A question from a guy whos never seen anything Stargate (except the 80's movie).The humans are the Tau'ri. (Got this from this thread.)We would never, ever, call ourselves something that stupid, unless we suddenly had the urge to completely change the name of species, as well as going stupider than we are now.So....Are humans actually obeying the whims of alien species by using that name?That just makes me go WTF? if we are.I mean, humans are some of the most arrogant, self-centered bastards ever, and I really doubt we would let aliens name our race. It would be more like "You call us the Tau'ri, well we are Humanity, and you WILL call us as such."Unless I'm completely wrong and there is actually a good reason for the name change, besides it being what everyone else calls us (that's not a good reason at all).If there is a good f**king reason for it, tell me so I can learn.Oh and I'm only here because I like mods. Not because I'm a Stargate know-it-all-slash-addict.
This mod is based on the Stargate Universe as laid out by the writers in over a decade of episodes. Story elements from the 1994 movie were largely rewritten to suit a television series. I think you'll find most fans won't even consider agreeing to your ideas of what is right and wrong in the Stargate Universe without at least watching a few seasons of the series.
I understand that your just looking for good mods but you should understand that the story and fan base is what drives mods based on an already existing and developed universe. The zealots/fans come with the territory and don't take kindly to people challenging their views. You might as well have told the author of a Star Wars mod that the "Rebel Alliance" is a stupid name because it's just the widely accepted name for the group as opposed to the real name "Alliance to Restore the Republic". Anyway allow me to begin my counter-rant, I'll try to be somewhat civil about it.
From your post it seems your suggesting the idea of the space faring humans adopting an alien name for themselves to be a ridiculous idea in general. Firstly let me clarify that Tau'ri is not a name for the human species, it's a name specifically for humans from the "first world" or Earth. The Milky Way galaxy in the Stargate Universe is full of human inhabited worlds, identifying your self as humanity means nothing as humans are everywhere. Worse some aliens may misinterpret your desire to be referred to as humanity to signify that you represent all of the humans in the galaxy as opposed to just one planet.
Referring to ourselves as Earthlings or saying we are from Earth also gets us nowhere. I believe there's a scene at the start of season 1 where Teal'c demands to know where SG-1 are from. Jack says they're from Earth and this means nothing to Teal'c. Daniel draws the point of origin symbol for Earth in the dirt and Teal'c instantly makes the connection that SG-1 are the people that he knows as the Tau'ri. Knowing that SG-1 is from the planet where a legendary uprising against the Goa'uld took place meant a lot more to him than just being just another bunch of humans. In a way Tau'ri is just an ancient word meaning Earthlings, we might as well identify ourselves with a name that the whole galaxy knows as opposed to stressing that we're Earthlings everywhere we go. We've been known as the Tau'ri for millennia yet only had a global identity as "Humanity" or "Earthlings" in the last few hundred years.
It's not like they renamed the species or anything. Tau'ri is just used for the sake of convenience and cultural understanding. I would liken it to how many indigenous people of Earth have their own name to refer to Europeans or how us English speaking folk don't refer to Germans as Deutsche. It's often inconvenient, confusing or even insulting to use your own languages' name to identify a group of people when you are in the company of foreigners. Another example of this in the Stargate Universe is how the people of the Asgard protected Norse worlds refuse to refer to Earth as anything other than "Midgard".
In the Stargate Universe the local politics of humanity really doesn't matter all that much. The plot is driven by what the "Tau'ri" are doing out in the galaxy as opposed to what "Humanity" is doing. For this reason I believe "Tau'ri" has become the accepted word to refer to Earthlings by the writers and the fans.
Finishing my counter-rant I would suggest that given the initial Pegasus Galaxy focus of this mod that Tau'ri might not be the best word to describe the Earthlings. The Earthlings in the Pegasus Galaxy seem to refer to themselves as the "Atlantis Expedition". The Wraith and the indigenous people often refer to them as the "Atlanteans" which can get confusing as Atlantean/Lantean is often also used to refer to the Ancients.
Although not necessarily the correct word I guess Tau'ri would have to be the best word to describe all of the Earthlings in the Stargate Universe and it is instantly recognized and accepted by any fan even if they're only seen a season or two.
