is a character in the
Science Fiction Television Series ''
Stargate SG-1 ''. He is one of the
Goa'uld , the dominant evil alien race in the galaxy. Like most powerful Goa'uld, he has assumed (and, possibly, was the origin of) a deific persona from early
Earth mythologies, in his case the
Anubis of
Egyptian Mythology .
Anubis, due to his existence as pure spirit and consciousness, is seen only through character, and never truly through appearance. As such, he has been played by several different actors including
David Palffy ,
Dean Aylesworth ,
Rik Kiviaho and
George Dzundza . Palffy previously played
Sokar in ''
Stargate SG-1 '', another extremely powerful
Goa'uld who was considered far worse than the majority of his race.
Goa'uld are small snake-like parasitic beings that can burrow into the brains of most sentient species in the galaxy; their current choice for hosts are humans. As such, all Goa'uld look human on the surface. Anubis is an exception to this due to his semi-ethereal existence.
Commanding vast legions of
Jaffa warriors and space-faring attack vessels (
Ha'tak s), Anubis is regarded as a
System Lord , meaning that he is one of the few most powerful of all
Goa'uld . His main contenders are
Ba'al and other similar false deities. In general, their position as 'Gods' makes the warriors of the System Lords perfectly loyal. All System Lords are enemies, though they only occasionally battle, more often battling with
SG-1 and the
SGC of
Earth , who are assigned, by the
President Of The United States , to tackle enemies such as Anubis who are bent on galactic domination.
Anubis appears as a shadowy hooded figure wearing a large black cloak. Instead of a human face, all that can be seen under the hood is a shifting energy field similar to the event horizon of the
Stargate . This is because Anubis, as spirit, cannot hold a form, and must use a complex forcefield to give him shape within his cloak. Later in the series, Anubis begins to possess other bodies for his shape.
While all
Goa'uld are megalomanic, egotistical and arrogant, Anubis is more clever than most, and has a sound mind for complexity and convoluted schemes. Notably, he is also infamous for being even more
Melodrama tic than the rest of the
Goa'uld , causing
Colonel O'Neill to remark at one point, "Oh, ''come on''. Who talks like that?"
Interestingly, Anubis and the things dealing with him have a marked similarity to
Darth Vader , the
Evil Emperor , and
Star Wars in general. From various indications within the show, this is apparently intended to be humorous. He also bears a striking resemblance to the character
His Divine Shadow from the TV series ''
LEXX '', but this is probably just coincidence.
Anubis replaced
Apophis as the show's main villain after the latter's ultimate demise in the first episode of
Season 5 , and was quite unlike any
Goa'uld previously encountered.
Anubis was exiled 1,000 years ago from the collective
System Lord s for "crimes unspeakable, even to the
Goa'uld ". Long thought dead, Anubis returned in the wake of
Apophis ' defeat and began to dominate the galaxy using advanced technology superior to that of the Goa'uld. He recruited other exiled Goa'uld such as
Osiris ,
Tanith , and
Zipacna to aid him in conquering the galaxy.
It is eventually revealed that Anubis is a half-
Ascended being, meaning that he is partially ethereal, having almost converted his body to energy and risen to a higher plane of existence. This transformation was discovered by the
Ancients , perhaps the most advanced race ever to exist in the galaxy, that have long since all Ascended. Refusing to allow Anubis amongst their ranks, the Ancients somehow managed to "De-Ascend" Anubis and force him back to this plane of existence, stopping short of completely returning him to physical existence. Being partially Ascended allowed Anubis to gain much of the knowledge of the Ancients, which allowed him to use much of their technology, giving him the advantage over the other
Goa'uld that enabled him to become the most dangerous of all
System Lord s.
According to the rules of those Ascended, they are not allowed to "accelerate the natural ascension process of those beneath"; however,
Oma Desala broke the rules and helped many 'lower beings', such as
Daniel Jackson , ascend. Normally, one must be pure of heart to be capable of Ascension (The Ancients believe that if you are good enough to deserve Ascension then you are good enough to reach it on your own merits), but the evil Anubis managed to trick Oma Desala by using previously discovered Ancient research on ascension to "cheat" on Oma's spirituality tests.
Because of his evil nature, the other Ascended cast him down to a lower plane; however, they did not cast him entirely back to mortal existence, or interfere in his later actions, in order to punish
Oma Desala for her actions. Though her only true failure, the fact that Anubis managed to reach a higher plane was the fault of Oma Desala and evidence that the other Ancients were correct in their original decision to forbid artificial Ascension; prompting them to allow him to retain partial Ascension as a reminder of the consequences of her actions. Anubis retained much of his
Ascended nature, including a spirit-like body (later seen manifesting as smoky black mist when he jumps from body to body for possession) that requires a forcefield to maintain a humanoid shape. Only once did
Daniel Jackson see Anubis with his true demonic ghostly face in the episode "
Full Circle ".
attempts to defeat Anubis.]]
Ascended beings have great powers, especially in mortal affairs, but the rule of the Ascended dictates that they may not be used to alter mortal affairs. Attempting to do so results in intervention of the other Ascended beings and, possibly, Descending the perpetrator. Oma Descended
Daniel Jackson when he attempted to use his powers to save
Abydos before Anubis destroyed it with a Gao'uld weapon of massive proportions. Daniel was different from Anubis in that he was ''fully'' Ascended, but
Oma Desala intervened regardless and prevented him from affecting Anubis. Anubis seems to have been aware that Daniel would not be allowed to stop him, and actually goaded Daniel into an attack so that he would be removed by the other Ascended beings. After Daniel is pulled away by Oma, Anubis' First Prime remarks, "You are indeed all-powerful, my Lord." Anubis' response is "What you just saw, was not my doing. However, this ''is''", and proceeded to destroy Abydos despite Daniel's efforts.
During the course of his galactic conquest, Anubis' most significant achievements include the successful destruction of an
Asgard ship, the creation of a new, almost indestructible ground trooper (known as
Kull Warriors to the
Goa'uld and 'Supersoldiers' to the
Tau'ri , or people of
Earth ), the destruction of the
Tollan civilization as well as the near-destruction of the
Tok'ra , and the construction of a
Death Star -like superweapon capable of destroying entire planets such as
Abydos . Thanks to his knowledge of Ancient technology due to his Ascended nature, Anubis was easily in a position to usurp the title that no one had held since Ra's death, Supreme System Lord.
Although the
System Lord s initially entertained the idea of accepting Anubis into their ranks (actually they did formally make him a System Lord, by a vote of six to one - Yu being the sole dissenter and
Osiris acting as Anubis' proxy), they eventually joined forces to oppose him, first under
Yu , and then
Ba'al ; they also entered into a reluctant alliance with Earth and
SG-1 . This uneasy alliance succeeded in destroying Anubis'
Planet-killing mothership, but Anubis himself continued to control significant resources with which to battle his enemies.
Anubis finally launched an all-out attack against Earth using more than thirty
Ha'tak mothership vessels in the two-part
Season 7 Season Finale , "
Lost City ". His initial assault resulted in the destruction of an American aircraft carrier and battle cruiser, but he and his fleet were ultimately incinerated when
Jack O'Neill (possessing the
ATA Gene ) used the planetary
Defense Weapon of the
Antarctic Ancient Outpost to defend
Earth .
Because of his immaterial, half-ascended nature, Anubis survived the destruction of his fleet and attempted to return to power after crash-landing on Earth. Effectively, it was impossible to kill him. He manifested as an almost invisible energy that possessed various members of the
SGC until he managed to escape through the
Stargate in the body of
Russia n military officer Alexi Vaselov, only to find himself stranded and frozen on a remote ice planet after
Samantha Carter changed his destination at the last moment.
]]
]]
. This face is a face of a host which Anubis ascended with after first death]]
Almost a year after being stranded on the ice planet, Anubis somehow escaped (presumably floating ethereally through space for a very long time, or finding another body to possess whilst on the planet, and going back through the Stargate), and he reclaimed his fleet and
Kull Warrior army that the
System Lord Ba'al had subsumed. It is not clear for how long Ba'al enjoyed a galaxy without Anubis, but when Anubis did return, he secretly made himself master over Ba'al (much to Ba'al's distaste), and thus was in effect the most powerful System Lord once again. It was only discovered that Anubis was still alive and powerful in the late
Season 8 episode "
Reckoning (Part 1) ".
During the climactic
Replicator invasion of the
Milky Way galaxy, Anubis learned of an
Ancient Superweapon that could be used to not only defeat the
Replicators but also wipe out all life in the galaxy. Even after the Replicators were ultimately defeated by the combined efforts of
SG-1 ,
Ba'al , the Rebel (Free)
Jaffa , and
Daniel Jackson , Anubis continued to plan to activate the weapon and destroy all galactic life so he could re-build the galaxy to his own design.
However, midway through the battle to take the Superweapon, Anubis disappeared, causing his soldiers to stop fighting. This occurred because, while
Daniel Jackson was deciding whether to Ascend for a second time after his death at the hands of
RepliCarter , he realised that the Ascended spirit of Anubis as well as
Oma Desala were in his presence; Daniel convinced Oma to fight Anubis, which prevented him from continuing his plan in the non-ascended world. Although neither Oma nor Anubis could triumph over the other, as long as Oma continues to battle Anubis on the Ascended plane of existence, all his concentration must be spent on battling her, effectivly preventing his return to the mortal world for the rest of eternity.
See Also: DNA Resequencer#Anubis's use
Anubis, though confident in his plans, made several contingencies to cover his ground. One was via a genetically-engineered human, later named Khalek, created with all his memories. Anubis subjected this clone to DNA treatments which would steadily cause the creation to be closer to
Ascension , afterwards placing him in a stasis chamber. SG-1 found the chamber on planet
P3X-584 , along with the equipment used in Khalek's creation. Awoken, Khalek convinced SG-1 he was an unwilling subject in an experiment and was left in stasis, but eventually
Daniel Jackson saw through the ruse because of notes in the lab written in the Ancient language. Discovered, he worked to an end of returning to the planet and complete the treatments that would allow his full ascension. Although captured, he used his advanced state to attempt escape, but he was fatally shot by Jackson. Anubis had intended to create an army of beings like Khalek, who were to ascend and destroy the Ancients.
