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    Political propaganda in Stargate

    One cannot help noticing the propagandistic underlining political issues presented in Stargate SG 1 and Atlantis:
    -The Genii, anti heroes in SG Atlantis are the prototype for a communist regime( North Korea maybe), disciplined, conformist and ruthless.
    -Euronda(read Europe) is in one of the first SG1 episodes shown as a society that opposes racial mixture to the point of extinction. SG 1 writers are Probably trying to tell us that US is superior by not opposing racial mixture(hahaha). SG1 writers have obviously forgotten that Europe is no longer dominated by Nazi Germany and eugenics has been abandoned a long time ago.
    -In SG Atlantis, several people such as McKay and Zelenka are wearing a small national flag on their uniform . If this is a mission from earth, representing our civilisation as a whole, why is nationality important???
    Please don't get me wrong, I love a lot of things about SG1 and SG Atlantis, but all these propagandist bull, makes me dislike some episodes.

    #2
    I'm sorry but I fail to see how you drew a lot of your conclusions, especially the take on Euronda.


    The writers were definitely not trying to say the US is superior by not opposing racial mixture. They were trying to warn against rushing head first into something just because it looks good. O'Neill and Hammond were rushing head first into what looked like a good trading deal. "They're getting what they want, we're getting everything we want," as said by O'Neill. It also brings up the moral issue of meddling with others' affairs. "We're about to tip the tide of a war we know nothing about against an enemy we know nothing about. Is that the right way of getting their technology, yes. But is that the right thing to do?" Its allusion to the Nazis is how they play with the audience's emotion, to say 'holy crap, we nearly screwed up', to emphasize how badly things could have gotten if the previous two lessons were not heeded.

    And as for the uniforms, even if the expedition is representing earth, each individual will still take pride in the individual countries they come from. It would also serve as a testament to how far Earth has come to completely uniting. It will also show how Earth is diverse in culture, that they take pride in and embrace the diversity.

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    Stargate spin off series: Stargate Millennium
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      #3
      Originally posted by StargateMillennium View Post
      I'm sorry but I fail to see how you drew a lot of your conclusions, especially the take on Euronda.
      Agreed. Euronda was a clear take on the Nazi era, not modern Europe. The story was indeed about not meddling with things you have no knowledge of. The Genii aren't a take on Communism. Their claim was actually correct (everyone technically has equal claim to the Ancient's stuff. We simply beat them to it). their story in my opinion is what a more military minded SGA crew would be like.

      the flags in SGA are really just a cheap and easy way to remind the audience that this is a multinational organization without needing painful accents, forced conversation or annoying backstory. It's a simple clean way to say "canada's here too!".

      The only kind of political influence i've seen is that Hayes was an awful lot like Bush, but that's about it.

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        #4
        Originally posted by Startgate99 View Post
        -Euronda(read Europe) is in one of the first SG1 episodes shown as a society that opposes racial mixture to the point of extinction. SG 1 writers are Probably trying to tell us that US is superior by not opposing racial mixture(hahaha). SG1 writers have obviously forgotten that Europe is no longer dominated by Nazi Germany and eugenics has been abandoned a long time ago.
        The only thing Euronda had to say about the United States was our position against eugenics. The Eurondans were clearly allusions to Nazi Germany, not us. Our people, represented by SG-1, wanted nothing to do with them when we realized their gross discrimination and genocidal tendencies.

        Originally posted by Startgate99 View Post
        -In SG Atlantis, several people such as McKay and Zelenka are wearing a small national flag on their uniform . If this is a mission from earth, representing our civilisation as a whole, why is nationality important???
        Please don't get me wrong, I love a lot of things about SG1 and SG Atlantis, but all these propagandist bull, makes me dislike some episodes.
        What's wrong with that? We may be one planet but the reality is we are geopolitically diverse, if anything the different patches were a great reminder of our ability to work together despite differences and divisions back home.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Startgate99 View Post
          -Euronda(read Europe) is in one of the first SG1 episodes shown as a society that opposes racial mixture to the point of extinction
          For your information, Europe is not a country. It's a continent.
          I know it's confusing with us having an actual president and all of us using the same money (or at least, most of us do). But not a country, no... not at all.

          Germany is a country, and part of the European Union. And it's located on the European continent.
          Heightmeyer's Lemming -- still the coolest Lemming of the forum

          Proper Stargate Rewatch -- season 10 of SG-1

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            #6
            It's common for writers especially in Sci-Fi to use real world events as a foundation for a story. The Euronda story wasnt all that bad. Star Trek had quite a few Nazi stories, most were bad.
            Hi There!

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              #7
              It's broadly pro-American military, pro-interventionist, but no where near the level of the Marvel movies or Transformers movies or things like that. Those get nauseating at times.

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                #8
                Originally posted by KEK View Post
                It's broadly pro-American military, pro-interventionist, but no where near the level of the Marvel movies or Transformers movies or things like that. Those get nauseating at times.
                In what way were those movies political propaganda?
                Hi There!

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                  #9
                  A number of years ago I did an essay on how Stargate portrays Russia for my pop culture module at university. In looking back the essay was pretty badly written but I got a good mark!
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                  Part 2 coming very soon!! (this is a fic btw, not the Fandemonium novel)

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by KEK View Post
                    It's broadly pro-American military, pro-interventionist, but no where near the level of the Marvel movies or Transformers movies or things like that. Those get nauseating at times.
                    Stargate is extremely pro-pro-pro america. The IOA (everyone else) is a collection of dumbasses busier with politics than reality. Russia loses it's first Daedalus. China probably lost it's first one too. Russia's SGC is a failure but USA's a success. etc.


                    Originally posted by McAvoy View Post
                    In what way were those movies political propaganda?
                    Iron man 2 had a court scene of public versus private interest. Iron Man 1 deals with the West vs Middle East. Iron man 3 is about Terrorism. Captain America features America vs Nazis. CA 2 features freedom vs security. Avengers is about nuclear weapons or something worse, and how far we should go to protect ourselves.

                    There's plenty of political agenda in the Marvel movies, even if it's often skimmed over or played for laughs/drama.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by thekillman View Post
                      Stargate is extremely pro-pro-pro america. The IOA (everyone else) is a collection of dumbasses busier with politics than reality.
                      Stargate is pro-the main characters. Everyone save them and a few supporters are a collection of idiots who exist to cause problems for Sg-1 (and later the Atlantis expedition) with their reckless, spineless, and/or ignorant actions. They have the general on their side and the president because that's what is needed to explain how they are able to keep operating. In addition to them there are some government people who do not suck, but they're not the norm. The show actually spent a considerable amount of time making the U.S. government the enemy. Chiefly, you have the NID, Maybourne, and Senator Kinsey. Meanwhile, you have a bunch of other SG teams who can't fight their way out of a paper bag and the occasional traitor like Makepeace.

                      Those figures within the U.S. government have occupied far more of Sg-1's time than the Russians. The IOA was indeed a strong source of idiocy in the latter seasons, but that's simply because they had to take over for the U.S. government after the writers allowed Sg-1 to win against the NID and Kinsey (but, it didn't completely go away - you still had the senate penny pinchers in season 9 and "The Road Not Taken" was a major criticism of the government as well as a window into how things could have gone if Sg-1 wasn't the vanguard against that kind of sentiment within their own government).

                      If looked at through a lens, there is absolutely what appear to be a strong pro-American sentiment. One might perceive Sg-1's successes as synonymous with the success of the American government and see the Russian incompetency angle as anti-Russian sentiment. In another context that would be the case, but when looked at as a whole, it is, to me, clearly just trying to prop up its main characters (who happen to American) and are willing to do so at the expense of everyone and anyone, including the American government. In Stargate, the Russians are bad not because they're Russians but because they're not Sg-1. However, again, one can only tell that from viewing the show as a whole. If someone sat down and just watched an individual episode that featured Russia there would be no way to know that it's actually a fairly equal opportunity offender.

                      Russia loses it's first Daedalus. China probably lost it's first one too.
                      The U.S. lost the Prometheus and to a legitimately stupid plan at that. The Korolev and the Sun Tzu were destroyed/damaged while trying to hold the line against a superior force that was planning an invasion of the Milky Way/Earth. What happened, happened through no fault of their own so I wouldn't read a political message into it. With the Korolev, the writers simply needed a ship to destroy to show how much of a danger the Ori was and it probably seemed like a better choice than the Odyssey. Possibly because they didn't want to spend the next year showing the U.S. and Russia arguing over the SGC relying on Russia to ferry SG teams about the Milky Way.

                      Russia's SGC is a failure but USA's a success. etc.
                      Again, I would argue this is more of a main character versus everybody else thing. You can't have Russia running a successful Stargate program out of Earth without messing with that Sg-1 has going on and they need opportunities for Sg-1 to come in and save the day. It's similar to the NID's failed Stargate Programs. That's an arm of the U.S. government who first ran an illegal operation that O'neill needed to take down and then tried to take over control of the SGC. What happened in the latter case? Basically, the same thing as in the Russia case. Their puppet general made a reckless and foolhardy decision that went against the reasonable positions of Sg-1. In the end, he, like the Russians, learned the error of his ways as Sg-1 swept in victorious.

                      I would also note that they surprisingly did a fairly good job of humanizing the Chinese and making their actions seem reasonable with that little speech in "The Scourge." Meanwhile, they yet again laid down a pretty damning criticism of the U.S. government through Daniel's explanation that the reason there was strife was because the U.S. was redefining their agreement concerning technology sharing. Although they agreed to share Stargate technology they were now claiming that the agreement only pertained to non-military technology. Essentially, they were using their superior position to redefine the agreement in their favor, forcing China and Russia to get creative in order to combat the U.S. government's deceptive actions.

                      There was more than one threat to global security at that point and they could have dealt with it by working together to build up a strong defense. Instead of the U.S. insisted on maintaining a monopoly on ship and weapons technology (while taking international money to help obtain it). Thus, instead of having a small fleet of international ships that other countries worked to build concurrently with the U.S. ship building project, they were massively outnumbered on every front. It's an example of U.S. arrogance and international politics getting in the way of the greater good. Yes, things worked out in the end, just as they worked out earlier despite the U.S. taking responsibility for global security when just had the Stargate and a few SG teams (something the writers didn't shy away from pointing out then either). But, again, it worked out because the few main characters happen to be competent, not because these policies of America's were smart.

                      I think this is an important distinction that some people miss. Just because the writers were trying to say that the main characters (who are Americans) were great and everyone was bad doesn't mean they're to say that America was great and every other country was bad. The latter happens a lot in fiction, but I don't think Stargate falls into that category.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by Xaeden View Post
                        Stargate is pro-the main characters.
                        I don't disagree with you on that. But in the process of being pro-main-characters it's also busy being pro-america.

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                          #13
                          I guess what do you expect when the main characters are military? Its pretty common for soldiers to be patriotic about the country they serve in.
                          Originally posted by aretood2
                          Jelgate is right

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                            #14
                            The portrayal of Russians improves over time. When the Russian story arc was first added the Russians were portrayed as arrogant and incompetent. By S6 things had already improved dramatically, and I feel by the end of the shows their portrayal was far more positive. I think the shift in portrayal probably fitted the shift in the character's perspective as they actually got to know the Russians and the two militaries came to respect one another.
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                            Part 2 coming very soon!! (this is a fic btw, not the Fandemonium novel)

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by sueKay View Post
                              The portrayal of Russians improves over time. When the Russian story arc was first added the Russians were portrayed as arrogant and incompetent. By S6 things had already improved dramatically, and I feel by the end of the shows their portrayal was far more positive. I think the shift in portrayal probably fitted the shift in the character's perspective as they actually got to know the Russians and the two militaries came to respect one another.
                              I think in the beginning they needed internal (Earth based conflict) for someone not only show how much better the Program is under the current leadership but also a foil. It also makes sense for other governments wanting to get in on the whole program or even creating their own.

                              I mean think about it, how close to a failure the Program was if it wasn't for SG-1, the heroes?
                              Hi There!

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