It doesn't sound like you've seen all the episodes up through the third season because a lot of this has been explained. Baltar came from one of the poor colonies (one of the very simplistic "worker" planets where one was never expected to be more than a farmer in life). Because of his own self-superiority he left that world at age 18 and headed straight to the planet Caprica which was considered to be at the very top of the upper class, where there was music, art, literature etc...this was all revealed in Season 3 episode "Dirty Hands". That was his motivation. He tells this story in vivid detail to the Chief Tyrel. He further elaborates upon this story to his lawyer during his trial.
He is infatuated with the Cylons because he feels they are perfect and vastly superior to humans (the same way he feels himself to be vastly superior). He states that of all the millions of men, the cylon Caprica 6 chose him because she recognized that superiority. His belief is enforced even more when a superior being sacrifices herself to save his life...so he must in fact be beyong great. His ego is so great that he wants to believe that he himself is a Cylon because that would prove that he is perfect (revealed in "Taking A Break From All Your Worries"). Caprica living in his head is a plot device, there's no question there, but she represents Baltar's "super ego" talking to him through her, in effect making Baltar's ego an individual character.
BSG does not give you a one episode origins of each character, but bits and pieces spreadout throughout the series. It's up to the viewer to to put all those pieces together so you can understand "who" or "what" the characters are about. It is very much a character development driven show. You also need a certain amount of "plot devices" to keep it interesting, there's nothing wrong with that. Unlike a book, TV does not have the option of describing every little detail so a picture forms in your head as to what is going on. One hour TV shows have about 45 minutes to relay all the pertinent information to the viewer.
If you've ever read Tolkien you would understand what I'm talking about. The man could go on for pages just describing what a tree looks like. If the movie version of Lord of the Rings had been more like the book, each movie would have had to be several hours longer than what they were. It's no wonder that about the first 8 chapters were removed from "Fellowship" for the movie.
He is infatuated with the Cylons because he feels they are perfect and vastly superior to humans (the same way he feels himself to be vastly superior). He states that of all the millions of men, the cylon Caprica 6 chose him because she recognized that superiority. His belief is enforced even more when a superior being sacrifices herself to save his life...so he must in fact be beyong great. His ego is so great that he wants to believe that he himself is a Cylon because that would prove that he is perfect (revealed in "Taking A Break From All Your Worries"). Caprica living in his head is a plot device, there's no question there, but she represents Baltar's "super ego" talking to him through her, in effect making Baltar's ego an individual character.
BSG does not give you a one episode origins of each character, but bits and pieces spreadout throughout the series. It's up to the viewer to to put all those pieces together so you can understand "who" or "what" the characters are about. It is very much a character development driven show. You also need a certain amount of "plot devices" to keep it interesting, there's nothing wrong with that. Unlike a book, TV does not have the option of describing every little detail so a picture forms in your head as to what is going on. One hour TV shows have about 45 minutes to relay all the pertinent information to the viewer.
If you've ever read Tolkien you would understand what I'm talking about. The man could go on for pages just describing what a tree looks like. If the movie version of Lord of the Rings had been more like the book, each movie would have had to be several hours longer than what they were. It's no wonder that about the first 8 chapters were removed from "Fellowship" for the movie.
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