MovieChat Forums > The Orville (2017) Discussion > The Kaylons CANNOT possibly be this stup...

The Kaylons CANNOT possibly be this stupid

posted 6 years ago by marty4650 (26)
11 replies | jump to latest

While the Kaylon desire to destroy all biologicals seems to make sense for them, it is bizarre that a group as intelligent as they are would consider this as a viable choice.

They are about to initiate a galactic war that they cannot possibly win. Even if they are successful in destroying humans on earth, there are other biological beings all over the galaxy (some with more advanced technology than earth has) that would fight back and succeed in destroying the Kaylons.

Just remember.... Earth is only ONE member of the Planetary Union, and any attack on earth would draw the other members into the fray.

In this latest episode Capt. Ed Mercer said: "We are over 300 planetary governments working together to ensure that no single world imposes its will upon another. We treat each other as equals."

The Planetary Union is a federation of space flight-capable species based at Planetary Union Central on Earth. The Union consists of science and exploratory vessels, a unified military, and a quasi-government overseeing affairs among colonies.

It is extremely difficult to wage war on two fronts.... much less on 300 fronts.

Can any race of robots that are smart enough to wage war billions of miles away also be so stupid and arrogant as to initiate a war with 300 adversary planets?

[–] brux (14840) 6 years ago

Well, it is a story, so let's see how it goes. You make some good points, but I think one of the points the series makes is that there are limits to artificial intelligence, it is not perfect any more than biological beings. This is The Orville's version of the Borg I think ... and looking at it I think they are doing a better job than Star Trek ever did.

[–] Keelai (36123) 6 years ago

Mercer said one of the reasons then wanted the Kaylons to join the Union was because of their advanced technology to fight the Krills. It sounds like the other member planets aren't as advanced as the Kaylons.

The Kaylons are very arrogant as Isaac has repeatedly shown. People who start wars tend to be unusually arrogant. Hitler thought he was racially superior and took on the world.

[–] Costumer (1834) 6 years ago

We have seen at least one species that is purported to be equal to the Kaylons in technology, the Cavilons, in season 1 (Command Performance). There are likely others.

Numbers can also count. The Kaylons would likely be able to overcome one planet, or even a few. But when news spreads, as it would, they would be facing far more than one species. Even the Cavilons, who are contemptuous of species less advanced then they, would have to respond.

[–] MikeCable (1915) 6 years ago

Those orbs could be an incredible weapon, might be able to wipe out anything in their path. And there's so many of them.

[–] TandyMan (11343) 6 years ago

Well it didn't work out so good. Haha. Who knows why computers make the goofy decisions they do. I've yet to see a copy of Windows that wasn't buggy as hell.

[–] strntz (12773) 6 years ago

My XP Pro never had an issue. Never a blue screen, never a hang, never had to force a shutdown and reboot.

Now it's no longer supported and I'm switching to one of the Linux distros. Hope it's as good.

[–] Rorikon (18378) 6 years ago

It's possible if they're all directed to one planet at a time. The Union is vastly spread out among all 300 planets so to be able to focus all ships in one location can take weeks (as mentioned in part 2 of the episode). This in turn would leave all 299 of the other planets severely diminished in terms of defense if the enemy used some 2 prong attack or multiple attacks among the 300 planets. All depends on the force size in the end.

[–] marty4650 (26) 6 years ago

It seems like we got our answer in Part 2.

The other 299 members of the Planetary Union didn't have to lift a finger to help. The non-member Krills jumped in to defeat the Kaylons, after realizing that they too are "biologicals" and would eventually be a target for the Kaylons.

And this just helps make my point. It wasn't just the 300 Planetary Union members who had a strong incentive to stop the Kaylons... it was ANY race of biological beings. So the Kaylon plan was even dumber than I imagined it was.

[–] MAGolding (1240) 6 years ago

I may point out that according to my post "How Large is the Union?" it is quite possible that the Union occupies a sphere with a radius of between 250 and 1,000 light years. Thus it is quite possible that the volume of the galactic disc is at least 10,000 times larger than the volume of the Union, and thus should contain at least 10,000 times as many space travelling societies as the Union.

But it turns out that the Kraylon fleet was not large enough to defeat a portion of the total Union fleet plus a portion of the total Krill fleet.

The Kraylon should have built a space fleet large enough to have a very good probability of defeating the total combined fleets of the Union, and the Krill, and the total combined fleets of every other space travelling realm and society they knew about. Because their plan should have allowed for the worst possible eventuality, their enemies knowing about their plans and combining to ambush their fleet at Earth.

And even if the Kraylon did build such a large fleet they would have been doomed to defeat eventually as fleeing space ships full of fugitives and distress messages sent by worlds they were exterminating spread to every corner of the galaxy and all biological beings united to defeat the Kraylon. Eventually the Kraylon would face not the 3,000 ships of the Union but 3,000,000 ships that would overwhelm them with numbers.

The Kraylon plan was very illogical.

[–] strntz (12773) 6 years ago

The Kraylon plan was very illogical.

I don't know how the Kaylons got from where their own creators abused them to *anyone* else would automatically abuse them.

[–] Keelai (36123) 6 years ago

Stereotyping based on over-generalization. Humans do it all the time.