Fanfic / Worldwar: Discovering the Balance

Worldwar: Discovering the Balance is a completed Crossover Fan Fic between three universes: Worldwar, Stargate SG1 and Battlestar Galactica (2003), with a few divergences before the beginning (the Race arrives to earth seventy years later, and the Twelve Colonies managed to find out about the Cylon plot). There are two completed sequels, Worldwar: The Balance Destroyed, Worldwar: Missionaries Down To Earth, and another, Worldwar: Establishing a Balance, in progress.

The story begins with the Race arriving to the Sol system, ready to begin their conquest of what they call Tosev 3, when they are intercepted by spaceships from Earth - although Atvar, the leader of the Race fleet, takes a long time to believe that, thinking it is another alien race that has conquered Earth - and forced to stop their invasion plans, while Earth proves to Atvar and the Race that they are not that easy to conquer. Meanwhile, the Cylons, who have failed in their attempt to kill the people in the Twelve Colonies and have been killed en masse in reply, run away from the Twelve Colonies and decide to go to Earth, the only place they know that might be able to protect them.

This is not just about war and fighting though: politics, religion, the interaction between different cultures, and many more situations of different sign and type, while Earth, the Twelve Colonies, the Cylon and the Race deal with the shock of dealing with other space powers.

Worldwar: Discovering the Balance provides examples of:

• Actor/Role Confusion: the Colonials are firmly convinced that the Star Trek series and films are actually documentaries of Earth's past.
• A God Am I: The System Lords believe this, which makes it all but impossible to conduct any sort of diplomacy with them.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: the Race, when the Twelve Colonies invade their world.
• Allohistorical Allusion/Historical In-Joke: when a kid flips off the priests of Kobol that have arrived to Earth, one of them answers in kind, and makes the same joke Richard Nixon said back in the day.
• Alternate Universe: One of Reunions Are a Bitch, divergent in that Ra did not exterminate the Race.
• Ambition Is Evil: While there are many in the Colonies interested in developing a working relationship with Earth, Prophet Iblison's ambitions threaten all of that on various levels, from underhanded attempts to confiscate Tau'ri tech to direct confrontation with the Earth-backed Race.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Astartea, one of Baal's remaining children, approached the Colonies with an offer to ally against Earth. She even includes historical revisionism in her speech, giving the Colonials an edited history that collates better with their worldview. However, this fails when the Colonials realize everything she's saying is exactly what they want to hear, and therefore, most likely too good to be true.
  • In a more benevolent example, Earth's governments do intend to help the Colonials - it's just that Colonial jingoism has the very real possibility of becoming a disastrous dealbreaker. So they instead allow certain private companies to export Earth technology to the Colonials. This gives Earth a very strong foothold on Colonial markets and the possibility of swaying popular opinion in a more direct and discreet way, strengthens the Colonies and opens the possibility of further profitable links to the Race.
• Artifact Title: In spite of the fanfic's title, the Race bears a lot less role in the plot than the Stargate or the Colonies.
• "Ass" in Ambassador: The Colonial authorities obliviously commit several insulting blunders when meeting Astartea, which means that whenever her forces return, they're going to be baying for blood.
  • Cornel Minas, Quorum Minority Leader, basically spends a good while preaching why Earth should be absorbed by the Colonies, and basically wonders why no top government officials have prostrated before him and received him in their central buildings even though it's only an unofficial meeting. Robert Kinsey Jr. tartly guides him through every insulting action and word (having heard the man's denigrating speeches back in the Colonies) and shows him why Earth detests the idea of joining the Colonies so badly, especially when they believe Earth would enter as junior partners and hand over their technology. A humiliated Minas doesn't even begin to understand the sheer amount of hate Kinsey shows to the Colonies, but does leave the meeting feeling like he has sown the seeds for another Earth-Colonial war.
• Awful Truth: Goesel is willing to eventually reveal the truth of Earth, the Race and even how the Colonies invaded them. However, he is adamant never to allow the real reason for the invasion to be revealed: the Colonies were going to subjugate the Race and use them as cannon fodder to soften Earth.
• Back from the Brink: the Asgard, who get some nifty Asgard-Human hybrid bodies thanks to Stargate.
  • Also the Cylon, who, after being knocked down to three hundred people, begin to have children again thanks to Earth scientists.
• Believing Their Own Lies: the Twelve Colonies, particularly in regards to Earth's status as the (possible) Thirteenth Colony.
• Beware the Nice Ones: A Colonial woman keeps annoying the air stewardess on a journey to Earth. While the stewardess keeps a perfect mask of stoicism, when the Colonial asks for a "nature documentary" to soothe her nerves about the threat Earth represents, she immediately recommends Jaws.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Earth and the Colonies have developed a strange form of this for each other. For instance, the Colonials cannot fathom why there's so much resentment against them - Earth won the war, so why keep simmering about those nukes that were only nearly launched, anyway?
• Break the Haughty: the Race, several times along the story. Particularly at the beginning. Also the Colonials.
• Broken Bird: Caprica Six, who was tortured for years by the Colonials as they tried to learn the Cylons' plans. It leaves her nearly unable to trust any human being, no matter where they are from.
• Bullying a Dragon: The Colonials' confrontational attitude with Earth comes to cost them dearly.
• Cassandra Truth: Ambassador Agesha Saltum keeps sending reports confirming Earth's claims. However, the Synod keeps throwing them away, fearing (not without some justification) that the Colonies could come apart at the seams, with their religion, and the binding factor it represents, proven a lie.
• Character Development: For the Race. They are progressing into a more dynamic and savvy species, which is contrasted with the Colonials' hypocrisy and fanaticism.
• Corrupt Church: most of Kobol's religious leaders have an issue with the fact that Earth is not following their religion, and that's enormous amounts of money they aren't getting, via donations or through their captains of industry, and incredible technology they don't control, besides the obvious symbolism it would bring to their dogma. As much as Father Patrenus wants to believe Colonial faith would resist it, both Livia and he are plainly terrified Earth's influence (freedom of religion, church-state separation, and much more) could well destroy the binding factor between Colonial worlds and their entire powerbase. Livia in particular doesn't care if Earth is the Thirteenth Tribe or not, it's a powerful planet she wants to put under the Synod's control without undue bloodshed.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: the Twelve Colonies' Trade Quorum, which tried to push for tariffs and taxes to rake huge benefits from trade with Earth while Earth gets little. They soon learn that Terrans are not to be trifled with in terms of negotiating. They later come with much better suggestions.
• Cultural Posturing: The more extremist Colonials refuse to use terms like "Tau'ri", "Terrans" or "the Race". It's "Apellai" and "Lizardians".
• Curb-Stomp Battle: the (so far) two battles between Earth and the Twelve Colonies have ended in complete defeat of the latter.
  • The first one was one Earth ship (the Prometheus) against several Colonial ships, and it happened after Daniel Jackson told the Colonials that humans have been around on Earth for many thousands of years. The Prometheus managed to destroy a Battlestar and several smaller ships before getting back home.
  • The second one features ten Earth ships plus a fighter contingent against eighty Colonial battlestars and cruisers and their own fighters. More than half of the Colonials get wiped out for little Earth losses.
  • Also the Tollanian-Colonial War. One Tollanian ship destroys several Colonial ships, knocks out even more and threatens to kill all if they don't leave Home and the other Race worlds.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: the conflict between Earth and the Colonies begins because, during First Contact, Daniel Jackson disagreed with the Colonials on some religious issues (namely, Humanity's homeworld). The Colonials decided they had to destroy the "heretic"... and handily lost the fight (see Curb-Stomp Battle).
  • Earth's religions are contrasted against the apparently solid Colonial faith. To the Colonial theocracy's horror, most of Earth's governments practice church-state separation, allow freedom of religion, local science is not constrained by their Scrolls' dogma, Earth is generally more advanced than the Colonies, and has little interest in a faraway religion. This, coupled with the Colonials' lack of experience in actually trying to convince others to join their faith rather than forcing it at gunpoint, shatters the missionaries' initial rosy expectations and forces them to reevaluate their long-term plans as virtually non-viable.
  • The Colonials' best weapon, as stated by Goesel, is their culture. Their original plan called to drown Earth in Colonial culture and incorporate it. However, it's shown that there's a far higher risk of Earth's culture impacting theirs. Contrasting with the dogma of Kobol, Earth's religions are far more relaxed and diverse, making them more attractive choices for a youth disaffected with the Colonial religious fervor.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: The System Lords begin overriding Colonial transmissions in Chapter 17 of Establishing a Balance.
• Easily Forgiven: The Colonials expect this of Earth, feeling that victory over them is enough to overcome any lingering resentment. Nobody on Earth agrees.
• Easy Evangelism: Averted for the Colonies. Since they're used to introducing their monolithic religion at gunpoint to everyone they conquer, their clergy has zero experience in theology. Coupled with their nonexistent interest in understanding other religions, their missionaries get the proverbial door slammed in their faces.
• Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: the Colonials learned the Cylon plans for human genocide by "interrogating" Caprica Six.
• Entitled Bastard: The Colonies. They expect Earth to share all of their technologies with them and basically fold into their hegemony like a good lost colony, with the "we're cousins" excuse. When the Goa'uld come knocking, they add "protect them from the scary space snakes" and "come to the rescue of the people who threatened to nuke Earth" to the list. Earth authorities give them a rude awakening with the story of the Earth Alliance, who share more than a passing resemblance to the Colonies and were very nearly eradicated for their attempt to subsume Earth.
• Epic Fail: The Colonies really thought Earth wouldn't care about the invasion of Home. While the Tollanians got to them first, it's made abundantly clear that Earth would also have retaliated with extreme force for the attempt.
  • None of the missionaries had any idea of what they were getting into. They thought Earth's religion was a monolithic church presided by Tau'ri enslaving countless innocents thirsting for the word of the Kobol gods. They are quickly disabused of the notion when informed of the sheer number of different faiths coexisting on Earth, whether monotheistic or polytheistic. Even giving them the chance to spread their message breaks them further, as they are forced to confront the extent of Earth's apathy about their religion, even the few surviving worshipers of the Greek pantheon. This isn't helped by their meager experience in missionary work; as they are mostly used to enforcing their religion at gunpoint, they founder in theological debates. One of their number even renounces her mission and converts to the Baptist Church in order to marry an Earth man.
• Fantastic Racism: the Twelve Colonies towards anything that is not human, and some that are.
• Faster-Than-Light Travel: Earth has this, thanks to the contacts established through the Stargates. The Colonials and Cylons have something, too, but less powerful than Earth's (which bites them in the ass a couple of times). The Race did not even consider it possible until they made contact with Earth.
• First Contact: several times. The ones between Earth and the Twelve Colonies, and between Earth and the Race, are not peaceful ones.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The Colonials are trying some clumsy overtures of peace in an effort to salve their image in an effort to convince Earth to help them against the Goa'uld. However, they are widely despised by many in Earth and beyond for their churlish attempts at conquering both Earth and Home. More importantly, there are efforts by lower-ranked fools, who, unknowing and possibly uncaring of the potential threat the Goa'uld represent, are trying to restart a war with Earth, a war the higher ups know full well can only end in disaster for the Colonies. Their hypocrisy and brutality, as evidenced by the Race enslavement under the guise of "enlightening", only make things all the harder for the moderates.
• For the Evulz: Ibilson has nearly all inhabitants of the Race Imperial Palace brutally murdered just because they deceived him, and he also has one of the Race's cities destroyed, ostensibly to hide the fact that the Colonials have enslaved many Race people, but he actually enjoys the fact.
• Foreshadowing: when Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson discover that the Race members are willing to reveal important secrets to people they consider their superiors, they comment on the possibility of what the Goa'uld would do with the Race as slaves. When the Colonials discover the existence of the Race, they plan to use them as slaves.
  • Soon after we are introduced to Dodonna, the Oracle, her monologue reveals she's begun to hear a faint buzzing no one else can hear. Much later, it's revealed she's suffering from tinnitus.
• The Fundamentalist: many in the Twelve Colonies. They are the ones pushing for war against Earth, or, rather, against the Tau'ri, who they think are some aliens that have taken Earth, just because they believe Earth might be the fabled Thirteenth Colony. An irritated Cain denounces this mindset and how it's come to bite them in the ass over and over, and pushes for the entire religious agenda to be tossed out.
  • Iblison. He wholeheartedly believes the Colonies can take on Earth and every single one of its allies and win by dint of being the gods' chosen.
• Gilligan Cut: Inverted. A scene after Minas utterly wrecks Colonial perception for some of the most powerful men in Washington, Goesel back in the Colonies hopes he hasn't damaged the Colonies' standing on Earth.
• A God Am I: A variant. Iblison addresses the image of Zeus in his medallion as "father".
• Godzilla Threshold: The Colonies are in such a difficult position, between being targeted by the Goa'uld for an "alliance" they know would mean absolute submission and a mysterious attack on one of their explorer ships, they have decided to swallow their pride and beg for Earth's aid.
• Graceful Loser: When Goesel finally decides to acknowledge Earth's version of history, he's left with the dilemma of how to make it so the Colonies at least appear to follow the trope rather than invite a Sore Loser attitude that would cost them most of whatever little dignity they still have.
• Gunboat Diplomacy: The way the conflict between Earth and the Race is initially solved. Fortunately for the latter, the only thing Earth wants is to live in peace with them, and they even provide them with a planet similar to Home to live in.
  • Also the way the Tollanians force the Colonials to leave Home.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Stargate manages to create Asgard-Human hybrid bodies for the Asgard, thus circumventing that nasty problem with their cloning techniques.
• The Heart: Earth for the anti-Goa'uld alliance. This is why everyone takes such a dim view of the Colonials for their short-sighted attempt at conquest.
• Higher-Tech Species: Subverted for the Race, which does not take the discovery that they are not this well.
  • Earth is this to the Race and the Colonies. The Tollanians and the Asgard are this to Earth.
• Hypocritical Humour: Atvar suggests an American diplomat to allow the Race to conquer all of Earth, and that this way America can control the world, only answering to the Emperor. When the American diplomat counters with a similar offer (putting Atvar in the Imperial Throne and answering only to the Americans), he considers this barbaric.
• Humans by Any Other Name: Humanity is called, depending on the talker, Terran, Tau'ri, Tosevites, Thirteeners or Apellai.
• Interservice Rivalry: The Colonies are starting to develop this problem, much to their horror: the higher-ups have amassed enough information about the galaxy to realize that the only way their worlds can survive with their culture more-or-less intact is to approach Earth hat in hand, give up their imperialistic ambitions, and collaborate in an effort to repair their image. However, their plans to do this are threatened by the populist Pontiff Iblison, unaware (or uncaring) of this, is a rampantly xenophobic jackass who wants to subjugate Earth and enslaved Race citizens, rendering their efforts to prove the Colonies' will to change null.
  • More darkly, the Colonial military has been trying to scrub evidence of authorization to use nuclear weapons, and their politicians are being spoonfed a sanitized version of the events. This has grave consequences when the Earth ambassador, knowing full well the public is given an even more abbreviated version of what the Synod knows, reveals the whole truth on live television across the Colonies.
• Interspecies Romance: implied with Caprica Six, who writes in a diary that a human is interested in her.
• It's All About Me: The Colonials' viewpoint, especially when it concerns religion.
• Jerkass: Prophet Ibilson of the Twelve Colonies. Fleetlord Reffet.
• Jerkass Has a Point: a good part of the Colonials are complete jerks, but they make a good point when saying that Earth possibly placing an armed station within striking distance of their worlds does not feel for good relationships.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sure, Robert Kinsey, Jr. hates Jack O'Neill, but unlike his father, he isn't going to put his vendetta before the American Dream. While he also hates the idea of actually collaborating with aliens, thinking Earth has no business meddling into other worlds when there's trouble at home, he also admits the Asgard have amply earned any help Earth can give.
• Manipulative Bastard: In Establishing a Balance, President Boyd privately admits that Earth's manipulative tactics to gain commercial foothold in Colonial space and rubbing their technological superiority in the face of their military are really no better than the Colonials' own attempts to manipulate Earth; they're just better at the game and had some advantages from the get-go.
• Meaningful Rename: The Tollans to the Tollanians.
• Mole in Charge: To no one's surprise, Iblison's deal. It turns out that there were far more than twelve ships in the Colonial exodus, in fact, there were over two dozen ships, but due to infighting and squabbles, the remainder were lost. One of them, carrying the Kelassent clan, managed to find four separate viable (if not particularly nice) planets and thrived there, developing anti-Goa'uld biotechnology, and furious at being cast aside by their more militant cousins, eventually worked out the means to return and take revenge upon them by basically throwing them to the wolves and taking better planets for themselves. As is, they have managed to deeply infiltrate the Colonial governments of several worlds, only to plan to abandon and cripple them as much as they can when leaving. Another plan is to abuse the Race members they have in custody until they manage to turn them into a fanatic army loyal to them.
• Morton's Fork: Goesel's reaction to the MegaCorps' offer. He realizes he can either sweep it away and refuse technology the Colonies desperately need, while staying away from Earth's influence, or accept it and gain public acclaim at the cost of making the Colonies more dependent on Earth and infuriating the local technology sector. He chooses the second option, preferring to save the Colonies at the cost of their pride and his own presidency.
  • Much more darkly, they face a similar one when approached by the Goa'uld, and are faced with the apparent choice of who to submit to - Earth or the snakes. Goesel tries to Take a Third Option and attempt to reconcile both groups, but this backfires spectacularly when the Goa'uld broadcast a devastating propaganda program identifying themselves as the Lords of Kobol and swearing revenge for the Colonials' insults, and the Earth government, tired of the Colonial attempts at revisionism and hypocrisy, disseminate the truth of the invasions of Earth and Home. Both events gravely imperil Goesel's presidency - and he and the Colonies still have yet to hear what the Race itself has to say.
• Mythology Gag: a group of Race people accidentally gets introduced to ginger-snaps, ginger ale and other ginger-derived products. Earth promises to never again deliver any ginger-derived products to Race worlds.
  • Gaius Baltar becoming the savior of the Twelve Colonies when he realized the blonde woman he was with was a Cylon - although he died at the hands of the Cylon.
• Naïve Newcomer: The Colonials, to the reality of war and politics in the Galaxy at large. They honestly think they can reconcile the Ashtorath Systems with Earth.
• Never My Fault: whenever the Colonials lose, they blame "lack of faith" on the part of others.
  • Case in point: when the Colonials decide to send their fleet to Earth to "liberate" it, the only person opposed to it was President Adar, and the Senate voted against his veto. When the fleet got trashed, everyone blamed Adar.
  • Adar's later hit by another case of this, when he realizes Nagala's order to nuke Earth was covered up.
• Non-Indicative Title: The story begins with the Race coming to Earth. When Establishing a Balance rolls out, they barely make a few appearances, with the growing problems the Twelve Colonies are facing (the Ashtorath Lords, their entrance in a bigger universe they are barely ready for, sectarian troubles) taking over the show.
• Not Helping Your Case: The Colonial military reluctantly admits they did issue the order to fire nukes at Earth. But hey, none actually reached their targets and we lost anyway, so we're cool, right?
• Nuke 'em: what the Colonials try to do to Earth during the battle above Earth orbit.
  • Clearly stated by Earth leaders that this would have happened to the Twelve Colonies if any of those nukes had destroyed a city, but up to eleven.
• Numbered Homeworld: played with by the Race, as in the books. They call the desert, uninhabited planet they are offered by Earth "Home II".
• Oh, Crap!: the Race invasion fleet when humans demonstrate that they are very certainly not a bunch of knights on a horse.
  • Admiral Cain when he finds out that Earth's spaceships are much faster than what he thought.
  • Livia, when she finds via Goesel that another race has found the Colonial territories.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Lucy, the most ardently fanatical of the Colonial missionaries sent to proselytize on Earth, is the one that winds up renouncing her religion to marry a Baptist man.
• Plausible Deniability: Earth's government is reticent to directly support the Colonies for a large number of reasons. However, it knows it's in everybody's interests to ensure they remain strong. So instead it allows certain technologies to enter the Colonial market via Mega Corps, allowing Earth a more discreet role in the cultural development of the Colonies and with it the possibility of better ties in the future. It's also considering making a similar deal with the Race.
• Pretender Diss: The Goa'uld are unimpressed with the Colonies, calling them "Tau'ri wannabes".
• The Right of a Superior Species: the Race, who gets knocked down from its pedestal when they discover they are not as advanced as others.
  • The Colonials, towards Earth and the Race.
• Running Gag: Earth people (Stargate, particularly) having to argue that their planet's proper name is not Tosev 3, the Thirteenth Colony nor Apellai.
  • Jack O'Neill and Straha trading insults every time they meet each other.
  • Earth's opponents being angry at the fact that Earth has put probes in their space and they cannot detect them.
  • People in the Twelve Colonies being sure that Earth is a mess and wants to join the Colonies.
• Sarcasm-Blind: when informed about the missionaries' plans to proselytize their faith on Earth (even though they have zero experience), one priest in New York wishes them good luck with a big smile. One of the missionaries states that it is nice of him to wish them luck.
• Scylla and Charybdis: The Ashtorath Lords, one of the remaining Goa'uld empires, contact the Colonies, offering them an alliance to subjugate Earth. After some reading between the lines, the Colonials realize they're on the unenviable position of choosing between the rule of the Goa'uld (which will certainly destroy their culture and religion and doom their citizens to effective slavery) and asking for Earth's help, hat in hand (after years of continuous aggression and cold war, along with a potential culture war). Given later developments, they concede they'd rather eat crow and beg for Earth's aid.
• Shoot the Messenger: non-fatal version with one of the Race communication officers, who fears this happening as he delivers worse and worse news to Atvar concerning Earth's status. He ends up suffering a mental breakdown over it.
• Shout-Out: apart from the obvious ones, there is one to another Worldwar fanfic, Worldwar: War of Equals, as the reason why the Race arrives too late to make a difference are the same.
  • In Missionaries Down To Earth, there is a conversation between two of the missionaries that mirrors one between Leonard and Sheldon. In fact, the hotel scenes before they are moved to the embassy are a colossal Shout-Out to Fawlty Towers.
• Sore Loser: Iblison. After being forcefully evicted out of Home by the Tollanians and having his proposal to use the captured Race members used as feed tossed out, he uses them in a slavery program. This earns the scorn of everyone at the conference Adar was attending and almost ruins the Colonies' plan to beg for Earth aid.
• Space Age Stasis: the Race, as in the books. This changes when Earth decides they aren't going to allow a repeat of the Colonial invasion of Home, and send the Asgard to help advance both the Race and the surviving Cylons to give them a better tech base.
• The Starscream: Prophet Iblison is basically flaunting Goesel's orders to give up the captured members of the Race, and his part in the potential civil war brewing in the newest Colonial planet heavily weakens even Livia's support. When Goesel, already incensed by this, learns of Iblison's role in almost triggering a war against the Terrans earlier, he resolves that as soon as the situation is dealt with, he'll have the man killed. To make matters worse, he's gaining power as the planet he's in charge of begins filling with colonists, and he attempted to arrange the destruction of an Earth civilian liner carrying the Colonial Vice President and several high-ranking dignataries. The Makaria officer who discover and block the attempt have nightmares of how horribly wrong it could have gone had the vessel been destroyed.
• Straw Hypocrite: The Colonial military engages in all sorts of Moral Event Horizon-crossing antics, and when they fail, they simply scrub the logs to make themselves look like the victims, send them home, and walk away to lick their wounds. This falls apart in Chapter 17 of Establishing a Balance, when the American ambassador, tired of the tactic, releases an immense amount of damning information after a key speech, revealing to the Colonies the corrupt nature of their leaders.
• Suicidal Overconfidence/Too Dumb to Live: even after seeing what one Earth spaceship did to them (see Curb-Stomp Battle), the Colonials think they will have it easy when they fight Earth on their turf and against ten ships. Wrong move.
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: The Colonial ships managed to capture enough Race members to start a sustainable population. Iblison originally wanted them farmed as food, an idea that got tossed out the moment everyone realized the lizards were sentient and refused to even entertain the notion of eating a thinking being. Then they had to come up with an expensive system of collars and killswitches that need to be surgically implanted on each to ensure obedience as they turned them into slaves, despite the fact most Colonials find the Race disgusting and want them gone from their planets. At this point they've become a gigantic money sink Iblison keeps trying to fill to sate his power and revenge fantasies at the expense of the Colonies.
• Superweapon Surprise: the people of Earth have quite a few surprises for all those that attempt to fight them.
• Tempting Fate: Livia spends the last chapter of Missionaries analyzing the failure of her missionary effort, and spins it into a Phase One of a grander plan to draw Earth into the Colonies... which gets a rude interruption when she hears the Ashtorath Lords have found the Colonies...
• Theme Naming: Some Colonials have names related to the Devil. One of the missionaries sent to Earth is named Lucy Ferro, and Pontiff Iblison's name is a variation on Iblis, a Satanic figure in Islamic lore. Further, his family owns a MegaCorp named Morning Star Enterprises.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Livia, when realizing that, after her missionary expedition's failure, realizes she has no diplomatic excuse to block Earth missionaries into the Colonies.
• Token Evil Teammate: arguably the Tollan, who have changed from pacifist people to an incredibly aggressive group of survivors who have willingly decided to take this role for the sake of Earth.
• Trademark Favorite Food: the Cylons love chocolate with such a passion that they have to keep their stashes well guarded so that other Cylons won't try to steal it. The Race likes salty snacks so much that Shiplord Straha calls it "a food of Emperors Past" i.e. heavenly.
  • This also brings problems to the missionary expedition's Oracle. While extremely skilled, she's addicted to chamalla, which she mixes with chocolate to mitigate the bitterness. This lets her consume more of the drug and worsens her addiction.
• Unwanted Assistance: Admiral Westergyne's attitude towards Prophet Ibilson, who nearly always advocates for the most needlessly brutal options and nearly gets them into a fight they cannot win.
• Villainous Breakdown: one of the Colonial priestesses, called Lucy, has a breakdown when the priests of Kobol visit a museum and find Lucy.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: the dynamic between General Jack O'Neill and Shiplord Straha, who are constantly calling each other names but enjoy each other's presence.
• We ARE Struggling Together: A key difference between Earth and the Colonies. While all of Earth's different factions more or less work together and are perfectly capable of making alliances with other races and factions, the Colonies are steadily diverging from each other as the binding factors that once united them (the war against the Cylons being a key one) disappear. Their specisism and overblown patriotism subsume every culture they can, leaving with no one willing to join them if they can help it. And to cap it off, their faith, one of their most important forms of unity, is cracking under the strain of the fundamentalists seeking war with Earth (still blaming "lack of faith" for their previous defeats) and the moderates desperate to save the Colonies.
  • They've begun diverging on the topic of what to do with the captured Race members as well. Iblison's plans to use them as food was openly viewed with disgust and derision, and attempts to use them as slave labor are going nowhere. Many want them gone from the colony worlds where they were deposited, and only Iblison's stubborn Sore Loser attitude keeps them there.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 17 of Establishing A Balance. Goesel tries to make peace between the Ashtaroth System Lords and Earth and begins making the truth of Earth and the Colonies known, if with a marked Colonial slant. Moments later, an interview with the Earth ambassador begins answering very ugly truths about First Contact, the brief war between the Colonies and the Race, and a lot of secrets and views not even the politicians were privy to being leaked. Worse, there are incoming messages from the Lords and the Race.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: the Colonials pretty much run on this. They consider the Cylons and the Race soul-less animals with no rights in their government (they actually decide to enslave several thousands of Race people to use them as Red Shirts, slaves and even food) and their religions, which are very much unlike theirs, no true show of understanding theology.
• Writer on Board: The writer does not like the colonials from the remade Battlestar Galactica, viewing them as selfish, primitive, stubborn, violent, superstitious maniacs with few redeeming features. This, despite the Colonials from earlier (and NOT post-apocalyptic, desperate, scared survivors) being quite reasonable and comparable to a modern-day first-world country.
  • There are a few that are treated relatively well, such as Adar.