Cylon social analysis

[alonewiththemoon]

I was just talking to a co-worker about Battlestar Galactica, and something interesting occurred to me. 

The Sixes and Sharons and whoever else are on the newly independent base ship are in a truly unique position for Cylons and I think are experiencing true free will, and its consequences, for the first time.  Their philosophical break from the faction led by Cavil was turned into a physical and mental break as well, an experience that no Cylon has ever felt.  Individual Cylons may here and there have been cut off from the group and died alone and un-regenerated, but those Cylons then did not contribute their experiences to the group consciousness, so no existing Cylons have felt what it is to be separated from the group permanently.  Not only are they now exploring the nature of their own freedom (and in some cases, like the previously murdered Six, unable to restrain themselves from total free will even when it has negative consequences), but having given the Centurions their free will as well, they are forced to accept the free will of others and thus the contingency of society upon everybody's will working together, something that previously only humans experienced. 

On top of that, they now face their own mortality.  Without a regeneration ship, death is final.  Consequences for one's own actions are all too real, as the previously murdered Six illustrated.  And not only is death final, but life is different.  Without the regeneration ship, they will not be able to contribute their experiences to the collective, and to gain the experiences of others in each rebirth.  They will become unique individuals, living in their experiences alone until they die, and then those experiences will be lost.  Athena is the one Cylon who has knowingly accepted this, embraced it even, but will the others be able to adapt?  The previously murdered Six was driven into deadly panic and desire for vengeance by her recognition of her mortality, since she remembered all too clearly how it felt to be killed.  Yet even she recognized that her behavior meant there was no longer any place for her on the ship, that exercising her free will at the expense of the common purpose was an unallowable thing.

When the previously murdered Six was killed by I think Caprica Six (or at any rate a Six who was in charge), that surviving Six turned to Anders and Starbuck and said something along the lines of "There's your human justice for you."  But the one human in the room* was pleading for mercy for the Six who had just killed her crewmate, out of empathy for her situation.  Will the Cylons develop a capacity for empathy, even for enemies, and will they be able to learn mercy?  Will knowledge of death make them more human?  How will that change them?

*Of course, only the viewer knows this, because nobody/nothing knows Anders' secret.

Anyway, that's what I've been thinking about.  I do think that some of these things are going to become issues

Comments

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

i think that six wanted to die though, since she couldn't escape the fear of that first death. i think that's especially true since the sixes as a model seem to experience more trauma and have a harder time fitting that trauma into their worldview than the other models do... like i'm thinking of the six who blew herself up.