Stargate (SG-1) -- Thoughts on aliens

[butterfly]

In the grand tradition of Sci-Fi/Fantasy being all about exploring the human condition (and what isn't, when it comes down to it? We are what we know and we always yearn to know more), I've been thinking about what aspects of humanity the various alien races on Stargate might be symbolizing. These are, of course, just some off-the-cuff ideas. Possibilities.

The Goa'uld are pretty easy to my eye -- they are arrogance personified. All the various shades of it, some less toxic than others (the less toxic ones including Lord Yu and the Tok'ra). This is why to have the Goa'uld genetic memory is to be warped, because that memory is wrapped up in centuries of parasitic entitlement.

The Nox are wisdom and the Asgard may well be intelligence -- the differences between them match up fairly well with the differences in those attributes. The Asgard are often also there to illustrate the dangers of science and technology (They need the more 'stupid' ideas of the Tau'ri to accomplish pretty much anything. Just how did their race survive before Jack showed up?) -- Cloning is bad like woah, and energy weapons aren't always better than projectile weaponry.

The Ancients and the Ascended are an interesting thought. Because the Ancients were a distinct race, but one that can be joined by leaving the mortal plane. The Ancients could be either ascended or not, yet ascension seems to make one an Ancient.

Actually, it kinda made me think of Judaism. Because even if you stop being religiously Judaic, you stay culturally Jewish, and someone can convert to Judaism even if they aren't born into it. Three overlapping circles, though it's much more complicated than that.

Of course, everything is.

Comments

[destina.livejournal.com]

The Ancients and the Ascended are an interesting thought. Because the Ancients were a distinct race, but one that can be joined by leaving the mortal plane. The Ancients could be either ascended or not, yet ascension seems to make one an Ancient.

Not as far as I can tell. It's really two different and distinct things. Being ascended makes one ascended. Being Ancient makes one Ancient. The Ancients are their own distinct race, and though Oma has assisted people with ascending (we have no canon to date that any other Ancient has done so), they don't automatically become a part of that race. I used this analogy before, but it's sort of like an Irish-heritage American moving to China; they are not Chinese, they just live in China. A semantic difference, but an important one. (And one the show seems to get, sometimes, and other times, not so much, in the grand tradition of mucking up their own canon.)

[bluecove.livejournal.com]

Becoming one of the Ascended doesn't necessarily make you an Ancient (as you said, they're a distinct race), but apparently it provides a direct connection to Ancient knowledge and technology. It was strongly implied that Anubis acquired all his nifty-keen new weapons that way. Thor admitted that their "conventional" study of Ancient knowledge had barely scratched the surface; it appears that in order to understand, it either has to be downloaded directly into your brain (Fifth Race/Lost City), or acquired through a kind of telepathic sharing the Ascended seem to possess.

This implies that a great many of the Ascended are of Ancient origin. Orlin certainly was one, although we have no proof that Oma is. Daniel said as much in "Full Circle," although his words ("I'm an Ancient") were perhaps not the most accurate way of putting it.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Right, and there's totally that. It does give knowledge. Daniel says in Abyss that he knows and understands so much more now, simply because of what he is now.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

The way the show treats it, it's a lot more like moving to China and then becoming a citizen, which does make you Chinese in one sense (that of now being from and belonging to China) and yet still not (that of being born there and having physical relations that live there), depending on how you look at it. So, when Daniel ascends, it's like he took the Ancients' citizenship test.

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

On a literal level, I'm pretty sure humans are Ancients, species-wise, but have lost the culture and the technology along the way to the point where most other races either don't recognize them or fail to mention the fact.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Which I'd definitely buy considering that the Tau'ri look like them and some of them can operate the Ancients' specialized machinary that's only supposed to respond to them.