In the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica, the bulk of the surviving human population set down on “New Caprica,” and the Cylons immediately found them and – instead of immediately exterminating them all, which we’ve assumed up to now was their intention – came in to talk, and politely (under the circumstances) demanded their surrender. Which President Beltar (having no other choice) promptly granted.
So if the Cylons don’t want all the humans dead – what do they want with them?!
Mars Needs Women!
But they have the technology to manufacture their own . . .
Hot ones, too! 
Boomer’s baby for some reason seems to be the centerpiece of it.
Perhaps they think they need to unite biologically with humans in order to beat them?
Step 1; Collect Colonials
Step 2; ???
Step 3; Profit!!
They simply want to serve man.
That, or the Cylon empire has been split into two factions—one of fanatics who want to kill all humans, and one of “Rebels” (led by Baltar’s original six and the original Galactica Sharon) who feel guilty and aren’t cool about killing all humans anymore—and it was the Rebs who invaded New Caprica…possibly because they need a new homeworld/base of operations, too.
Probably the “humanwiches” option.
I would assume it’s more of a compromise between the two groups - they’re not leaving the humans alone, but they’re not killing them either.
Hmm, come to think of it…maybe PreacherBot was telling the truth. Maybe most of the Cylons have decided to take the Zen path of the HeroBots, and the ones that took over the colony were sort of a rebel faction that’s still anti-human, and they’ll hold the colonists hostage or something like that.
IANAC, but it seems to me that the goal of the Cylons, by “evolving” into bio-mechanical humanoids and attempting to reproduce sexually, is to become human themselves. It’s been stated by various Cylons that they believe God renounced mankind and chose the Cylons as their successors and gave them souls, so by making themselves more manlike they hope to please God and succeed where his original creation failed.
That would seem to be taking God’s lesson exactly the wrong way. If humanity is a failed experiment, shouldn’t the Cylons be trying to develop in some entirely new direction?
Possibly. You get that line of thought in the Priest’s words during the last episode. On the flipside, it all depends on why you think humanity failed as an experiment. Judging by past Cylon comments, I would say the party line is humanity’s past genocidal tendencies towards each other and the Cylons themselves. So does it not fall to the children to judge and remedy the errors of their forefathers? To build upon and perfect the goodness? If you cast the Cylons in that light, as descendents rather than new species, then I think their actions make more sense. It also makes their actions even more disturbing, I think.
Humanity can understand genocide because of hatred; we’ve gotten quite good at that ourselves. But the Cylon Judgement Day, where they obliterated billions of people, was done (I think) out of pity, like pulling the plug of a beloved parent whose further existence would merely cause untold pain to themselves and to others. Better to end it swiftly, with dignity, and let them go to the love of God. Then, with a clean slate, rebuild the good and worthy while letting the rest lie in ashes.
So, Galactica the Ark and Adama is Noah?
I watched the two part “War of the Gods” from the original Battlestar Galactica, and, honestly I had forgotten this, Patrick MacNee as Count Iblis (better known as Lucifer) , who, according to Baltar possessed the voice of the Cylon Leader (Imperius Commander).
Now, this may be a stretch, but I think it likely that Moore may be riffing on this (he won’t do anything so ham-fisted and obvious) but that episode did give us the gods also as they resurrected Apollo.
This is strange, but suddenly, after watching that, it became clear where he got the idea to infuse this odd religiosity into the story. He may, in some way, be playing with the basic ideas.
Odd thought, but there it is.
I read someplace that the Cylons will be offering a deal to the humans they’ve subjugated on New Caprica. This was apparently being discussed in spoiler threads prior to the finale, but (unless I’m having a total brain fart) it didn’t appear in the actual show, so I don’t know where it came from. It’s possible it will feature heavily in the season three premiere. I don’t know. Because the provenance is uncertain, I’m regarding this as speculative, and I’m not boxing it.
Anyway, here it is.
Apparently, the Cylons will offer the following arrangement to the planetbound humans: You provide us half a dozen test subjects for our reproduction research, each year. In exchange, we will let you live here, and we won’t destroy you. Refuse the deal, and we’ll have to obliterate you. What do you say?
:eek:
If this is true, then it goes a long way toward explaining the Cylons’ objective, and what their ultimate plan might be. And it means Boomer’s Pop Tart is a hell of a lot more important than the humans realize.
IIRC, at the start of the Starbuck/Anders arc on Caprica, didn’t Boomer say more or less “if you cooperated with us we may have even set you up with someone you’d like”
she also said something about Leoben and Starbuck being “special” or “important” or something…
i’ll check my Season 2.0 DVD’s tonight…
The Cylons who took over New Caprica are the same Cylons following Caprica Six and Boomer.
The Cylon faction that had bombed the Colonies, and resettled on Caprica, appear to have been the one with the Old Plan that Cylon Al was complaining about. Cylon Al was saying that the Old Plan called for the Cylons to become humans, essentially – which is why they were living on Caprica as though they were picking up where the humans left off.
Cylon Al wanted the Cylons to become better machines. Apparently, Caprica Six and Boomer have interpreted this in the New Plan to mean that they’re machines who’ll be making the humans better – not replacing the humans.
In short, as Six’s closing voiceover describes, the Plan has changed. Dunno what that means for Hera/Isis, though.
I just confirmed what i thought i heard, near the end of “The Farm”, after Starbuck has escaped from the Cylon Pop-Tart factory, Sharon says the following;
“If you agreed to bear children, it’d be voluntary, maybe even set you up with someone you like”
and on the Leoben/Starbuck thing…
“they know who you are, Kara, you’re special, Leoben told me that, you have a destiny”
hmm, perhaps Anders is destined to be worm-food, and somehow, through some highly improbable situation, Starbuck is "destined* to fall in love with Leoben and create the “Best Pop-Tart in the Fleet”…
Hardly. For lack of a better analogy, the Cylons see (saw?) themselves as a bunch of Noahs, going forth to judge between the evil and the good. Humanity was too deeply flawed, however close they might’ve come, by the imperfections of animal evolution. Only machines, controlled less by their negative “emotions”, could hope to understand the absolute goodness of God’s love. IMO, the only thing (if any) they considered the Galaticans good for was experimentation and data gathering; ultimately they would be irrelevant in the grander equations of the universe.
Well, your original analogy of having the cylons “clean the colonies of those that had fallen short” have the cylons acting as God… and those that are rescued (surviving the flood) being the part of Noah and family.
In any event, my comment was tounge in cheek and not meant for serious debate.
Clearly the Cylons want the majority of the humans dead for one important reason… the Humans are a threat to their existance - especially after the attack (and a percieved threat before hand). Now that the Cylons have a clear advantage (numbers, tech, firepower), they can now move to phase 2 of the plan. (whatever that may be).