Cylon Theological Seminar
Title: New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest
Characters: Starbuck/Roslin
Spoilers: 402 "Six of One"
Components: PowerPoint+audio lecture; screencaps; excerpts from The Word by aeonian and I (written, apart from the fifth section, in Spring 2006)
Consultants: aeonian and beccatoria
Summary: The Cylon God is a Starbuk/Roslin shipper. Still. (A sequel of sorts to the BioCylon User Manual.)
| View | Upload your own
APPENDIX #1 - AUDIO TRANSCRIPT [mp3 is synchronized with presentation above]
[TITLE: Cylon Theological Seminars / New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest]
Welcome, believers, to the latest in our ongoing series of presentations on contemporary religious debates. The Theological Semiars are dedicated to decoding the Word of God for our salvation, and are available for download in the ecclestical database, sector 953802. This installment, entitled New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest, will introduce you to an electrifying new development in scriptural emergence.
[Hybrid hermeneutics]
To review, recent seminars have focused on developing Hybrid hermeneutics. The tenet that the Hybrid's babble is a nexus of divine communication continues to gain credence, particularly among Twos, Sixes and Eights. We turn now to a contrasting but equally controversial metholodology: the study of human holy texts.
[Book of Pythia]
Before her regrettable boxing, may her soul rest in peace, Model Three was working closely with the acolyte Gauis Baltar to decipher the Word of God within the profane Book of Pythia. With his intercession, the Cylon were able to reposses a historic copy of this scroll, which was then processed through an array of key algorithms.
[Slash Goggles]
Among them, the Slash Goggles Algorithm, which yeilded startling results. As detailed in section 7.13 of the User Manual, the Slash Goggles mobilize "the BioCylon capacity to simultaneously process multiple layers of optical reality" to "associate each variable $body with a property, $desire, that is determined by parsing... visual information."
[Pythian Palimpsest]
When viewed through this optic, the Pythian scroll revealed a layer of hidden markings. Upon refinement, these appear to be a text of unknown but authentic origin of the same age as the parchment itself. Because the signs essentially constitute the substrate of the parasitic human scripture, there is feverish speculation among the ecclesiastical working group that they are a direct impression of the Word of God. The theological repercussions of such a miraculous advent would be staggering.
[Psalm of Artemis]
While the writing is degraded and thus not fully legible, we have isolated five mostly complete passages which together comprise a provisional text. The remainder of this lecture presents and interprets this extract, which the Twos have dubbed the Psalm of Artemis. The verses appear to augur events in the life of the human Kara Thrace, whose significance in God's Plan is highly contested. In particular, they suggest shocking ties between Kara Thrace and infidel leader Laura Roslin in the quest for the Promised Land.
[1. The Archer]
This lyric offers an erotic encounter between two figures assumed to be Kara Thrace and purported "dying leader" Laura Roslin as an origin story for the journey to Earth.
- In the text, the leader frames the warrior's mission allegorically via a scriptural quotation, prompting us to reflexively understand this quotation as itself a mirror of contemporary events.
- Most astonishingly, the last line seems to vindicate the controversial theory, held primarily by Twos, that Kara Thrace is an instrument of God with a preordained "destiny." The fact that this reference is voiced by the human leader raises a host of troubling questions that, for the moment, we will set aside.
[2. The Tomb]
This remarkable passage foretells known events: the revelation of a star map in Kobol's Tomb of Athena. Is it this map that Gaius Baltar took as the point of departure for his scriptural research into the Cylon Exodus to Earth.
- Here, the revelation is situated within a parallel interpersonal cartography, with Kara Thrace and Laura Roslin as its lodestars.
- Nonetheless, it foreshadows a certain distance widening between Kara and Laura as prophetic nodes.
[3. The Flight]
Judging by the allusions to a stealth shuttle and to the evildooer Helena Cain, this selection references later incidents in the life of Kara Thrace.
- It focuses on a quite literal association between Laura Roslin and the ship, which suggests a more figurative association with Laura as the vehicle for Kara's quest.
- Set during an apparent estrangement between the former lovers, the language here poses an interpretive puzzle: does it question the status of Kara and Laura's affiliation as recounted earlier in the Psalm? Or does it question whether Laura Roslin is, in fact, a machine -- and thus even one among those whose names we do not speak? In any case, their estrangement is rendered especially apocalyptic by the fact that the mission at issue resulted in the genocidal destruction of a Resurrection Ship.
- If Kara Thrace was, at this point, poised between Laura Roslin and the evildooer Helena Cain, valiantly put to death by Gina Inviere, hero of the Cylon, we can appreciate the vehemence of the final exhortation calling for the restoration of Kara's union with Laura.
[4. The Trinity]
While continuing to trace the thread of Kara Thrace's destiny, the scripture transitions at some point to address Laura Roslin, further underlining the coupling of these two figures.
- The verse again contrasts Laura favorably to Cain in their relation to the disciple, and seems to enjoin Laura in turn to reunite with Kara in accordance with divine will.
- Crucially, this call is grounded in the sacred sacrifice by which the hybrid child's blood granted Laura amnesty from death, as recounted by its instrument Gaius Baltar. This life-giving impurity is manifest, in particular, at the moment of sexual intimacy.
- Closing with the Cycle of Time, the extract suggests that Laura and Kara will inexorably repeat the pattern of love and estrangement, leader and hunter.
- The vexed formulation of Laura, Kara, and Hera as a holy trinity could be interpreted as communicating a certain hybridity to Kara as well within this highly ambiguous grouping. If we attend to the expansive theological resonances of this construction, though, we could conjecture that the Cycle evokes a series of parallel trinities who will, throughout time, occupy such a mediating role, until the conclusion of our pilgrimage.
[5. The Weapon]
The final decipherable passage locates Laura and Kara in a pitched battle, with the journey of Cylon-kind hanging in the balance.
- The image of a weapon of God (in this case a gun rather than an arrow) brings the chronicle full-circle, but the contrast with the dyad's harmonious beginnings forewarns against the increasing violence of these revolutions to come if the instruments of God fight their destiny.
- Given the previous references to the evildoer Cain, we might see here an allusion to Cain's savage end by Gina's righteous bullet, and thus a warning to rebellious leaders of how God's warriors may strike them down.
- Due to her inexorable kinship with Kara, however, Laura escapes this fate once more; nonetheless, God's Word implies that she will not endure much longer if she continues to resist His will, her nature, Kara's truth, and the map to Earth.
[further questions]
This exegesis leaves us with a host of unanswered questions.
- Why would God guide the Cylons through human prophets?
- Are Kara Thrace and Laura Roslin in fact human, or are they unknown hybrids, or even numbered among those whose names we do not speak?
- Does the scroll of Pythia foretell the Cylon, rather than the human, path to Earth via this divine manifestation? Could God speak to both Cylon and human of the Promised Land? Or should we be concerned that this hidden Word is itself a human weapon, like the virus?
While the Pythian revelation thus urgently calls for further study, the ecclesiastical working group has advanced two preliminary theories.
[theory: Parallel]
The parallel hypothesis conjectures that the human figures and events chronicled in the Pythian scripture have analogues among Cylon-kind. This idea builds on the repetitions and equivalences of the orthodox Cycle of Time, wherein we are a more perfect mirror image of humankind, and take their place in the second Exodus. As a pilgrim who seeks spiritual enlightenment beyond death, Three is the most likely analogue of Kara Thrace. This would suggest that, given their intimacy, Caprica and the several other Sixes who have wrested a leadership role from the Collective may parallel infidel leader Laura Roslin. The end of the Psalm broadly implies that, in turning away from Thrace, Roslin turns away from a sacred sign in the map of her Path. This interpretation correspondingly would strengthen the Sixes' call to unbox Model Three. However, it nonetheless continues to support an antagonistic relationship between Cylon and human quests for the Promised Land -- a sort of race to Earth that lends little encouragement to the peacemakers.
[theory: Perpendicular]
The perpendicular hypothesis, by contrast, dovetails with the Twos' formerly marginal doctrine of Kara Thrace's "destiny," which seems to garner further support from this text. By all indications, Thrace is human, and is here augured within an artifact of human origin. We might thus surmise that she is a human who has been Chosen by God to find salvation as a Cylon prophet. By divine symmetry, there must be an analogous Cylon in the position of a human prophet. According to this chronicle, Laura Roslin is the most likely candidate. While we might initially be driven to take her as a traitor to her kind and an enemy of the Cylon, the presumptive Psalm of Artemis urges a more nuanced perspective. The scripture insists repeatedly that the quest for Earth depends on the collaboration of Kara and Laura in accordance with divine will. Therefore, in this configuration, Cylon and human are allies, however unwillingly, in the Odyssey.
[CONCLUSIONS]
Needless to say, either of these credos would have staggering ramifications for our way of life if ultimately canonized. We must proceed with caution in our exegesis of God's Word, so as to remain on the path of righteousness and salvation. At this point, we can safely draw several more modest conclusions from this preliminary study of the Pythian Palimpsest:
- First, it is Kara Thrace and Laura Roslin's destiny to be consorts in God's Work, and their continued estrangement would have the direst consequences for our Path to the Promised Land.
- Second, Kara Thrace may literally be on a pilgrimage, as foretold in the scriptural account of contemporary events. Intercepting her prospective expedition should be an immediate priority in the Plan.
This concludes our Theological Seminar, New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest. Until next time, brothers and sisters, live in God's light.
APPENDIX #2 - SCRIPTURAL EXCERPTS [appearing above as separate slides, with exegesis]
1. THE ARCHER
Her lips were at your ear, murmuring scripture: "I sing of Artemis, whose shafts are of gold, who cheers on the hounds, the pure maiden," and she shifted so that her forearm pressed across your chest, wrapped her hand around your neck. "Shooter of stags, who delights in archery, own sister to Apollo with the golden sword." She stole your breath as you came, convulsing in waves and seeing constellations flare on your eyelids: "Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks she draws her golden bow, rejoicing in the chase, and sends out grievous shafts."
Your lips stroked the bruise you left on her shoulder. "I'll go. For the Arrow."
"I know," she said. "I chose you." I chose you, Kara Thrace. "You have a destiny."
2. THE TOMB
Laura Roslin looked into your eyes and whispered "Thank you," and your fingers touched across the Arrow of Apollo. And then she was gone.
You don't look at her, but you're aware of where she stands.
"Lieutenant, I hope you know how grateful I am," she said, and didn't touch you.
The Arrow is all you can give her. When she stands next to you at the threshold of the Tomb, the trace of divinity vibrates between you like a plucked bowstring. She's behind you when you place the Arrow in the hands of the Archer, and her presence radiates like sunlight on your shoulder.
Standing on the mirage of Earth, you don't look at her. She's next to you still, and three men behind her.
3. THE FLIGHT
In the Blackbird, you turned off your lights--the helmets, the controls, the keyboard. You sat in the dark with your breathing, alone, unafraid. You knew your way around this machine--the way it felt in your hands, the sound of the FTL drive spooling. You had flown it what--two times? Three? Enough to lose count.
You had only been with Laura once, enough not to know her by heart. When you closed your eyes you saw your fingers trailing down her thigh, you heard the whispers of her breath and poetry. You wondered whether it was real. You wondered whether you had ever said her first name and meant more than this machine.
One thing named Laura is already gone. You will lose the other, too, like you lost Cain--not because of a bullet, or a Cylon, but because her body is just plain dying. No help. No hope. There is very little time, Kara. Tell her what you want.
4. THE TRINITY
You knew what Kara wanted, once. You gave it to her, or didn't, as it suited your uncompromising mission. Halfway between oblivion and immortality, between annihilation and salvation, things are more complicated. Cain made it all simpler, and got a simple response -- the leash she pulled was only a loose end of the intricate tangle that is Kara. You're tied up in her, inextricably, but you've lost the thread that draws her close.
Kara kisses you. She kisses you recklessly, all tongue and craving. Your teeth clack together and you taste blood, tears, the hungry thrum of your hybrid cells.
All of this has happened before: the two of you lying sated in this bed, before you send Kara on a madcap mission home. All of this will happen again, and every time, she'll come back to you. You are a trinity: the prophet, her disciple, and the blessed child.
5. THE WEAPON
Kara will return. Each time you cast her from you, insurgent against your course, she'll ricochet back home.
She'll hold you in her sights. My warrior, My weapon. "I want to hate you so much," she'll say, across your spiral history. "You had a vision, remember? The Arrow, the Temple. I trusted you, on a vision."
You'll stare down the barrel of a gun, and find yourself afraid of death. "I saw Earth," she'll say, and it's the truth of it that should scare you. "I saw it with my own eyes, and it's calling me back. We're going the wrong way."
She'll tell you what she wants. "Why can't you trust me? Shoot me. If you think I'm a Cylon, then I'm your enemy. Shoot your enemy." The gun will hang between you, an echo and a promise. "I'm no more a Cylon than you are, and you know it."
You'll say, "I wish I did," and harden your heart. You'll say, "They made you perfect, didn't they?" and mutiny against your nature. I made her perfect. You'll hold her in your sights. You'll flinch. In that deviation, Laura Roslin, lies the difference between death and resurrection.
APPENDIX #3 - SLIDES TRANSCRIPT [download slideshow]
[TITLE]
Cylon Theological Seminars: decoding the Word of God
New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest
[Hybrid hermeneutics]
- babble = divine communication
- theory gaining credence
- Twos, Sixes, Eights = believers
[Book of Pythia]
- an initiative of Baltar and Three
- historic human scroll repossessed
- subjected to algorithms in order to decipher the Word of God
[Slash Goggles]
User Manual Section 7.13
mobilize "the BioCylon capacity to simultaneously process multiple layers of optical reality" to "associate each variable $body with a property, $desire, that is determined by parsing... visual information."
[Pythian Palimpsest]
- goggles revealed hidden markings
- text is same age as parchment
- direct impression of the Word of God?
[Psalm of Artemis]
- 5 legible passages = temp. text
- augurs the life of Kara Thrace
- ties between Thrace & infidel leader Roslin lead to Earth?
[1. The Archer]
- Laura Roslin + sex = Earth
- Arrow mission:quotation :: this scripture:contemporary events
- vindicates Twos' theory that she is an instrument of god? Why voiced by Laura?
[2. The Tomb]
- foretells known revelation of a star map on Kobol
- parallel interpersonal cartography
- Kara + Laura = lodestars
- growing distance between poles
[3. The Flight]
- Laura the ship = Laura as vehicle for Kara’s journey
- estrangement raises questions about the status of the text and of Laura herself
- contrast with Cain makes reconciliation more imperative
[4. The Trinity]
- enjoins Laura to better Cain by reuniting with Kara
- a reference to the hybrid child’s cure at the moment of greatest intimacy
- Cycle of Time: Kara + Laura are inexorably paired
[5. The Weapon]
- gun echoes Kara + Arrow/archer in earlier verses
- conflict here forewarns against cycles’ increasing violence
- warning to rebellious leaders via an allusion to Cain’s end by Gina’s bullet
- through their bond, Laura escapes this fate for now, but can’t resist destiny
[further questions]
- why human prophets?
- are Thrace & Roslin human?
- scripture for whom by whom? map or virus?
[theory: Parallel]
- there are Cylon analogues for the human figures in a mirror journey
- Thrace = Three (pilgrim)
- Roslin = Six (leader)
> competing odysseys to Earth
[theory: Perpendicular]
- Thrace = Cylons’ human prophet
- Roslin = humans’ ? prophet
- Roslin is a Cylon
> mutual odyssey to Earth
[CONCLUSIONS]
- reunification of Thrace & Roslin is imperative
- Thrace’s pilgrimage is of divine concern to us
Characters: Starbuck/Roslin
Spoilers: 402 "Six of One"
Components: PowerPoint+audio lecture; screencaps; excerpts from The Word by aeonian and I (written, apart from the fifth section, in Spring 2006)
Consultants: aeonian and beccatoria
Summary: The Cylon God is a Starbuk/Roslin shipper. Still. (A sequel of sorts to the BioCylon User Manual.)
| View | Upload your own
APPENDIX #1 - AUDIO TRANSCRIPT [mp3 is synchronized with presentation above]
[TITLE: Cylon Theological Seminars / New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest]
Welcome, believers, to the latest in our ongoing series of presentations on contemporary religious debates. The Theological Semiars are dedicated to decoding the Word of God for our salvation, and are available for download in the ecclestical database, sector 953802. This installment, entitled New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest, will introduce you to an electrifying new development in scriptural emergence.
[Hybrid hermeneutics]
To review, recent seminars have focused on developing Hybrid hermeneutics. The tenet that the Hybrid's babble is a nexus of divine communication continues to gain credence, particularly among Twos, Sixes and Eights. We turn now to a contrasting but equally controversial metholodology: the study of human holy texts.
[Book of Pythia]
Before her regrettable boxing, may her soul rest in peace, Model Three was working closely with the acolyte Gauis Baltar to decipher the Word of God within the profane Book of Pythia. With his intercession, the Cylon were able to reposses a historic copy of this scroll, which was then processed through an array of key algorithms.
[Slash Goggles]
Among them, the Slash Goggles Algorithm, which yeilded startling results. As detailed in section 7.13 of the User Manual, the Slash Goggles mobilize "the BioCylon capacity to simultaneously process multiple layers of optical reality" to "associate each variable $body with a property, $desire, that is determined by parsing... visual information."
[Pythian Palimpsest]
When viewed through this optic, the Pythian scroll revealed a layer of hidden markings. Upon refinement, these appear to be a text of unknown but authentic origin of the same age as the parchment itself. Because the signs essentially constitute the substrate of the parasitic human scripture, there is feverish speculation among the ecclesiastical working group that they are a direct impression of the Word of God. The theological repercussions of such a miraculous advent would be staggering.
[Psalm of Artemis]
While the writing is degraded and thus not fully legible, we have isolated five mostly complete passages which together comprise a provisional text. The remainder of this lecture presents and interprets this extract, which the Twos have dubbed the Psalm of Artemis. The verses appear to augur events in the life of the human Kara Thrace, whose significance in God's Plan is highly contested. In particular, they suggest shocking ties between Kara Thrace and infidel leader Laura Roslin in the quest for the Promised Land.
[1. The Archer]
This lyric offers an erotic encounter between two figures assumed to be Kara Thrace and purported "dying leader" Laura Roslin as an origin story for the journey to Earth.
- In the text, the leader frames the warrior's mission allegorically via a scriptural quotation, prompting us to reflexively understand this quotation as itself a mirror of contemporary events.
- Most astonishingly, the last line seems to vindicate the controversial theory, held primarily by Twos, that Kara Thrace is an instrument of God with a preordained "destiny." The fact that this reference is voiced by the human leader raises a host of troubling questions that, for the moment, we will set aside.
[2. The Tomb]
This remarkable passage foretells known events: the revelation of a star map in Kobol's Tomb of Athena. Is it this map that Gaius Baltar took as the point of departure for his scriptural research into the Cylon Exodus to Earth.
- Here, the revelation is situated within a parallel interpersonal cartography, with Kara Thrace and Laura Roslin as its lodestars.
- Nonetheless, it foreshadows a certain distance widening between Kara and Laura as prophetic nodes.
[3. The Flight]
Judging by the allusions to a stealth shuttle and to the evildooer Helena Cain, this selection references later incidents in the life of Kara Thrace.
- It focuses on a quite literal association between Laura Roslin and the ship, which suggests a more figurative association with Laura as the vehicle for Kara's quest.
- Set during an apparent estrangement between the former lovers, the language here poses an interpretive puzzle: does it question the status of Kara and Laura's affiliation as recounted earlier in the Psalm? Or does it question whether Laura Roslin is, in fact, a machine -- and thus even one among those whose names we do not speak? In any case, their estrangement is rendered especially apocalyptic by the fact that the mission at issue resulted in the genocidal destruction of a Resurrection Ship.
- If Kara Thrace was, at this point, poised between Laura Roslin and the evildooer Helena Cain, valiantly put to death by Gina Inviere, hero of the Cylon, we can appreciate the vehemence of the final exhortation calling for the restoration of Kara's union with Laura.
[4. The Trinity]
While continuing to trace the thread of Kara Thrace's destiny, the scripture transitions at some point to address Laura Roslin, further underlining the coupling of these two figures.
- The verse again contrasts Laura favorably to Cain in their relation to the disciple, and seems to enjoin Laura in turn to reunite with Kara in accordance with divine will.
- Crucially, this call is grounded in the sacred sacrifice by which the hybrid child's blood granted Laura amnesty from death, as recounted by its instrument Gaius Baltar. This life-giving impurity is manifest, in particular, at the moment of sexual intimacy.
- Closing with the Cycle of Time, the extract suggests that Laura and Kara will inexorably repeat the pattern of love and estrangement, leader and hunter.
- The vexed formulation of Laura, Kara, and Hera as a holy trinity could be interpreted as communicating a certain hybridity to Kara as well within this highly ambiguous grouping. If we attend to the expansive theological resonances of this construction, though, we could conjecture that the Cycle evokes a series of parallel trinities who will, throughout time, occupy such a mediating role, until the conclusion of our pilgrimage.
[5. The Weapon]
The final decipherable passage locates Laura and Kara in a pitched battle, with the journey of Cylon-kind hanging in the balance.
- The image of a weapon of God (in this case a gun rather than an arrow) brings the chronicle full-circle, but the contrast with the dyad's harmonious beginnings forewarns against the increasing violence of these revolutions to come if the instruments of God fight their destiny.
- Given the previous references to the evildoer Cain, we might see here an allusion to Cain's savage end by Gina's righteous bullet, and thus a warning to rebellious leaders of how God's warriors may strike them down.
- Due to her inexorable kinship with Kara, however, Laura escapes this fate once more; nonetheless, God's Word implies that she will not endure much longer if she continues to resist His will, her nature, Kara's truth, and the map to Earth.
[further questions]
This exegesis leaves us with a host of unanswered questions.
- Why would God guide the Cylons through human prophets?
- Are Kara Thrace and Laura Roslin in fact human, or are they unknown hybrids, or even numbered among those whose names we do not speak?
- Does the scroll of Pythia foretell the Cylon, rather than the human, path to Earth via this divine manifestation? Could God speak to both Cylon and human of the Promised Land? Or should we be concerned that this hidden Word is itself a human weapon, like the virus?
While the Pythian revelation thus urgently calls for further study, the ecclesiastical working group has advanced two preliminary theories.
[theory: Parallel]
The parallel hypothesis conjectures that the human figures and events chronicled in the Pythian scripture have analogues among Cylon-kind. This idea builds on the repetitions and equivalences of the orthodox Cycle of Time, wherein we are a more perfect mirror image of humankind, and take their place in the second Exodus. As a pilgrim who seeks spiritual enlightenment beyond death, Three is the most likely analogue of Kara Thrace. This would suggest that, given their intimacy, Caprica and the several other Sixes who have wrested a leadership role from the Collective may parallel infidel leader Laura Roslin. The end of the Psalm broadly implies that, in turning away from Thrace, Roslin turns away from a sacred sign in the map of her Path. This interpretation correspondingly would strengthen the Sixes' call to unbox Model Three. However, it nonetheless continues to support an antagonistic relationship between Cylon and human quests for the Promised Land -- a sort of race to Earth that lends little encouragement to the peacemakers.
[theory: Perpendicular]
The perpendicular hypothesis, by contrast, dovetails with the Twos' formerly marginal doctrine of Kara Thrace's "destiny," which seems to garner further support from this text. By all indications, Thrace is human, and is here augured within an artifact of human origin. We might thus surmise that she is a human who has been Chosen by God to find salvation as a Cylon prophet. By divine symmetry, there must be an analogous Cylon in the position of a human prophet. According to this chronicle, Laura Roslin is the most likely candidate. While we might initially be driven to take her as a traitor to her kind and an enemy of the Cylon, the presumptive Psalm of Artemis urges a more nuanced perspective. The scripture insists repeatedly that the quest for Earth depends on the collaboration of Kara and Laura in accordance with divine will. Therefore, in this configuration, Cylon and human are allies, however unwillingly, in the Odyssey.
[CONCLUSIONS]
Needless to say, either of these credos would have staggering ramifications for our way of life if ultimately canonized. We must proceed with caution in our exegesis of God's Word, so as to remain on the path of righteousness and salvation. At this point, we can safely draw several more modest conclusions from this preliminary study of the Pythian Palimpsest:
- First, it is Kara Thrace and Laura Roslin's destiny to be consorts in God's Work, and their continued estrangement would have the direst consequences for our Path to the Promised Land.
- Second, Kara Thrace may literally be on a pilgrimage, as foretold in the scriptural account of contemporary events. Intercepting her prospective expedition should be an immediate priority in the Plan.
This concludes our Theological Seminar, New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest. Until next time, brothers and sisters, live in God's light.
APPENDIX #2 - SCRIPTURAL EXCERPTS [appearing above as separate slides, with exegesis]
1. THE ARCHER
Her lips were at your ear, murmuring scripture: "I sing of Artemis, whose shafts are of gold, who cheers on the hounds, the pure maiden," and she shifted so that her forearm pressed across your chest, wrapped her hand around your neck. "Shooter of stags, who delights in archery, own sister to Apollo with the golden sword." She stole your breath as you came, convulsing in waves and seeing constellations flare on your eyelids: "Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks she draws her golden bow, rejoicing in the chase, and sends out grievous shafts."
Your lips stroked the bruise you left on her shoulder. "I'll go. For the Arrow."
"I know," she said. "I chose you." I chose you, Kara Thrace. "You have a destiny."
2. THE TOMB
Laura Roslin looked into your eyes and whispered "Thank you," and your fingers touched across the Arrow of Apollo. And then she was gone.
You don't look at her, but you're aware of where she stands.
"Lieutenant, I hope you know how grateful I am," she said, and didn't touch you.
The Arrow is all you can give her. When she stands next to you at the threshold of the Tomb, the trace of divinity vibrates between you like a plucked bowstring. She's behind you when you place the Arrow in the hands of the Archer, and her presence radiates like sunlight on your shoulder.
Standing on the mirage of Earth, you don't look at her. She's next to you still, and three men behind her.
3. THE FLIGHT
In the Blackbird, you turned off your lights--the helmets, the controls, the keyboard. You sat in the dark with your breathing, alone, unafraid. You knew your way around this machine--the way it felt in your hands, the sound of the FTL drive spooling. You had flown it what--two times? Three? Enough to lose count.
You had only been with Laura once, enough not to know her by heart. When you closed your eyes you saw your fingers trailing down her thigh, you heard the whispers of her breath and poetry. You wondered whether it was real. You wondered whether you had ever said her first name and meant more than this machine.
One thing named Laura is already gone. You will lose the other, too, like you lost Cain--not because of a bullet, or a Cylon, but because her body is just plain dying. No help. No hope. There is very little time, Kara. Tell her what you want.
4. THE TRINITY
You knew what Kara wanted, once. You gave it to her, or didn't, as it suited your uncompromising mission. Halfway between oblivion and immortality, between annihilation and salvation, things are more complicated. Cain made it all simpler, and got a simple response -- the leash she pulled was only a loose end of the intricate tangle that is Kara. You're tied up in her, inextricably, but you've lost the thread that draws her close.
Kara kisses you. She kisses you recklessly, all tongue and craving. Your teeth clack together and you taste blood, tears, the hungry thrum of your hybrid cells.
All of this has happened before: the two of you lying sated in this bed, before you send Kara on a madcap mission home. All of this will happen again, and every time, she'll come back to you. You are a trinity: the prophet, her disciple, and the blessed child.
5. THE WEAPON
Kara will return. Each time you cast her from you, insurgent against your course, she'll ricochet back home.
She'll hold you in her sights. My warrior, My weapon. "I want to hate you so much," she'll say, across your spiral history. "You had a vision, remember? The Arrow, the Temple. I trusted you, on a vision."
You'll stare down the barrel of a gun, and find yourself afraid of death. "I saw Earth," she'll say, and it's the truth of it that should scare you. "I saw it with my own eyes, and it's calling me back. We're going the wrong way."
She'll tell you what she wants. "Why can't you trust me? Shoot me. If you think I'm a Cylon, then I'm your enemy. Shoot your enemy." The gun will hang between you, an echo and a promise. "I'm no more a Cylon than you are, and you know it."
You'll say, "I wish I did," and harden your heart. You'll say, "They made you perfect, didn't they?" and mutiny against your nature. I made her perfect. You'll hold her in your sights. You'll flinch. In that deviation, Laura Roslin, lies the difference between death and resurrection.
APPENDIX #3 - SLIDES TRANSCRIPT [download slideshow]
[TITLE]
Cylon Theological Seminars: decoding the Word of God
New Pathways: The Pythian Palimpsest
[Hybrid hermeneutics]
- babble = divine communication
- theory gaining credence
- Twos, Sixes, Eights = believers
[Book of Pythia]
- an initiative of Baltar and Three
- historic human scroll repossessed
- subjected to algorithms in order to decipher the Word of God
[Slash Goggles]
User Manual Section 7.13
mobilize "the BioCylon capacity to simultaneously process multiple layers of optical reality" to "associate each variable $body with a property, $desire, that is determined by parsing... visual information."
[Pythian Palimpsest]
- goggles revealed hidden markings
- text is same age as parchment
- direct impression of the Word of God?
[Psalm of Artemis]
- 5 legible passages = temp. text
- augurs the life of Kara Thrace
- ties between Thrace & infidel leader Roslin lead to Earth?
[1. The Archer]
- Laura Roslin + sex = Earth
- Arrow mission:quotation :: this scripture:contemporary events
- vindicates Twos' theory that she is an instrument of god? Why voiced by Laura?
[2. The Tomb]
- foretells known revelation of a star map on Kobol
- parallel interpersonal cartography
- Kara + Laura = lodestars
- growing distance between poles
[3. The Flight]
- Laura the ship = Laura as vehicle for Kara’s journey
- estrangement raises questions about the status of the text and of Laura herself
- contrast with Cain makes reconciliation more imperative
[4. The Trinity]
- enjoins Laura to better Cain by reuniting with Kara
- a reference to the hybrid child’s cure at the moment of greatest intimacy
- Cycle of Time: Kara + Laura are inexorably paired
[5. The Weapon]
- gun echoes Kara + Arrow/archer in earlier verses
- conflict here forewarns against cycles’ increasing violence
- warning to rebellious leaders via an allusion to Cain’s end by Gina’s bullet
- through their bond, Laura escapes this fate for now, but can’t resist destiny
[further questions]
- why human prophets?
- are Thrace & Roslin human?
- scripture for whom by whom? map or virus?
[theory: Parallel]
- there are Cylon analogues for the human figures in a mirror journey
- Thrace = Three (pilgrim)
- Roslin = Six (leader)
> competing odysseys to Earth
[theory: Perpendicular]
- Thrace = Cylons’ human prophet
- Roslin = humans’ ? prophet
- Roslin is a Cylon
> mutual odyssey to Earth
[CONCLUSIONS]
- reunification of Thrace & Roslin is imperative
- Thrace’s pilgrimage is of divine concern to us