Across the vast Stargate franchise there have been no shortage of antagonists that
the intrepid explorers from Stargate Command have faced.
Within the long running series Stargate SG1 one of the most memorable and perhaps most significant
villains encountered is the Goa’uld System Lord Apophis. In this video I’d like to talk about the
history of this powerful figure and how he proved to be fundamental in uniting the iconic SG-1 team.
Apophis is a member of the race known as the Goa’uld,
sentient snake-like parasitic life forms who have accrued massive power and influence throughout the
milky way galaxy as they forcefully acquire the bodies of other species to use as their hosts.
The Goa’uld seek to enslave other races
using stolen technology from advanced cultures to achieve their goals of galactic domination.
A turning point in their development occurred when the Goa’uld supreme system lord Ra discovered
Earth and its human populace known as the tauri. He found them to be more suitable hosts for the
Goa'uld to inhabit and established an arrangement for the other system lords to claim some of
their own human followers and transport them to their own section of space using the Stargate.
The brother of Ra, Apophis, is known as the god of night and is represented by the symbol of a
great serpent. Apophis benefited from Ra’s arrangement, eventually taking his first and
remarkably his only human host, prior to the implantation the host was an egyptian scribe.
Ra continued to face threats to his position of leadership from the other System Lords.
Sokar in an attempt to usurp him claimed Earth for himself while Ra was occupied fighting
Anubis. Apophis, along with Cronus, came to the assistance of Ra and he was able to reclaim the
planet from Sokar’s clutches. Alliances within the Goa’uld empire are often fragile and transient
as the System Lords remain locked in a constant struggle among themselves for power.
Apophis would later go on to battle with both Ra and Cronus. However he would continue to hold
a particular animosity towards Sokar that would only intensify throughout his life.
While Apophis commanded a relatively minor fleet his power and influence continued to
grow especially after the defeat of Ra at the hands of the tauri. The humans of Earth had
long ago rebelled against the false gods that had enslaved them and buried their Stargate. Upon its
modern day discovery a team led by Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson traveled to the
planet Abydos where they liberated its people by triggering a massive explosion aboard Ra’s ship
as it was in orbit above the planet. As a result of the massive power vacuum left
behind in the wake of Ra’s death several System Lords including Apophis took advantage of this
to increase their territory and resources. After the first mission to Abydos that led
to the defeat of Ra the Stargate program was mothballed. At the time their knowledge of
the Stargate and its workings as well as other potential threats were very limited.
About a year later, Apophis put himself in direct conflict with the tauri and became their archenemy
as he searched the galaxy to find ideal hosts for his mate Queen Amaunet and their symbiote children
including their son Klorel. Apophis used the Stargate to search many worlds abducting humans he
thought might be suitable for his family including a female airman from Earth’s Stargate Command
and Daniel Jackson’s wife Sha’re and brother in law Skaara from Abydos. Those who were abducted
were taken to his palace on the planet Chulak where the implantation process would take place.
Potential hosts were killed if rejected by the symbiote as was the case with the airmen taken
from Earth but Sha’re and Skaara were both chosen as the hosts for Amaunet and Klorel respectively.
Daniel Jackson joined the tauri teams sent to Chulak but they were unable to rescue
Share and Skaara. Though they did save many others with the help of Teal’c the first prime,
the highest ranking warrior of Apophis who over time came to see the Goa’uld were not
the gods they claimed to be. Teal’c joined the tauri team as he recognized they actually
stood a chance in defeating the Goa’uld. This fact was not lost on Apophis either,
who then regarded the humans from Earth as a significant threat, warranting elimination.
After the events of Chulak Stargate Command installed a barrier called an iris that would
form over the event horizon of the Gate preventing any hostile forces or objects
from materializing on Earth again. However, this barrier did not diminish the system
lord’s desire to punish the traitor Teal’c and the tauri for daring to challenge him.
He and his son Klorel launched a campaign to conquer Earth by traveling in starships.
The attempt failed as SG1 was able to thwart the attack. Apophis suffered devastating losses to his
fleet as a result and his standing among the system lords was greatly diminished.
While System Lords in general prefer to remain hands off when it comes to military engagements,
Apophis had the inclination to enter the battlefield personally, when in pursuit of new
hosts for his family and when searching for new technologies to strengthen his dwindling forces.
A growing concern for him was the ability to secure a potential new host for himself.
He undertook the incredibly risky endeavor to naturally produce a host by impregnating Share
the host for Amaunet. The child of 2 Goa'uld hosts is known as a harcesis and is strictly forbidden
among the Goa’uld hierarchy as such a being would present a grave threat to their dominion.
Because of the Goa'uld ability to pass on their ancestral memories any human child born from such
a union would result in the child possessing all the knowledge and secrets of the Goa’uld.
Apophis was willing to take this risk to secure a future host.
His rival Heru’er learned of the Harcesis and attempted to steal the child however his
plans were thwarted when both parties were led to believe the other had the child thus
their deadly rivalry continued along with a renewed conflict between Apophis and Sokar.
It wasn’t long before the forces of Apophis were all but decimated. On the run from Sokar, out of
desperation, he orchestrated a plan to be taken to Earth as a prisoner. Having suffered severe
injuries he hoped that even if he died Sokar might eliminate the people of Earth along with him.
In an attempt to capture Apophis Sokar attacked Stargate Command by dialing Earth and using a
particle accelerator through the open wormhole that over time would destroy the protective Iris.
To stop the attack, after Apophis died from his injuries the people of the tauri
turned his body over to Sokar. However with sarcophagus technology Sokar could revive
the fallen system lord in order to fulfill his sadistic desire to make Apophis suffer.
Sokar, known as the god of Death, took on the personification of the devil himself.
After reviving Apophis, he sent him to Netu, a moon that Sokar terraformed into a volcanic,
hellish world. Designed to make its inhabitants suffer, Apophis' endured torture that left his
face disfigured. While on Netu he assumed the name Na’onak and rose to the rank of first prime
to the Lord of Netu Bynar. When SG1 arrived on Netu as part of a rescue mission Apophis saw
his chance to escape and exact his vengeance on both SG1 and Sokar. After killing Bynar
and inciting a rebellion among the masses of Netu he tortured the members of SG1 in order to learn
valuable information that might persuade Sokar to spare his life however his primary goal was simply
to be granted an audience with Sokar so that he’d be close enough to assassinate him and claim his
fleet and resources for himself. While things did not go exactly according to his plan the result
still worked in his favor. Through the actions of SG1 and the Tok'ra a Goa’uld resistance group
Netu’s core began to destabilize while Apophis was aboard Sokar’s mothership. He managed to escape
from Sokar by transporting to his home planet of Delmak while Sokar and his mothership was caught
in the wake of Netu’s explosion. Apophis claimed to have killed Sokar himself and subsequently
assumed command of all of Sokar’s forces, becoming more powerful and ruthless than ever.
With his renewed position of power Apophis was able to attempt to broker an alliance
with Heru’er. The Tok’ra and SG1 endeavored to disrupt this alliance by instigating a
war between them. While his intentions may have been honest, Apophis was prepared to
turn against Heru’er by bringing a fleet of cloaked motherships to their meeting place.
As soon as Apophis suspected Heru'ur’s betrayal he destroyed his ship and once again absorbed
the fleet and resources of another bitter rival becoming the most powerful System Lord of the
Goa’uld Empire. Emboldened by conquering the forces of his rivals Apophis continued his
plan to eliminate his enemies and launched a campaign to attack the Tok'ra base on Vorash.
With the knowledge of Apophis’s plan, a trap was devised to wipe out the system lord’s fleet by
causing Vorash’s sun to go supernova. For the most part, the plan worked. However Apophis
survived by following the course of SG1’s ship into hyperspace just before the sun exploded.
This blast wave carried both ships to another galaxy altogether, to a section of space
controlled by the Replicators, 4 million light years from their previous location.
THe replicators are highly advanced self replicating machines,
an enemy regarded by many to be more formidable than the Goa’uld. The Replicators are driven
only by the desire to consume advanced technology incorporating it into their design
as they replicate. As the technologically superior ship the replicators attacked Apophis first,
nevertheless he managed to escape with a few Jaffa to SG1’s smaller mothership. As they
infested the ship they discovered its origins and set a course back to the Milky Way galaxy
to Apophis' new base on Delmak to plunder it for its resources. The replicators significantly
upgraded the ship's engines, accelerating it up to 800 times its normal hyperspeed.
In order to prevent the replicators from gaining a foothold in their galaxy SG1 disabled the vessels’
sublight engines which would cause an uncontrolled reentry crashing into the surface of Delmak.
As the ship exited hyperspace it immediately descended towards the planet.
SG1 managed to escape in a smaller transport vessel while Apophis,
surrounded by Replicators, became filled with rage at the realization of his inevitable demise.
After all this time, after numerous brushes with death, Apophis finally met his end as his
ship crashed into the planet’s surface, his host finally free from his seemingly endless nightmare.
Apophis proved to be a formidable foe and arguably
SG1’s greatest nemesis. He proved himself to be supremely ambitious, cunning and resourceful,
reinforced by the fact that he managed to retain only one human host throughout his long life.
His downfall was the result of allowing his pride and arrogance to be tainted by an
insatiable thirst for retribution. This blinded him and led him to underestimate his enemies in
Stargate Command as well as the even greater threat of the Replicators. His actions taken
on Earth and Abydos served as the catalyst for the reformation of the Stargate program, and the
subsequent bonds and alliances that formed between the Tauri and the many enemies of the Goa’uld.
But I’m curious to know what you think about the Goa’uld System Lord Apophis.
Did you enjoy the role he played in the Stargate franchise? Are there any notable
points in the history of this character that you find particularly interesting?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. I hope you enjoyed this video.
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news and lore. Thank you all so much for your support and as always have a very nerdy day.