Wraith Defenders Club

[masterling]

One: Why are the wraith (except for Todd) so arrogant? [Disclaimer: Lover of the wraith here. Pointing to self. This is no slight against the yummies...jUUUst a question]
[B]Two[B] How are they similar and dissimilar to vampires? [Again, disclaimer: I'm not saying similar/dissimilar re. the wraith; it's just a question I've been wondering about lately]

WK

As far as the wraith being arrogant, I have to wonder if they really are. We are using human terms to try and describe an alien spices. In their culture I would image its survival of the fittest and the slightest signs of weakness could mean death or a lower placement among the hive. Not a very good thing. We keep tryn to make them fit with in our structure which is not really fair. They have their own rules and systems. The wraith probably make the same assumption about humans because we are alien to their culture. They would use the terms they know best compared to their society, inferior, weak, food ect. I hope this makes sense.

The vampire thing- Im going with they are similar because they can be down right HWAT!! Oh and lets not forget Prince Nuada from HBII!!

Nice Cake BTW- looks yummy

OT

Spoiler:

Other than listening to my roof make rippling sounds while I wait for Tropical Storm Fay, which BTW is supposed to come right over the mobile home I live in, and getting my eardrums pierced every time the weather radio goes off, there's really nothing much going on except...well...lots of rain. I'm actually rather bored. It seems that if the gale force winds with hail don't get me then the tornadoes with hail will. Nothing to get too worked up over. Think maybe I've lived in Florida too long when even the natural disasters are boring?

Wraithie

Hum, where could ya relocate for more excitement…… a hive???

[QUOTE=keeperofthehive;8783886]
dolfynnchick,xepherah, and masterling: How wonderful that you can dream of the Wraith. Do you know that you are dreaming and can you control the events? I've heard that's possible.

QUOTE]

No not able to control them (if I could then them boys would be in trouble )

Continued from last post:, the Wraith written Language:

Spoiler:

Dr. Weir determines that the Wraith font is a derivative of Ancient and concludes that this is proof of their accidental evolution due to the presence of humans on their planet. Rodney raises an objection, but Elizabeth silences him.

Well, Rodney always thinks very much outside the box, so what was his opinion? My initial reaction was that an important Wraith archive had been destroyed during the war, much like the great library at Alexandria. But much more likely is that the Wraith had a system like many human cultures in which entire clans had the responsibility of memorizing cultural histories (eg. the Maoris, some Native Americans). Separate Hives may have had the duties of memorizing different aspects of Wraith knowledge, and maybe they were not so splintered back than. When entire hive ships were lost to war and starvation, the ever practical Wraith decided on a less risky method and adapted the writing of their enemies. (Again, liasbuttissexy shot this down by pointing out that the Wraith had computer technology. Hmmm...is it possible to understand a binary code without needing a written alphabet?)

Language- im going with its adapted from the ancients. We don’t know what interaction the wraith and ancients had before the war.

At this moment I have more questions than answers Keeperofthehive so here hoping the WDC can find some answers. They usually do.

Thanks MCH

Isnt that the way it always seems?

[MCH]

Originally Posted by MCH
At this moment I have more questions than answers Keeperofthehive so here hoping the WDC can find some answers. They usually do.

Thanks MCH

Isnt that the way it always seems?

And it's very frustrating it is too. Hum


WK:- Nice to have you back. Lovely cake looks very very very yummy. What type is it? Is there a piece avaialble for me?
MCH

[Artifysial]

I'll join WDC. Wraith are formidable foe but feel sorry for them having to suck human blood and stuff as long as they stay in Pegasus - not much for the names though are they?

[masterling]

welcome!! ya they aint into the whole name thing.

BUt im fine if they make it to the MW

[Shanthaia]

*drops in*

Spoiler:

Done a whiiiiile ago now.

*drops out*

wow, that is so beautiful, well done!

I'll join WDC. Wraith are formidable foe but feel sorry for them having to suck human blood and stuff as long as they stay in Pegasus - not much for the names though are they?

a very warm and wraithy welcome to you

[dasNdanger]

Just a couple quick comments...

Perhaps arrogance is the wrong word - would confidence be better? They are very confident creatures. The Ancients are arrogant. The Wraith, confident, with a splash of conceit (or, self-love). LD said, "Their civilisation seems to be quite aggressive and praise individual strength. To survive in such an environment where competition is omnipresent (the slightest false move and you're fed upon), you must develop mental barriers both to avoid emotional attachment (which is seen as weakness) and to protect yourself from external psychological attacks. Also, when individual life is viewed as expandable, you might compensate with boosting your ego." I agree, and this would tend to make the individuals self-absorbed, since emotional bonds with others would be a weakness. For them, it is all about survival of the fittest, and so each one must consider himself to be the best of the best, and such an attitude is then apparent in the way he treats his fellows, and same for the queens.

As far as the Vampire thing goes - I think that's what the creators were trying to tap into - the goth/goth vampire fad among the world's youth. Thing is, they came in on that idea a bit late - the goth thing has been around for quite a while, and vampires were probably bigger in the 90s than now. So, for someone like me (who's never been into vampires), I related to the Wraith in a different way. Not as some sort of supernatural creature, but as what the show explained them to be - an evolved homoinsectoid species with a specific dietary requirement. I see them as more catlike - specifically like tigers or other large, predatory cats.

SEXY large, predatory cats...


das

Whoopsie...

PS: Risem - she is beautiful!!! KEEP HER AWAY FROM TODD!!!!!! (and Tyler Wraith... )

Welcome Artifysial!

Wraithie - don't blow away!!!! *hugs* My sister and her hubby are up here visiting, and are afeared their house will be damaged while they're gone. Hope everything will be okay for both of you!

Nice wallpaper, Icarium! Well-done, as always!

There...I *think* I covered everyone!

[masterling]

yes i agree that confident is a much better word to decribe them.

[Wraithworshipper]

If I had to sum up the attitude of the Wraith in a few words, I'd have to say, "Extraordinarily sexy and supremely confident of their superiority over all other races they encounter."


Well...the fun got started early. OT

Spoiler:

I dropped outta here earlier because the power went bye-bye on me, BUT at least my roof didn't. Can't say the same for the house across the street, and that was before the storm proper got to us! Since the pics below were taken, some of the metal panels are now flapping in the wind. Every once in a while, I go out to see if any have flown away. None so far....

View from the Porch

View from the Front Yard



On a brighter note, the screamer metal band that lives next door is sounding better than I've ever heard them before, and their music fits quite nicely with Mother Nature's mood!

[MyFavoriteWraith]

Wow, this latest discussion has veered right into the question that I've snuck in to drop on y'all. It's about evolution actually. Evolution takes it's slow sweet time to us humans, but what about the Wraith? I mean, if you can survive over 10,000 years, wouldn't you actually see yourself, or at least others of your species around you start to change and adapt in some way? I know they haven't had much competition for access to their food source which maybe would cause them *not* to evolve in that way. But what about in other ways (ie, if not the physical, then the emotional and spiritual).

I also wonder if certain factions of Wraith have evolved differently from their brethren while others have been in hibernation and the others have been out livin' it up. Is this what is causing more fracturing of the society in the present? Maybe some are still more primitive in their thought patterns and emotions while others have moved on, diverged (think Bob vs. Todd).

And on top of that, though Wraith do not like to acknowledge their human DNA, it makes me wonder how it is changing. Is it becoming more human or more insectoid? I don't mean to be species-centric, but would becoming more humanlike be evolving or devolving? lol, I mean, I know how the Wraith would view it, but the faced Wraith, at least start out as more human-like, consuming what humans do. They speak the same language, which I would think, if they didn't want to be considered human or humanesque, this would be one of the first things they would eliminate. Who needs to talk to or speak the same language as their food?

Please excuse me, I've drank an excessive amount of coffee tonight. I'm trying out a new coffee maker and it works wooonnnderfully.

@keeperofthehive:
I hope the hologram in Rising 1 is telling the truth. There's nothing like starting out the first chapter of canon with a big fat red herring or, even worse, a big fat red lie! The writers leave so many loose ends as it is, to know that I've been lied to since the beginning (or if the Ancients were covering up, then at least corrected soon after), I'd have to throw my arms up and wash my hands of the show. I like the show, love the Wraith, but if they're going to play mind-games with me to try to keep me watching, I'll gladly walk away. I mean, look at The Seed! So many new questions provoked by an early episode in Season >>>5<<<! And yet so much still undisclosed. I understand as a writer that you like to leave some things up to the reader's/viewer's imagination, but the gaping holes in the Wraith canon this far into a show just strikes me as laziness.

Phew, ok, rant over. Did I mention too much caffeine makes me a little irritable?

mfw

[Shanthaia]

Evolution isn't so much time dependent but more generation dependent - I see the wraith as slow breeding, for what reason, other than that they are long lived, I do not know

[MyFavoriteWraith]

Evolution isn't so much time dependent but more generation dependent - I see the wraith as slow breeding, for what reason, other than that they are long lived, I do not know

Very good point, Shanthaia. We really don't have an example to follow with how extremely long-lived beings evolved. So why don't the writers run with it?

I think it's been mentioned before but the whole vulnerability of the feeding hand has always bothered me. It makes for good drama - my gut clenched when Rhys got his cut off - but it's too easy. Maybe this will be impetus for Wraith to try whatever Keller's brewing.

mfw

[Wraith Cake]

As far as the wraith being arrogant, I have to wonder if they really are. We are using human terms to try and describe an alien spices. In their culture I would image its survival of the fittest and the slightest signs of weakness could mean death or a lower placement among the hive. Not a very good thing. We keep tryn to make them fit with in our structure which is not really fair. They have their own rules and systems. The wraith probably make the same assumption about humans because we are alien to their culture. They would use the terms they know best compared to their society, inferior, weak, food ect. I hope this makes sense.

The vampire thing- Im going with they are similar because they can be down right HWAT!! Oh and lets not forget Prince Nuada from HBII!!

Nice Cake BTW- looks yummy

Oh yes, I agreee yummie--Prince Nuada lovely, lovely, Vamp yes too!

My mind is a flurry. Okay, now thinking about what you've said. I appreciate what you mean in terms of wraith culture/life/ethos etc. However, it is just a show, so I don't know if I believe the writers think this deeply, but I'm going to geek off and jump into the deep end: I think there are some universals.

This is going to be long winded.

Spoiler:

What I mean is, yes we can say "they're different, we're different, let's all be different at the DIFFERENT game" yet it is a bit of an easy answer if you know what I mean. Absolutely, I give every allowance to that 'stand-by' perspective because in some situations, where there aren't more "reasonable" explanations, the perspective "They're different" and we'll never really know" does apply--occasionally. However, the issue that we have here really is a lack of access to information, because the wraith haven't been completely revealed in the show. Nonetheless, there are some universal patterns of behaviour we can measure all sentient beings by, the wraith included.
Perhaps I'm trying to make myself overly clear but what I'm not saying is not that there are no definitive answers to whether the wraith are arrogant, or any other aspect of their behaviour/culture/society, in other words, there are definitive answers. What I AM saying is that the method of HOW we look for those answers has to match the information we do have about them. In many ways we are being very academic on this forum--investigative academically (piecing together answers from fragments). For instance, how did astronomers figure out the distance between objects in the sky when clearly our ability to measure those distances in conventional terms was out of the question. So, what did they do, they measured the light the objects give off and the vibration of that light on an object "The Doppler Affect". That's the information they have, this is what they use and it's very accurate.
So, regarding the wraith, their culture and attitude, is very similar to "fallen" empires in Earth's past. For instance, The Roman Empire, the Egyptian Dynasties, the Spartan culture (which remind me a lot of the wraith, along with the ancient Babylonians) had a great deal of the technology 19th century England had (not the Spartans). Steam Engine technology? Ancient Rome--first century. I think, I think correct me if I'm wrong, but writer Petronius created a little steam engine to water his garden. He didn't see anymore use for it than that. Why did these empires fall? I believe, and this is a fairly popular theory--they were a slave based culture. Why create a machine, when a slave can do it for you?
What this implies is not that our ancient societies were less intellectually, strategically or psychologically than us. It implies that they were "less" so to speak "morally". That is a loaded term, yes I know but, but but but when life is cheap why not use manual labour? These societies ultimately failed because they failed in some degree or another to embrace the concept of "inter-dependence" and human equality. Whether we like it or not, are atheistic, polytheistic or whatever, the "laws"/precepts of Christianity (and Judaism in previous centuries) has done a terrific amount to advance the structure of society. Because Christianity is often considered a religion of the slaves, it's eventual embrace politically did a great deal to strengthen the state of Rome (of course Xianity became corrupted as all religious eventually do, but it was it's laws regarding the value of human life the gave the Roman empire in the East its longevity). There are a number of books on the rise of the human rights movement paralleling the rise in technological advances.

This is all to say, in a long winded way, the wraith culture and behaviour has some "universals". Empires in our past that ultimately did not 'value' life imploded they destroyed themselves, empires that adapted had and have the greatest staying power. It's no wonder the ancient Spartans extincted themselves; they were a population made up of 85% slaves. Isn't this what the Wraith are facing right now? Annihilation, either by the Lanteans or the Replicators (because of their cannibalism--so to speak); Extinction because of their inability to be unified and take care of the weak in their society (survival of the fittest--which does not apply to higher order mammals--that's another 45 minute discussion)

Or they must embrace Adaptation and take gene therapy, otherwise they die.

So, ya they're arrogant in that cute pouty mouth way.

WK

[MyFavoriteWraith]

@WK - Nothing I watch is just a show to me! lol But that's just my obsessive nature. I have to agree with your discourse and I love your summation of "ya, they're arrogant in their cute, pouty mouth way".

This is why I tend to like sci-fi/fantasy shows - because they base their ideas on actual, historical models but then throw in all the "what-ifs". SGA is great with incorporating those questions, but not so great at answering them. Still, I'll take this show over any reality show or anything on network tv any ol' time.

mfw

[Wraithworshipper]

Just something to do until TS Fay blows herself out.

Gazing Queen.jpg

Wraithie

[Shanthaia]

very impressive, wraithie - I like it - it suits her