Heroes of the Cylon

"Hero of the Cylon" is the honorary title given to Sharon Valerii and Caprica-Six after their successful missions of espionage, sabotage, genocide and attempted murder. Their two missions resulted in the successful destruction and occupation of the Twelve Colonies, as well as the damage and terror strewn among its fleeing survivors (TRS: "Downloaded").

As she helps Caprica-Six adjust after her download into a new body, a Number Three congratulates her on this honor as they watch the occupying Cylons on Caprica clean up and rebuild a city for their use.

Later, Caprica-Six and Valerii realize that the honor also poses a danger; their status as heroes have marked the two humanoid Cylons as being too unique among their models, and highlight their prolonged exposure to and respective romantic involvements with humans Gaius Baltar and Galen Tyrol, respectively. Three suggests that if Valerii (and likewise Caprica-Six, too) does not accept her true nature as a Cylon and abandon her emotional attachments to her former human life, her consciousness will eventually be boxed. Caprica-Six is also tipped off to this problem by a projection of Gaius Baltar whom only she can see and hear (TRS: "Downloaded").

Caprica-Six and Valerii avert boxing by successfully persuading the Cylons to change their plan to replace humanity on the former worlds of the Twelve Colonies, and instead seek out the surviving fragment of humanity to care for them as parents would their children. After approximately a year, the Cylon fleet detects and investigates the radiation signature of a nuclear explosion, leading them to discover most of the Colonials settled on a new world.

Accompanied by a Number Five, the heroes of the Cylon receive the unconditional surrender of the Colonies from President Baltar (TRS: "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II").

While the former "Boomer" Valerii eventually renounces her emotional ties to humanity, deciding that it was wrong to try to unite Cylons and humans, Caprica-Six continues to attempt to balance her duties as a Cylon with her love of Gaius Baltar and the safety and well-being of the "first of the new generation of God's children", Hera Agathon. Caprica-Six is eventually successful, while Valerii meets a bad end (TRS: "Daybreak, Part II").

Notes

• This is not the only time that the term "Cylon" is used as a collective term. In "Occupation", a Number Six states that "a majority of the Cylon felt that the slaughter of mankind had been a mistake."
• Demand Peace also uses this phrasing. Royan Jahee says that he wants "Peace with the Cylon", and the suicide bomber on the Daru Mozu declares that "(if) my sacrifice sends a signal to the Cylon that brings peace, then it was worth it." (TRS: "Epiphanies")
• It is somewhat odd that Valerii was considered a "hero" despite the fact that Adama ultimately survived her attempt on his life.