Goa'uld sociology - anyone else find it problematic?

ixoy

Goa'uld society exists in a hierarchial structure, quite feudal in nature, adopting the typical pyramid structure of such socities, right? So at the top, in ruling position, you'll have a System Lord. Beneath them is the First Prime and so on. Yet very very few of these appear to be actual Goa'uld in host bodies. This, in some ways, makes sense because a Goa'uld in a non-symbiotic relationship, poses - by its very nature - a threat to other Goa'uld. Instead most Goa'uld appear to exist in either birthing tanks or fuelling the legions of Jaffa.

Now we know that, after the prim'tah ceremony, Goa'uld stay in the host body for approximately six to seven years before they reach full maturity and get implanted into a host body. Given that Teal'c is - if I recall - in and around his eighties, it would stand to reason that he's had numerous symbiotes within him. So we'll say that, on average, each Jaffa soldier matures, within themselves, 1.5 symbiotes. This would require 1.5 x Jaffa numbers Goa'uld hosted bodies. Therefore there should be far more Goa'ul elite than foot soldiers but this - plainly - is not the case. It also would make a top-heavy societal structure which is plainly against a feudal caste system. It's also no using saying that many Jaffa die in battle because it would basically mean all Jaffa, almost, have to die before their symbiote reaches maturity. Surely the Goa'uld, prizing their race, wouldn't put themselves in such a hazardous situation.

So: Where do all the Goa'uld symbiotes go? Why aren't we seeing more hosted Goa'uld bodies?

The_Goose

I belive in one episode at a meeting of the system lords to discuss the new threat = Anubis they ate a couple of symbiotes! Carter i think said it might be due to keeping the population down!All the system lords want power, so it would be stupid to keep your soon to rivals alive in a host! They re just killin them off to stay in control!

Pepe LeFrits

Frankly I doubt their method for keeping the population down is eating them all :P, that was more of a symbolic/ritualistic thing.

Presumeably in most cases, they just kill the symbiotes once they mature.

mr_angry

I think its a combination of the two. The "Summit" episode clearly displayed that the Goa'uld were cannabalistic. Various other episodes talked about how Heru'uer was the Son of Apophis, and also his greatest rival. Since they don't seem to get along that well, I presume they try to annihilate each other at regular intervals - even the lesser ones.

User45701

i thought that herour was only the son of apophis in matholigy?
is he actually apophis son?

Ye well also remember that most jafa dont reach telcs age.
The gould definatley keep the population down by eating symboits.

Ive always had this very very funny image in my heard of 100 symbiots in a vat and there being boiled allive and all you can hear are loads of those symboit screams in total aggony LOL. (ye i know im insane)

ixoy

Originally posted by User45701
Ive always had this very very funny image in my heard of 100 symbiots in a vat and there being boiled allive and all you can hear are loads of those symboit screams in total aggony LOL. (ye i know im insane)

*Backs away slowly* I'm getting worried about you....

Fair enough, I had forgotten Symbiote Surprise was a course for some System Lords. I wonder what they'd go well with? Symbiote Soufflé? Goa'uld Goulash?

User45701

One of my faverate chars ever in SG1 is in that episode.
I think he is the first prime of bal but im not sure.

He is the other slvae that jackson talks to and jackson says he fears that the gould may implant them with sysbiots and the guy just says "i only wish we where that fortunate" and jackson dosent have a clue wats going on.
Then the other guy goes on about how brillent the gould are and how he wants to be taken as a host.

EDIT: BTW congrats on getting mod ship Ixoy