Storing artifacts is a terrible idea and their reasoning doesn't make sense

[u/adamwho]

These artifacts are too dangerous to be lying around, as evidenced by all the bad things that happen in the wharehouse.

The excuse that they are studying them is obvious nonsense.

It isn't like they are that rare.

And the people supposedly guarding seem to be wildly incompetent.

All artifacts should be destroyed, immediately.

[u/Chrischrill]

It's a tv show.

[u/adamwho → u/Chrischrill]

We all know that. But it would be nice if they thought a little more about the basic premise of the show

For example, if they actually had people studying the artifacts

[u/Liz_Keeney → u/adamwho]

It’s implied that Artie spends a lot of time offscreen studying the artifacts and how they work/what they do. That’s how he knows which artifacts to bring on missions, etc. and how they developed the tools they use (the Farnsworth, the Tesla guns, etc.). And yes, many of the artifacts are dangerous when mishandled, but many of them are useful and even lifesaving when handled properly

[u/adamwho → u/Liz_Keeney]

Maybe it is implied but it doesn't look like it.

The research on these absurdly important things would be a national effort with legitimate security and competent workers.

[u/Liz_Keeney → u/adamwho]

Except that they agents are competent— hand-picked by Mrs. Fredrick’s herself because they are the best at what they do. And it’s repeatedly stated that the reason they don’t make the existence of the Warehouse and artifacts known even to the host government is because of the risk that said government would abuse them

[u/adamwho → u/Liz_Keeney]

Except that they agents are competent— hand-picked by Mrs. Fredrick’s herself because they are the best at what they do.

Have you watched the show? Half the episodes are them being stupid with the artifacts.

None of that stuff should be accessible.

There would be 1000s of scientists, engineers and security working tirelessly for even a handful of artifacts.

It would be more like the Stargate universe than 'Spy kids'

---

As it is, it's like a room full of nuclear weapons and idiots just pressing buttons randomly.

[u/Liz_Keeney → u/adamwho]

Have you watched the show? You are greatly exaggerating the number of times they mishandle artifacts. The majority of the times artifacts are mishandled/misused are because they didn’t know the object was an artifact (such as the telegraph), because they were desperate for a solution to a larger problem (Artie using the astrolabe to reverse the destruction of the Warehouse), or because the antagonists were misusing them or manipulating the agents.

As for have thousands of scientists involved in researching the artifacts, that would make it a lot more difficult to keep the Warehouse and its contents secret and put a lot more unnecessary lives at risk.

If you really don’t like the show that much, then don’t watch it and let the rest of us enjoy it in peace

Edited to add: Earlier you said that it doesn’t look like they research the artifacts— but in that case, how do you explain Artie’s near-encyclopedic knowledge of them?

[u/adamwho → u/Liz_Keeney]

I can see it is a mistake to engage a fantasy fandom with a question like this.

Is it really that difficult to just think outside of the source material?

[u/Liz_Keeney → u/adamwho]

Is it really that difficult not to over analyze everything?

[u/adamwho → u/Liz_Keeney]

It is just a question.

You are not in danger, it is ok to question things.

[u/hegelianbitch → u/adamwho]

Why would they write an episode about the 99% of cases that go smoothly? That would be boring.

As another commenter said, you can't have hundreds or thousands of people involved in the warehouse or it wouldn't be able to be kept a secret. One of the things I think is unrealistic in the Syfy world is that the secret of Global Dynamics is kept so well when so many people work there and so many government officials know about it.

Most important to this conversation, however, is the fact that the Warehouse isn't a government organization. Adwin Kosan states that "the warehouse has always had a delicate relationship with the government that hosts it." I don't think there's a single instance of them interacting with a government official who knows anything about the warehouse. At most, there might be a regent who works in the government, but we don't see that in the show.

[u/StarfleetWitch → u/adamwho]

How did you go from "they should be destroyed" to "they should let 1000s of people mess with them"?

[u/adamwho → u/StarfleetWitch]

The only reasonable excuse to keep these dangerous things around is to study them. By competetent people.

Otherwise, they absolutely need to be destroyed.

It is really interesting how invested people are in this mid quality show.

[u/StarfleetWitch → u/adamwho]

You're.... surprised that people in a subreddit dedicated to a show are invested in that show? That's a bit like going into a bookstore and being surprised that most of the people in there like books.

[u/adamwho → u/StarfleetWitch]

No, I understand fandom.

I am talking about the hostility to a simple question. It is like a cult.

[u/SnideRemarkDept]

Pragmatically, logically, yeah, a lot if not most of the artifacts should be destroyed. But there's a lot of sentimentality around the artifacts that I think is understandable. As you said, artifacts aren't that rare. There are literally enough of them to fill a supernaturally large warehouse. But, in addition to being a "artifact" in the show's sense of the word, the vast majority of them, to some degree or another, are actual, historical artifacts that might be more difficult to justify destroying.

Should we destroy a trumpet that can pulverize anything? Yes, almost definitely. Should we destroy object that's literally from a biblical story, thousands of years old, when it can be placed in a storage environment where its harmful effects can be almost completely neutralized? What about a piece of driftwood from one of the most famous maritime disasters in human history? What about the tools used by one of the greatest sculptors in the last two centuries?

From a purely practical viewpoint, yes, most if not all of the artifacts should be fed into a wood chipper. There have probably been dozens of regents over the last two thousand years who have made the exact same arguments that you have made. But, in the end, it's a place run by people and people don't always make sense.

[u/hegelianbitch]

I'm like 90% sure they covered this in the show. I feel like I remember a scene where a character asks why they store the artifacts instead of destroying them if they're so dangerous, and the character is told that the energy release from destroying an artifact is extremely destructive/dangerous. But I could be misremembering that.

But aside from that: why don't we destroy spent nuclear rods instead of just storing them, since they're so dangerous?

[u/Qdoba_Addict]

New artifacts are still being created. Pretty much all of their tech (excluding typical IT equipment) is artifact based. So they keep old things around to help combat future new artifacts and old artifacts that become active. They are not the only collectors of artifacts as shown in later seasons.