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Durand as Zipacna

Kevin Durand has played the Goa'uld lord Zipacna in the science fiction/action TV series Stargate SG-1 in the 3rd season episode Pretense and in the 5th season 2-parter Summit/Last Stand. Picture courtesy of Stargate-=La Sexta Raza. Very pretty... ;)

SPOILERS

Courtesy of Orion's Gate Based on Pretense Zipacna was one of Apophis' most loyal underlords, at the time of the episode serving Klorel, Apophis' son. He acts as Klorel's archon, "attorney", when the Tollan arrange a trial to decide whether the goa'uld symbiote Klorel or the host Skaara will get control of the body. In reality he's there to destroy the Tollans' ion cannons.

Zipacna: "Your Eminence, I must request that the human contingent follow the decorum appropriate for such an auspicious body as this one." Or, the boy has manners, too. You don't want the jokes about the body, trust me. ;)

Zipacna: "If a human has the right to take an animal's body and do with it as he pleases because he is a superior being, so does a Goa'uld. And by that argument alone, a Goa'uld has priority, and the host belongs to Klorel."

O'Neill: "Speakin' of rats, what's your point?"
Zipacna: "My point is that the Goa'uld consider ourselves more intelligent than humans. Our technology is more advanced than yours. Our mere knowledge of the universe is more advanced than yours." Or, bow down you puny peasants.

Zipacna: "I demand that the human(s) stay on topic!"
Sheeesh... only trying to help. No gratitude in the universe. ;)

Pretense/Zipacna Links


To a great Pretense plot run-through	Check out Orion's Gate and the encyclopedia for more.

Great screen caps from Pretense ("Simulation" en francais):
Pretense
Appetiser pics of Mr Silly Hat from above site
Lame joke warning! Brilliant pics though, bare arms, neck and what-not... ;)

Vote for your favourite Stargate SG-1 character
There is a helpful transcript of Pretense at StargateFan.com if you want to read what happens in the whole episode. GateWorld's Articles section has an interesting text about Pretense exploring ethical issues. If you want your Zippy in something other than English (Spanish I presume) try Mr Arrogance. Or Hungarian(?) perhaps? I'm actually disappointed I can't make more sense of that, as the language is related to Finnish.
If it's fan fiction you're after, try Where the heart is. It focuses on Skaara after the triad has decided in his favour but has a bit of Zipacna (and Martouf). OK, but not masterly writing. I must protest against such cold and inaccurate portrayal of Mr High and Mighty. ;)
A slightly better(?) fic is at The End of Innocence. I had to laugh at the mention of "really big sandals" though. Did a better job at capturing "Zipper" all in all?
There's also one in German with the _undeniably_ classic line by Zippo: " Bald gehört das Universum mir". You CANNOT go wrong with a bad guy line like that. :P Ein Neuer Herrscher. Actually, my 2 years of German could only determine it's mostly about how Lord Zipacna ended up serving Anubis, featuring both Tanith and Osiris, somehow, and I skipped all the SG-1 sections in any case, plus can't say about any literary merit it has, so only for the linguists out there?
The Return of Klorel is a Highlander/SG-1 crossover story featuring Lord Zipacna. It's continued in Immortal Courage where "Following the death of Klorel at the hands of Duncan MacLeod, Lord Zipacna seizes control of the SGC and demands the head of the 400-year-old warrior." I fear for our Lord's head. ;) I also don't for one second believe he'd care about avenging Klorel more than the usual "subdue all Tau'ri" agenda they have in any case, if he has any personal ambition at all. Both stories have Methos the Tanith-lookalike in it so definitely worth checking for that alone.
A less interesting (from a Zipacna angle) story is Beyond. Addressing O'Neill as "My Lord" under any circumstances or serving Heru-Ur my mikta...

'Your hair smells nice' In Summit and Last Stand Zipacna is serving Anubis as an underlord/general type of figure, leading the attack on the Tok'ra base to get hold of the toxin they've made capable of killing symbiotes. He also looks much more sensible in the 5th season episodes, not wearing the silly headdress, just nice body armour and the cloak/cape (Gotta root for a character wearing a cape. Go Batman. Or something). He also sends Osiris to represent Anubis in a goa'uld summit. Osiris protested against serving Zipacna but hearing he represented Anubis changed her/his mind very quickly.

GateWorld also has articles about Summit and Last Stand.

I've also managed to find these divine (quite literally in the Goa'uld case?) 5th season screen caps. Enjoy! Just beware, there are 10 relatively large pics on the page, may take a while to load with a slow connection?
Photos from Summit and Last Stand

He's pretty good in Pretense but I prefer Summit and Last Stand, most likely because the clothing and hairstyle are far better in those. It's also a more subtle approach to the character in the latter 2 unless you want to attribute it merely to the fact he's among his own instead of being unarmed in some poncy triad. I don't know if it's 2 years of more acting experience showing but it could also be that. There are parts in Pretense I love but also parts where he's not so effective. I don't think a Goa'uld would display such clearly human behaviour when waiting, for example (Inspecting his nails, for goodness sake?) but that's just my point of view. He overdid parts of Zipacna in Pretense as far as I'm concerned, prefer the subtle approach to villains as it makes them a lot more chilly and effective. Unless they're meant to be totally over the top, that is. Unrelatedly, I end up chuckling every time I think of "You once served Isis..." from Summit. Brilliant.

I love the way he looks utterly fed up every time he gets up during the Triad. It's such a bother for him to be there, to have to lift his mikta for the pests around. He puts a nice spin on a couple of the lines, like the emphasis but prefer the other 2 like I said. He also looks a tiny bit too worried at times when Daniel challenges him but again it's just a minor nitpick about interpretation. The physical side is mostly effective, though I've no idea why he'd get up and bring the communication device out into the open before his message, just wasting time and giving the others more time to react. Also, is it imperative to do it straight away? Couldn't wait for 2 minutes for the others to leave the room? No, must destroy planet now (so I can get back on my ship to kill the hairdresser who told me grease was good for me...)! I also protest against Teal'c strangling him that easily, not supposed to have some Vulcan knock-out touch, especially considering Zipacna is a Goa'uld.
Otherwise, good gods the ion cannon looks great in the firing sequence. Although the devil's advocate in me mutters about the heartless Tollans brutally murdering all the innocent slaves and probably-not-so-innocent Jaffa on the motherships without a second thought, getting away with murder. What? Under attack? Minor detail. Forget about it, that was the will of the Lord. ;)

Pink Khaki- THUNK OF THE MONTH (Dec 2002)
Zipacna was once a Thunk of the Month for Pink Khaki, a monthly-ish humorous SG-1 netzine. If you've never heard of Thunks, they're MOTEMs (Mild On The Eyes Males) who make female fans make a thunk noise when they hit the floor. Thud is another version of Thunk. Nooo, Pink Khaki is totally unrelated to me, had nothing to do with the choice as such.

If you want to know the weird connection I got to the Goa'uld from INXS song lyrics or what the Kalabarians say the name Zipacna signifies, head to the humour section.

Mythology

If you want to know who Zipacna was in our reality, try Zipacna. The name originally comes from the Mayans, their mythologies. The Mayans had complex calculations about the world ending in 2012 by our calendar count, by the way, so cheers to that. The links also mentions our Zibadiah. There's also an illustrated Popol Vuh story of Zipacna available.
Demon of the earthquake with a groovy pic
Slightly further afield but highly interesting nevertheless is ASTRONOMICAL CORRELATIONS IN THE POPOL VUH which has links also to other texts related to the Mayan beliefs (Zipacna briefly mentioned).
The Deep Dwellers provides fascinating material about Earth legends that may've inspired writers to come up with the goa'uld, listing reptilian humanoids of many kinds for example. Brief mention of Zipacna. If you check only one link out, I recommend this one.

The Pretense photos courtesy of the Goa'uld files at

and Stargate La Sexta Raza, The Truth Behind Stargate SG-1 plus

The Summit and Last Stand photos are from StargateFan and

And because you can't have one goa'uld running around without any competition for him, I'm including a link to a Peter Wingfield site. His character Tanith, the goa'uld spy within Tok'ra ranks, was actually my all-time favourite in goa'uld characters, but they had to go and kill the bugger off. Typical. *sigh* Mind you, the Goa'uld and Tok'ra seem to have excellent taste in hosts... These 2, Martouf, Malek, Baal, Apophis... ;) Oh, and those Tollan ion cannons? Tanith bagged 'em when he destroyed the planet, also working for Anubis. Ha! ;P

Some Stargate SG-1 Preferences of mine

© 1999, 2000, 2001 The Stargate, SG-I, the Goa’uld and all other characters who have appeared in the series STARGATE SG-1 together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright property of MGM-UA Worldwide Television, Gekko Film Corp, Glassner/Wright Double Secret Productions and Stargate SG-I Prod. Ltd. Partnership.

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