The Wraith!

[Snowman37]

I've been watching the show with my mom, and I've got to say... the people behind this show really struck gold with the Wraith. Few shows have presented an ongoing villain as freaky, scary, and disturbing villains as the Wraith. What do ya'll think?

[The Flyattractor]

I am not sure. Not enough Bling in the show with the wraith

[Snowman37]

Bling?

[DigiFluid]

I think the concept was good, but certain parts of the execution made them a bit hard to take seriously.

I liked that they managed to make 'the enemy that defeated the Ancients' plausible through the Iratus/human DNA mingling thing, and eventually the ZPM-powered cloning. I found it interesting that their hyperspace tech was not quite up to snuff; and I liked how, rather than shields, their ships were so tough. Like throwing rocks at a transport truck to try to destroy it--neat.

But I loathed that stupid 'hissing' thing they all did through those dumb teeth prosthetics. It wasn't scary or intimidating, it was just stupid-sounding. And you'd think an insectile race that farms humans might be wearing something other than leather.

[thekillman]

I liked that they managed to make 'the enemy that defeated the Ancients' plausible through the Iratus/human DNA mingling thing, and eventually the ZPM-powered cloning.

for me, that absolutely killed plausibility.

Also, i found the constant "Ancient fallibility" and the wraith getting shot down easier and easier an absolute killer to credibility. at one point , i simply couldn't understand how the Ancients could POSSIBLY have lost with all their hyperadvanced uberweapons and the wraith getting their asses handed.

[DigiFluid]

I thought it worked rather well eventually, which is saying something because I thought it was dumb in the first episodes before they revealed any of that.

The genetic mingling of Lanteans (as I saw it) and the Iratus bug's natural states--aggression, need to feed--created an interesting, and based on its parentage, strong creature. Paired with seizing Lantean technology and even their language, and adapting it for their own, I thought it all worked very well.

For much of the series I also agreed on the numbers angle, until they gave us the cloning facility to truly drive home the point. For me, that changed it from an airy 'uh huh' kind of conceit to really understanding--it doesn't matter if you have 100 guys with the most advanced, self-guided weapons in existence, if there are 100,000 of your enemies marching down on you and more behind them. It was made to work very well, IMO. After a shaky start.

[thekillman]

For much of the series I also agreed on the numbers angle, until they gave us the cloning facility to truly drive home the point. For me, that changed it from an airy 'uh huh' kind of conceit to really understanding--it doesn't matter if you have 100 guys with the most advanced, self-guided weapons in existence, if there are 100,000 of your enemies marching down on you and more behind them. It was made to work very well, IMO. After a shaky start.

the problem i had with it:

for the wraith it absolutely doesn't matter how many there are. it's about ships, not footsoldiers

[DigiFluid]

And yet, as we saw in The Seed their ships are also grown. Sure we didn't see it happen on screen, but why couldn't they have supercharged ship growth as well?

[The Flyattractor]

Cause that would be silly.

[DigiFluid]

Supercharging growth of millions of clones is more plausible than supercharging organic ship growth?

[The Flyattractor]

No that the Wraith would be able to do this on their own snce according to the show they apperanlty didn't have the smarts to make efficent lighting systems on their much less figure out how to create a super power souce to do such things.
Thats why they had to steall all the good stuff from the antlantians.

[Livestick]

No that the Wraith would be able to do this on their own snce according to the show they apperanlty didn't have the smarts to make efficent lighting systems on their much less figure out how to create a super power souce to do such things.
Thats why they had to steall all the good stuff from the antlantians.

They didn't need to come up with their own power source. That's what the ZPMs were for.

[The Flyattractor]

They didn't need to come up with their own power source. That's what the ZPMs were for.

Yes They had their own "Power sources",but they are a crappy power source.

[Livestick]

Yes They had their own "Power sources",but they are a crappy power source.

I know. That's not what I meant. You said the Wraith couldn't make their own super power source to accelerate growth of their ships. That's correct, but what I was saying is they didn't need to. They had their stolen ZPMs for that.

[Dave2]

Can anybody explain to me what the Wraith do besides hibernate and fly around looking for humans to cull? Do they have families, children, government, businesses, schools, scientists, doctors, teachers? Are there ANY Wraith equivalent to the Tok'ra?
And if all Wraith are just brutes, how did they get the intelligence to build spacecraft??

Come to think of it, there's a story line. Where some young Wraith rebel against the idea of culling humans and develop first a way of culling only animals. Then they overthrow one tribe of Wraith and lead a rebellion to seek out ways of cutting themselves off from the need to drain humans like vampires. I know there are episodes that begin to touch on this idea, but if SG ever comes back, they have to develop a story line of expectations, where the viewer doesn't already know what to expect based on the old series.

For that matter, an encounter between such good Wraith and the Tok'ra who could help them with all kinds of scientific breakthroughs would be an idea. Or perhaps a similar story of regular goa'ulds who break away from their instinctive evil nature and re-establish a new Tok'ra-like tribe.......Just two cents from me.

[The Flyattractor]

The Wraith Hibernate to allow the human tribes the time to reproduce and get thier population #'s back up. And it could be looked at that the crew of a Hive Ship could technically be 1 big family. And as for children. I would imagine that if for all purposes your immortal having kids might not be that big of a prioriaty especialy if human # not always being abundant enough to support a large Wraith populace.
And the whole animal thing is a big of PIS from the writers of the show to keep the Wraith soley concerned with humans.
And the Wraith used some old Ancient tech to develop their own technology.
Unlike the gou'ald or tok'ra they aren't complete scavengers.
They got the buggy smarts.

[Snowman37]

Can anybody explain to me what the Wraith do besides hibernate and fly around looking for humans to cull? Do they have families, children, government, businesses, schools, scientists, doctors, teachers? Are there ANY Wraith equivalent to the Tok'ra?
And if all Wraith are just brutes, how did they get the intelligence to build spacecraft??

Wraith culture is addressed later on in the series. How far are you? They don't have families, but the queens do produce off spring. As for government... it's pretty simple. A queen rules a hive or several hives, and all Wraith on her hives answer to her. As for businesses and schools, not really... remember, there's that whole telepathic thing going on. I'd guess that most younger Wraith are simply taught by older Wraith rather than sent to "school." As for scientists, you'll see them. Teachers... that was never really touched upon. If you're asking about good Wraith, not really, because I mean... Wraith eat people. How do you find a good Wraith, he's still going to eat people, so... However, there is one Wraith who is kind of an ally in the fourth and fifth seasons of the show. He's introduced in the third season. You'll love him. In the final episode, Sheppard describes him as a grenade in his pocket, waiting to go off. That pretty much sums this "sometimes friendly" Wraith up quite well. haha Oh, and not all Wraith are brutes. It's just the mask-wearing warriors who seem to be droning brutes. Whenever you see a queen or one of the male Wraith with the long hair and leather outfits, those tend to be the smarter Wraith who run the show.

Come to think of it, there's a story line. Where some young Wraith rebel against the idea of culling humans and develop first a way of culling only animals. Then they overthrow one tribe of Wraith and lead a rebellion to seek out ways of cutting themselves off from the need to drain humans like vampires. I know there are episodes that begin to touch on this idea, but if SG ever comes back, they have to develop a story line of expectations, where the viewer doesn't already know what to expect based on the old series.

Again, how far into the show are you? You're both far off and spot on.

For that matter, an encounter between such good Wraith and the Tok'ra who could help them with all kinds of scientific breakthroughs would be an idea. Or perhaps a similar story of regular goa'ulds who break away from their instinctive evil nature and re-establish a new Tok'ra-like tribe.......Just two cents from me.

The producers and writers tried to keep the shows separate despite character crossovers. You finished SG-1, right? The Wraith did pop up in "The Pegasus Project," an early 10th season episode set near the beginning of Atlantis's third season. As for Goa'uld or Tok'ra on Atlantis, only happened once. I want to keep it a surprise, so I'll just say... be looking forward to Season 2's "Critical Mass." One of SGA's best episodes!!!

[Dave2]

I am not yet sure if I could handle any gross factor in the last two episodes of Season 1 that you recommend. Well, I acknowledge a couple of spoilers, but that's OK. So those Wraith are like goa'uld in that they don't reproduce normally even if they have males and females. And you say there is some potential for a good Wraith to exist. I guess it would be hard to figure how a Wraith could break off the need to drain humans without that (spoiler) enzyme. Thank heavens for enzymes. They get Jaffa off the symbiotes and others can get Wraith off their vampire behavior. JUst imagine how they went on for thousands of years with very long lives and reproducing while still having to drain humans. Couldn't they have just been wiped out in a plague like the poison that killed goa'uld symbiotes? No one would cry a single tear if all the Wraith were exterminated.....!!

[Snowman37]

I am not yet sure if I could handle any gross factor in the last two episodes of Season 1 that you recommend.

"The Siege, Parts 1&2" are a big story. If you skip over this, you'll have no idea what's going on in "The Siege, Part 3" (Season 2 premiere). If you skip the whole trilogy, you'll really have no idea what's going on at the start of Season 2. Really, I'd recommend watching these episodes. Unlike SG-1, Atlantis has tighter story arcs. It's no serial by any means, but almost every episode has direct consequences in the following episodes.

So those Wraith are like goa'uld in that they don't reproduce normally even if they have males and females.

Well, it's normal for them, but you got the idea.

And you say there is some potential for a good Wraith to exist. I guess it would be hard to figure how a Wraith could break off the need to drain humans without that (spoiler) enzyme. Thank heavens for enzymes.

Watch the show. The idea of getting the Wraith off the need to feed spans the bulk of the series. The idea began at the end of the second season and was revisited every now and then up to the final episodes. It also lead to the expedition accidentally creating a really bad villain. haha

They get Jaffa off the symbiotes and others can get Wraith off their vampire behavior. JUst imagine how they went on for thousands of years with very long lives and reproducing while still having to drain humans. Couldn't they have just been wiped out in a plague like the poison that killed goa'uld symbiotes? No one would cry a single tear if all the Wraith were exterminated.....!!

The problem with the Wraith is that there's just so many of them. Yeah, you could try to poison them, but that would just lead to the collective Wraith besieging the expedition a second time. Let me put it this way, without giving too much away. There will be a Wraith civil war, secondary villains who oppose Atlantis and the Wraith, and the whole experiment to eliminate the need to feed. You're going to have some fun seeing this all play out.

[loserinc]

No one would cry a single tear if all the Wraith were exterminated.....!!

I would..... I love the Wraith characters. I thought they were severely underwritten. There was so much potential, but they pretty much got written off as cannon fodder for the most part.

Thank goodness for the fandom. The Wraith live, and have depth thanks to fanfic, art, and RP