10 Stargate SG-1 Fates Worse Than Death
3. Becoming A Goa'uld Host
Throughout its first eight years, the Goa'uld System Lords and their Jaffa armies prove to be the most consistent threat to Earth and the efforts of SG-1.
Despite appearing to their followers and armies as Gods, wielding stolen technology and passing it off as divine power, the Goa'uld themselves are actually parasitic symbionts; worm like creatures who latch on to the brain stem of physically superior species to control them.
Stargate SG-1 begins with the System Lord Apophis invading Abydos, and turning Daniel Jackson's wife Sha're and friend Skaara into hosts for Goa'uld in his court. Over the first few seasons an overriding subplot involves Daniel and the team attempting to save them, coming painfully close on several occasions
As dialogue with the pair reveals, the life of a Goa'uld host is a miserable one. The unwitting pawns are fully aware of their actions but unable to do anything to stop them, even if such actions include hurting their loved ones. Whilst the symbiont can relinquish its control for brief periods (as seen with the Tok'ra) this is often used by the villainous System Lords as a means of sadistic emotional torture, to dangle hope so close before ripping it away. Worse still, removal of an unwilling symbiont, without extreme caution, is often fatal, leading to a doomed life caged in your own body, with a psychopath at the controls.