So. Who Were The Lords of Kobol (and related issues)?

Television, Movies Games and Books BSG-2003
#1

Sorry, I just had to.

  1. The finale gives us a variation on my “they were S7 type Cylons” theory. (You know, Cavil wins and with survivors, including humans, they settle on a planet where he turns the tables and “rules” the humans, meaning that things aren’t as peachy keen between the Lords and humans as the scrolls state).

  2. The variation is that they are “survivors” like those from BSG, who straggle after a war (like that in BSG) to Kobol, where they find a primitive human society. Instead of largely abandoning their tech they keep it AND build a city of the “gods” instead of splitting up (Kappa clued me into this idea). That keeps the Cycle moving along at a much faster clip than what Lee somehow was able to unilaterally dictate. (So, at least he slowed the Cycle down, even if he did not end it.)

  3. Some of the Lords, namely the good S7 Cylons (I don’t know about the FF) might well have LONG lives and, as we know, have extra strength, making them seem even more “god like” to the natives.

  4. As for the jealous god, well that just happened and probably would make for a big part of a pretty cool made for TV movie - “BSG - The Kobol Years”. But I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

#2

On a related note I was thinking how cool it would be to have a series about their (our Galactica people) lives on Earth. :frowning:

#3

Since I’ve moved into the creative department, I also would love for Bear to use his BSG music to compose a single suite or tone poem (to use Richard Strauss’ term). He has enough “music” to work it into something that could be wonderful and, I don’t know, 40 minutes or so in length.

Or has he already done this?

#4

Some of us describe the Head Six Baltar Combination as Seraph-Angel-Beings of Light
religious elements of this BSG Universe… Does one conclude that Head Six and Hed Baltar are instruments of the Lords of Kobol?
They probably reach that far back in the history since they “survive” to our current period on our Earth.
This idea though may conflict with the monotheistic leanings of Six.

Thanks for reading

#5

I think not. There certainly is a TOS/Reimagined connection between the Beings of Light and the Head characters. (Not so sure about Starbuck.)

But I do not thing they are agents of The Lords. (Note how “certain” I am of this - yeah right.) To me The Lords always seemed to be an organic or inorganic “species” that was able to rule humans as gods due to superior tech, strength, knowedge, longer life span, etc. The Head characters would be no more agents of them than of humans. The Head characters are agents of “IT”.

#6

whoever the angels supervisor is, it doesn’t like to be referred to as god, so i’m going to assume that it, and the lords of kobol are all a 3rd party that we haven’t seen yet.

they have the ability to project, which isn’t beyond the technology of the series, but they do have the ability to transport matter instantly and great distances, which is outside the realm of humans and cylons.

#7

What if Kobol was just another “New Caprica” type stage in a different cycle? But in that cycle the 12 models all jointly ruled over the humans, maybe they were in centurion form and later created the skin jobs (13th tribe).

Sure, they said Kobol was the birthplace of mankind, and maybe it was, but it could just as easily have been some place humanity settled.

#8

the lords of kobol being even earlier cylons was something i considered. but i think theres too much mentioned so far about a jealous god above the others, and the 5 worshiping the one that can’t be named, that i think the lords of kobol were more advanced than all that, right up there with whatever force sent the vision characters and resurrected kara.

now there remains the possibility that that force really is a much earlier version of cylon from another world that’s trying to guide humans and cylons to its level.

#9

Dude - I just realized something - and it’s completely unrelated to this topic so - sorry - but…didn’t every episode of the original series begin with something like “There are those who believe that life here began out there”…???

#10

elosha says this in the new series as well “The sacred scrolls tell us that life here began out there.”

although the scrolls were written on kobol so that led a lot of us to believe that humanity started on earth, and then went to kobol, and that all this was our future. that prediction didn’t work out, and all the earth literary references were red herrings by moore and co.

#11

I figure that humanity really did start on the Real Earth, but we all thought that it was Erf before we knew it wasn’t really Earth…

Clear?

#12

well some humans did start on real earth, but the fleet and those humans are in our past. I had previously assumed that the series was our future. we go to kobol, forget mostly about earth. and then the 13th tribe goes looking for earth because of the myth.

but the show took a different tack by saying it was all the very distant past, and our humanity was a combo of humans that naturally evolved on kobol, and humans that naturally evolved here.

#13

Don’t forget the cylons in the mix

#14

I think the albums do this already. Given the nature of his work on BSG (small, self-contained, very short–no more than two to four measures, usually–harmonically closed motives to build his scores with, highly unusual, idiosyncratic reliance on non-western instruments), I don’t know that a large-scale concert suite would be all that practical. Nor would it fit with his performance activities. These sort of pieces seem to work well for him within the context of a rock show. Putting them in the concert hall would just be tonally (pardon the pun…heh heh) off, I think.

#15

that is frakking awesome. and for the natives to rebel against these “lords” probably would result in devastation.

I have also been pondering about the Lords of Kobol and this is the greatest version I have heard yet!

#16

Hmmm…

I thought of Head Six and Head Baltar as archetypes for Satan and Gabriel, with each having a fluid relationship to said archetype (neither is always an adversary nor an advocate to/for humanity but rather trade roles depending on who they’re addresing). As I understand it, based mostly on their conversation in the finale’s epilogue (“remind you of anything?” “Take your pick: Kobol; Caprica before the fall; Earth–the real Earth, before this one…”) the Lords of Kobol are simply the men and women who evolved or settled (I’m not clear on that, obviously) on that planet and led it to the apex of the cycle, which involved not the destruction of the civilization through a cataclysmic, enviornmentally catastrophic holocaust but rather through an irreconcilable rift that led to the abandonment of the civilization entirely and the two groups of communities, cylon and human, going separate ways (which led Athena, probably one of the leaders–perhaps she played the role that Laura Roslin played in BSG’s cycle?–to throw herself off a cliff). As the surviving humans settled on what would become the 12 Colonies they would begin writing down their history. Given the nature of aural traditions and the human memory, given enough time, the leaders of Kobol would be remembered as larger-than-life figures who become telescoped and/or transformed into the gods of legend.

We see that happening here in our own culture. Ask yourself sometime: who was Abraham? Who was Moses? I mean, who were they REALLY, outside of the legends ascribed to them in the Bible? (Some scholars believe that at least Abraham, if not both Abraham and Moses, as we know them in the Bible, are completely literary constructs resulting from the telescoping of stories of the exploits of a variety of ancient patriarchs. [I think the same thing is at play with the stories of Jesus, but I am in a distinc minority there–and not a biblical scholar either.].) Go far back enough–think Gilgamesh, the god-king of Ur, who was based on a real person–and the distinction between legend, history and religion is blurred at best, if it exists at all. My interpretation is that the same thing happened on the show with the Lords of Kobol (and in turn happened on our earth as those legends remained and got telescoped with the later, now unknown exploits of BSG’s heroes on Earth).

#17

“There are those who believe that life here began out there”

That was the opening statement made by Patric MacNee’s Count Ibli - Imperious Leader narrative voice-over in the original series opening titles.

If you think about it. Mr, Moore has stayed true to the the premise of the original BSG series.
This is exactly how this series ended.

Thanks for reading.