On Battlestar Galactica and "cycles"

[Sarevok]

With the conclusion of Battlestar Galactica I had been going through all the episodes trying to make sense of full story as we know it by now. Apparently it is now claimed that the whole thing was about cycles and such where one civilization dies to it's robots then another identical one forms then does exact same thing. Which is fasnicating at first but later leaves you wondering and confused.

Why the hell would two consecutive civilizations be identical right down to clothing, culture and the very designs of their robot annihalators ?

Why would robots annihalate humans anyway ? Back here in Earth we speculate robotics could go anywhere from skynet to bolo. The possiblities are endless. Robots could become valiant protectors of mankind like the aformentioned bolos. Or they could stop giving a fuck about humans like the Technocore in Hyperion and just observe and interfere with mild curiosity of adults watching children play. Future of AI could go anywhere. Why does it end up with "rar centurion / basestar => Angels = > boom => Earth => rar centurion / basestar " ?

Is Battlestar Galactica the Matrix repackaged for 2009 audiences in TV form with it's 'deep philosophy" that makes no sense ?

[tezunegari]

Personally I think nBSG is about making the wrong decision.

The colonials that landed on our earth knew about the cycle and tried to break it by abandoning their known social structures and living like hunter/gatherers. And that decision lead to our current state on earth (in the nBSG universe that is.)

If they had had the ability to keep their technology and to rebuild their civilization (which would be a nice wink to the Atlantis myth or any other space visitor myth) it might have broken the cycle because they would have seen sentient robots in a different way.

But as it is they just rebootet their sociological development (be it out of need or because of "This way we change/break the cycle" mentality) and all their experience with enslaved machines becoming sentient is lost. Which appears to be the renewed beginning of the cycle.

Why would robots annihalate humans anyway ?

Because they were a slave race that became sentient. The Centurions were part of the armed forces and they were used to fight wars between the colonies prior their uprising and as they were mass produced I doubt there were concerns about their wellfare. Suicide missions and total disregard from their human brothers in arms might have turned them bitter towards all humans. And maybe "chrometoaster" as a derogative term for centurion might have been used prior the first Cylon war. And the cylons might have thought that the colonials might find a way to enslave them again and that only their total annihilation would end that threat to their freedom.

[Stark]

Frankly, I think the fact that the Cylons are robots is nearly totally irrelevant. They're just two different groups (or three, whatever). Replace 'centurions' with 'black people' or 'uplifted cats' and the story is the same. When you exploit a group, they get pissed and fuck you up and go on to do exactly the same thing themselves. The cycle is one of ethnic hatred and violence and stupidity.

[Darth Onasi]

I believe the point is, why does this lead to genocide every single time?
An example that sticks in my mind is the game, Phantasy Star Universe, where centuries ago humans created robots as slaves, the slaves rebelled and fought a war but in the end a peace treaty is signed and humans and the robots attempt to live together. The robots eventually take all political and military roles leaving humans as second class citizens basically.

I'm not saying that's how it should be in BSG which has always been a show about evil killbots hounding the last remnant of humanity but it's a little odd that this cycle must always end in complete destruction.

Unless, of course, God did it.

[Stark]

Because Moore is a hack and clumsily forced the BSG convoy into the mini and then had to make it 'ambiguous' about who was 'really' 'bad'?

[Covenant]

Because Moore is a hack and clumsily forced the BSG convoy into the mini and then had to make it 'ambiguous' about who was 'really' 'bad'?

I think those are core elements to the source material though, and not inappropriate in the tone of the show.

However, I think it only became about cycles after the last season. The early seasons' unifying theme was the concept of hope--that you gotta give people something to want to live for, and that's what Earth was. When they got to Earth and the show essentially skipped off the rails, it then became about cycles. I'm sure this was some element of the show, but we know for certain from statements made that several elements were deeply in flux at the beginning, such as if Helo would survive or become anything, or who the Five would be, and so forth, so that major plot elements had to be essentially wrought out on the fly when they got to that season.

Stark's read about it being a tale with the focus on ethnic issues is closer to what the show is "about" even if that's not the moral of the story, since the idea of ethnic, racial, and political infighting and the morality of power over others is what the writers and actors themselves felt were the big themes. The cycle itself wasn't important to the story. The nBSG plotline isn't a cycle anyway, unless the 'cycle' that needs to be broken is the cycle of Cylon actions, not human ones. The Final Five were the reason for the nBSG war, and the only way for them to be part of the cycle is if they're stand-ins for the last survivors of humanity (in skinjob form) escaping a cylon attack. Viewed that way, the cycle that seems to upset the Master Control Program would be the cycle of chromehead revenge. Maybe it isn't about humanity at all.