Wraith Defenders Club

[Wraith Cake]

wow, i start a pic fest with the intention of snurching some drool worthy wraith pics and a naming war breaks out.

ha ha ha

lovely pics everyone, and yes, i snurched.

well i see the name list has been updated, (thanks naami)
but there are still a few blank ones.
i like the names people suggested, so i cast my vote for those
the duet wraith = Hector
instinct wraith = Elric
penny/tommy should just be tommy
the third FC/TLT wraith = Bullseye
and EATG

Spoiler:

Jareth for tylers wraith

ones needing names are
the runner wraith, who feeds on ronon (there are others but no pics are up for them)
two wraith from the seige
(any others?)

someone suggested Achilles, would one of these do?

I've never used the names you guys give them, but you all manage to know who I am talking about. If people insist on naming them, why not give them outrageous names, like the name of rap artists, (Puff Daddy--the Statedan Uber wraith, P. Diddy--the chief wraith in Outsiders, he looks like he'd be into diddying [lol!!]), or classical composers (Mozart--the wraith in Spoils of War--the one with the granny hair), the names you're choosing, people would name their pets and children. They're not majestic or even funny. Make them at least funny...pah leeeeeze!!



WK

[ciannwn]

I think it is. I think the prohibition is just about discussion of the unsanctioned episode releases.

I remember that we named Rhys from promo pics long before Season Five started.

[Wraith Cake]

Could you PLEASE wait till WE ALL have seen Vegas and EatG for the Wraith talk, and the naming? Is that too much to ask? Or should the ones who don't want to be spoiled just stay out of every thread on GW? I believe the mods have set up a special thread for discussions on the episode, and in the rest of all of GW's threads, EatG and Vegas talk is off limits. Why does the WDC NOT belong to that off limits thing?


On a different matter:

Jennifer/Todd could use your vote.

I agree. We shouldn't even be getting to naming wraith, if not all of us have seen the episodes. Hopefully some of the corniness will be filtered out

WK

[ciannwn]

If people insist on naming them, why not give them outrageous names, like the name of rap artists, (Puff Daddy--the Statedan Uber wraith, P. Diddy--the chief wraith in Outsiders, he looks like he'd be into diddying [lol!!]),

If we weren't careful they could all end up sounding like WWE Wrestlers.

[Todd's Pet]

If we weren't careful they could all end up sounding like WWE Wrestlers.

[Starry Waters]

If we weren't careful they could all end up sounding like WWE Wrestlers.

ROTFLMAO!!

[Wraith Cake]

Actually, I love the name Ajax despite it being the name of a bleach! My fav characer of the Odyssey was Telemachus, but that's quite a name to be saddled with! lol


Me too! I watch that movie once a week if I can. I pretty much know every line. And I listen to the soundtrack all the time. I love David Bowie but love him even more as Jareth!


I understand what the writers were trying to do on the show by naming them simple, average names. And if a Wraith is named on the show, then I'll go with that (whether spoken or in the credits or whatever). But I want to give the Wraith names with honor, meaning and thought behind them - and sometimes maybe a little humor too - because I respect and admire the Wraith, unlike the writers. So, for me, this is my way of paying hommage to them, as well as making it easier for us to discuss. Some people refer to Todd still as Ace or Gabriel - both names which I find more fitting, but because he was named on the show, I'm fine with that horrible clunker of a name.
EDIT: My apologies to Todd Masters in SFX whom Todd is named after! But see, they were honoring Todd and the Wraith in that naming.

Happy New Year's everyone! I think we're all caught up in 2009 now, right?

mfw

I know, I'll probably not win this one But I have to put my two cents in. I guess it is so easy for names to become corny--so easy. And fantasy and sci fi writers constantly rely on names with lots of umlauts, apostrophes and hyphens which are impossibly difficult to pronounce and sound too much like a writer is trying too hard. Many fantasy writers try to follow the tradition of Tolkien, but the truth is almost all cannot follow him. Tolkien was a professor of Philology which is a mishmash of philosophy, linguistics, history and anthropology (all with a focus on language and literature) with a whole bunch of other disciplines thrown into boot. The reason his place names sound authentic is because for the most part they are. He has based many of his place names on variations of names already existing on UK maps. Also, the character names are derivatives of Latin and ancient Finnish. He really didn't reinvent the wheel, he merely reshaped it. He was looking to create an English mythology so, in a sense his novels are a very loose attempt at a alternative history. This is what the SGA writers are doing. The ancients inhabited the Lost City of Atlantis.

Do you know there is only one account of this lost city, actually continent? It's not even an account, it is an account of an account--Plato wrote about it when he was referring to another lost text. So, this is all we have (to my knowledge) on the matter. Yet the idea is compelling, because we all think it is a romantic idea that ancients once inhabited the earth and gave us the knowledge we now possess. This is what the elves represented.

If the writers were to make an earnest attempt to give the wraith names they would have a few things to deal with. 1/when you know a name you can also know a culture and how the culture reproduces, i.e. Wilson=Will's son, Robertson=Robert's son etc. Zhou Xian = Zhou is the "first name" but it is the "family name" Xian is the "last name", but it is the "given name" where as most European names have the family name last and the given name first. The reversal tells you quite a bit about how a culture thinks about family.

2/ because we do not know anything about how wraith reproduce or their naming, it is difficult to know anything about them. It's like a closed circuit.

The only thing I can think of, if the writers want to stick to this alternative history theme is if they named the wraith after ancient gods from Sanskrit, (the oldest human language, if my memory serves me correctly). That would be interesting.

WK

[Todd's Pet]

@WK

You make some excellent points that I'm inclined to agree with - esp re names and culture (having studied Chinese and ancient European language development myself).
However, I really don;t think the writers have time to explore this avenue in any depth on a 40 min SF show.
In fact at first they probably only made up the Wraith as a scary enemy to be shot and make the SGA team look good. I honestly don;t think they thought at the Warith would be so attractive and interestign to so many people.

I agree that Wraith should have interesting, even romantic (in the true sense of the word), names and given the Atlantis setting, Sanskrit would be acceptable, even appropriate. How many Sanskrit experts do they have on the writers team, though?
In the meantime we're stuck with the names the show have given them and fans naming others is a combination of convenience and fun. Some folks just wanna have fun!

Keep putting in your tuppence worth, though, WK - it's not a matter of winning or not - that's not what it's about - it's about giving others something to think about and discuss. *hug* for that!

[Laura Dove]

Happy new year to you all, wraith and defenders alike, and virtual new year green to those the forum didn't let me green! You have been busy; thanks everybody for all the funny captions and the lovely wraith pictures. BlueJay, you had a great idea. I spent literally hours yesterday evening doing Steve screencaps and looking for the best promo pics I have, and although I'm far from done, I already have created two albums: wraith in general and Todd in particular. I have most of them in better quality than what the GW forum allows, so if you want them, just ask and I can either tell you where I got them (when they are still available online) or simply send them to you.

About the idea of naming wraith, I don't have a strong opinion. I'm always terrible with names, but on the other hand I don't mind giving wraith a label we can use when discussing about them. Names have always seemed artificial and of little importance to me; I much prefer nicknames because they have a meaning, an etymology that suits the person, even if it often relates to an insignificant event. When I have to invent a name in my short stories, either I look for names of real persons and tweak them (for Earth characters), or I invent sonorities in my mind and then try to write them down more or less phonetically.

Other than that, eww, I see most of you find Chabal attractive but I really don't at all. With or without hair on his face, I find him leaning towards the side of "completely unattractive" instead.

In fact, I'm more appealed by people with androgynous features. I think this is the reason why I don't find Todd that physically attractive: Despite his lovely long hair, he's already too masculine. Sometimes, depending on the makeup and the camera angle, he looks quite sexy, but sometimes he's just way too obviously male for my taste.

(Das, I'd like to add I loved the bald Commander from "The Queen" very much too. I'm very fond of him, just not physically.)

THANKYOU Laura Dove for posting about those MGM pics! Those pics absolutely make my heart ache.

Morjana made my day when she posted them, so I thought I'd share!
Am I the only one who finds Todd's feeding slit weird on http://stargate.mgm.com/images/still...1225237393.jpg, as if it were added afterwards? Aren't the feeding slits supposed to be oriented in the alignment of the wrist and fingers?

I can remember when I thought how far away 2000 was and how old I'd be when we got there. Now we're way pass that!!

Same here! "Oh, in 2000, I'll be 26, I'll be ooooold!" The funny thing is that now, almost 10 years from there, I don't care of being "old" any more.

i'm surprised no heartless, souless corporation didn't find out about the wraith and capture one to use for their work. The stargate program does deal with outside contractors so it could happen that outsiders would find out about them. The only problem would be smuggling one to earth either by the gate or ship.
do any of you think this could have happened? That some group would try to use the wraith in such a way, perhaps to slow or reverse aging? healing? or something else?

Oh, you know, I can completely imagine such a situation. A wraith being captured and experimented on, not even out of hatred in the context of the war, but out of pure greed. I can completely see humans either wanting to find immortality for themselves, or to make loads of money by selling it to others.

I don't think I'll ever have the time to write a fanfic about this, but that's completely the kind of premise I could use in a serious story (as opposed to my main fanfic, which is more action-based than thought-provoking).

Todd
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...dmag600b-1.jpg

Hey hey, what magazine is it from? I love this photo! If I had to guess, I'd say it's a behind the scenes shot during "The Last Man", or perhaps "The Kindred". Those two episodes are the ones where Todd's makeup looks at its best IMO.

Changing subject again, I just found a drawing representing a scene after the end of "Infection": http://astridv.deviantart.com/art/St...rt-5-108047499 *shivers*

Spoiler:

Poor Todd, alone, sick, not knowing whether he'll survive his encounter with the iratus queen, but knowing that regardless of the outcome, he'll experience a terrible pain... (spoilers for future episodes)

Spoiler:

and still believing Sheppard let him go out of compassion.

You probably already know it but she also has a lovely Todd & Ronon fanart and a very good fan comic (but without wraith, it's all about the team).

[ciannwn]

In the meantime we're stuck with the names the show have given them and fans naming others is a combination of convenience and fun. Some folks just wanna have fun!

I tend to see us naming Wraith as being related to thunking. We have very serious discussions about Wraith in this topic and often go to defend them in other serious topics. I can't stay serious about them all the time, though, because I can never forget that they're just actors with bits stuck on their faces.

[Todd's Pet]

I tend to see us naming Wraith as being related to thunking. We have very serious discussions about Wraith in this topic and often go to defend them in other serious topics. I can't stay serious about them all the time, though, because I can never forget that they're just actors with bits stuck on their faces.

They're fictional !

And I'm going to disagree with myself when I said earlier that the writers prob didn't expect them to be attractive... that look - or something similar - crops up time and again... Labyrinth, Lord of the Rings, even Buffy. Maybe human females are hard-wired to respond to some kind of ancient elf race who looked like that????

Yeah, yeah - fiction!

[ciannwn]

Labyrinth, Lord of the Rings, even Buffy. Maybe human females are hard-wired to respond to some kind of ancient elf race who looked like that????

I think we respond because it's a refreshing change from the kind of guys we see in the street.

[Starry Waters]

They're fictional !

And I'm going to disagree with myself when I said earlier that the writers prob didn't expect them to be attractive... that look - or something similar - crops up time and again... Labyrinth, Lord of the Rings, even Buffy. Maybe human females are hard-wired to respond to some kind of ancient elf race who looked like that????

Yeah, yeah - fiction!

I agree. Just out of curiosity, I wonder if the people who did the make-up and wardrobe design for the Wraith were male or female??

I think males create this look probably as much as women though.

[naamiaiset]

Hey hey, what magazine is it from? I love this photo! If I had to guess, I'd say it's a behind the scenes shot during "The Last Man", or perhaps "The Kindred". Those two episodes are the ones where Todd's makeup looks at its best IMO.

Stargate magazine issue 22, it has a Todd article called Sympathy For The Devil. I've posted it here/elsewhere a few times.

[Starry Waters]

I think we respond because it's a refreshing change from the kind of guys we see in the street.

Or it's all that left over hippie in me!!