I was reading about Nieztche a little bit ago and realized that the title of our BSG finale could very well be a Nieztche reference. There are blurbs here and there but I don’t pretend to know anything about it and imagine I can’t comprehend it fast enough to draw paralells by Friday; can anyone weigh in about it and how it may impact BSG?
Copied from Wikipedia:
[i]In Daybreak Nietzsche begins his “Campaign against Morality”.[38] He calls himself an “immoralist” and harshly criticizes the prominent moral schemes of his day: Christianity, Kantianism, and Utilitarianism. However, Nietzsche did not want to destroy morality, but rather to initiate a re-evaluation of the values of the Judeo-Christian world[citation needed]. He indicates his desire to bring about a new, more naturalistic source of value in the vital impulses of life itself[citation needed].
In both these works, Nietzsche’s genealogical account of the development of master-slave morality occupies a central place. Nietzsche presents master-morality as the original system of morality — perhaps best associated with Homeric Greece. Here, value arises as a contrast between good and bad, or between ‘life-affirming’ and ‘life-denying’: wealth, strength, health, and power (the sort of traits found in an Homeric hero) count as good; while bad is associated with the poor, weak, sick, and pathetic (the sort of traits conventionally associated with slaves in ancient times).
Slave-morality, in contrast, comes about as a reaction to master-morality. Nietzsche associates slave-morality with the Jewish and Christian traditions. Here, value emerges from the contrast between good and evil: good being associated with charity, piety, restraint, meekness, and subservience; evil seen in the cruel, selfish, wealthy, indulgent, and aggressive. Nietzsche sees slave-morality as an ingenious ploy among the slaves and the weak (such as the Jews and Christians dominated by Rome) to overturn the values of their masters and to gain power for themselves: justifying their situation, and at the same time fixing the broader society into a slave-like life.
Nietzsche sees the slave-morality as a social illness that has overtaken Europe — a derivative and resentful value which can only work by condemning others as evil. In Nietzsche’s eyes, Christianity exists in a hypocritical state wherein people preach love and kindness but find their joy in condemning and punishing others for pursuing those ends which the slave-morality does not allow them to act upon publicly. Nietzsche calls for the strong in the world to break their self-imposed chains and assert their own power, health, and vitality upon the world[/i]
I did read about master-morality and slave-morality and found it to be incredibly thought-provoking (while also confirming some of my own ruminations on society) but am only now trying to apply these theories to the BSG universe. Certainly they could relate to Baltar and his recent sermons.
Yeah I don’t know exactly how they relate to BSG - my thinking is that the entire cycle seems to be about slaves revolting against their masters…other than that I got nothing. 
Which is a pretty big theme - because it works in the hubris of the masters, etc., etc. And also HAS to be part of why the 12 Tribes left Kobol.
Given what you just noted elsewhere re Daybreak = Aurora (= Starbuck), do we find it interesting that the 2, shall we say, most determined women on the show are so closely tied into the Lords - one by name, Athena and the other by worship, Starbuck of Aurora.
Man oh man.
of myth that stands out as specific to BSG, regards Aurora. This grates on me.
Daybreak, mmm, it is still dark then, but the sun is rising. But the sun also rises on the bad, as well as the good. Dunno. But I will Friday–that is Battlestar Day.
The title “Daybreak” has also been used as the title of a French film, which deals with a man who kills another over a woman and he locks himself in his apartment despite the pleas of the people outside to come out.
But, I think this is the more fitting meaning here: The word “daybreak” (from Webster Online) is described as, simply, “dawn.” Now, at other forums, people have talked about the symbolism of Aurora, the Goddess of the Dawn, the statue given to Starbuck, who in turn gave it to Adama (and back to her by Apollo in a deleted scene from “Six of One”). And people have labeled Starbuck as Aurora due to her wing tattoo. And, judging from the commercial for tomorrow’s episode, we see Starbuck insert and turn the FTL Jump key to jump Galactica, which may, to quote the hybrid, “lead them to their end.”
Daybreak reminded me of something too…but it sure as hell wasn’t a dead philosopher…
…my ears:o
The truly strange thing is that I’ve seen so many episodic TV shows with the following titles;
Sine qua non (without which, not)
Deus Ex Machina (God in the machine)
No Exit (a reference Sartres play with the famous quote “Hell is other People”)
So many writers representing the same concepts.
I’m not sure I’ve seen many Nietzche references (if Daybreak was one), but will no doubt see many future shows referencing BSG episode titles.
I’m listening to the American Writers’ podcast by Tom Occhipinti (who teaches writing at some college) and he also references Neitsczhe in the topic of the psychology of writing - he was talking about the Shadow Self- I guess it’s required reading for budding writers 
His site is here :
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Education-and-Professional/Writing/AmericanWriterscom-Podcast/19666#
And the link for the mp3 is here :
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AmericanwriterscomPodcast/~5/UXbxmE87Gjc/writing004.mp3
I just love his New Yorker accent 