Talk:Zat

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Personally, I thought the Zat gun was named after Col. O'neal recovered one on a previous mission. After firing the gun, he commented "What was zat?" - 24.225.51.107

Nah, zat is short for the full Goa'uld name for the gun.

Added in the etymology based in a Semitic tongue just like all the other Stargate words. --eleuthero 07:33, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

This is what happened:
In the Season One finale, "Within the Serpent's Grasp", they opened the Goa'uld equivalent of a cargo crate, containing staff weapons and a kind of weapon they didn't know. O'Neill asks the name, Teal'c responds, "zat'ni'katel". O'Neill then says, "Let's just call them zat guns, shall we?", or something to that effect. LD 17:16, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

O'Neill: "No, Just hard to pronounce."

zat'ni'katel, according to http://www.gateworld.net/omnipedia/index.shtml
zat'nik'tel, according to http://www.rdanderson.com/stargate/lexicon/lexicon.htm
Anybody got a script?
--wwoods 07:28, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Since I doubt there's an official method of Romanizing Goa'uld, perhaps we should just note that the spelling varies. :) Bryan 17:16, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

Shouldn't it also be mentioned that the zat can be used to disintegrate non-living material? PrometheusX303 16:21, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

It should be noted that in "Prodigy", Colonel O'Neill was in fact rendered unconscious by the zat, but was quickly revived with smelling salts within seconds of being shot.


Contents

[edit] article move

to Zat'nik'tel? The standard is to have the actual article at its full and longest and proper name, and have shorter versions like "zat" redirect to the proper one. if i dont get objection to this, i'll be bold and go with the move. -- Alfakim --  talk  23:37, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the convention according to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names) is to use "the most common name of a person or thing that does not conflict with the names of other people or things." I suspect that "zat" is much more commonly used to refer to these devices than "zat'nik'tel". I did a quickie test of that suspicion using Google searches: searcing for zat +stargate gave 41,000 hits, searching for "zat'nik'tel" +stargate gave 603. Searching for just plain "zat'nik'tel" gives 805 hits. That makes me feel reasonably confident my suspicion is correct in this case. Bryan 02:26, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Referance

In the episode "Wormhole X-treme" when Martin Lloyd asked if a third shot from the alien weapon disingrated something and the director said that was the most stupid idea ever. This could be a referance to Zats. Thinktank

[edit] Immunity

"Whether or not an individual may develop a resistance to zat fire, not all species are effected equally. A bounty hunter who appeared human, but was clearly very different biologically, in the episode Deadman Switch, was of a species that was completely immune to the weapon. No explanation for the basis of this resistance was given, though the species also couldn't be taken as Goa'uld hosts."

I removed this section from the article because nothing from within the episode states that Bosch was biologically immune, I got the impression he had simply modified the Zats or was wearing Zat-negating armor (You see him utilizing various modified Goa'uld technology elsewhere in the episode, such as his Naquadah tracking device and his superior shield). I'll put it back if somebody can find some evidence to support biological immunity, but right now it looks a lot like conjecture. 67.85.165.48 18:47, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and I also changed a reference within the article from Prodigy to Exodus because, as was stated earlier on this Talk page, in Prodigy he was revived by artificial means, rather than by the lack of Zat effect.

Its also been seen at times that if you don't get hit with the full force of the beam, it wont have a full effect. In my opinion. What do you think guys? 220.245.194.217 15:10, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

That I haven't seen, it's always seemed to be the same effect regardless of where on your body you were hit. Also, how can you tell exactly where a person got hit? JBK405 15:13, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Not getting hit with the full force fo the beam was mentioned in the audio commentary of Paradise Lost —Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.230.0.45 (talk) 18:30, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lack of Zats on Atlantis

I tend to think the disintegration feature, which would entirely nullify a Wraith's superior healing abilities, is the reason the producers decided to not use them. They might wish that feature had never existed, but it did and fans remember it. If Zats were on Atlantis, they'd get people asking constantly "why don't they just disintegrate them?" 71.203.209.0 05:38, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't think that's an issue, since we've seen things (Kull Warriors come to mind) that are totally immune to zat blasts. Presumably if the first shot doesn't knock you out and the second shot doesn't kill you, the third shot isn't going to disappear you. -66.226.105.98 23:45, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

Except that Kull warriors wear battle armour specfically designed to negate most known energy weapons. We've seen no evidence that the Wraith use anything similar, or that any lifeform is naturally immune to the zat. In any case, the Wraith's superior healing has largely been dealt with by the simple expedient of shooting them with a large number of rounds. 62.172.185.126 11:56, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Etymology

I think it's far more likely the word Zat'nik'tel derives from the Aztec word Xiucoatl, or Xiuhcoatl. This theory has been expounded on a number of SG-related sites.

Xiucoatl either is the name of (or else relates to the making of?) the 'Fire breathing serpent' or 'Serpent which shoots lightning-bolts' belonging to the god Huitzilopochtli. (Whose name means Hummingbird, by the way) Some images of Huitzilopochtli show a weapon in his right hand, bearing a remarkable resemblance to a Zat'nik'tel.

http://archaeology.asu.edu/tm/pages2/mtm34.htm

My Aztek isn't that polished but I think this would be pronounced 'Zik-a-tel' - which might well have been adjusted slightly so as to fit more closely into the Goa'uld vocubulary.

--Anteaus 21:11, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Goa'uld Symbiote?

Like the Goa'uld staff weapon the Zats are designed to represent a Goa'uld symbiote should this be added to the article? __ Awar (talk) 17:51, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spirits

Wasn't that Salesh Spirit affected by a zat blast a little more extremely than other people? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.200.216.152 (talk) 03:43, 31 January 2008 (UTC)