Why do the writers hate the ancients?

[magarity]

I've been watching the rest of Atlantis after having only seen the first season originally. I'm halfway through season 3 and it's really struck how the scrpt writers are terribly cruel to the Atlanteans! First the beat up ship that some lived in for centuries not knowing they were in suspended animation. Now a ship full who are perfectly OK come back to Atlantis just to be slaughtered by replicators. It's worse to be an ancient than to be a security guy on Star Trek! WTF?

[teacake]

Their time is past and the universe is giving them a smack down.

[TiberiusMaximus]

It's not a matter of hating the Ancients any more than it's about hating redshirts. They're just the characters who die to prove a point, whether the point is "this is a dangerous situation" or "the galaxy ain't what it used to be."

[Christopher]

Stories are about characters facing challenges and crises. They're about what happens when things go wrong, and characters tend to suffer because it raises the stakes of the story. It's not that the writers hate any of their characters; it's just what drama demands. If everyone were happy and safe and fulfilled, there'd be no story.

In this case, though, the reason the Ancients fare so badly in Atlantis is because they're so powerful. If they were alive and well and active, they could solve the big problems themselves and there'd be nothing for our heroes to do. They have to be taken out of the picture so the Atlantis crew has to carry the responsibility for saving the day.

[Sindatur]

Christopher wrote:

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Stories are about characters facing challenges and crises. They're about what happens when things go wrong, and characters tend to suffer because it raises the stakes of the story. It's not that the writers hate any of their characters; it's just what drama demands. If everyone were happy and safe and fulfilled, there'd be no story.

In this case, though, the reason the Ancients fare so badly in Atlantis is because they're so powerful. If they were alive and well and active, they could solve the big problems themselves and there'd be nothing for our heroes to do. They have to be taken out of the picture so the Atlantis crew has to carry the responsibility for saving the day.

Nevermind...I was gonna say what Christopher said, but, probably not nearly as articulately...So...yea...

^What Christopher Said

[magarity]

Sure they can't stick around for plot reasons but it would be just as frustrating for the heros if the ancients ascended:
Atlanteans: "You Hoo-mons have really screwed this place up!"
*shimmer*
McKay: "But there's so much we could learn from you!"

[gturner]

Well, the whole ascension thing was another dodge. They had to posit that "rules" prevented the ascended Ancients from doing anything. The Asgard were usually sidelined with the replicator threat for similar reasons. The reason of course is that if you allow real help from such a powerful, virtually omnipotent ally, the episode and the series would end right there with "... and they all lived happily ever after."

You want powerful allies, or powerful forces out there in the universe, but you also don't want them to fix everything with a wave of their hand. But searching for such beings, or their weapons, made a great plot device and provided a stream of MacGuffins.

[Kirby]

It's hard to have any sympathy for the Ancients since almost all of them act like arrogant dicks. That's my question to the writers, why did they have them act like that?

[gturner]

That's a good question. In the earlier SG-1 episodes they were set up as saints and angels, kind and smart. They even with the power to heal through touch. Then they became stoics or skeptics by season 8, and by the time SGA came around they were jerks.

[Christopher]

Again, stories are about conflict. What recurring alien race didn't become a source of conflict sooner or later? Even allies like the Tok'ra and Asgard were unreliable at best.

[AJ86]

Kirby wrote:

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It's hard to have any sympathy for the Ancients since almost all of them act like arrogant dicks. That's my question to the writers, why did they have them act like that?

Because they're human. Ancients taking advice from Rodney would be like a modern human taking a advice from a cave man, times 1000+. Of course they believed they knew better, just as we would.

[teacake]

gturner wrote:

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That's a good question. In the earlier SG-1 episodes they were set up as saints and angels, kind and smart. They even with the power to heal through touch. Then they became stoics or skeptics by season 8, and by the time SGA came around they were jerks.

Wasn't it all tied into their arrogance being their downfall?

Otherwise if they remain as saints and angels it's hard to get a believable downfall going.