I choose option e: Over my dead career.

Let me put it this way, my dad still hates the British (we're of Irish descent) despite the fact that:
- Not one British person has ever personally wronged my family
- We don't even actually know anyone British
- Have not lived in Ireland for at least 4 generations.

Never underestimate a human's ability to hold a grudge

I swear I read that last one as " (Dean) Stockwell syndrome."

When I started watching the show, and until very recently, I was rabidly anti-Cylon. Frak dem toasters! But then, humans have committed genocide agains humans; neighbors against neighbors, sometimes even relatives and friends against each other. So, if the human race is to survive, we have to take a page from Don Henley's book. The heart of the matter *is* forgiveness.

And, yes, without the Cylons, the humans are screwed. At least with them, they can evolve into a new type of hybrid and live happily until they start killing each other in new ways.

I would gladly accept the Stockwell Syndrome for Grace Park.

Strangely, I have never thought about this.
And I will continue that trend now.

My favorite songs from the Cylon & Garfunkel Collection were: Mrs. Number Six A Hazy Shade of Nuclear Winter I am a Rock, He is a Toaster

There was a resistance movement of survivors on Caprica. What about the other colonies? There had to be pockets of survivors. IMO, those survivors are more likely to surrender/make peace with the Cylons because they have no where else to go. The survivors with Galactica still have hope of getting to Earth.

Hello Gaius, my old friend
I've come to frak your mind again
With visions of people dying
as I am sighing
Monotheistic love to the sounds..of Cylons

3 weeks ago you thought it was realistic. [io9.com] Battlestar, like Steve Jobs, has a reality distortion field. Of course, with a little distance and reflection, 95% of its plots are absurd, downright ludicrous. BSG isn't compelling because of its realism; it's compelling because of the overwhelming suspension of disbelief that is necessary and so willingly granted by its loyal fans.

They breed together, so they're the same species, like humans and vulcans and klingons. Back to working on the same old question: Can humans and humans ever really be friends?

@BullfightsOnAcid: @Miranda Kali: Kodachrome takes on a whole new meaning.

I think that most menfolk would get over it quicker than the women. I mean, all the human female cylons are HOT. Haaaaaawt. Hot. Hot hot hot hot. Hot in the hot tub hot.

Sorry... human-like female cylons. Hot.

@joemono: Dean Stockwell Syndrome: This condition first manifests itself in preadolescence when the patient's hair turns green followed by some rather pathetic lyncanthropy. Later in life a diamond-shaped mole appears on the forehead and the patient begins to lip-sync into a utility lamp. In the terminal stages the patient becomes a chronoregressive hologram visible only to men with big hair.

@beelzebuddha:
Will they make you wet? Will they make you sweat?

@Tim Faulkner: Sorry, Charlie (boy, it's fun saying that) ... Annalee thought it was realistic, not (necessarily) you.

@beelzebuddha:
Yeah, what's up with that? All the Cylon women are gorgeous, and the men...well...I guess Anders is allright.

@Miranda Kali:
What about Simon? He's a pretty fine looking black man.

True, but even then that's what? Two? We need better numbers than that for the cylon-human orgy.

@medeasin: Wait until you get a load of the first three minutes of tonight's episode. If you like looking at Grace Park, you'll be VERY happy.

wait a minuite wait a minuite...
I 'm gonna need to practice for this@Miranda Kali:

Clearly from reading these comments, the solution to finding world peace is to develop a prostitution-exchange program.

If you can have sex with it, it can't be that bad!

To cross that invisible line, the reason there aren't as many hot boy cylons is because women don't need them - they've been having sex with machines for decades now. I'm sure cylons come with a "vibrate" setting.

@spacedcowboy:
Indeed. Remember, there are MANY copies...AND they have a PLAN!

Sure we would be friends. Have you seen how hot the lady cylons are? You know that we men are always thinking with our other head...

Individually? Sure. There're all types of people out there.

It's obviously a metaphor for republicans and democrats. (guess whos the republicans..)

Will they ever be friends? Probably not..

@beelzebuddha: Exactly. And they don't have high standards in human males either. Baltar? The Chief?

I'm not saying the Japanese and Germans are totally in love with the USA, but they went from Nagasaki/Dresden to grudging cooperation in a decade or so. And the German Chancellor was recently welcomed in Israel.

The key is sincere apologies and being nice to the beaten. Japan did not do this after WWII, and look how popular they are in the former Co-Prosperity Sphere.

@Miranda Kali: Aren't you simply being misled by the fact that almost everything is done by Six or Boomer (and they're throwing their sex around)?

There are 7 male models: 2 old guys (don't girls seek out their daddy in their men?), a handsome black man, a posterboy white guy, an edgy white guy (just because Leoban is usually creepy doesn't mean women don't find him handsome, right?), a nerdy (but not necessarily unattractive) white guy, and a rugged, pudgy, good-natured white guy.

Sure, most guys would be happy with a go at Six or Boomer, but there's only 4 models (that we know of) to try out. Most of us like variety, and we're not all cougar-cashers/Xena-fetishists. Men get bored easily... even if it's a statuesque blond and a cute asian... particularly if every other guy is hitting the same thing.

Eliminate the geezers and the odds are basically even.

@Macloserboy:
Maybe it's just me but, I think Baltar's freakin hawt! (at least before he went all Jesusy).

@Tim Faulkner:
Not all women do the Elektra thing, thank you very much. (like my boys young 'n gothy) And I think all the Cylon women are delectable. (and yeah, I suppose I am a bit of a Xena fetishist).
...What's a "cougar casher" (do I even want to know?)

Actually, this ties into my pool prediction for how the series will end: they make it to earth, only it's 50,000 years ago. Suddenly the Cylons show up and the battle to end all battles ensues. In the end, both fleets are wiped out, and a fairly equal number of humans and humanoid Cylons crash-land on earth, getting stranded there. Eventually they interbreed, and their descendants outcompete the Neanderthals to become (dun dun DUNNNN): us. "What if life began out there" indeed.

A variant of this ending would have only one human male and one Cylon female surviving and landing on a gardenlike Earth to start a whole new species, but I think such a story would be too implausible for anyone to believe...

@Macloserboy: If you don't like Tyrol, I'll *gladly* take him off your hands. ;)

@StrangelyBrown: So I guess that means my answer to the poll at hand would be "that depends on how well you think we Earthicans get along with each other."

@Miranda Kali: Sorry, Miranda, that was supposed to be chaser. I don't blame you for not getting hot for Tigh -- I personally wanted to puke when Xena thought she could pull off the 6 act, strolling around in revealing white dresses hanging off her body, or altogether naked for that matter... to each his own. The fact remains: 7 guys, 5 of 'em young to 4 ladies.

First of all - I don't understand how this thread turned into a "Who's Hawt" thing. But I find Baltar (as Jesus or not) as sexy as hell. Leoben is hot too. Anders is great too!

But this thread is about "can we get along after all that genocide?" And yes, we can. Look at the native Americans. The White Man destroyed EVERYTHING. He took their land, killed their people, and practically wiped away their culture. And unless they are waiting patienty behind the armistice line to mount a planet-wide attack, I'd say things are Okay between the two cultures.

What pulls me to the fleet's trek, like all sci-fi, is its parallels to the people around us.

Bucket Heads, Red Eye, Pink skins, Toasters (fill in yer fav sci-fi derogative)

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela wrote a wonderful book on how her country is dealing with healing the wounds of apartheid. This is her very real investigation into the world of healing communities that have been destroyed by "genocide." What makes this book unique is that she examines how people can forgive and move on and live side by side with neighbors who were formerly oppressors....

I don't know if I could do it...but it can be done and has been done by people who've experienced very real terrors and atrocities.

[books.google.com]

You only have to watch this last week's news (pregnant children at the polygamist's compound) to be reminded that humans can be conditioned to anything. Sure, some will never forget, and some will never submit. Like...Tigh. And Starbuck, who could plausibly think differently before her current troubles are over.

Anyway, you persuade some (the final four out of five will change quite a few minds, I bet), co-opt some, break others and kill the ones who will never forget and never surrender. And remember, they won't have the cultural support system they have now (and our grudge-holding cultures have on Earth).

Plus, the humans will offer the Cylons plenty of opportunities to be the nicer species, and with interbreeding and all...three generations max before the distinction is forgotten.

Blonde Psycho Bimbo's?

Yeah, I love 'em crazy :D

@strangrnstranglnd: The Native Americans are totally cool with the white man now? Oh really? Have you been to a reservation lately? I would say that relations between the two groups have been getting progressively worse over the past 60 years or so, as the state governments push for more integration and the tribes for more sovereignty.

On the other hand, if you're suggesting that the Cylons will grudgingly allow Colonials to open interstellar casinos on their reservation (aka Earth), then that's an outcome I can get behind. "Jump on over to Crazy Adama's -- we've got the loosest slots in the quadrant!"

@Tim Faulkner: I'd say it's compelling because of better than average written characters. When the writers forget that, it slips...sometimes badly.

You're right: it's not about "realism", it's about a sufficiently believable (or acceptable) fake-ism.

I'm betting on a Soprano's style, open ended ending, btw...

I think this story will wrap, but I don't think it'll wrap up nice and cleanly. Life just doesn't do that.

@Tim Faulkner: Like I said, Annalee and I were having a bit of a debate. She thinks it's totally realistic, I'm a bit more skeptical.

@Charlie Jane Anders: Yeah, apologies. One thing in considering the realism of it: most of the Cylons that humans have encountered are still robots, robots designed for battle. Or robots that are spaceships with guts. The few "human" Cylons they've seen have also been clones... a practice the humans haven't embraced in their own medicine. Even if this "alien" species hadn't obliterated humanity from billions down to 50,000, there's little reason to sympathize with robots and clones... even if they are "hot" clones. Nevermind the mass extermination.

Stockholm Syndrome! Of course!

sure, why not. When the Cylons did their dirty deed, I'm sure they wiped out just about everyone I would've wanted gone in the first place, so fair play to them!

@Miranda Kali: *claps* Simply amazing.

I think the scenes depicting Cylon sympathizers are realistic.

Look at any war that the United States has been in, and you'll see people that have sided with the enemy.

Heck, even today you have the "blame America first" crowd, who would gladly invited Islamic Terrorists over to dinner so that they can all talk about how evil America is and how George Bush is the new satan.

I don't know if the entire society could forgive the Cylons. And personally I hope BSG doesn't end on a "LETS ALL BE FRIENDS" note.

But Star Wars did it with the Vong, I wouldn't be that surprised if it happened in BSG.

@beercheck:
Get that girl a transfusion STAT.

And her husband needs a ruff-n'-tumble boyfriend. STAT.

The woman at the top of the escalator clearly knows this at a glance.

I go for A.We are human after all, no way were gonna let that one fly and "be friendly" with our own past mistakes.

I agree that there are strong post-9/11 elements here. Just as many Americans have forgotten the true anger and horror they felt over watching the towers fall, humans on BSG have gotten so used to life in space that they've forgotten the devastation visited upon their homeworlds.

...on a side note...

If the Cylons have decided to colonize Earth, why doesn't the RTF just head back to the twelve colonies!?

@Kiamat: I didn't forget it. I just got it ruined by all the politicians using it for their own personal agendas.

I think it's certainly possible for individual humans to be friends with individual Cylons, provided they can come up with sufficient reason to believe that their Cylon friend isn't one of the baddies. After all, it doesn't make sense to blame an entire nation/religion/species/robot line for the actions of their leaders.

The issue becomes whether or not the Cylons actually have sufficient individuality and dissent for that to make sense, something that is obviously being explored in the show now.

Given that the Cylons keep their memories and are essentially immortal, it would me much more complicated than just, say, waiting for the guilty generation to die off and befriending their innocent chillens.

I think that once the humans realize there is such a thing as a Cylon defector they will be open to embracing those defectors. Problem is and always will be...who's the defector and who's the liar.

The biggest issue humans will have with the cylons is that they are all so damn similar (99.99999999999999...%) identical. They are factory made to spec. Not being able to tell them apart is the biggest hurdle. Hell, the Centurians can't even tell them apart.

And the Centurians will be the biggest problem to both. Just one rouge Cylon (Lucifer even) could probably turn the Centurians (who the cylons fear of turing rebel) into an army against them.

@rufustfyrfly: They are not immortal. Just get rid of the regeneration ships. That's how the Cloud 9 Caprica died. That's how Scar died.