I was wondering what kind of wild ideas you guys and girls thought up as explanations for [V]'s stray comment about the Shivans being a "symptom of a bigger problem".
My take on it is that the Shivans must be interpreted in some sort of a religious manner. The Ancients' monologues and Bosch' reference to those made it seem that we have to look in that direction to catch a glimpse of [V]'s original thoughts. The Shivans are very much like the Hindu god Shiva, who was the Great Destroyer and the Great Preserver. However, Shiva is also the Great Creator. Thus we have the great cycle of civilisations in the Universe: they are created, they are preserved (because the Shivans stopped pillaging races) and finally, when they themselves "become the destroyers" (as Alpha One puts it), they are destroyed as well.
This cycle is seemingly inescapable, since all civilisations are eventually destroyed (at least to the GTVA's knowledge). This again reminds me very much of the Hindu religion. There's a great cycle of life, and it's a problem from which it's difficult to escape. Translated to the FreeSpace Universe, this cycle of civilisations is the bigger problem of which the Shivans are symptoms. The question from here is: how can the GTVA escape the cycle? Mend its destructive ways? Become preservers themselves?
What are your thoughts on the "bigger problem"?
