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Finally writing this up (BSG Grand Unification Theory)
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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.
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.