Galactica History and math

[lizardbeth_j]

Once upon a time, I had math in school. I also moonlighted as a graduate student in history.

I have brought both to bear on this. So BE AFRAID. :)

No spoilers I can think of. A whole lot of speculation, however.

Comments

[i_want_2]

May I make one dissenting argument?

They retconned history for season 3. All timelines after that are different and not really compatible with already established canon. Thus, this is really an exercise in futility that merely points out the fact that they have no idea what they are saying and that we are just mindless voles who are stumbling around in the dark looking for the next big reveal to thrill us so we keep coming back and wondering why it makes our heads hurt to watch this show and never really learn from the mistakes of the past and keep going back, banging our heads against the wall that is the major ass frakking that is what they call canon and then there is the.....

*HEAD EXPLODES*

[lizardbeth_j]

While all that may be true (it's certainly true the Final Five wasn't thought up until New Caprica pushed them into a corner), quite honestly I don't care. I am ALL ABOUT the fine art of the fannish fanwank.

You see, unlike people who get frustrated with retcons and refinements (and characters who LIE), I like the challenge of it. Because, quite often, fans just don't try hard enough to put it together and/or they get attached to their fanon and FORGET the real canon (e.g. all the fans who STILL believe Tigh and Adama met during the first cylon war). But canon's canon, and I find outliers become more interesting if I try to explain them, rather than write them off as mistakes.

[i_want_2]

In other words, you like to stick your fingers in others ears and hum loudly?

[lizardbeth_j]

that also makes sense. And I suppose in practice isn't really that much different, just whether they're identified by their religious practice or their um level of humanity. When really I bet both are true. I only put a bit of it above, but I think the 13th Tribe, whether one wave or three, are also "Cylons" (whatever that may mean in each cycle - AIs, cyborgs, ascended beings, etc

[talkofcake]

I find this post very insightful! You do a lot of speculating though, and a lot of your speculating is very scientific

[lizardbeth_j]

OH, I totally agree that the mystical is going to play a big part, but as I said at the bottom I didn't want to include any of my spec on how the spiritual fits into this, because it depends a lot on spoilers, and I wanted to make this readable to even the spoiler-phobes.

A quick glance through RDM's previous stuff shows a lot of the themes he's used to working with (destiny especially) so I have absolutely no doubt that those things are a part of the story. But one of the things I love about spec RIGHT NOW, before we know how it all ends up, is that there's such a wide range of possibility - everything from the hard-SF-nothing-unexplainable to supernatural beings and the force of Destiny, and it's hard to tell exactly where we'll fall on the spectrum.

And really, in the end, I am pretty sure we're not actually going to GET an explanation for some of it, and we'll still have theories to talk about afterward. which pleases me, meta 'ho that I am :)