sweet-tempered, patient, good-humored, kindly humans. Which is, I don't know, our natural state?
See, some people argue that the retrovirus creates a new person with an entirely new personality, whereas I think it creates a Wraith in a human body and no memories, but the *same* core personality as before. Judging by Elia, we know that Wraith are *capable* of feeling love, loyalty, empathy, guilt about doing bad things-- if Wraith didn't actually feel humanlike emotions, if they were born sociopaths or were just killing machines like sharks, Elia wouldn't have turned out like she did no matter who raised her. So I don't think we can say that human!Michael's personality wasn't *his personality* even before the retrovirus. Like, I doubt we humans come off as good-humored and kindly to... I don't know, mink. Or mice. So maybe Wraith *are* naturally sweet and nice. To other Wraith.
(Not that this means we shouldn't kill them if they're trying to kill us. I'm just sayin'.)
But from the relentlessly human-centric pov of the Stargate universe, it is a cure, because human is the very best thing to be.
Oh, yeah, I get why Carson calls it that, I just can't believe *Michael* hasn't ever brought it up as a sticking point. "Oh, I can be human and 'live a full life?' That sounds great, Teyla, but I'd rather live out my *natural* full life. Y'know, the one where I don't actually ever get old and die."
Look at it this way: if you had to choose between living your regular allotted human lifespan and gaining immortality at the cost of becoming a strange hybrid hive creature who eats humans alive, you'd probably decide immortality wasn't worth the cost, right? (Please say yes. *g*)
Well, yes, of course. But, that would be me choosing to change from what I naturally am into something unnatural, whereas for Michael it's the opposite: he just wants to stay the way he naturally is. Like, you could come up and tell me, "we both agree, animal cruelty is a big problem, so I've figured out how to give you the ability to photosynthesize," and I'd be like, "Great!" and then you're like, "Also, it will cut 60 years off your life, and give you permanent amnesia for the three years you have left, and *also* cause total deafness," or something else that's the equivalent of losing your natural Wraith telepathy.
And I'd be like... well, actually? Never mind. Turns out I don't care about animals *quite that much*. I mean, I doubt even a hardcore PETA-card-carrying animal rights activist would take that deal. Nobody would!
And then the other thing is, of course I wouldn't choose to be a vampire who has to kill humans in order to extend my own life, but to the Wraith, humans aren't "human," they're not sentients, just like dolphins or apes aren't given the same rights as people even though they're smart and can talk and feel emotions, etc. So if you told me I could gain immortality by becoming a cow vampire who has to regularly murder cows to drain their life force... well, I kind of already do that, in the sense that I like cheeseburgers, so sign me up!
... Okay, maybe not if I had to kill the cows myself and it was obviously a very prolonged and painful way for them to die... but then again, I don't make sure every burger I eat comes from a free range organic farm, either. So I'm aware that from, say, the hardcore vegan's point of view I'm not much different from a Cow Vampire who kills her victims personally. (And at least the Cow Vampire can't pretend that her cheeseburger just magically appeared without anything having to die for it.)
(Sometimes I have a feeling that if I keep talking about this so much, I might talk myself into vegetarianism by the time SGA is over. Which would be sad, because mmmm, bacon. *sighs*)
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Date: 2006-07-25 04:32 pm (UTC)From:See, some people argue that the retrovirus creates a new person with an entirely new personality, whereas I think it creates a Wraith in a human body and no memories, but the *same* core personality as before. Judging by Elia, we know that Wraith are *capable* of feeling love, loyalty, empathy, guilt about doing bad things-- if Wraith didn't actually feel humanlike emotions, if they were born sociopaths or were just killing machines like sharks, Elia wouldn't have turned out like she did no matter who raised her. So I don't think we can say that human!Michael's personality wasn't *his personality* even before the retrovirus. Like, I doubt we humans come off as good-humored and kindly to... I don't know, mink. Or mice. So maybe Wraith *are* naturally sweet and nice. To other Wraith.
(Not that this means we shouldn't kill them if they're trying to kill us. I'm just sayin'.)
But from the relentlessly human-centric pov of the Stargate universe, it is a cure, because human is the very best thing to be.
Oh, yeah, I get why Carson calls it that, I just can't believe *Michael* hasn't ever brought it up as a sticking point. "Oh, I can be human and 'live a full life?' That sounds great, Teyla, but I'd rather live out my *natural* full life. Y'know, the one where I don't actually ever get old and die."
Look at it this way: if you had to choose between living your regular allotted human lifespan and gaining immortality at the cost of becoming a strange hybrid hive creature who eats humans alive, you'd probably decide immortality wasn't worth the cost, right? (Please say yes. *g*)
Well, yes, of course. But, that would be me choosing to change from what I naturally am into something unnatural, whereas for Michael it's the opposite: he just wants to stay the way he naturally is. Like, you could come up and tell me, "we both agree, animal cruelty is a big problem, so I've figured out how to give you the ability to photosynthesize," and I'd be like, "Great!" and then you're like, "Also, it will cut 60 years off your life, and give you permanent amnesia for the three years you have left, and *also* cause total deafness," or something else that's the equivalent of losing your natural Wraith telepathy.
And I'd be like... well, actually? Never mind. Turns out I don't care about animals *quite that much*. I mean, I doubt even a hardcore PETA-card-carrying animal rights activist would take that deal. Nobody would!
And then the other thing is, of course I wouldn't choose to be a vampire who has to kill humans in order to extend my own life, but to the Wraith, humans aren't "human," they're not sentients, just like dolphins or apes aren't given the same rights as people even though they're smart and can talk and feel emotions, etc. So if you told me I could gain immortality by becoming a cow vampire who has to regularly murder cows to drain their life force... well, I kind of already do that, in the sense that I like cheeseburgers, so sign me up!
... Okay, maybe not if I had to kill the cows myself and it was obviously a very prolonged and painful way for them to die... but then again, I don't make sure every burger I eat comes from a free range organic farm, either. So I'm aware that from, say, the hardcore vegan's point of view I'm not much different from a Cow Vampire who kills her victims personally. (And at least the Cow Vampire can't pretend that her cheeseburger just magically appeared without anything having to die for it.)
(Sometimes I have a feeling that if I keep talking about this so much, I might talk myself into vegetarianism by the time SGA is over. Which would be sad, because mmmm, bacon. *sighs*)