Post #4171035

@glyph@mastodon.social Since I don't and won't do YouTube video essays, tl;dr of how I see it: Early in the series it's established that history is cyclical and there are supernatural elements actively involved in trying to guide people through and help at least some of them break out of it (not a coincidence, I think, that so much of the music is drawn from Hindu texts, or that the Final Five's trigger song explicitly longs for a "way out of here"). Over the course of the series we find out more about what the cycles look like: war over self-determination of an underclass, followed by a splitting-off and exodus of at least one side. Events of prior iterations affect and set up later ones. The cycle has happened multiple times prior to the start of the series: distant past on Kobol. Distant past on the planet the Final Five came from. First Cylon/Colonial war. The Cylons' annihilation of the Colonies kicks off a new iteration of the cycle, which plays out over the course of the series. Supernatural elements visibly present and guiding/influencing throughout. Events from prior iterations affect this one. Series finale involves a splitting-off and exodus (humans + surviving humanoid Cylons settle down, mechanical Cylons go their own way) to close this iteration. Then the final scene shows events on present-day Earth in a way that implies another iteration of the cycle is about to begin, having been affected/set up by events from the iteration portrayed in the series.