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Wondering about the fate of the Cylons at the end of the Battlestar Galactica 2004 reboot.

At the of Battlestar Galactica, the Cylons leave and earth is populated by the survivors of the colonies. Has there been any follow up and where they went and what happened to them?

Has this been explained anywhere?

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  • I'm sure Google could provide you with fan fiction of just about anything; it's kinda one of the rules of the Internet. If you were asking for official continuations, this might be worth exploring.
    – T.J.L.
    Jan 25, 2016 at 15:05
  • Edited so that it is not fan fiction specific
    – 3therk1ll
    Jan 25, 2016 at 15:07

4 Answers 4

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Yes, we are the cyclons, that's what is revealed is that we are in a cyclic system of birth and rebirth with biological cylons being part of both our history and future.

It's a very dharma related reveal.

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  • Excellent stuff, I'll check it out. Cheers mate
    – 3therk1ll
    Jan 25, 2016 at 15:16
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The Cylons as a group are divided at the end of the series.

All copies of the friendly humanoid models (2/Leoben, 8/Sharon, and 6) settle Earth with the Colonials. They apparently die out without leaving any descendants, as Hera was the most recent common ancestor of all humans today. This group also includes the three surviving "Final Five" Cylons from Old Earth, though these are not the same group of Cylons.

3/D'Anna stays on Old Earth to die alone.

It's not expressly stated what happens to the unfriendly humanoid models (1/Cavil, 4/Doral, 5/Simon). Many are killed in the destruction of the Colony, but some may still be out there somewhere at the end of the series. But without a resurrection hub, and no ability to reproduce, the organic models will eventually die out. It's imaginable that they could find some way to reproduce, but it seems unlikely given their failure to do so during the series, compounded now by their lack of females.

The mechanical models subservient to the 1/4/5 group may survive indefinitely, but they all have some sort of behavior inhibitor built in, so it's difficult to say what they'll be able to do once the organics die out. Probably similar options to the friendly mechanical models.

The friendly mechanical models leave Earth in the basestar, to find their own destiny. No further details are given in any source, and we have very little context for guessing what they might decide to do on their own. Whatever they did, they did it in such a way that we see no evidence of them now. So we can reasonably say they never returned to our solar system in a fashion that left evidence. We can also reasonably say that they and their descendants never colonized the entire galaxy or built any visible megastructures in the few million years available to them.

These centurions were apparently interested in their own short-term survival, as they didn't commit suicide with the rest of the fleet. Any plan for long-term survival would require a resource base, so they would presumably need to find some resources somewhere. Their survival requirements are very different from humans; they could live in much harsher environments. They could literally colonize an asteroid in interstellar space without problems.

Besides "go found a peaceful civilization" they don't have many other touchstones to involve themselves in. One might suppose they would go try to free their enslaved brethren (or take revenge on any surviving 1/4/5 models), putting them back into conflict that could lead to their destruction. They could also explore the history of Kobol and the thirteen tribes, and find who-knows-what there that could send them off on even more interesting paths. And the angels might imaginably get involved and cause unimaginable divergences.

In short, we don't know, but it probably wasn't very interesting.

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    +1 The only contention I have is assuming that the other friendly human-form Cylons never reproduced. While it is true that Hera is the most recently found ancestor, there may be other out there that were never found or turned to dust.
    – Xantec
    Jan 25, 2016 at 21:19
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    @Xantec True, they might have reproduced and just had their descendants die. That's why I said they didn't "leave any descendants". Though upon consideration, what I said isn't accurate anyway. Just because everyone is descended from Hera doesn't mean that none of her contemporaries has surviving descendants. It just means that those descendants had to intermarry with Hera's a few generations down. Jan 25, 2016 at 21:46
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    There's no reason to assume that the Cylon skinjob line died out. Hera is mitochondrial Eve; this means that every human today can trace ancestry to Hera through their matrilineal side. But every one of these mothers also had a male partner, which could easily include the surviving skinjobs, the surviving colonials, and their descendants. Thus, it's possible that many modern humans have Cylon ancestry, and also have Hera as their ancestor.
    – DrSheldon
    Jun 9, 2020 at 0:33
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Hera was the first hybrid but not the last, the cylons who settled on earth did indeed have children with both groups of humans, their legacy was both the curse and saviour of humanity, their ability to project was past down through the generations as a latan memory that all humans have (it's why they worshiped the same gods ect) Its unknown if cylons actually age (its unlikely) but after a quarter of a million years they were likely killed off by a combination of sickness or injury. Too add to a comment after 250 thousand years, ALL humans would have a cylon heritage without exception! (Also remember at this point the entire human race (homosapents) on numbered in the few hundred thousand (total) there would also be the other human species that existed in that time. The other cylons of cavils faction were likely forced to explore other routes to survive, with resurrection hub gone along with Colony they would have had no other option! Bear in mind that there were millions of members of each cylon model (both stated by both cavil and Ellen) there location is unknown but even so there would be enough of them to make a go of it (remember the cylons had hundreds if not thousands of base stars not including installations) it's very possible they survived one way or another

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    Welcome to SciFi.SE! Is this your own personal speculation, or do you have a source for this?
    – F1Krazy
    Jun 13, 2020 at 19:24
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The humanoid Cylons would probably be more susceptible to diseases since they had never been exposed to these diseases before, as the Colonials would have been, and would probably die out faster if not inoculated by Doc.

The Centurions that became self-aware were given the Baseship to go wherever they wanted. Hopefully not to come back and do it to us again.

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    This seems to be a personal theory; the question was asking if anything has officially been said about it, or if any of the creators of the show have said anything. If this is more than your theory you should provide some quotes or references.
    – DavidW
    Aug 5, 2020 at 1:57

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