Finally writing this up (BSG Grand Unification Theory)

[solarbird]

Okay, so, kathrynt asked me to detail my theory about what's really going on with Baltar!Six. I'm going to go a bit beyond that, because that's only part of the Grand Unification Theory of Battlestar Galactica.

Ready? Click through, or don't, but if you do, you've been warned.

I've never thought much of the "Baltar's Just Crazy" theory, or even the "he has a chip" theory. There are a couple of reasons. First, Baltar!Six has physical effects on things. She can move objects and they're actually moved from the third-party perspective. We've seen that more than once. Secondly, she's provided him with data that he did not and could not have known about Cylon culture and religion - things that we know are, in fact, correct. Third, the whole chip thing just didn't sound right - if they could control him like that, the whole set of mechanisations beforehand didn't make any sense. (This also applies to the "he's a cekrit cylon" theory.)

Even more, though, it's that she seems to be able to manifest herself and literally then vanish. Cylons can't do that, I think it's pretty clear; their technology base is stronger than that of the Colonial civilisation, but it's not at the level implied by that kind of stunt.

So that was all making me think. And I was also thinking about the original series, the one that they're digging up and scraping off all the crap. Later in the series, they got into this whole area derived from some weird Mormon mysticism, where the Colonial/Cylon war had become kind of a proxy war between two godlike higher power groups. And a big question that had been going around in my head had been, "Why would Cylons have religion?" Where'd they come up with that? I think we can pretty much assume they didn't have it when they rebelled against their slavery. So it had to have come up after.

I decided that when the Cylons left the Colonies, after winning their freedom in the first Cylon War, they found something. Or, more likely, that something found them. And started monkeying with them. Whether this was overt or covert, I didn't know.

So given that idea, it's fair to suspect that Baltar's six was an agent of that power. This has been my theory. She's a third player, or at least a representative thereof. I think that's now been validated—or, at least, left standing—after the revelations in 2.18. We now know Baltar!Six is not a Cylon agent, implant, or otherwise. Too many Cylons don't know about her, and the possibility that Caprica!Six!Baltar could be such a thing in Caprica!Six's head doesn't even cross her mind. It's not an option. And also, I think, given Caprica!Six!Baltar, it's reasonable to assert that Baltar!Six isn't a paired hallucination, because the parallelism is too close - and besides, again, she's moved physical objects and we've seen that they've actually moved from a third-party POV.

So I think at this point that she is this agent of this third player in the game, the nature of which is still indetermanent.

However, I have some ideas about that, as well. They're important. If you've read this far, maybe you don't want to keep reading. These are speculations about the greater universe.

In the original series, there were two sides in the higher game, one pro-Cylon, one pro-Colonial. So my next question is: if all this is true and they continuing the parallels, then is Caprica!Six!Baltar an agent of the other side? The other higher-level power?

It's not a gimmie that he is. The Cylons, we now know, were stunned by the overwhelming success in their conquest. They were not expecting that. They were expecting a war, one that would take some time to win. It could be that the third player was also surprised by this, and is now playing catch-up to try to rebalance the scales with some sort of specific goal in mind for both Cylon and Colonials. But it could also be the opponent of that third player, which we may as well call Player Four. We don't know which yet.

My second question is about the nature of this other agent. In my head, that speaks to another important question: is there a reason that the Cylon religion is clearly Abrahamic? Well, other than giving the villains of the piece the religion we recognise and which most viewers will reflexively trust? There might not be; that's the sort of game Ron Moore likes to play in this series, and that could be all there is too it. But I'm not sure.

I'm wondering if the Colonials don't have their historical timeline backwards. I'm wondering if it's been changed from the original series. In the original, of course, it was a migration out of Kobol to 13 different planets, one of which was Earth. That's the mythos in this version too.

But what if that's wrong? What if it's Earth->Kobol->Colonies, with maybe a small faction deciding to return to Earth from Kobol? That star map makes a lot more sense if you've already been to Earth than it does if you're setting out to one of 13 unknown worlds of uncertain location. If it's just another place that you aren't even sure exists, as is implied in the fleeing from Kobol to the Colony worlds - they flew out and kept going until they found a place to live - if you don't even know where you're going... you can't work out what the sky would look like from the ground.

You'd have had to have already been there, and come back, to build the map in that tomb.

Now's where it starts to get super wacky.

If this revised migration order is correct, and if they're making this into a hard-SF series (as has been stated from the top)¹, then what happened to Earth? Did Earth make something that forced humanity, or at least a section thereof, to flee? If so... is that something from Earth the thing that found the Cylons? Because if there is this third agent, they gave them a religion that seems, well, awfully familiar.

I'd like to think there's a reason for that. I really would.

Anyway, that's my theory, updated a bit with some of the newer data courtesy of this episode. Whaddya think, sirs?

¹: And the original BSG's timeline was based in part on the idea that this bizarre crackpot theory stating that the Egyptians were originally from Outer Space was actually true. It's fun to play with, but it's bad science, which you had a lot of in that version. The science, with a couple of painful, bleeding exceptions, has been much better this time around. Maybe this part is better, too. OooooOOOooo.

Comments

[aerialscribe.livejournal.com]

Nice analysis. The whole Baltar!Six and Caprica!Six!Baltar thing does make a lot of sense when looked at as an update/refelection of third/fourth agent powers that were presented in the original series as "angels", or at least, people in spiffy white suits and glowing flying machine things.

[wrog]

I'm wondering if the Colonials don't have their historical timeline backwards. ... But what if that's wrong? What if it's Earth->Kobol->Colonies,

actually, I'm thinking maybe both are true. One consistent theme that has been mentioned over and over is, "This has all happened before." It's a cycle that repeats, the top-level bit being that every so often there's a crisis that destroys the home world(s) of humanity and drives them forth to settle somewhere. But it could be more literal than that, that is, it's really

...Earth->Kobol->Colonies->Earth->Kobol->Colonies->Earth->...

I'm also inclined to believe that Baltar!Six and CapricaSix!Baltar are agents of the same power, or, at worst, may as well be, given their apparent agreement on all manner of ground rules -- without that, one or both of Baltar or CapricaSix would be dropping dead of a stroke in fairly short order; they almost have to know about each other. Each phantom is out-of-character with respect to his/her real-life counterpart in remarkably similar ways. And on both sides, the manipulation seems to be designed to bring them together again at some point. Again, if it's not one agent using the same MO on two people it wants to manipulate, then we have two agents that so totally in agreement on their ground rules that this MO is the only way to do things, that it might as well be one agent -- the story is then Manipulative Power(s) vs. The Little People.

Not that there might not indeed be Another Side to this, but if so, I'm pretty sure we haven't their proxies yet.

---

Something I'm now completely puzzled by:  Which Six was it that beat up Kara when she was on Caprica however many episodes ago.

This Six was clearly angry and jealous, which (I think) could only come from knowledge of current events on Galactica (i.e., that Kara slept with Baltar), and yet CapricaSix had no idea Baltar was still alive -- or at least LucyLawless assumed CapricaSix had no idea Baltar was still alive. How does this shared consciousness stuff work again? Helo!Sharon seems to knows everything about Tyrol!Sharon right up to the point where Calley shoots her. And yet Tyrol!Sharon and CapricaSix are going to rebel against the established order without any of the other Sixes and Sharons figuring it out?

[solarbird]

It's a cycle that repeats, the top-level bit being that every so often there's a crisis that destroys the home world(s) of humanity and drives them forth to settle somewhere.

And that's why Locke has to keep entering those numbers!

[wrog]

?

[solarbird]

Not watching LOST, then. Ah well.

[smarier.livejournal.com]

So do you have a G.U.T. for Lost?

[solarbird]

Yes. Yes, I do.

Well, to a degree. I think I know what they were trying to do. Wanna hear it?

[smarier.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to hear it.

I think lost is one of the most original shows (or at least hard to guess at where they are going) in years. It is one of the few shows that I watch "live" (instead of tivoed) as I don't want the plot twists to be spoiled.

[solarbird]

spazzkat suggested they were trying to do something with probability. I thought that was clear. But more specifically, what I think they were trying to do is implement karma. I think they wanted to change probability in such a way that their ideas about good decisions were rewarded by reality itself - by "luck," as it were - and bad decisions would get punished.

[darkphoenixrisn.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha!!!!

[solarbird]

Also, I ♥ Caprica!Six!Baltar so much. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥!

Oh, and I dunno which Six that was. It's a good question. I don't have a good handle on that either. I have a suspicion that dead Cylon bodies, unless destroyed, become passive transmitters, which would be very useful for information-gathering. In that case, it would be important not to incorporate that data as general memory, since it would cause overlapping contradicting memories in the reincarnated individual. So maybe that one Six was familiar with the DeadSharonCam's feed, and others, maybe not so much.

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that there's no merging between different versions of the same model. Hence the issues that Sharon is having, and to a lesser degree Caprica-Six.

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

Then again, at awakaning the others seem to have at least a rudimentary idea of what's been up, like Sharon shooting Adama.

[solarbird]

Um. Hm? I'm not sure which "others" you're talking about.

(Hee, "others." This and LOST really are the same show, aren't they? ^_^ )

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I meant the ones standing around the tank in which first Six and later Sharon awaken.

[solarbird]

Oh, well, sure, they would - I mean, they're the resurrection team, standing by to help her adjust.

[epawtows.livejournal.com]

I've been told that that Count Iblis is supposed to show up in the next few eps.

[solarbird]

AAAAAGH no spoilering at me!

That said: muah-ha-ha! Of course, there are only two episodes left in this season. Anna checked.

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they'll get Patric McNee for the role? ;-)

[epawtows.livejournal.com]

Might not work out- I was told about the Iblis thing at the start of this season (by someone back East with some Hollywood connections), and he hasn't shown up yet; it might have been disinformation.

It works out pretty well with your theory, though.

[kensaro.livejournal.com]

Did you notice that Three refers to the the Cylons as Cylon, singular, pretty concistantly? Yet Caprica-Six and Eight(Sharon) don't?

[solarbird]

Yeah, annathepiper picked up on that pretty strongly. The question is whether it's a model difference or a spent time with the humans difference. Caprica!Six and Galactica!Caprica!Sharon both do that. (Caprica!Galactica!Sharon (Helo Sharon) also uses "Cylons" as a plural, I think.)

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

Perhaps spent time living as human, rather than just living with them. Then again, no way to tell which Three was the previously-seen-on-Galactica reporter, they could be trapped with a different unit (?) I guess.

Aind I'm thinking one of the known male models wasn't in that episode at all, the one they found on the armory station in the miniseries and that Starbuck later interrogated & Roslin threw out the airlock. Nice job in the Cylon crowd scenes though not showing anyone we haven't already seen, even from behind. (At least, I didn't spot any.)

[solarbird]

See, I thought that was so cheating, only seeing ones we know. Still, they did a hell of a job with the SFX and staging, duplicating all those people everywhere.