Stargate: Every Villain Ranked Worst To Best

In between the big characterful Goa'uld overlords like Apophis, Anubis, Sokar and Ba'al, there was a general nebulous Goa'uld presence that was just fulfilled by 'The System Lords'. A few of them, like Cronus and Nirtii would crop up more than once, and Lord Yu would even go so far as to be counted as an occasional ally to SG-1. The main gathering of System Lords in season 5's two part The Last Stand showed a colourful collection of characters, of which only Ba'al would go on to establish himself as a principal villain in his own right.

For the most part the System Lords were seen at a distance and as an indistinct threat that would occasionally warrant a mention. Our knowledge of Goa'uld culture never really established what it required to become a System Lord or why every Goa'uld was so desperate to become one (seeing as how they got deposed quite regularly). Perhaps the organisational hierarchy of skull-dwelling snakes is a bit beyond human comprehension.