]

The only problem with them being biologically human and not something else - is that it seems they are picking up REAL radio transmissions (not just hallucinations), just with their brains. That's something humans can't do, soo... I can't see the final five (four) being biologically human. I have no doubt they're fundamentally different from all other Cylons, but I still think they have some kind of biomechanoid physiology. I realize that opens a weird can of worms and a bunch of ambiguity, but I think because of the radio thing it's unavoidable. They were HEARING a radio signal through space.

[anotherquestion]

I don't see how you can ascribe a great deal of significance to the vision thing and simultaneously forget about Physiology. Surely the former has to be supported by the latter.

RDM's assertion that the final five are "fundamentally different" from the "initial seven" calls into question what it means to be a cylon, a topic that has been examined in this series from the beginning.

From the miniseries onward we've tacitly accepted the skinjobs, the initial seven, to be the new incarnation of cylons, lumping them together in a sloppy way with the other toasters (bulletheads, chrome jobs, centurions, whatever you want to call them). This, to me, seems like a very slippery sort of conflation, since those two types of cylons seem to be much more different from one another than similar in any respect (except for their seemingly implacable determination to exterminate the Colonials).

In other words, the only fundamental glue holding the "concept" of what it means to be a cylon is their adherence to "the plan". The other physiological differences between the skinjobs and the Colonials aren't as radically different as the differences in their respective mindsets (religious beliefs, views on the intrinsic nature of the Colonials as being fundamentally flawed, etc.).

This unifying element is not indestructible. It was dissolved with the defection of Athena, and is showing signs of corrosion with the internal dissonance among a few select other cylon models "Caprica six" and the original Boomer (at least for a while). The "three" model, D'Anna, although never very sympathetic to the Colonials as a whole, also significantly deviated from "The Plan" to the point where she was boxed as a result. This is the most explicit of the transformations from "being a Cylon" to "being something else", although it has never been acknowledged in those terms by the remaining initial six.

The newly revealed "final four of five" (shades of the Borg naming scheme), have also significantly deviated from the plan, both within their personal histories (being part of the resistance on New Caprica) and their current, as yet unchanged, sense of sympathy and allegiance. This aspect of their nature and not the lack of glowing spines or susceptibility or resistance to various forms or radiation, appears to make them what they are: not quite Colonial, but fundamentally different from the other cylons.

I suppose, to turn this way of looking at things on it's head, Baltar is becoming more cylon himself than Colonial.

Also the people of Earth should look upon every entity not born on Earth as being Alien, both the Colonials and the cylons, by definition. Everyone we've encountered in the series has had flaws or defects of character on one occasion or another. I guess it's just human nature.