What is “nerfed”? Like a nerf football? I do not understand. There is another “nerf” thing about the borg. Is this a geeky sci-fi thing? I obviously do not watch the sci-fi station enough.
Sort of. It refers to a character (or group of characters) being “softened” and made less powerful, generally because the writers have painted themselves into a corner by making them too powerful and can’t come up with a reason why they don’t win a total victory and thereby end the story.
I don’t think we can say one way or the other yet. When we finally reach the end of the series and see the broad sweep of the story, we will be able to point to recent developments either as (a) adding wonderful complexity to a still-threatening villain or (b) pulling the teeth of a too-powerful threat. It really depends on where we go from here.
On the other hand, it seems to me that the show’s narrative structure doesn’t always require an omnipresent kill-all-humans Dalek-style attacker. They’ve demonstrated in many shows that humans are willing enough to turn on each other that a vaguely-understood external threat is really all one needs to produce internal conflicts galore. In some ways, the Cylons will be a more effective nemesis, story-wise and theme-wise, if they don’t open fire every time we see them. Uncertainty about their motives will plant seeds of confusion and disagreement in humanity, and give the colonials plenty of reasons to kill one another without Cylon assistance.
IMHO, you can’t ‘nerf’ the cylons… so far they have not been set up as nigh undefeatable (as in the borg)…
1.) The only reason they were able to defeat the colonies in the mini series was due to an inside man (the whole virus in the defense network) and a sneak attack whilest the defenses were disabled.
2.) They’ve demonstrated fairly well that while the Cylons are formidable, a single Battlestart easily handles multiple Base Stars and Raiders… even 14 pilots seem to be able to handle an all out attack.
(caveat, they did have the one episode where Sharon disabled an attacking fleet of raiders, but that seems to have been a one time occurence… she specifically did not do this when they attacked the Resurection Ship).
That does seem to be a difficult plot device. Why doesn’t she do it for them whenever Cylons are in sight? She’s annoyed at Adama? 
Perhaps it only works once and then the toasters are wise to it.
She disabled them by hacking their network - one assumes they subsequently patched up their software.
Well, they often don’t actually die, for one thing…I’m sure another ressurections ship is in the drydock. If it somehow weren’t, that’s a nerf in my book.
Was it the only reason, or simply the most expedient? There are only a little over 50,000 members of the entire human race (besides the fabled Earth) even left, down from what I assume was tens of billions spread out over twelve different planets. The only reason the rest aren’t dead is because they were lucky enough to be aboard ships capable of supraluminal travel, and now it’s been cat-and-mouse. Humanity is definitely the mouse, albeit one with sharp teeth.
We know from history that bodycounts don’t matter so much if your adversary can beat you in a war of attrition. As Adm. Adama said when he pointed at the population figure, “That number doesn’t go up very often.” Starbuck figured it was only a matter of time before they all were dead. She fully expected to be killed in combat eventually, and knew the Cylons would just keep coming.
I’d say this is a very nerfable enemy.
Also, think of the rate of Cylon evolution. When was the armistice, around 40 years prior to the last major attack? In that time they went from Toasters Mark I to some twelve models of biomechanical models, plus Raiders with hyperspace drives, your standard updated Toasters, the basestars, a system of reincarnation that allows them to retain all past experience from previous lives, apparently greater physical and mental prowess in the skinjobs, possibly some advanced collective intelligence they tap into, a culture and religion…where ought they to be in the next 40 years? Again, highly nerfable, IMO.
I thought all they acquired in the last fourtyyears were the biological toasters.
And I would think someone so tough would be non-nerfable.
There’s that episode late in season two where they make a point of having the Cylons express astonishment to one another over just how devastatingly effective their attack was. Seems to me that they expected it to go well but that it was their breach of Colonial systems that made it go spectacularly well. Without that, I’d lay even money that they’d probably still be hammering at one another on and around the original planets.
I remember Tigh saying something about how flimsy the old Toasters were, and there have been other comments about improvements. I think resurrection has been by far the most shocking advancement. Think about it: Humans created the Cylons, and now know virtually nothing important about them.
By “nerfable” I mean an adversary so formidable it’s a prime candidate for nerfing, simply because, prima facie, they’re unbeatable, and there’s no internally plausible reason why they shouldn’t be.
True, and a good point.
Thanks; I obviously got it backwards.
Civil War is an old favorite.
-Joe
Well, it kinda looks that way, doesn’t it? Six and Sharon, when last we saw them on Caprica, took a chunk of concrete to Lucy’s head, and now they show up with an armada to “save” humanity from itself, it would seem. I guess the big question at this point is are these Cylons on New Caprica a rebel faction, or are they still working in conjunction with the rest of their brethren to fulfill “The Plan”? We don’t know yet, of course, but I fear it’s a Cylon secession of sorts, fueled by the infiltrator Cylons’ avatars growing a conscience.
My personal opinion is that the Toasters are going to get an up-close and personal look at Nietzsche.
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
Among others…
Discussed earlier: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=362763
Yeah, but the meat toasters are in danger of becoming nice, right?
Permutations abound.
(1)Is this the same Six and Sharon?
(A)Do the other Cylons Know of Their Plan?
(B)WTF is their damn plan?
(2)Are they a different Six and Sharon pretending to be, for lack of better terminology, “our” S&S?
(Fill in previous questions A & B)
(2A) If they are different S&S’s, do the local Cylons know it?
(Insert A & B)
(3) Are there different factions of Cylons? Do the factions know about each other?
Does Macy tell Gimballs?
Ach…October is a long, long time to wait…