Storm Raven, not to harp on the obvious, but Cylons don't exist, which is kinda why whatever opinion you have of them is utterly meaningless with regard to your "moral compass". Or, rather, they exist in as much as they're part of a fictional work and should be treated as such.
If you look at drama from an entirely 'inside' perspective, within the context of the story, you tend to miss things, like the intended meaning. At some point you have to step 'outside', and treat the characters as metaphors, exaggerations, allegories, stand-ins for real world moral actors, etc. Sometimes you need to suspend the suspension of disbelief and adopt a more utilitarian point of view. Ask 'what purpose does this serve?'.
Otherwise you get into silly debates about how recklessly evil that hard-boiled cop was during that car chase at rush hour , or how inexcusable it was for Luke to forgive Darth since he incinerated Alderaan.
Back to BSG... I think its pretty clear the Cylons are supposed to be us. They live, have faith, love, fear, commit atrocities. Eminently human traits. You can even marry them (note that in the show, none of pilots have married their Vipers), which demonstrates that some of the Colonials have accepted the Cylons as people, admittedly a kind of second-rate slur-worthy foreigner. Its almost a joke, the Cylons are the Other that's indistinguishable from us.
If you look at drama from an entirely 'inside' perspective, within the context of the story, you tend to miss things, like the intended meaning. At some point you have to step 'outside', and treat the characters as metaphors, exaggerations, allegories, stand-ins for real world moral actors, etc. Sometimes you need to suspend the suspension of disbelief and adopt a more utilitarian point of view. Ask 'what purpose does this serve?'.
Otherwise you get into silly debates about how recklessly evil that hard-boiled cop was during that car chase at rush hour , or how inexcusable it was for Luke to forgive Darth since he incinerated Alderaan.
Back to BSG... I think its pretty clear the Cylons are supposed to be us. They live, have faith, love, fear, commit atrocities. Eminently human traits. You can even marry them (note that in the show, none of pilots have married their Vipers), which demonstrates that some of the Colonials have accepted the Cylons as people, admittedly a kind of second-rate slur-worthy foreigner. Its almost a joke, the Cylons are the Other that's indistinguishable from us.
