# Stargate Atlantis -- a quibble (minor Spoiler) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 18, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stargate-atlantis-a-quibble-minor-spoiler/255687 "2004-07-18T15:54:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stargate-atlantis-a-quibble-minor-spoiler/255687/41 "2004-07-22T16:59:37Z")
> [@elf6c](#): > > Atlantis has a similar problem: > > Wraith \> Ancients \> Goa’uld \> Earth so in theory if the Wraith are the species who drove off the Ancients, they should wipe the floor with a small Earth expeditionary force. Instead, Stingers, assualt rifles and Alien shuttle craft flown by pilots who barely understand them seem to act as force multipliers and they rack up an impressive kill to loss rate. Huh? > > My only thought is that the Wraith are not actually the species who drove off the Ancients, or otherwise it should have been a Thor’s Hammer sort of fight with the Ancients mopping the floor with the Wraith with those spiffy yellow drones (remember what they did to Anubis’ fleet). . They talked about this in one of the promos. They needed an alien scary enough to take on the Ancients, but “stupid enough” so that our guys could trick them week after week. So I think what you can gather from their tree-covered spaceship is that the Wraiths are a race in decline – maybe they’ve lost some of their technology in the past million years or so. Or like the Goa’uld, they’ve become soft from ten of thousands of years of easy pickings. Let’s face it, if a herd of cows suddenly attacked with stone axes, you’d lose a few fights just because you weren’t expecting it. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stargate-atlantis-a-quibble-minor-spoiler/255687/42 "2004-07-22T18:47:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Nope. The amazing blue goop keeps him and Braytak (sp?) going. Both are snake free now. The invention of the goop was a major plot arc and offered the possibility of the Goa’uld losing their grip on their Jaffa fighting forces. Yeah yeah yeah. Did the guy ask for a summary of the last two seasons? No, he asked the difference between Goa’ulds. I gave the simple answer, so sue me. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stargate-atlantis-a-quibble-minor-spoiler/255687/43 "2004-07-22T18:53:27Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Yeah yeah yeah. Did the guy ask for a summary of the last two seasons? No, he asked the difference between Goa’ulds. I gave the simple answer, so sue me. I think you misspelled “Oops, I forgot about that! Thanks for the info.” ---
**Author:** ![Mithgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Mithgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithgard)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stargate-atlantis-a-quibble-minor-spoiler/255687/44 "2004-07-22T18:55:36Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > They talked about this in one of the promos. They needed an alien scary enough to take on the Ancients, but “stupid enough” so that our guys could trick them week after week. So I think what you can gather from their tree-covered spaceship is that the Wraiths are a race in decline – maybe they’ve lost some of their technology in the past million years or so. Or like the Goa’uld, they’ve become soft from ten of thousands of years of easy pickings. Let’s face it, if a herd of cows suddenly attacked with stone axes, you’d lose a few fights just because you weren’t expecting it. I believe that one of the main reasons for the ‘lack of power’ of the wraith (and thats relative speaking of course b/c they seemed far superior in the pilot) is that as the main wraith said “the feeding grounds have severely declined”, or something to that effect. So I would guess that over the million of years, they have slowly been starving because they cant get enough food/humans. (which is why they were rationing the ppl on the planet where the Sg-Atlantis team went to check out. At least thats what makes sense to me 😃 ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stargate-atlantis-a-quibble-minor-spoiler/255687/45 "2004-07-22T20:37:42Z")
Well, remember when they killed that chick Wraith, she mentioned how she was just a guardian, and once she died, the others would awake, and sure enough, once she croaked, it looked like hundreds if not more of them were waking up. So maybe they’ve been weakened by the fact most of thier race has been in hibernation. Still, that’s no excuse for the crappy tech they’ve got. Cruisers that get taken out by a single missle, equiped with lasers that are apparently too weak to take out a quickly moving shuttle. I can see where hand to hand combat would be rather uneven, the Wraith are pretty friggin strong. But so far, we haven’t seen anything that looks like it could hold up to the drones unleashed on Anubis. But hey, it’s just the first episode, so there’s still time for them to start using their big guns. I just hope they’re actually worth the wait. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stargate-atlantis-a-quibble-minor-spoiler/255687/46 "2004-07-22T21:14:17Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Let’s face it, if a herd of cows suddenly attacked with stone axes, you’d lose a few fights just because you weren’t expecting it. Since this is The Cafe, a driveby mention of the Dr. Demento classic, _Cows with Guns_ , is warranted… 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stargate-atlantis-a-quibble-minor-spoiler/255687.md?page=2)