At some point Cavil made a decision out of jealousy etc to end the potential line of Daniels, as Ellen stated he was jealous of her “favoritism” towards Daniel.
However, Anders does state about John “We loved him” he was the first and helped them build the others…
So at some point for some period he was likely comfortable with his situation of being who he was until some event(s) changed that.
Any thoughts?
And is there “still hope for him yet” as Ellen states? (or willl Saul get to him first?)
Thanks for reading.
The one thing I though I did get was the motivation for Cavil. Cavil was the villain from the start, he turned on the final five, blocked access to their memories and then introduced them into colonial civilization. His motivation is worthy of one of the great comic book villains. “I am a machine,” he said. He hates his humanity and he has vision of a better kind of existence as a machine. He found sleep to be unproductive and he got rid of his need for it.
He gave a great super-villain speech about watching a supernova, calling it “the moment of creation,” and how he wished he could see it with something better than the pathetic and ridiculous eyes Ellen had given him. Cavil wants to feel the solar wind, to smell dark matter and to be more than human.
Human eyes are mere gelatinous orbs to Cavil.
That raises a question… why can’t Cavil do that himself? Why can’t he upload into a machine of his choice and become the kind of machine he wants to be? He could, in theory, upload into anything from a basestar to a robocop/terminator type machine to a Cylon heavy raider with some tweaking of the technology. (Maybe some versions of Cavil already have?) It’s not unrealistic that he is currently limited somehow, he needs Ellen’s help just for recreating the resurrection technology that the rebels have destroyed. But if becoming a machine is his goal, why not strive for it?
Cylons already download their minds into other humaniod bodies, and that should imply what a lot of SF already does, uploading into computers and machines. We’re already working in that direction… check out project Blue Brain: http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/
I think this means a prediction is in order, and that Cavil will eventually figure out how to upload into a big machine, like a basestar, and become a real monster. If knowing he could be so much more is what drives him, expect him to try it.
Ellen told Cavil that being human had its advantages, she gave him “free will,” thus tossing around that term like it had some concrete meaning. It doesn’t. What does she mean by free-will? Are we talking metaphysical free-will, free-will as a legal concept, free-will as a psychological concept, free-will as some aspect of consciousness, or what?
It’s also here at this confused metaphysical level where we are in danger of falling into a bad old sci-fi/horror movie cliche. In a way, Ellen Tigh is our Doctor Frankenstein and Cavil is her monster. The others making up the final five are apparently just a collection of Igors. Will Ellen also be punished by her creation for “going against the laws of nature” and creating a monster. That’s what Cavil was suggesting… except our concept about “going against the laws of nature” has undergone a dramatic shift since Mary Shelley Wollstonecraft wrote Frankenstein. In Cavil’s mind that nature now includes some kind of “machine nature” that is ill defined. Cavil talks about “Justice” and the Cylons being the “slaves of humanity,” but can I really enslave something that has no “free-will”? Can I enslave my computer? My toaster? What would happen if I set my toaster free?
It’s the bane of science fiction, expository lumps, that are needed to clarify concepts like “free-will.” What does that term mean to the Galactica writers? I’m not sure. Right now it’s just an ambiguous bit of Galactica technobabble.
I’m of the “there’s no hope for Cavil” school. I think he is beyond repair. I hope Saul Tigh ends Cavil and his line for good. Now that would be “justice”.
heheh