In this message I sum up many contributions by others that appeared elsewhere. I claim that it is the nature of the wraith that weakens the whole Atlantis series.
1) WRAITHS HAVE TO BE WEAK
They have to be weak because we need to maintain some action throughout the year, the heroes must be able to defeat some wraiths in separate actions in many episodes, etc. Well in fact there has to BE a show, to put it shortly.
But in this case, wraiths not only have to be weak, they have to be VERY weak. Because the SGA crew is just helpless, and they can never be in a strong strategic position. Ever tried to go camping in another place? Ever tried to work in a factory the technology of which you don't understand? Ever tried to stay in a country of which you don't understand the language and you don't even know where to find food? Well imagine a mixture of the three. It is definitely a feat if the SGA crew can survive even without any intelligent agression.
In that sense the wraiths are shown weak, very weak, or even intellectually inferior. Like arriving on a gate site in open field without checking if there are ennemies behind the stones.
2) THE WRAITHS HAVE TO BE STRONG
The wraiths are those who defeated the Ancients. There have been discussions about that, but it now seems confirmed by the last spoilers.
Wait a minute: "defeated the Ancients" ??? Wow... I advise people who don't realize yet that we are talking of the kind of Orlin. I don't remember the episode name, but this one definitely has to be watched again. There are other evidence of the Ancients' HUGE capacities in other episodes, but this one gathers them all in a convenient manner.
What is the dangerous race that the Ancients would not have detected EVEN BEFORE entering their original planet? The Ancients knew everything about the ecosystem of a planet before arriving (they studied planets for human settlement). And even if if it was a biological danger and not a technological one, what is it that the Ancients could not cure like humans cure mushrooms or get rid of ants?
In that sense the Wraiths must show capacities that we call supernatural in fantasy movies and so on. We are dealing with a theological level here.
THE PROBLEM
If the Wraiths in SGA are grade 2 Wraiths (strong), the SGA human crew is simply DEAD. No point in making other episodes. They're DOOMED. They are just a little helpless group of snails waiting for the walker's shoe. They have NO strategic resources and there's no point in making us believe that they can do BETTER than the Ancients with the Ancients' equipment, that they just discovered.
If the Wraiths are grade 1 Wraiths (weak), the show can go on, although slightly less interesting than SG1 with Goa'ulds, with wraiths dressed up like clown-vampires and no civilization references. But then the Wraiths have NOT defeated the Ancients, and the show doesn't exist.
CONCLUSION
I just hope the writers will drop this uneasy Wraith affair very soon. I like the show very much, I like most of the actors and I love the idea of an Atlantis city in the Pegasus galaxy. Therefore I would like them to shift to other points of interest.
I just don't want SGA to become an inferior version of SG1. A retirement pension for former SG1 crew, with less dangerous ennemies, less impressive Ancients, and less active plots.
1) WRAITHS HAVE TO BE WEAK
They have to be weak because we need to maintain some action throughout the year, the heroes must be able to defeat some wraiths in separate actions in many episodes, etc. Well in fact there has to BE a show, to put it shortly.
But in this case, wraiths not only have to be weak, they have to be VERY weak. Because the SGA crew is just helpless, and they can never be in a strong strategic position. Ever tried to go camping in another place? Ever tried to work in a factory the technology of which you don't understand? Ever tried to stay in a country of which you don't understand the language and you don't even know where to find food? Well imagine a mixture of the three. It is definitely a feat if the SGA crew can survive even without any intelligent agression.
In that sense the wraiths are shown weak, very weak, or even intellectually inferior. Like arriving on a gate site in open field without checking if there are ennemies behind the stones.
2) THE WRAITHS HAVE TO BE STRONG
The wraiths are those who defeated the Ancients. There have been discussions about that, but it now seems confirmed by the last spoilers.
Wait a minute: "defeated the Ancients" ??? Wow... I advise people who don't realize yet that we are talking of the kind of Orlin. I don't remember the episode name, but this one definitely has to be watched again. There are other evidence of the Ancients' HUGE capacities in other episodes, but this one gathers them all in a convenient manner.
What is the dangerous race that the Ancients would not have detected EVEN BEFORE entering their original planet? The Ancients knew everything about the ecosystem of a planet before arriving (they studied planets for human settlement). And even if if it was a biological danger and not a technological one, what is it that the Ancients could not cure like humans cure mushrooms or get rid of ants?
In that sense the Wraiths must show capacities that we call supernatural in fantasy movies and so on. We are dealing with a theological level here.
THE PROBLEM
If the Wraiths in SGA are grade 2 Wraiths (strong), the SGA human crew is simply DEAD. No point in making other episodes. They're DOOMED. They are just a little helpless group of snails waiting for the walker's shoe. They have NO strategic resources and there's no point in making us believe that they can do BETTER than the Ancients with the Ancients' equipment, that they just discovered.
If the Wraiths are grade 1 Wraiths (weak), the show can go on, although slightly less interesting than SG1 with Goa'ulds, with wraiths dressed up like clown-vampires and no civilization references. But then the Wraiths have NOT defeated the Ancients, and the show doesn't exist.
CONCLUSION
I just hope the writers will drop this uneasy Wraith affair very soon. I like the show very much, I like most of the actors and I love the idea of an Atlantis city in the Pegasus galaxy. Therefore I would like them to shift to other points of interest.
I just don't want SGA to become an inferior version of SG1. A retirement pension for former SG1 crew, with less dangerous ennemies, less impressive Ancients, and less active plots.
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