random Stargate thought

[ratcreature]

I think I mentioned before that when watching SG-1 I keep thinking how much of an easier time the Ori would have getting more worshippers if they just expanded into the Pegasus Galaxy with an "accept Origin and we'll protect you from the Wraith" deal rather than trying in the Milky Way with their "worship us or we'll smite you!" threat. Sure threats probably work as well, but IMO for enduring popularity protection against an external foe would work much better.

I mean, personally I'm not fond of being smited by Priors so I certainly wouldn't object to the daily Ori worship in any case, but I'd be much happier (and less likely to look for some relatively safe way to maybe support some anti-Ori resistance after all) if it came in the guise of being a trade off for not being eaten. They could even be totally honest about the fact that the worship gives them additional power, or at least wouldn't need to worry much about heretics like SG-1 trying to convince the populace that they trick them, after all they could justify needing the people's support to hold off the Wraith or something. Especially during an active Wraith period the trade off of worshipping a group of some energy beings so that they in turn protected me from being culled isn't that bad all things considered, at least as long as the Ori don't happen to draft you into one of their crusades, and even then it's certainly not worse than some of the desperate things Pegasus civilizations are willing to try.

Anyway, with that thought it occurred to me that if the Ancients had wanted to secure worship in the past (and we know that at least some weren't adverse to being worshipped) creating an external threat like that would have been the natural way to go about it. I'm not sure how many Ancients were already ascended then and how many still experimenting with becoming energy back when the Wraith first emerged, but if ascended beings can somehow use power they get from worship, it's not so far fetched that for example a few already ascended Ancients could have wanted to use that kind of boost to help the others of their kind to also ascend for example, like that Oma(?) guy did with Daniel. So I wondered if the Wraith (which IIRC were the end result of one of the Ancients unfortunate experiments gone wrong, weren't they?) couldn't have been originally designed by some Ancient faction with that in mind, only to then reproduce faster than expected or be better with technology and somehow got out of control and were more trouble than they were worth.

Comments

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

I have had the same thought about the Ori in Pegasus -- one of many reasons I thought the McKay-Carter Bridge was a really bad idea.

And I could totally dig skeevy Ancients manufacturing threats, although I think at present the word on the Wraith is that they were the result of the iratus bugs feeding off of humans the Ancients seeded on that planet, so they were created inadvertently...not that I think the Ancients would admit it if they weren't.

[ratcreature]

I must have misremembered about the Wraith then. But the Ancients' experiments were definitely freaky, and they didn't seem to care about other sentient beings at all if it somehow could benefit them or their ascension obsession. I mean, at least the Ori are fairly straightforward whereas the Ancients get ever more creepy the more bits are revealed about them. I know the tie-in novels aren't exactly canon like the series, but that in the one I read recently some Ancient kept immature Wraith in a jar to use their life energy just really fit.

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

I know the tie-in novels aren't exactly canon like the series, but that in the one I read recently some Ancient kept immature Wraith in a jar to use their life energy just really fit.

Eeek.

And yeah, I would say there is fair wiggle room on the origin of the Wraith, given what we have seen of the Ancients.

One of the things which always puzzled me is when the Ancients discovered the Wraith, how advanced the Wraith were at that time, and what the Ancients did about it. Frankly, I would be shocked if the Ancients hadn't tried to tried to de-Iratus the Wraith when they realized what had happened, much as Our Guys have done. I can easily see the Ancients using the same flawed moral reasoning that brought the expedition to developing and using the retrovirus.

[ratcreature]

I never had a problem with the retrovirus as simple bioweapon, i.e. that they turn Wraiths into humans to make them easier to kill, but it's not like it is any real alternative for the Wraith like a "cure" from their human-eating "condition". Nobody in his right mind would choose to live less then a century when they had the option for thousands of years, not to mention all the things like their telepathy and hive mind nd whatever makes them Wraith. I mean, I'm vegetarian because I feel bad eating other animals, but if eating some cow would prolong my life by several magnitudes I'd come up with a rationalization pretty quick.

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

Even as a means of destruction rather than an experiment/misguided attempt to "fix" the Wraith, the retrovirus as-is still seems sketchy to me because it creates memoryless entities who temporarily don't have the same motivations and biological imperatives as your ordinary Wraith. Idealistic though it is, I would rather have seen those retrovirus research hours going towards determining whether there's a truly satisfying alternative food source for the Wraith or whether one could be developed. If there isn't or the Wraith were offered a viable alternative and rejected it, so be it and carry on -- it's quite possible that it's a true us versus them scenario. But it would be nice to be sure.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, there could be probably less dodgy research avenues that might be equally useful. And the retrovirus is definitely pretty much the opposite of a "gallant" weapon, the way it renders the Wraith both helpless and clueless in order to make killing them easier, but then it's probably not worse as a military strategy than say things like carpet bombing. I mean, if they just blew up Wraith ships they probably kill many still living humans as well who are stored on board after a culling as their future food, so temporarily rendering the Wraith helpless before killing them might open up possibilities to rescue those (though not if they keep pursuing plans like feeding other Wraith with the ex-Wraith, those would probably eat the culled real humans too).

[mawombat.livejournal.com]

random reply:

I always spelled it "Omagh" like the city in Ireland rather than "Oma" which is the German word for grandmother. The former is less weird for me. :)