Exactly the comment I made at the end of watching that episode. With friends like that, who needs enemies? Gerak sending Jaffa troops to earth, attacking a building with civilians, risking exposing the stargate, threatening to attack the Prometheus. Geez. And for a race that likes to accuse the Tok'ra of being like the Goa'uld, who's the one using the torture stick on their prisoners? Fortunately, they aren't all like that, and I really liked hearing what that one Jaffa woman had to say about the Tok'ra. We've gotten several mentions, I wonder if we will actually see the Tok'ra this season.
I had wondered why Baal bothered to clone the host as well as the symbiote. Even for a technologically advanced race like the Goa'uld, cloning a host is a heck of a lot more complicated than taking over whatever human is handy. Baal is a Goa'uld. It's not like he would have any qualms about taking whoever he wanted. I actually think it's just a screenwriter's trick to make things easier to follow visually. It would get confusing if you had four Baal's in four different bodies.
I don't know that the Goa'uld are more tightly joined with their hosts. If anything I tend to think that the Tok'ra are more closely joined than the Goa'uld, because they choose to live symbiotically. I think the Goa'uld for the most part just suppress their hosts. The only reason the Goa'uld would bother paying much attention to the host's mind is if the host had some form of valuable information, as Hathor's Goa'uld no doubt intended to do to O'Neill. Thank goodness for the Tok'ra in that episode. :)
In Summit Jacob mentions that one of the reasons Goa'uld have human slaves is if the host is injured beyond the symbiote's ability to heal, it can be useful to have a human handy. (Daniel just loves receiving that bit of information) Apophis asked the Tau'ri for a new host once, and even created a child to be his next host. The Goa'uld certainly don't have to change hosts often, because they use the sarcophagus, but they seem able to. It probably also helps keep subjects loyal to have a consistent face. If you couldn't save your own host, you wouldn't appear very god-like would you?
We know changing hosts is a risky business. My theory on it is that the separation is risky to one of the two parties involved. Jolinar said that she might die if she left Sam, yet the Tok'ra change hosts every hundred years or so without much of a problem. Normally when the Tok'ra change hosts, the previous host is near death, so there is no point in trying to protect the host. The symbiote is free to protect itself when leaving. However, with Jolinar and Sam, Jolinar would have tried to protect Sam as she left. So Jolinar would be taking the risky part on herself. If a Goa'uld transferred hosts, the symbiote would always try to protect itself regardless of the health of the host.
And another note on blending. You mention the irony of using a Tok'ra term for it when referring to the Goa'uld. In Into the Fire, Dr. Raully tells O'Neill "They cryo process will prevent the melding and the Goa'uld will die. But until then you must fight it." I like the distinction she makes. Although the terminology isn't used consistently throughout the series, and the word blending is often used for both, I tend to think that only the Tok'ra blend. Goa'uld meld. The process is different. I just wish the show had used the differing terminology consistently.
You're probably sorry you asked for comments after all this.
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Date: 2005-08-28 05:47 am (UTC)I had wondered why Baal bothered to clone the host as well as the symbiote. Even for a technologically advanced race like the Goa'uld, cloning a host is a heck of a lot more complicated than taking over whatever human is handy. Baal is a Goa'uld. It's not like he would have any qualms about taking whoever he wanted. I actually think it's just a screenwriter's trick to make things easier to follow visually. It would get confusing if you had four Baal's in four different bodies.
I don't know that the Goa'uld are more tightly joined with their hosts. If anything I tend to think that the Tok'ra are more closely joined than the Goa'uld, because they choose to live symbiotically. I think the Goa'uld for the most part just suppress their hosts. The only reason the Goa'uld would bother paying much attention to the host's mind is if the host had some form of valuable information, as Hathor's Goa'uld no doubt intended to do to O'Neill. Thank goodness for the Tok'ra in that episode. :)
In Summit Jacob mentions that one of the reasons Goa'uld have human slaves is if the host is injured beyond the symbiote's ability to heal, it can be useful to have a human handy. (Daniel just loves receiving that bit of information) Apophis asked the Tau'ri for a new host once, and even created a child to be his next host. The Goa'uld certainly don't have to change hosts often, because they use the sarcophagus, but they seem able to. It probably also helps keep subjects loyal to have a consistent face. If you couldn't save your own host, you wouldn't appear very god-like would you?
We know changing hosts is a risky business. My theory on it is that the separation is risky to one of the two parties involved. Jolinar said that she might die if she left Sam, yet the Tok'ra change hosts every hundred years or so without much of a problem. Normally when the Tok'ra change hosts, the previous host is near death, so there is no point in trying to protect the host. The symbiote is free to protect itself when leaving. However, with Jolinar and Sam, Jolinar would have tried to protect Sam as she left. So Jolinar would be taking the risky part on herself. If a Goa'uld transferred hosts, the symbiote would always try to protect itself regardless of the health of the host.
And another note on blending. You mention the irony of using a Tok'ra term for it when referring to the Goa'uld. In Into the Fire, Dr. Raully tells O'Neill "They cryo process will prevent the melding and the Goa'uld will die. But until then you must fight it." I like the distinction she makes. Although the terminology isn't used consistently throughout the series, and the word blending is often used for both, I tend to think that only the Tok'ra blend. Goa'uld meld. The process is different. I just wish the show had used the differing terminology consistently.
You're probably sorry you asked for comments after all this.