Gods Without A Religion - SG1's Goa'uld

NOTE: I do not use AI to write any of my ideas or source my images. All images were from Google/Bing images. I have tried to avoid the obviously AI ones, but some may have slipped past me. I do not endorse AI image generation. These images used to illustrate my ideas, I do not claim ownership over any of them.

Spoilers for the early-mid series of SG1. I won't go into detail so don't worry about that, but I will mention a number of plot-points in passing.

I have recently been rewatching Stargate SG1 with my partner. I loved the series as a child, catching the occasional episode when I stayed at my dad's, who had Sky. I never had a complete picture of the show because I had only ever seen a smattering, and completely out of order. I am pleasantly surprised that the show stands the test of time! It's remarkably well put together, with exciting ongoing plotlines and (unlike even other scifi shows I love such as Star Trek and Dr Who) a functioning memory of the lore introduced by previous episodes, meaning the world feels cohesive and becomes richer over time.

But one part nags at me. The religion.

I am not highly religious myself, but I find religion fascinating. Sometimes I will pray to Ishtar because of her association with the gala, the first recorded queer/trans priest(esses). I have also recently been watching a lot of Religion for Breakfast. He does a bunch of videos on modern and ancient religions - along with religious theory. I will link some of their videos below and I highly reccomend checking some of them out!

I think I have worked out what is missing. They are Gods but they have no religion. Religion is not just belief. It is practice. It is ritual and structure and hierarchy and a metaphysical understanding of the world. Where is that?

Religion in The Stargate Film & SG1

The show's central premise is that the Goa'uld are aliens pretending to be gods; a pantheon including various different deities from world religions, but centred on the gods of Ancient Egypt.

The original film set this up with the discovery of The Stargate, at a digsite in Egypt. This leads to the discovery of a planet, Abydos, where they still worship Ra and speak a language descended from Ancient Egyptian.

Ra's pyramid shaped space-ship lands on an actual pyramid and we find out that he is an alien possessing the body of a boy. The heroes kill him and liberate the planet. Ra's treatment of the humans is depicted as quite tyrannical, explained in the film by the fact that Earth rebelled against him, so on Abydos he suppressed the people and banned written language to keep them down. There he used them as slaves in a mine.

Ra's power is shown in a number of ways:

His physical stature is weak, but his behaviours are very confident.
He has technology such as the sarcophagus (which can revive the dead/inuured) and hand device (which has nebulous techno powers such as telekenisis and does something to the mind).
His ship seems to cause a sandstorm with arcs of lightning.
His eyes glow.
His entourage consist of a handful of warriors and children

The warriors also have helmets that transform into dog-like creatures - suggesting they are the basis of animal-headed-people myths.
The children actively huddling around him to protect him at one point, suggesting he has some sort of hold over them - or that they worship him so absolutely that even the children are willing to sacrifice themselves.

In response to his presence, the Abydonians are very afraid and worship him, giving offerings. They even worship the symbol of his eye on a pendant.

This communicates that Ra is not just a king but a God.

From here the series (SG1) continues in the same stead.

It reveals the Goa'uld (Ra's race) are eel-like creatures which live inside the body of humans as symbiotes. All Goa'uld seem to possess similar technology and “eye-glow” aesthetics. They command vast empires of planets, armies and fleets of ships. Most humans are slaves, and their warriors are primarily the Jaffa, modified humans who incubate infant Goa'uld in their stomachs.

They rule with fear, as cruel tyrants who butcher without hesitation and often for fun. Numerous times we see believers proclaim “He's a god!” and seem to believe it.

But I feel they never quite achieve the sheer presence that Ra did. A few begin to approach it, namely Anubis (who is half ascended and has more powers and technology than other Goa'uld). But still something is missing.

I will focus on 5 points, and a finish with how I see this being fixed now:

1. Ritual & Celebration
2. Wroth & Blessings
3. Temple & Crown - Church & State
4. Reality & Illusion
5. Personal Actions & Commands
How to Fix it Now

Ritual & Celebration

We vary rarely see anything that can be considered rituals in SG1.

We see one at the funeral of Sha're, where her heart/soul (represented by thin air) is weighed against a feather (and of course because its thin air, the feather is heavier), which mimics afterlife beliefs of Ancient Egypt. We see Daniel perform a ritual over the dying body of Apophis' host.

But beyond that... what is there?

Teal'c has a form of meditation called kelno'reem. It seems to replace sleep for Jaffa and be vital to them. They seem to suffer and perhaps die without it, and it helps them heal. They are also seemingly able to see visions and gain knowledge via it and it allows them to commune with the larval Goa'uld (who, remember, they view as a god) inside them.

But we never see much indication that this is a religious practice. This should be a deeply religious ritual, where you not only meditate but also pray to your god. We should have a conversation where Teal'c discusses his struggles to kelno'reem successfully without it evoking deep-seated feelings of betrayal, as he must either choose to pray without meaning it, or design a whole new way to kelno'reem without prayer.

Similarly what celebrations do we see? Part of almost all religions are religious holidays. Celebrations of when a god did something good, or won, or was born etc etc etc. Surely this would stroke the egos of a Goa'uld. To look down upon a planet and see parades in the streets chanting your name in thanks. Have SG1 arrive during such a celebration! Have their efforts to undermine the Goa'uld hampered by the fact that at the present time, the people are happy and enjoying themselves.

Wroth & Blessings

Why are the Goa'uld always cruel? Gods can be cruel. They can destroy individuals and entire worlds over real or perceived slights.

But just as often as gods are cruel, they are also kind. They offer sanctuary. They gift an individual with something. They bring harvest and good times for all. These are all key to what most deities are and why they are worshiped. You often beg a deity to give you their blessing as well as fearing their wroth.

The Goa'uld have the power to do this, and doing this would in fact keep their subjects in line as it would increase their dependence upon them. They could show up on a starving world and seemingly conjure food out of thin air. Word and legend would spread. Productivity would increase.

And this doesn't have to be just food either. Also gifting a divine weapon, granting mercy, granting sanctuary. Saving the life of a child. All of it done selfishly and melodramatically - all to say "Look at me! Look at how good of a god I am! Remember this good deed for generations in your myths!"

You could in fact show both in one go. A world previously blessed by a Goa'uld is now falling into famine. It has been largely left behind, and the people there wrestle with whether to hope their God will return to bless them once more, or whether rebelling against them will save them.

Temple & Crown – Church & State

While religious traditions vary greatly around the world, and many kings did in fact proclaim themselves to be deities or descended from deities. But many kings in history were said to be appointed by (the) god(s) - not of divine blood but earthy rulers with divine mandate.

But in SG1 we see no earthly kings. The Goa'uld are the kings. They live in castles in the centre of cities and their hierarchy is made up of other Goa'uld nobles serving the system lord.

I use “temple” here metaphorically, but it is also literal. Why do the Goa'uld live in palaces not temples?

They ought to live high up on mountains away from the populace, looming from on-high. When they visit, they should visit a local temple - which is fortified but would have a public worship area for their worshipers to come and pay tribute. Priests should be tending to them and making clear public displays of devotion, as pilgrims clamour just to get a glimpse. All of this would stroke a Goa'uld ego massively!

It would in fact fortify their power if on a planet there were a king. He is ruler of this world, his word is law but as soon as the Goa'uld arrives even the king and nobles (with armies who have access to swords and bows at most) have to head to the temple and prostrate themselves. If the Goa'uld is displeased he can kill them and have them replaced with a flick of the wrist. It would hammer home that these are gods - kings of kings - rules whose might cannot be challenged.

Personal Actions vs Command

In most religions deities do things. They can sometimes command armies, but their actions and their powers are their own. They are inherently powerful as singular beings.

In the mythos of SG1 it is implied that the Goa'uld largely just take responsibility for actions their subjects do. But I think the problem is deeper than that. The Goa'uld act like kings. They pass edicts and command troops. They get others to do things for them.

Some of the few that do things are Nirrti and Hathor, but only really because they are deprived of their power bases. It's implied that under normal circumstances they, like any other Goa'uld, would just be commanding their minions to do their bidding.

It would be great to see more Goa'uld doing things themselves. It could be a rule amongst the Jaffa that no Jaffa may ever strike a god, either their own or any other. That the Goa'uld must duke it out themselves.

It wouldn't be some law of the universe, but instead a ritual. One which would force the Goa'uld into more sticky situations than they would otherwise get and force them to do more things. Any Goa'uld would be able to walk into another's base if they felt bold enough to challenge them because the jaffa wouldn't dare try to stop them. They might keep a small entourage of lesser Goa'uld bodyguards to make sure they don't get murked all the time. It would also make Asherak more of a visceral threat - they are seen as demigods, and the Jaffa fear them more than anything else.

Combined this with some holographic theatre, which I will expand upon soon, and fights between Goa'uld could look quite epic even though very little is actually happening. It would all be distraction and pretence in order to get close enough with a knife. But a God could never be seen to be defeated in such a way, it would look like lightning (or another holographic effect) killed them. Or it could even be a duel for show - they need to look like they have had an epic conflict, so that the egos of both sides are sufficiently satisfied. Or they could choose their champions to fight for them!

Reality & Illusion

I want to talk about the theatre of the Goa'uld. At the start of this essay I laid out how Ra came off as godly in the film. But the series refuses to innovate, despite showing that the Goa'uld definitely have the technology to do so. They continue to use the same tricks Ra did, which is less effective each time we see it, especially as few of the actors can carry it like Ra did.

We see in one episode a holographic projector that projects a giant hologram of Apophis to command warriors in training. We also see the Asgard (not Goa'uld but still masquerading as gods) use this to appear in the visage of a Norse Viking warrior. This technology, more than any other should be being utilised by the Goa'uld.

When they arrive they should have holograms projecting their power. Each could have a different theming which is in line with their brand. If there was a lighting god Goa'uld they would use holograms and perhaps also weather manipulation to literally visibly command thunder and lightning.

This isn't a power scaling issue, this is an optics issue. Yes it would have been a little more expensive on the VFX side, but there are ways of hinting at it without showing it directly. We see one Goa'uld do this when they are firing upon a city and a booming voice appears in the sky. I feel like we needed more stuff like that.

How to Fix it Now

Of course it is no longer the 90s or 2000s. It's far too late to fix most of this. I wouldn't even want to change much even if I could because SG1 is a great series already. So I will consider: reboots, spin-offs and sequels.

If there is a reboot I would want it to do a different focus, and a focus on the worldbuilding like this might be good. But I don't really want a reboot.

If there are spin-offs, perhaps we could see one focusing on the Goa'uld or Jaffa perspective, or perhaps following another SG team from about the time when the Goa'uld empire was still active.

And finally the most likely is a sequel. We are likely getting one, though details are sparse. If the Goa'uld play a role, I would like to see much of the above. If not then I strongly suggest threads are woven in to imply that these were always there in the background. It could be as simple as someone from a former Goa'uld world mentioning that they have festival which used to celebrate their god but now they just do it for fun, and someone could crack a joke about it being Goa'uldmas.

I hope you have enjoyed my ramble,

o pona :)

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