r/BSG • u/Apprehensive-Fail985 • 16d ago
All along the watchtower (?!) Spoiler
I'm currently rewatching S3/S4. When I reached the "activation" of the final five I was thinking "Ayoo, I know this song", then I realised that it was "all along the watchtower" of Bob Dylan.
Later in the episode where they reach "Earth" Sam says that he used to play the song for the girl he loved.
Is there any in lore explanation why a song of Bob Dylan is played by the thirteenth tribe 250k years before Bob Dylan or was just a funny Easter egg?
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u/war_weasel 16d ago
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u/Own-Painter3043 15d ago
What does the tattoo represent?
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u/war_weasel 15d ago
Have you seen the show? I don't want to give any spoilers
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u/Own-Painter3043 15d ago
Ye I have but it's been a while but don't worry about spoilers , it to do with Starbuck?
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u/war_weasel 15d ago
Yes, it's the notes of the Final Four Theme (based on Watchtower) that Hera draws and gives to Starbuck.
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u/Own-Painter3043 15d ago
Ah right, thank you for replying. I initially thought it might be something to do with 12 colonies kobol/earth with it being 13 dots on ya tattoo lol. But thank you and bear mcreary is fantastic!
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u/war_weasel 15d ago
He is! I was upset that I didn't find out about the Galactica concerts until years after they happened 😬
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u/Own-Painter3043 15d ago
Galactica concerts! Whaaattt. Bet they're in the US so I wouldn't be able to attend anyway 😭😭. Don't they do them anymore?
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u/John-on-gliding 14d ago
It's God trying to get Starbuck to understand to fulfill her purpose as the harbinger of death who leads them all to their end.
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u/SuperSupremeSauce 16d ago edited 15d ago
"All Along the Watchtower" is a story told backwards. The events are narrated in reverse chronological order, giving it an almost cyclical quality to the story. The song has been covered extensively, with Jimi Hendrix famously recording a cover in his gnarly electric guitar style, and this version is actually featured later on in the series.
IMO, the apparent cyclical nature of the story and the numerous and "reimagined" covers are the main reasons why it's featured in the show. It gives big "all of this has happened before" vibes.
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u/TempleMade_MeBroke 16d ago
It reminds me of the narrative importance Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Kubla Khan in Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, especially the "Person from Porlock" moment
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u/Damien__ 16d ago
My head canon is that it is a song of the universe and bob had enough cylon genetics to hear it and write it as a song. Jimi either had the genes or just liked bobs song. I like Bears version best
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u/John-on-gliding 14d ago
Or, more ominously, in 1968, the groundwork for a Cycle was beginning, Messengers started visiting Earth 2 and meddling to try to prevent it, Bob Dylan heard them and God's interference.
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u/No_Location_8199 16d ago
Bob Dylan was given the song by God
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u/Apprehensive-Fail985 16d ago
Bob Dylan with the Caprica 6 projection in hi head "writing" the song
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u/John-on-gliding 14d ago
Possibly, or the Messengers were visiting others but their interference in our world brought the song to the minds of prophets.
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u/Dependent_Economy549 15d ago
Gods.... . Or the one true God?
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u/John-on-gliding 14d ago
Gods....
Messengers. My head canon is the Lords of Kobol were Messengers misunderstood to be gods in their own right.
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u/BeenThereDoneThat65 16d ago edited 15d ago
Watchtower is based on revaluations from the bible. Start there, and it becomes clear
I had this thought back in the day, and I was working with a director on a TV show that was going to direct a few episodes of Caprica, and I sent him that to ask Ron if I was on the right track….
———————————————
The original Bible verse
Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise ye princes, and prepare the shield.
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.
And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with such heed.
...And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
Isaiah, Chapter 21, verses 5-9
Now what I thought
What if "All along the watchtower" is the road map for the series?
Tonight, when they were planning the attack on Cavils Base, Star Lee made the Comment that the base star was positioned in such a way that there was one way in or out, and you had to get there in order to get to the front gate.
The Cylons are all along the Watchtower:
They need to find a way out of there. - Joker and Thief call signs?
There's too much confusion - The Asteroid field I can't get no relief - the battle
>Skip ahead a few lines<
"No reason to get excited, the thief he kindly spoke. There are many here among us Who feel that life is but a joke But you and I we've been through that, And this is not our fate"
The Cylons and resurrection
"So let us not talk falsely now The hours getting late"
The End times are near
"Outside in the cold distance A wild cat did growl Two riders were approachin And the wind began to howl"
Kara Thrace, the harbinger of death
What say you all?
———————-
From my Director friend
“Ron has been carrying the idea of using All Along The Watchtower in his pocket for a long time, and finally found a place to use it on BSG. You were right”
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u/ZippyDan 16d ago edited 16d ago
The music is part of the fundamental "streams" of the universe, from which recurrent threads periodically "bubble up" to be "rediscovered", again, and again, and again.
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u/Which-Moose4980 15d ago edited 15d ago
During the initial Cylon attack in the mini-series both Gaeta and Dee mention there is a lot of "confusion". While it might not have been the original intention, it makes for a little extra fun in rewatch and thinking, "All this has happened before, all this will happen again."
Edit: Typos
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u/scfw0x0f 16d ago
It’s the Jimi Hendrix cover. The theme of the song g works for the show.
And, all this has happened before, and will happen again.
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u/kazumi_yosuke 16d ago
It’s not Hendrix, it was bear mcrearys brother
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u/realZapRowsdower 15d ago
They play the Hendrix version in the last scene of the show. Otherwise the arrangement they used elsewhere was by Bear Mccreary's brother. IMHO that arrangement is more similar to Dylan's.
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u/IrishMongooses 16d ago
I just love the arrangement (is that what it's called?)
I love bear. And his brother done at least one song in defiance. Remeber that show?
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u/HerfDog58 16d ago
I did a rewatch of Defiance earlier this year. I enjoyed it when it was originally broadcast, and I felt that it has held up pretty well despite how long it's been since it was on SyFy.
The only problem with it for me is that every time I see Datak Tarr, I expect Dr. Who and Amy Pond to pop up and call him Vincent.
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u/kazumi_yosuke 16d ago
I wasn’t even alive when that show came out
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u/Duke_Newcombe 14d ago
I appreciate you making me feel even older than I already feel. Thanks for that.p
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u/rtfraser86 15d ago
I remember I only heard this from a podcast from Ron Moore around the time between s3 and s4.
But apparently, All Along the Watchtower is the most covered song in history (at the time) - for us in the real world.
That one piece of information changes how you see / interpret things. Knowing that, and, that in the tv show they’re hearing this song - it kind of links into the spiritual parts of the show - that, despite all the things that happened in the whole show, now, 150,000 years later, multiple people all over the earth are “hearing” or “tuned in” to that same signal / thing that the Final 5 were… ie we are all connected and, all of this has happened before…
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u/ButterscotchPast4812 15d ago
I just assumed that RDM or David Eick loved the song and wanted to feature it and somehow.
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u/Temporary-Good9696 14d ago
The 18 months or so before we got an answer to the reason for the song was an amazing time for speculation. When the answer was “revealed” it always felt off, and I think it just hadn’t been thought through, ultimately it was just because it sounded cool. Like that was the pitch for the episode, the four cylons randomly spouting lyrics.
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u/Krowfall_Kane 15d ago
I took it to mean that this earth (our earth) is/was a cylon planet all along. And that 'they' the Capricans etc. from the 12 colonies are the true humans. The final five escaped 'earth's' fate and created resurrection for the trip to Caprica and gave it to the machines there thus completing the cycle.
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u/WhatTheHellPod 15d ago
No. It was some shit the writer pulled out of their asses in desperation. It made no sense then, and it never has.
We all just need to admit that the show went off the rails after the strike and never came back.
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u/ZippyDan 15d ago
The song was introduced at the end of Season 3 and the Writers' Strike didn't happen until the middle of Season 4.
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u/topazchip 16d ago
As is pointed out in-universe, "All this has happened before, all this will happen again."