I've always believed that Goa'uld symbiotes don't need a sarcophagus to live indefinitely, there's two reasons why I believe this. The first reason is Set/ Seth/ Setesh, before he was killed by SG-1 he lived on Earth for 5,000 years after Ra left and the Stargate was buried, he did this by switching Human hosts every 400 years. The second reason is Goa'uld stasis/ canopic jars, these jars are filled with a liquid sedative that renders the Goa'uld symbiote trapped inside unconscious, these jars also have a small naqueda generator that creates an electrical pulse but they don't have the rejuvenating/ regenerating energy that hand healing devices and sarcophagus's have. Osiris and the Tok'ra queen Egeria were trapped inside their jars for thousands of years before being released and Osiris was able to take a host. The sarcophagus allows the Goa'uld to keep the same host for thousands of years and can resurrect both the host and symbiote if they die. So my question is if I'm right and Goa'uld symbiotes don't age then why couldn't Lord Yu take a new host when the sarcophagus could no longer rejuvenate/ regenerate Lord Yu's current host body due to the hosts extreme age?
-
-
My guess is that the same side effects the sarcophagus has on the host effects the symbiote to. After a few thousands years of exposure to a sarcophagus the symbiote became irreparably damaged? That's all I got.Originally posted by [email protected] View Post -
If I remember right (and I may not, it's been a while since I've watched it), in the Stargate film, the Goa'uld arrived on Earth 10,000 years ago and that's when Ra possessed his host. He occupied that host through the entire occupation of Earth, the Egypt uprising, and up until the events of the film (1994 by film, 1996 by TV series) without showing any apparent sign of mental or physical decay. To me this suggests that, with the use of a sarcophagus, they can live for at least 10,000 years.
As regards Yu, we simply don't know how old he was. Certainly the name seems to suggest Yu the Great, the Chinese emperor who lived ca. 2200 BC, but that doesn't at all track with the movie/TV series timeline of the Goa'uld fleeing Earth approximately 5000 years ago (ie: 3000 BC). However, given what we know of Ra's lifespan (and continued physical/mental faculties), we can make a not-unreasonable guess that Yu would have to have been at least as old as Ra was.
Contrast these with the Tok'ra: we learned in the episode "Crossroads" that Egeria's rebellion took place roughly 2000 years ago, and we know that all of the Tok'ra we meet in the course of the series are spawned from her, so we can reason out that none of the Tok'ra are any older than that. Given that Selmak was one of Egeria's oldest 'children,' and he died with Jacob in "Threads," we can make another not-unreasonable guess that their lifespan without using a sarcophagus is roughly 2000 years.
Certainly both races are very long-lived by Human standards. But given what we've seen on screen, it would appear that using a sarcophagus will extend a symbiote's lifespan by at least a factor of 5.
Obvious caveat: it's still difficult-nigh-impossible to make a definitive judgement given that we have only a handful of examples, and vanishingly few exact dates."A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After LifeComment
-
Yes this was my guess as well, so even if Lord Yu could take a new host he would still be senile, thank you...Comment
-
Your right, Ra and all the System Lords that followed him to Earth had the same host bodies for 10,000 years, except for Apophis who's host body must have been younger considering that when his symbiote was dying his host said that he was a scribe in Egypt, we know that Apophis had his host body for 5000 years as seen in Mobius. We also know that Set started switching Human hosts every 400 years after Ra left Earth and the stargate was buried and that Osiris and Isis were removed from their hosts and placed in stasis jars. As for Lord Yu his host was also 10,000 years old but he introduced himself as the Chinese emperor in 2200 bc. As for the Tok'ra a vast majority of their hosts are already old that's why they have to switch hosts every 200 years instead of 400 years like Set, Egeria and Selmak died from injuries and not old age, Symbiotes don't age...Comment
-
Absolutely Egeria died of her injuries, but Selmak died of old age, not injuries. Jacob was not injured in "Reckoning," he was weakened because Selmak was dying of old age, and chose to die together. Given that we know Egeria's rebellion was approx. 2000 years ago, we can make an educated guess that without a sacrophagus, symbiotes live around 2000 years.Originally posted by [email protected] View Post"A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After LifeComment
-
It can't be old age, Set was on Earth for 5000 years after Ra left and he didn't have a sarcophagus, he did it by switching Human hosts every 400 years, it's possible that Selmak had injuries that he couldn't heal from on his own and that'swhy he died....Comment
-
It was said right in "Threads" that Selmak was dying because he was old. He wasn't injured.
I didn't say it was consistent lol"A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After LifeComment
-
Yes your right, as much as I love the show there was a lot of inconsistencies.....Comment
-
Wait, what? Since when does the show take place two years in the future?Originally posted by DigiFluid View Post"I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care... or why it should be necessary to prove it at all."Comment
-
Stargate the movie came out in 1994 and was presumed to take place the same year. When TV series debuted in 1997, it referred to the events of the movie having taken place a year before--ie: 1996.Originally posted by rushy View PostLast edited by DigiFluid; 26 February 2017, 02:18 PM."A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After LifeComment
-
Wrong, The Children of the Gods took place one year after the movie.Originally posted by DigiFluid View PostComment
-
Correct. The show debuted in 1997, retconning the movie to take place in 1996.Originally posted by Bhousden View Post
Along with retconning the glowy villain entity into a snake symbiote, retconning the spelling of O'Neil to O'Neill, retconning O'Neill's entire character attitude from Snake Plissken to MacGyver, retconning the spelling and pronunciation of Sha'uri to Sha're, retconning it so that everybody in the galaxy speaks English instead of having to learn their language as in the movie, retconning so that Abydos is nearby to Earth instead of in a distant galaxy, retconning it so that the Stargate goes to more places than just Abydos, and a hundred other retcons that I can't recall off the top of my head."A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After LifeComment
-
Can't the show just take place in 1995?Originally posted by DigiFluid View Post"I have never understood why it should be necessary to become irrational in order to prove that you care... or why it should be necessary to prove it at all."Comment
-
They would retcon everything in sight so it fit in with the weekly TV series vision of the franchise, but because [reasons] they would choose to set their TV series 2 years in the past instead of contemporaneously? That just does not fit the pattern, IMO. Not to mention that it really doesn't fit with the handful of dates we get a bit later in the series--"2010" being 10 years into the future, etc.
Not that it really matters, if we're being honest with ourselves here. The show was vague enough, and different enough from our reality, that a two year difference really doesn't make a difference in any meaningful way."A society grows great when old men plant trees, the shade of which they know they will never sit in. Good people do things for other people. That's it, the end." -- Penelope Wilton in Ricky Gervais's After LifeComment
Comment