Do you see the Predator and Alien Universes as one continuity?

[Ijapa]

 I ask because I do. I think the Alien and Predator franchises have become so interrelated that they are one and the same. When you think of the Alien, you can't help but think of the Predator and vice versa.

In Predator 2, the Predator has an Alien trophy skull.
In Predator: Concrete Jungle, the story features, as far as I'm aware, no Aliens at all ... but Weyland-Yutani is the adversary.
And it's not uncommon for fans to suggest the Aliens owe their genesis to the Predator's themselves.

Do you feel like this is the case? Do the general public and Fox feel this way, you think?

[SM]

Do you feel like this is the case?

No.

Do the general public

They don't care.

Fox feel this way, you think?

Fox have never made a distinction either way.  The general feeling is that Fox think everything they've licensed is all one continuity.  Fans know this doesn't work in practice, so by and large, ignore Fox.

[Ijapa]

I like how you expounded on your opinions ...

Obviously, you'd prefer they not be one continuity. Any particular reason?

[SM]

Because the people responsible for the AvP films don't have a clear understanding of the universe they working in.  They look at the fact that Weylan Yutani sent the Nostromo to get the Alien in the first film, ignore all the sequels, then make the leap that "Well the Company knew ALL about the Alien all along, and this is how they knew - my God we're SOOOOOO clever!!!!"

Since this isn't the case, it makes it easy to excise AvP from the Alien continuity, and therefore there's no link.

[Kimarhi]

The same as SM. 

[The Necronoir]

They look at the fact that Weylan Yutani sent the Nostromo to get the Alien in the first film, ignore all the sequels, then make the leap that "Well the Company knew ALL about the Alien all along, and this is how they knew - my God we're SOOOOOO clever!!!!"

Since when does a short glimpse of grainy footage reveal all there is to know about the alien. Nowhere has it even been explicitly, or even implicitly suggested that W-Y knew it was the alien on LV-426. AVP-R confirmed to them that alien life exists (if they already didn't know from the predator), which resulted in a set of procedures designed to procure specimens if they happened across them in the future. In Alien they just happened to come across the same species again.

[Ijapa]

Because the people responsible for the AvP films don't have a clear understanding of the universe they working in.  They look at the fact that Weylan Yutani sent the Nostromo to get the Alien in the first film, ignore all the sequels, then make the leap that "Well the Company knew ALL about the Alien all along, and this is how they knew - my God we're SOOOOOO clever!!!!"

Since this isn't the case, it makes it easy to excise AvP from the Alien continuity, and therefore there's no link.

Uh, since when was the AvP film the only example of combined mythology? You don't have to include that film to see the two Universes as one continuity.

[SM]

AvP is what links Alien and Predator.  If we're talking solely the films, then yeah you do have to include that film and it's sequel.  What's the point of having a 'combined mythology' if you ditch the main things that actually combine them.

Since when does a short glimpse of grainy footage reveal all there is to know about the alien. Nowhere has it even been explicitly, or even implicitly suggested that W-Y knew it was the alien on LV-426.

Since we know that's what the filmmakers were working towards by including Weyland and Yutani.  It was completely pisspoor because as you said it's just some grainy footage, but it's obvious they were wanting to link AvP with the start of Alien and the Nostromo being sent to LV-426.

AVP-R confirmed to them that alien life exists (if they already didn't know from the predator), which resulted in a set of procedures designed to procure specimens if they happened across them in the future. In Alien they just happened to come across the same species again.

What "procedures"?  SO 937 was hardly procedural.

[Kimarhi]

Things like predator tech being the reason we go to space is even more than equally lame.

[SM]

Add that to the fact that modern weaponry 180 years after AvP:Poo is still projectile based.

But never mind that, we discovered FTL travel, artificial gravity, and hypersleep - all from a gun.

[stephen]

Add that to the fact that modern weaponry 180 years after AvP:Poo is still projectile based.

Phased plasma pulse rifles?

But I do agree with your point.

[SM]

They have laser sidearms in Alien too, but it doesn't seem to be the weapon of choice.  Hicks is still using a shotgun of all things.

[stephen]

Maybe the projectile weapons are just more realiable.

[Ijapa]

 Hell, by the time we get to 2179 we'll probably be advanced to the point we'll be floating around space in psychokinetic bubbles and communicating with telepathy. I expect everything in Aliens will be wrong.

[SM]

Not seeing the relevance.