The Final Five are NOT *really* Cylons (long)

Television, Movies Games and Books BSG-2003
#1

The “Final Five” are NOT Cylons.

There, I said it. Before fire comes from your fingertips, in response to that statement, hear me out.

Lets define Cylon. A Cylon is an electrical mechanical life form, designed specifically to serve the 13 tribes of humans on Kobol. It is not known if they were called Cylons at that point. We are speculating that the Cylons were either sentient or became sentient at some point. It is not clear if they were sentient on Kobol or not.

So lets start…. (the argument below is largely based on the “Sam Anders” testimony posted on another thread)

Lords of Kobol, Humans, and an artificial life form (which will become or may already be cylons) are on Kobol.

A “13th tribe” leaves Kobol some significant time before the rest of 12 tribes leave.

The 13th bring with them2 things: Ability to create artificial life, Ability to resurrect themselves.

They travel to “Erf”. There they start pro-creating, forgetting about the resurrection technology, but continue to develop artificial life.

*** Something happens on Kobol *** What, we are not entirely sure, but this we do know: 12 tribes leave Kobol with the knowledge of how to create artificial life. This artificial life has or will become sentient, and eventually rebels against it creators. The artificial life are named either by the colonists or by their sentient selves, “Cylons“.

It is implied that the 12 tribes do NOT have resurrection capability. This could be because they had already been pro-creating already and didn’t need it. But that’s not important for this argument.

The 13th tribe or “Erflings” also have a sentient artificial life problem. 5 individuals realize they are doomed and work feverishly to reinstate the resurrection technology. This is so that they may survive the pending war / attack, and also to “warn” their brethren from Kobol. It appears this may happen at about the same time as the events on Kobol, but this is not confirmed.

The “Final Five” leave for Kobol, tracking back using sign posts left by the 13th tribe. Relativity happens. Time slows for them, allowing a greater amount of time to pass for the 12 tribes / colonies.

Meanwhile, at some point the “Cylons”, at least their “warriors” have developed into the metal semi humanoid shape, and are at war with the 12 colonies. They also have started experimenting with creating human form or bodies for themselves via experimentation on captured humans. They have limited success.

The “Final Five” arrive at the height of the war, see the same pattern that happened to them, and appease the sentient mechanical Cylons by providing them with the technological bridge to become “mostly human”. It is assumed that the core human genetic components come from “themselves”. And this is important. THE FINAL FIVE CREATE THE 7 (8) HUMANOID CYLONS. AND GIVE THEM RESURRECTION TECHNOLOGY. The 1st Cylon war ends.

BSG Seasons 1 - 4 happen.

The remaining 12 colony refugees (the fleet) and a basestar that survived a Cylon civil war find “Erf”

There they find the remains of beings that they identify as “Cylon”. Who makes this determination? The humanoid cylons, who were created by the Final Five’s technological “know how“, and core genetic material. In reality, the 7 (8) humanoid Cylons are more likely genetically closer to the beings that inhabited “Erf”. The Final Five are not in fact “Cylons”, rather the Final (and only surviving) Five “Erflings”.

Whew! OK now I can sleep with that off my chest…

#2

An interesting theory, but like all theories, it must be challenged. We’re assuming Cavil knows how to program and implant memories, personalities, etc. So we’ll grant that.

But how does that explain the “Right Eye”, which is not only the only piece of Tigh that is missing (and therefore apparently makes him indistinguishable from humankind to other Cylons), but is also the part of Anders that deactivated Raiders.

There has to be a direct link from the FF to the entirety of the 12 Colonies’ Cylons, because there’s a connection there that runs through all of them, not just the Skinjobs.

#3

Glad you challenged my theory. It would be no fun if people only posted and no one replied.

OK so here goes. Think about the sequence. Were the current raiders and current centurions created before or after the final five erflings arrived during the first cylon war? Here is part of my theory…

The “Final Five” arrive at the height of the war, see the same pattern that happened to them, and appease the sentient mechanical Cylons by providing them with the technological bridge to become “mostly human”. It is assumed that the core human genetic components come from “themselves”. And this is important. THE FINAL FIVE CREATE THE 7 (8) HUMANOID CYLONS. AND GIVE THEM RESURRECTION TECHNOLOGY. The 1st Cylon war ends.

So they recognize their creators…

#4

I see where you’re coming from. I think, however, the writers have set up a situation that would be at odds with what you’re saying.

We know from the mini-series that skinjobs have “silica relays” in their brains right? The radiation at Ragnar Anchorage messed it up in a big way. Adama guessed at this, but it was later confirmed (by Doral maybe?).

We know that Baltar’s cylon-detector worked! According to Baltar, when skinjob flesh is cremated it releases certain synthetic compounds he was able to identify.
Remember that the detector correctly identified Boomer as Cylon!

So the current Cylons would also be able to tell if remains were human or skinjob. They wouldn’t just reach a conclusion based on DNA. It isn’t DNA that separates humans from skinjobs.

Having said all that, it still could be that the original 13th tribe was naturally human, even if much later at the time of holocaust the population had shifted to skinjob Cylon.

#5

I’m inclined to think that they are both. They are not cylons like the rest, but are “more” humanlike because they’ve lived as humanoids on a planet of humanoids. When one of their spines glows then I’ll call them a cylon.

#6

Just watch Caprica to clear up what a Cybernetic Lifeform Node is :stuck_out_tongue: