The Wraith are dumb?

[garhkal]

It occurred to me watching 'The Seer' that twice now we've seen the blast wave from an exploding hive taking out another Hive. Now the Wraith are supposed to be pretty smart little guys, surely they could anticipate that being within a certain vicinity of an exploding Hive would take them out aswell, no? Surely a better course of action would be to simply damage the opposing hive enough that they couldn't fight back anymore instead of blowing them up and taking yourself out in the process.

That has bothered me too, perhaps it was more of the other ship had orders to sacrifice themselves if needed to ensure atlantis' cooperation with the virus redux.

They reused the blowing scene for the third time in the series, so what did you expect?

Second not third. THe only other time it was shown was in The Hive (season 2 ep 11)

[mago1978]

Maybe the Hive loyal to the wraith in Atlantis was being damaged to much so to protect the secret of Atlantis, which at that time was in their best interest, they blew up their own ship knowing it would take out the other.

[Mitchell82]

Personally, reusing a clip here and there doesn't really bother me too much. TPTB have to spend the money they have wisely, and reusing footage occasionally when the situation is similar to another helps them save some of that money for later in the season.

Now if something is reused constantly, that gets to me.

Me either the only time re using a scene botherd me was in season 4's Small Victories. They used the scene of the guards coming in the gate-room from the pilot very noticable considering it was very grainy.

[elbo]

It occurred to me watching 'The Seer' that twice now we've seen the blast wave from an exploding hive taking out another Hive. Now the Wraith are supposed to be pretty smart little guys, surely they could anticipate that being within a certain vicinity of an exploding Hive would take them out aswell, no? Surely a better course of action would be to simply damage the opposing hive enough that they couldn't fight back anymore instead of blowing them up and taking yourself out in the process.

Good point. This was a dumb/rushed tactical decision (for the second hive at least), but not necesarely inconsistent with the Wraith profile. Let's not forget that the Wraith are a instictual specie and they have basic instincts that cannot be controlled.

It is also possible for CG Wraith hive ship to intent this outcame, knowing that this will be the only way could regain Atlantis trust and continue the joint plan. It is possible that the CG Wraith comunicate a telepathic order to his hive and we know that the Wraith don't have too much problems with the sacrifice. This would explain how this last one knew in the next scene that his hive was destroyed.

[SG13-NightOps]

Yeah, sitting completely still in battle in space and blowing up an enemy ship whose explosion will destroy you does not appear to be a sound tactical manuever. How about executing "attack pattern delta" or something....DO SOMTHING.

LMFAO!

Perhaps their loyalty to CG Wraith and their desire to turn off the Replicators made them feel their sacrifice was justifiable.

[garhkal]

And since the majority of those wraith we see oN hives are those faceless drones, who is to say they had a choice in the matter.

[Amalthea]

Well, I figured the ships were going at each other fairly evenly, so the other one probably was just as busted up as the one that exploded, but got beaten to the punch, as it were.

As for reusing CGI, Star Trek used the same Klingon ship exploding from the 6th movie for over 7 years. I get that it kind of sucks, but really, they only have so much money. Think of Wormhole Extreme and remember, it was just a few weeks ago we were dancing on the tables that SGA got picked up for another season. Don't go spending money we don't have!

[sweetsamurai]

I do agree that blowing another ship in close proximity is pretty stupid, but the Wraith are under immense pressure, paranoia is brewing amongst the Wraith and they are in severe desperation since the Replicators and the Atlantis Team are kicking their mutated green and blue bums. These factors can make you behave in brash behaviour. I know sometimes when playing console games and I get desperate to kick the bad guy at the end level - I just blast and I don't think straight; end up killing myself.

But it is still stupid.

[Dalario]

Well, it was said by the wraith in atlantis that he only have a few followers, maybe they were only a few on the hive so maybe they destroyed themselves (maybe 100 or 1000 in the ship) to destroy their fully loaded hive ship (how many... those ships are bigs... 10,000 or more wraith ?)

[AutumnDream]

They are dumb when the writers need them to be dumb and smart when the writers need them to be smart. Believe you me, if a plot they came up with required Sheppard to walk from one end of a Hive to the other completed naked in order to escape, they'd make the Wraith dumb enough for the episode to make it happen. This is what we students of literature call "good writing".

[o-0]

Maybe the wraith actually knew that there cannot be a blast wave in space in reality but the graphic designer Gods of SGA decided that there will be and so the wraith were like "WTF! OMG U CANT DO THAT SHIZ!! *dies*"

[An-Alteran]

Maybe the wraith actually knew that there cannot be a blast wave in space in reality but the graphic designer Gods of SGA decided that there will be and so the wraith were like "WTF! OMG U CANT DO THAT SHIZ!! *dies*"

That is very plausible.

But there can be energy blast waves in space- just not pressure waves.

A nuke in space woulds releases a massive gamma radiation burst wave, buit most of its power would not be there because of the lack of air to create the pressure wave.

[Starpass]

The Wraith aren't dumb. They're just hungry lol

When McKay was asking with the Wraith guy to save Jeannie (McKay's sister) I could tell the Wraith was not comfortable. The only thing on his mind was sustenance.
But I could also see he had 'family,' that he cared about when Rodney mentioned his hive ship being destroyed, by the way he reacted; unless I mistook 'caring' (for others) for 'selfishness' (loosing his ship) I suppose it doesn't really matter how I read it; the Wraith are still a formidable foe and no they aren't dumb.