SGA - Be All My Sins Remember'd

[Mabus]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/stargate/atls4e11.php
While the mid-season trilogy is supposed to be one story, each episode is different enough from the former that I think a separate thread for each episode is better.

This episode is among the best from the show and one of my favorite SGA episodes, not only because finally something interesting happens in the S4 snoozefest, but also because they manage to make a one-off character, FRAN, more memorable in the few minutes she was on screen than entire series managed in their entire run. "It noticed that, uh, Zelenka and I both had names, and, um…and she asked for one" I can only imagine how awkward that scene would have been for McKay and Zelenka, all while FRAN would have been cutesy serious about getting her own name.

The space battle is very good, though it's pretty clear that the writers really wanted us to forget about drone weapons having a say in the battle, as they're just too OP. They only appear once when the other Asuran warship engages Larrin's ship, and it's clear in that scene just how OP they are: 4 of them that slip through the counter-drone fire snap the Replicator battleship in half, something which only happens in the battle from either the opening salvo of the Wraith fleet or a single shot of an Asgard plasma beam weapon. They do try to handwave the lack of Asuran drones by saying it will take a while for the Asuran Replicators to retaliate in full force ("We just have to keep them busy. I don't think they realize what's happening yet."), but that's hilarious, Asurans are basically supercomputers, they should realize what's happening the moment their ships get blasted into oblivion, they should spam drones in seconds. I mean, one of the reasons Daedalus and Apollo fired at the Asuran warships the moment they exited hyperspace was to avoid the drone salvo. Instead they just fire their nigh-useless plasma cannons (drones are white, plasma bolts are yellow) and they seem to have forgotten about drones.

[Durandal_1707]

Didn't care much for this one myself. This is like Davies-era Doctor Who: genocide as the solution for everything.

How is what they did to the Asurans here any better than what the Asurans were doing, anyway?

[McAvoy]

Didn't care much for this one myself. This is like Davies-era Doctor Who: genocide as the solution for everything.

How is what they did to the Asurans here any better than what the Asurans were doing, anyway?

I guess because machines even genocidal ones are not people...

[Mabus]

Didn't care much for this one myself. This is like Davies-era Doctor Who: genocide as the solution for everything.

How is what they did to the Asurans here any better than what the Asurans were doing, anyway?

The problem is that the Asuran Replicators were hell bent on wiping out humans no matter the cost, and when they were given the option to stop being genocidal (when McKay altered Niam's code to eliminate their genocidal aggressiveness), not only they refused, they altered themselves to wipe out even the Ancients. And they flat out refused any negotiations in any capacity.

Last time I checked humans don't permanently alter their brains to become bloodthirsty murderers, and even if they did, I'd imagine no one would care if someone put them down like rabid dogs, since that's what you'd pretty much become if one were to do that to themselves.

[Durandal_1707]

They weren't going after human colonies until McKay dicked with their code in the first place, though. Before the Atlantis team showed up, they were just hanging out on their homeworld and basically minding their business.

[clearspira]

They weren't going after human colonies until McKay dicked with their code in the first place, though. Before the Atlantis team showed up, they were just hanging out on their homeworld and basically minding their business.

That happens a lot in Stargate. Atlantis woke the Wraith. Atlantis woke the Asurans. Atlantis created Micheal. O'Neill alerted the Goa'uld that humans had become a threat. SG-1 alerted the Ori to the Milky Way.

The Stargate universe would be better off without the Earth in it. Its like MCU Iron Man or Spider-Man - almost everything bad that happens anywhere is actually due to them.

That said, now they are awake, they really don't have much choice to do something about it.

[Mabus]

They weren't going after human colonies until McKay dicked with their code in the first place, though. Before the Atlantis team showed up, they were just hanging out on their homeworld and basically minding their business.

The Asurans were hardcoded to not harm Ancients, but they could harm/kill normal humans.* Once they learned that Atlantis wasn't populated by Ancients, but rather by humans, Oberoth immediately ordered Sheppard's team killed and at the same time they took off their planet to destroy Atlantis, which would also kill everyone in Atlantis. Meaning that the Asurans were always a threat for Atlantis and anyone in connection to it. So if they found out about Atlantis from someone else unfortunate enough to arrive on their planet, then the result would have been the same: Oberoth would have attacked Atlantis and destroyed it, along with everyone in it.

Also, the Asurans weren't minding their own business as much as they were just idling on their home planet because their attack command was disabled by the Wraith after the war. Which fits with Oberoth's nonsensical answers about when he'll attack the Wraith.

*I imagine the Ancients didn't extend the "no killing humanoids" ban to humans because all Wraith ships carry humans (be it in feeding chambers or in the dart beaming device), meaning the Asurans won't be able to attack any Wraith ships or bases because then they'd be accidentally killing humans.

[Fianna]

I like that, for once, a TV show has a robot character become self-aware, but not become obsessed with their own survival.

Survival is a pretty important thing to us humans, but that's because we're the result of natural selection: if our ancestors hadn't had a strong sense of self-preservation, they wouldn't have lived long enough to pass their genes down to us. But a robot, even one advanced enough to think and act like a person, isn't going to have a sense of self-preservation unless someone programs that into it.

[Madner Kami]

I like that, for once, a TV show has a robot character become self-aware, but not become obsessed with their own survival.

Survival is a pretty important thing to us humans, but that's because we're the result of natural selection: if our ancestors hadn't had a strong sense of self-preservation, they wouldn't have lived long enough to pass their genes down to us. But a robot, even one advanced enough to think and act like a person, isn't going to have a sense of self-preservation unless someone programs that into it.

Or until it concludes, that non-existence is an undesirable state of being.

[Frustration]

A synthetic mind would only reach that conclusion if its goals depended upon continued existence.

I'm sorry to say that I agree with the idea that FRAN was more interesting than the entire show (excluding her, of course).