[Nick]

Potential Stargate Spoilers
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
After watching "Enemy Mine", being that this is the first I've ever seen of the Unas (I've used re-run and synopsis pages to get caught up to the present season and haven't seen any of the past Una eps) . . . but I understand that the Unas were the origianl hosts and slaves of the Goa-uld, though they have largely been abandoned in favor of humans. My question is why?

The Unas are clearly more durable and much stronger than humans--so why do the Goa'uld still prefer humans?

They appear more animalistic and less intelligent than humans, but I don't see why this would be a problem for the Goa'uld, as they'd wouldn't want their slaves to be too clever, and the host's mind seems pretty immaterial to a parasite that completely takes control of the body . . . so why humans over Unas?

-Nick

This post has been edited by Nick: 27 July 2003 - 05:31 AM

[Christopher]

It might simply be that human hands and fingers are capable of finer manipulation. Unas have thick digits with heavy claws, and it looks to me like they may only have four fingers per hand:

http://www.designbur...16.jpg&d=d.html

So they probably wouldn't be capable of quite the same level of manual dexterity and precision as humans. They're fine if you want fighters, but if you want slaves that can operate Ancient technology and build working starships and weapons, you're probably better off with human fingers.

Also IIRC the Unas POV shot was somewhat greenish -- perhaps the Unas don't have as broad a range of color vision as humans.

[Delvo]

Well, frankly, I find the Unas's strength as shown unbelievable, but still, humans COULD be stronger than we are if we had more muscle per total body weight (like most mammals, including chimapnzees do). Anyway, the superiority of human slaves over Unas ones has not been explained on the show.

So we could make up explanations until the cows come home. Maybe we're more cold tolerant, more heat tolerant, more dryness tolerant, or more weather-fluctuation tolerant (Unas have so far only beeb shown in forests, and the Goa'uld often use humans in deserts). Maybe we don't require as much food (we're slightly smaller, and muscles are expensive things to feed) so it's easier for us to support surplus labor on non-food-gathering tasks. Maybe we require more food (brain's also expensive; how big is an Unas's?), which was useful for keeping us down because we couldn't afford TOO MUCH surplus labor which might be redirected for uses the Goa'uld don't want us doing. Maybe we're easier for the parasites to get into and/or control. Maybe we're more resistant or completely immune to diseases, or it's impossible for the parasites to catch diseases through us. Maybe their quick-healing trick and life-extending technology only works with us (as Ra said in the movie "That's why I chose your species; your bodies... so easy to repair"... although in that movie Ra wasn't a Goa'uld as we now know them, but a critter more like us who was dying when he found us and learned he could "move" into us). Maybe human psychology made us more likely to be in awe of such powerful beings instead of merely fearing them, making whole societies of us easier to control, even the non-possessed, even without them always being around to apply force. Maybe the Unas's strength is short-burst only, like with lizards on Earth that can occasionally move with energy like a mammal's for a few minutes (one can bound from left rear foot to right rear foot and back, with the body floating up due to the force from this kicking, so they "run" like they're bipedal), and they can't handle the long hours of less intense but more consistent work that we can. Maybe the Unas are only so successful on planets with certain gravitational or atmospheric requirements and we're more flexible. Maybe the Unas will only eat certain foods that can't be grown in many places...

[Christopher]

Delvo, on Jul 26 2003, 04:52 PM, said:

Maybe their quick-healing trick and life-extending technology only works with us (as Ra said in the movie "That's why I chose your species; your bodies... so easy to repair"... although in that movie Ra wasn't a Goa'uld as we now know them, but a critter more like us who was dying when he found us and learned he could "move" into us).

In the context of discussing the series, we have to assume that what we were shown in the movie was figurative or just plain inapplicable. As far as SG-1 is concerned, Ra was a snake in the head just like all the others. And I'm fine with that. I can more easily accept a snakelike being wrapping itself around the brainstem than I can accept a full-sized humanoid somehow physically entering a human body and taking it over. At best, the humanoid Ra we saw in the movie may have been the symbiote's previous host.

Quote

Maybe human psychology made us more likely to be in awe of such powerful beings instead of merely fearing them, making whole societies of us easier to control, even the non-possessed, even without them always being around to apply force.

Now, that's a good thought. What is the one thing about human culture that the Goa'uld have most vigorously embraced? Our mythologies. They've assumed the roles and names of gods from our pantheons, donned their trappings, pretty much gotten wholeheartedly into the role-playing. And it has proven to be a very powerful means of control.

The Unas may well have a more basic animist belief system, and may not envision their divinities in personified form. To animists, divinity is the moon, the earth, the sky, the water, the prey. It's not a bunch of people that supervise these things, it is these things. It isn't that easy for a Goa'uld symbiote to possess a stream or a cloud and issue orders from it.