Most brilliant moment in all of science fiction. Actual demonstration of an actual weapon mixed with meta commentary on science fiction weapons in general and how villains can’t ever seem to shoot straight.
I don’t know if I would say “in general”, but definitely in the Stargate universe.
It doesn’t make that much sense for Star Wars, but then the universe doesn’t really explain a lot why, just that things are the way they are.
Star Trek seems to deploy handheld energy weapons because they provide a greater range of responses, from less than lethal to able to take out armored opponents with a single weapon.
If you’ve mastered storing energy densely, energy weapons are just way better than ballistic ones. You get way more “ammo” out of the them and more flexibility as you say.
Stargate just had intentionally stupid energy weapon usage. The staffs were just bad overall, including in melee. A gun you aim by swnging it on top of your shoulder, that fires incredibly slowly and inaccurately that barely has as much punch as a 5.56 round? That you also use as an incredibly top heavy and slow bo staff? What are you idiots doing?
Meanwhile they have Zats, which are amazing, and barely use them. Rapid fire wide projective pistol grip guns that you can duel wield that instantly down your enemy in one hit, regardless of where you hit them? You have these shits on hand but you all motherfuckers are running around with cumbersome staffs?
Why Stargate command never made a zat rifle is beyond me. A P90 stock with unlimited ammo that was by default non lethal? Why the fuck are you not doing that?
I look at it like the Gou’auld has levels to their militaries, with the bulk of them being geared towards internal security. If these troops flipped, the Gou’auld could later deploy better military to take out the initial troops.
It also helped that any tactics that rebels used successfully against the first set of forces would likely fall apart against the reserve set.
See, I dont buy it. You dont see these troops ever. You do see the Gou’auld with the bog standard Jaffa always at their side, even as their personal entourage. If they had “shock troops” or star wars style “red guards” they would have shown them in the series.
The closest is the super assassins that are occasionally invisible, but they mainly just use a knife, and are never defensive.
I think after thousands of years of just Jaffa vs Jaffa, a race of being with healing powers, their warrior culture got very ritualized and stagnate. The staff weapon is considered thr “honorable” weapon, even though its immensely stupid.
The very minute an outsider comes in with a dumb ballistic gun that shoots 900 rounds/minute, suddenly entire Jaffa squadrons of 100yr+ old warriors are getting mowed down like saturdays grass by a 4 man team consistently of 2 warriors, a warrior scientist and am archiologist that carries a 9mm.
When 9mm linguist man is whooping warriors with a centuries experience emass, yall fucked up.
You dont see these troops ever. You do see the Gou’auld with the bog standard Jaffa always at their side, even as their personal entourage. If they had “shock troops” or star wars style “red guards” they would have shown them in the series.
Serpent guards are the elite of apophis. Other goa’uld have similar elite forces that guard the goa’uld. The First Prime is the foremost jaffa in the goa’uld’s personal guard.
Nevermind the US Military having magazines that fire red-laser stun rounds. We see them abundantly in one episode, and then I assume the writers agreed to pretend we didn’t.
The Federation also has deliberately unwieldy weapons, to discourage solving problems through violence. The redesigned phasers for the 1990s were so awkward that actors in combat-heavy episodes complained. That’s why late-90s Trek introduced rifles.
you know i like to compare this to how we view the bow and arrow compared to guns
yeah the bow is primitive but it also doesn’t shred your eardrums and arrows can usually be fired again, which makes it actually pretty good for hunting even to this day!
*gestures to Ma’Tok staff weapon*
This is a weapon of terror. It’s made to intimidate the enemy.
*gestures to P90*
This is a weapon of war. It’s made to kill your enemy.
Most brilliant moment in all of science fiction. Actual demonstration of an actual weapon mixed with meta commentary on science fiction weapons in general and how villains can’t ever seem to shoot straight.
I don’t know if I would say “in general”, but definitely in the Stargate universe.
It doesn’t make that much sense for Star Wars, but then the universe doesn’t really explain a lot why, just that things are the way they are.
Star Trek seems to deploy handheld energy weapons because they provide a greater range of responses, from less than lethal to able to take out armored opponents with a single weapon.
If you’ve mastered storing energy densely, energy weapons are just way better than ballistic ones. You get way more “ammo” out of the them and more flexibility as you say.
Stargate just had intentionally stupid energy weapon usage. The staffs were just bad overall, including in melee. A gun you aim by swnging it on top of your shoulder, that fires incredibly slowly and inaccurately that barely has as much punch as a 5.56 round? That you also use as an incredibly top heavy and slow bo staff? What are you idiots doing?
Meanwhile they have Zats, which are amazing, and barely use them. Rapid fire wide projective pistol grip guns that you can duel wield that instantly down your enemy in one hit, regardless of where you hit them? You have these shits on hand but you all motherfuckers are running around with cumbersome staffs?
Why Stargate command never made a zat rifle is beyond me. A P90 stock with unlimited ammo that was by default non lethal? Why the fuck are you not doing that?
I look at it like the Gou’auld has levels to their militaries, with the bulk of them being geared towards internal security. If these troops flipped, the Gou’auld could later deploy better military to take out the initial troops.
It also helped that any tactics that rebels used successfully against the first set of forces would likely fall apart against the reserve set.
See, I dont buy it. You dont see these troops ever. You do see the Gou’auld with the bog standard Jaffa always at their side, even as their personal entourage. If they had “shock troops” or star wars style “red guards” they would have shown them in the series.
The closest is the super assassins that are occasionally invisible, but they mainly just use a knife, and are never defensive.
I think after thousands of years of just Jaffa vs Jaffa, a race of being with healing powers, their warrior culture got very ritualized and stagnate. The staff weapon is considered thr “honorable” weapon, even though its immensely stupid.
The very minute an outsider comes in with a dumb ballistic gun that shoots 900 rounds/minute, suddenly entire Jaffa squadrons of 100yr+ old warriors are getting mowed down like saturdays grass by a 4 man team consistently of 2 warriors, a warrior scientist and am archiologist that carries a 9mm.
When 9mm linguist man is whooping warriors with a centuries experience emass, yall fucked up.
Serpent guards are the elite of apophis. Other goa’uld have similar elite forces that guard the goa’uld. The First Prime is the foremost jaffa in the goa’uld’s personal guard.
Nevermind the US Military having magazines that fire red-laser stun rounds. We see them abundantly in one episode, and then I assume the writers agreed to pretend we didn’t.
The Federation also has deliberately unwieldy weapons, to discourage solving problems through violence. The redesigned phasers for the 1990s were so awkward that actors in combat-heavy episodes complained. That’s why late-90s Trek introduced rifles.
Or how the Asgardians kind of look down on human tech as primitive and yet have to bring in humans for help because they solve problems.
Like having a weapon to kill Replicators that accelerate a metal chunk with a chemical explosion.
you know i like to compare this to how we view the bow and arrow compared to guns
yeah the bow is primitive but it also doesn’t shred your eardrums and arrows can usually be fired again, which makes it actually pretty good for hunting even to this day!
And also, a railgun is just a bow with extra spicy string.
well, crossbow i’d say but a crossbow is just an improved bow so it evens out
I love that scene so much