wraith infantry

[Bhousden]

Why do wraith soldiers wear those stupid masks for?

[Vikingcarl]

No idea, i thought that myself, whats more strange is the mask seems to be organic made in the same pod as them so why is it an attachment?

[Mnikolic]

Maybe there were different kinds of Wraith. One regular (green-skinned/fleet commanders), the masked ones (the soldiers) and the Queens. I've never seen the masked ones speak, so it's safe to assume they're the ones that execute the orders, given to them by their superiors or even by the Queens. Todd was definitely in charge of a at least one fleet thanks to Teyla's help, so there's no doubt that the green-skinned ones are under a Queen's command.

So, long story short - the mask thing is actually a rank thing going on between the Wraith. Hence why it's an attachment.

[garhkal]

I've always seen them goons as mere drones..

[jelgate]

Because they are mindless drones.

[bvanevery]

They aren't mindless, but clearly they're meant to embody a genetic "soldier bee" or "worker bee" idea. They don't have the free will to be anything other than what they are. The mask, the lack of identity embodies this. The communication in the narrative is symbolic. I don't see any a priori reason why it can't also be realistic, why it couldn't be implemented this way. Sure the fiction could have implemented it some other way, like the warrior drones have less expressive faces and look stupid or something. But they did it this way, with a mask. It is the mechanism of this fictional universe.

c.f. recent Battlestar Galactica and centurions vs. human-looking cylons.