random Stargate thought
I think I mentioned before that when watching SG-1 I keep thinking how much of an easier time the Ori would have getting more worshippers if they just expanded into the Pegasus Galaxy with an "accept Origin and we'll protect you from the Wraith" deal rather than trying in the Milky Way with their "worship us or we'll smite you!" threat. Sure threats probably work as well, but IMO for enduring popularity protection against an external foe would work much better.
I mean, personally I'm not fond of being smited by Priors so I certainly wouldn't object to the daily Ori worship in any case, but I'd be much happier (and less likely to look for some relatively safe way to maybe support some anti-Ori resistance after all) if it came in the guise of being a trade off for not being eaten. They could even be totally honest about the fact that the worship gives them additional power, or at least wouldn't need to worry much about heretics like SG-1 trying to convince the populace that they trick them, after all they could justify needing the people's support to hold off the Wraith or something. Especially during an active Wraith period the trade off of worshipping a group of some energy beings so that they in turn protected me from being culled isn't that bad all things considered, at least as long as the Ori don't happen to draft you into one of their crusades, and even then it's certainly not worse than some of the desperate things Pegasus civilizations are willing to try.
Anyway, with that thought it occurred to me that if the Ancients had wanted to secure worship in the past (and we know that at least some weren't adverse to being worshipped) creating an external threat like that would have been the natural way to go about it. I'm not sure how many Ancients were already ascended then and how many still experimenting with becoming energy back when the Wraith first emerged, but if ascended beings can somehow use power they get from worship, it's not so far fetched that for example a few already ascended Ancients could have wanted to use that kind of boost to help the others of their kind to also ascend for example, like that Oma(?) guy did with Daniel. So I wondered if the Wraith (which IIRC were the end result of one of the Ancients unfortunate experiments gone wrong, weren't they?) couldn't have been originally designed by some Ancient faction with that in mind, only to then reproduce faster than expected or be better with technology and somehow got out of control and were more trouble than they were worth.
I mean, personally I'm not fond of being smited by Priors so I certainly wouldn't object to the daily Ori worship in any case, but I'd be much happier (and less likely to look for some relatively safe way to maybe support some anti-Ori resistance after all) if it came in the guise of being a trade off for not being eaten. They could even be totally honest about the fact that the worship gives them additional power, or at least wouldn't need to worry much about heretics like SG-1 trying to convince the populace that they trick them, after all they could justify needing the people's support to hold off the Wraith or something. Especially during an active Wraith period the trade off of worshipping a group of some energy beings so that they in turn protected me from being culled isn't that bad all things considered, at least as long as the Ori don't happen to draft you into one of their crusades, and even then it's certainly not worse than some of the desperate things Pegasus civilizations are willing to try.
Anyway, with that thought it occurred to me that if the Ancients had wanted to secure worship in the past (and we know that at least some weren't adverse to being worshipped) creating an external threat like that would have been the natural way to go about it. I'm not sure how many Ancients were already ascended then and how many still experimenting with becoming energy back when the Wraith first emerged, but if ascended beings can somehow use power they get from worship, it's not so far fetched that for example a few already ascended Ancients could have wanted to use that kind of boost to help the others of their kind to also ascend for example, like that Oma(?) guy did with Daniel. So I wondered if the Wraith (which IIRC were the end result of one of the Ancients unfortunate experiments gone wrong, weren't they?) couldn't have been originally designed by some Ancient faction with that in mind, only to then reproduce faster than expected or be better with technology and somehow got out of control and were more trouble than they were worth.