*gestures to MaâTok staff weapon*
This is a weapon of terror. Itâs made to intimidate the enemy.
*gestures to P90*
This is a weapon of war. Itâs made to kill your enemy.
Most brilliant moment in all of science fiction. Actual demonstration of an actual weapon mixed with meta commentary on science fiction weapons in general and how villains canât ever seem to shoot straight.
I donât know if I would say âin generalâ, but definitely in the Stargate universe.
It doesnât make that much sense for Star Wars, but then the universe doesnât really explain a lot why, just that things are the way they are.
Star Trek seems to deploy handheld energy weapons because they provide a greater range of responses, from less than lethal to able to take out armored opponents with a single weapon.
If youâve mastered storing energy densely, energy weapons are just way better than ballistic ones. You get way more âammoâ out of the them and more flexibility as you say.
Stargate just had intentionally stupid energy weapon usage. The staffs were just bad overall, including in melee. A gun you aim by swnging it on top of your shoulder, that fires incredibly slowly and inaccurately that barely has as much punch as a 5.56 round? That you also use as an incredibly top heavy and slow bo staff? What are you idiots doing?
Meanwhile they have Zats, which are amazing, and barely use them. Rapid fire wide projective pistol grip guns that you can duel wield that instantly down your enemy in one hit, regardless of where you hit them? You have these shits on hand but all you motherfuckers are running around with cumbersome staffs?
Why Stargate command never made a zat rifle is beyond me. A P90 stock with unlimited ammo that was by default non lethal? Why the fuck are you not doing that?
Or how the Asgardians kind of look down on human tech as primitive and yet have to bring in humans for help because they solve problems.
Like having a weapon to kill Replicators that accelerate a metal chunk with a chemical explosion.
you know i like to compare this to how we view the bow and arrow compared to guns
yeah the bow is primitive but it also doesnât shred your eardrums and arrows can usually be fired again, which makes it actually pretty good for hunting even to this day!
