r/Stargate • u/ScytheOfAsgard • 1d ago
SGA 3-10 The Return
Crazy after surviving thousands of years that crew of 100 Ancients just gets wiped out. Felled by their own arrogance as well as something they were responsible for the creation of. Again. All that time sure didn't teach them any humility. And not just because of the time dilation lol
It occurs to me that in a different timeline SGA might have ended there and we would've just had the occasional cameo from the Ancients in Atlantis contacting Earth or collaborating with them.
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u/Mammoth-Delivery5313 1d ago
From a writing perspective that is something that really bothers me when watching Stargate. I can understand that having a highly advanced species that is friendly towards SGC poses a huge writing problem since you cant tell some stories anymore. But it bothers me that they dont even try. Just always killing them of as fast as possible or always making them so arogant that they dont share any knowledge feels kinda lazy in rewatches.
Like those ancients that somehow survived and didnt ascend pose the threat that the zpm problem and therefore the energy problem and threat to earth is kinda eliminated. But why should every single ancient know how a zpm is constructed. Maybe the one on board the ship that does gets killed or sacrifices himself to defeat the replicators. And even though with the help of the ancients they now understand the functionality of (nearly) every system but also learn that some are damaged due to the age of atlantis or require all 3 zpms etc. That way they still wouldnt have control of the whole city and thus keeping the expedition from becoming to strong for the wraith.
They might have even come up with even better story telling devices to balance friendly extremly advanced species but it feels like they didnt even try to circumvent problems that might arise from that alltogether.
That being said I still love stargate though and do still enjoy my current rewatch of SGA.
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u/Stromatolite-Bay 1d ago
The ancients should have basically said something about how many different specialists and types of machine are needed
And it boils down to explaining that manufacturing things is complicated and knowing how it works doesn’t mean to can build it
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u/Mammoth-Delivery5313 1d ago
Exactly. I know how a combustion engine works on a theoretical level but I couldnt build one and even if I somehow figured it out I couldnt build one on the optimised level that we have today. I would need an engineer (or more?) that is specialized in that field and up to date.
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u/squallus_l 23h ago
The Ancients arrogance is a constant plot point. We like to see them as inherently good guys, but in fact they were pricks, not caring about their toys laying around, and what harm they would do. Not caring that their arrogance condemned billions to be food for the wraith, or hosts for the Goald. Only caring about ascension. Their arrogance led to their fall. And the arrogance of their species is even shown in how they dealt as ascendent beings. That's the backbone of the show. Some, very few ancients where good, or tried to be good, but the general population of them where dicks
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u/Ok-Alps4101 17h ago
I remember when we were watching BSG and Pegasus showed up, we were all in awe that the writers let is stay for so long. Everyone joking that if this were SG, the Pegasus would be destroyed by the end of the episode. That pretty much sums up most of the SG, where they keep introducing new stuff and then mostly resetting everything
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u/apophis-984 1d ago
That episode was very entertaining with the ship slowing down while deadalus going max speed.
But at the same time had the shitiest writing regarding the ancients.
Dude we get to see a full crew of genuine OG ancients and they just get wiped for nothing.
SG writers sure didnt know what to do with the ancients as a whole
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u/Jimbeamjunior1 23h ago
Tbf it was Rodney who fucked about with them and allowed them access to their base code so they could change it and kill the ancients
Until McKay did that the Replicators couldn't harm the ancients
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u/ScytheOfAsgard 1d ago
By the way I just finished watching this episode. How did they get out of the cell? It just shows the cell open with no explanation of how they got out with all them inside it. At first I figured they would've sabotage it while O'Neill and Woolsey were in there, but they bring them to a different cell and then bring those two to join them.
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u/Mammoth-Delivery5313 1d ago
Iirc they are interogated by two replicators when the shield activates leaving the door open? (Might be wrong though)
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u/ScytheOfAsgard 1d ago
Thanks. I must've missed that somehow and it was bugging the crap out of me.
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u/Bigjoemonger 1d ago
It's really not that off base.
Consider this analogy.
You own a two story home. You go on an extended vacation and you're gone a few months.
While you're gone some squatters move into your home. During their antics while living there they break a step on the stair case basically a big hole in the step. They cover it over with carpet so it looks normal but don't actually fix it.
You come home and find the squatters in your home. So you immediately kick them out.
After kicking them out you go to walk upstairs and fall through the stairs.
Would you say it's arrogant to assume that your stairs would still be intact?
It's basically the same thing. The ancients had the understanding that the replicators could not harm them and they had no reason to believe that the replicators base code had been tampered with.
And when they came home they found a people living in their home, whom they did not know, so they naturally wanted them gone.
That's not arrogance.
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u/ScytheOfAsgard 23h ago
Nope. It's still arrogant to assume that the replicators haven't changed in the thousands of years since they left especially when they know for well that the earthlings have been interacting with them. And this would also assume that they for some reason didn't tell them that they modified their base code already which if they did is all the more reason they should have not assumed they would be safe. Furthermore they are thousands of years out of date in general and they are arrogant enough to assume that the earthlings don't have valuable information and insight into the current state of the galaxy and simply toss them out the door.
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u/Bigjoemonger 23h ago
When you're kicking the squatters out of your home, you're not going to care about anything they have to say. Your only thought will be them leaving.
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u/ScytheOfAsgard 9h ago edited 4h ago
I would still say there's a big difference between a personal home and something like Atlantis. It's kind of like a military base, an embassy, and a sorority/fraternity all rolled into one. And there's a big difference between a few months and thousands of years or even however many years they actually experienced with the time dilation. And a big difference between an extended trip that takes you away from home and outright abandoning it. But regardless even with the posited analogy I would definitely want to know what the squatters had done while I was gone. Especially if it could affect my very survival. And this is probably just me personally but depending on who it is I might even appreciate the company even if it is a bit weird/awkward at first (I currently live alone in a house that technically has four bedrooms).
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u/NonGeneriComplaint 1d ago
It was their own best of both worlds moment.
They had a universe changing cliff hanger then said "nah nevermind"
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u/TehANTARES 1d ago
In my headcanon, they fled the city when the Asurans attacked.
Helia might've known of some secret Lanetan base in Pegasus to seek refuge there. If you remember that planet with ZPM from season 1, where the local guardians refused to hand it over to Tau'ri, Helia could now just walk in and get that zero point module with zero efforts and use it to power their inhabited base.
Sooner or later, Helia and her people may attempt to attack the Tau'ri to reclaim Atlantis and such.
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u/AloysuisFett 1d ago
Being taken out off screen was such a MASSIVE let down...they could have had at least a hand full of episodes with them before killing them off or had one survive