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First, "Faith" is awesome with awesomesauce. Everybody's already said what I might, so moving on.
I've been involved in an awesomely fascinating discussion on the meaning of the Opera House over at TWOP. Well, I think it's fascinating (YMMV), and it sparked several ideas which I'm dragging back over here so others might see them.
Four (of the Five) are alive and walking around, and yet they are also in the Opera House.
So in addition to the question "WTF are the Final Five?" is the question, "WTF is the Opera House?"
The Opera House on Kobol fell to ruins thousands of years ago - and yet it's got some very peculiar and strong place in Cylon spirituality. I would guess that imagery was given to them by the Cylon God - so what happened there? Why is an OPERA HOUSE of all things the imagery that Cylons see on their way to resurrection? Not a temple, not a bookstore, not a mountain... an opera house. A place where people used to go and sing stories -- about the gods? about what happened the LAST iteration? A place where the first cylon was born or died?
Faith gave us two snippets from the Hybrid (of course):
"The Dying Leader will learn the truth of the Opera House."
"The Three will give you the Five, who come from the home of the Thirteenth."
The reason Three knows the Five is because she saw them in the Opera House, a "place" the Cylons pass through between uploading their consciousness at physical death and downloading to the next one. It's not a physical place - it's more like a virtual construct like The Matrix inside their network.
Which makes the Five within there not real either. Which, yeah, duh, because Anders, et al are walking around, right? And yet, they DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. This could be because all that would give them their knowledge, all that would make them Cylons in more but physical shells is locked inside the Opera House. Their Cylon templates are there, looming over everything, yet those figures don't interact with anybody. They don't do anything. They're in stasis - not in use - locked out of the program.
All of which people other than me came up with, but I think is totally cool, and works. Which brings us to my contribution of the day.
We've all been assuming there's an existing copy of the Fifth somewhere, whoever it is, and that even if the Fifth is dead, a physical body is going to show up. What if there is no physical body? What if when we finally learn the truth of the Opera House we see the Fifth is someone like Cain, who's dead but NOT resurrected? Perhaps the only thing that's left of the Fifth Cylon is that core program stuck in the Opera House... Then what? Can that template resurrect into someone else (assuming there are no new bodies for the Five anywhere)? Is this where Hera comes in?
Or different tack, what if Three tells them the Fifth is Laura, and she has to choose whether to die permanently, or to unlock those templates and be able resurrect herself into a healthy, younger body? Would she do it? I don't think so...
But what if that was the ONLY way to learn the way to Earth? Because what if that's the only way.... all FIVE have to die and then resurrect again, with their Cylon knowledge/programming now unlocked and included inside them?
I think that could be totally awesome. Though I have no idea how they would resurrect without bodies - there must be other bodies. And, erm, I don't think there are other bodies.
Unless! they would resurrect into other humans (shades of the Five-are-Spirits Theory). And that's just a horrible idea, because then Sam and Tyrol and Tigh and Tory would have to sacrifice themselves so that their knowledge could get reborn into other people. Which, knowing this show, is probably closer to the truth.
*is sad*
Back to my fic, where there is at least HOPE my favorite woobie isn't going to die.
ETA: As much as I want to know what would've happened if Sam stuck his hand in the goo, I really REALLY now want to know what would happen if he got inside the Opera House.... Would he see himself? Would he merge with that being and come out with the knowledge of Earth? Would he be able to leave?
All spec, no spoilers beyond "Faith".
I've been involved in an awesomely fascinating discussion on the meaning of the Opera House over at TWOP. Well, I think it's fascinating (YMMV), and it sparked several ideas which I'm dragging back over here so others might see them.
Four (of the Five) are alive and walking around, and yet they are also in the Opera House.
So in addition to the question "WTF are the Final Five?" is the question, "WTF is the Opera House?"
The Opera House on Kobol fell to ruins thousands of years ago - and yet it's got some very peculiar and strong place in Cylon spirituality. I would guess that imagery was given to them by the Cylon God - so what happened there? Why is an OPERA HOUSE of all things the imagery that Cylons see on their way to resurrection? Not a temple, not a bookstore, not a mountain... an opera house. A place where people used to go and sing stories -- about the gods? about what happened the LAST iteration? A place where the first cylon was born or died?
Faith gave us two snippets from the Hybrid (of course):
"The Dying Leader will learn the truth of the Opera House."
"The Three will give you the Five, who come from the home of the Thirteenth."
The reason Three knows the Five is because she saw them in the Opera House, a "place" the Cylons pass through between uploading their consciousness at physical death and downloading to the next one. It's not a physical place - it's more like a virtual construct like The Matrix inside their network.
Which makes the Five within there not real either. Which, yeah, duh, because Anders, et al are walking around, right? And yet, they DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. This could be because all that would give them their knowledge, all that would make them Cylons in more but physical shells is locked inside the Opera House. Their Cylon templates are there, looming over everything, yet those figures don't interact with anybody. They don't do anything. They're in stasis - not in use - locked out of the program.
All of which people other than me came up with, but I think is totally cool, and works. Which brings us to my contribution of the day.
We've all been assuming there's an existing copy of the Fifth somewhere, whoever it is, and that even if the Fifth is dead, a physical body is going to show up. What if there is no physical body? What if when we finally learn the truth of the Opera House we see the Fifth is someone like Cain, who's dead but NOT resurrected? Perhaps the only thing that's left of the Fifth Cylon is that core program stuck in the Opera House... Then what? Can that template resurrect into someone else (assuming there are no new bodies for the Five anywhere)? Is this where Hera comes in?
Or different tack, what if Three tells them the Fifth is Laura, and she has to choose whether to die permanently, or to unlock those templates and be able resurrect herself into a healthy, younger body? Would she do it? I don't think so...
But what if that was the ONLY way to learn the way to Earth? Because what if that's the only way.... all FIVE have to die and then resurrect again, with their Cylon knowledge/programming now unlocked and included inside them?
I think that could be totally awesome. Though I have no idea how they would resurrect without bodies - there must be other bodies. And, erm, I don't think there are other bodies.
Unless! they would resurrect into other humans (shades of the Five-are-Spirits Theory). And that's just a horrible idea, because then Sam and Tyrol and Tigh and Tory would have to sacrifice themselves so that their knowledge could get reborn into other people. Which, knowing this show, is probably closer to the truth.
*is sad*
Back to my fic, where there is at least HOPE my favorite woobie isn't going to die.
ETA: As much as I want to know what would've happened if Sam stuck his hand in the goo, I really REALLY now want to know what would happen if he got inside the Opera House.... Would he see himself? Would he merge with that being and come out with the knowledge of Earth? Would he be able to leave?
All spec, no spoilers beyond "Faith".