How many distinctive Alien and Predator characters?

[Extroheal]

I'm making a list of sci-fi and fantasy characters from various franchises and what stories they appear in. The Alien and Predator have no names and they don't talk, so they are racial characters, not individual characters.

I consider all Predators to be the essentially same character because they all look pretty much the same, they have no individual names or personalities, they don't talk and they all behave the same way.

When it comes to the Alien, there are several characters: Facehugger, Chestburster, Warrior, Queen and Predalien. The Warrior includes the aliens from A1, A2, A4, AVP and AVP-R because they all have fairly similar appearance and behaviour. The number of fingers, the shape of the legs and the texture of the head are changed for each director's fancy but it's the same creature.

But I'm not sure if I should consider the Runner to be a separate character from the Warrior. It isn't as different as the Queen and Predalien are and Ripley considers it to be just another alien ("you've been in my life so long"). In the Alien Resurrection novelization, it is even referred to as a warrior. However, the Warrior and the Runner appear as different creatures in the AvP video games.

What do you guys think?

(I made a post on this topic in one of my previous threads: http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=25278.msg528251#msg528251)

[Mr. Domino]

I'm confused. Are you just asking whether the warrior and runner should be different entries in your list? Because that's entirely up to you, man.

[Xenomrph]

I'd be more inclined to have distinct Predator characters than Alien characters - the movies make it pretty clear that they're all individuals, with different personalities and armor and whatnot.

There are even individual (and occasionally named) recurring Predator characters in the comics, too.

[Extroheal]

I know Predators have names in a few of the novels. But recurring Predators in the comics? Which ones?

And yes, it's entirely up to me, but I want other people's opinions to help me make a decision.

[Pred Killer]

I'd be more inclined to have distinct Predator characters than Alien characters.

Alien chars aren't a bad idea... like maybe have a leader alien that disregards his underlings and other hive members preferring to put himself before others and prefers to kill his enemies outright rather than leave them suitable for embryo implantation. <- Would be an interesting concept. Or, an alien that is slightly larger than the other hive members and is stronger, because you know each alien is an individual organism and they all have slightly different personalities.

[Xenomrph]

I know Predators have names in a few of the novels. But recurring Predators in the comics? Which ones?

- the elder Predator from the end of 'Predator 2' shows up in the comic story 'Predator: 1718'

- "Top Knot" shows up in 'AvP: Prey' and 'AvP: War', and I think he's in 'AvP: Blood Time'

- "Light Stepper" shows up in 'AvP: Blood Time', 'AvP: Duel', and 'AvP: War'

- 'Broken Tusk" gets namedropped in 'AvP: War' and 'AvP: Hunter's Planet'

- the wounded Predator from the 'Predator: Concrete Jungle' comic/novel that Schaefer impales in the jungle comes back in 'Predator: Dark River'

There might be some others I'm not remembering.

Or, an alien that is slightly larger than the other hive members and is stronger, because you know each alien is an individual organism and they all have slightly different personalities.

That was the intention with the "Grid" Alien from the first AvP movie - he was supposed to be an "Alien" individual character and even get his own fight with Scar at the end of the movie.
Likewise, you could call the Queen in 'Aliens' a character, or the PredAlien in 'AvP: Requiem'.

As for other sources, there's a couple "character" Aliens of sorts. There's one identified as missing an arm due to an experiment in 'Aliens: Stronghold', Blue from 'Aliens: Music of the Spears', the Rogue in 'Aliens: Rogue', Trixie in 'Aliens: Labyrinth', the one-handed Alien in 'Aliens: Mondo Pest', the player-character Aliens in both AvP games on PC, the Crawler in 'Aliens: Stalker', the Night Stalker in 'Aliens: Alien', and probably some others I'm forgetting.

[Extroheal]

Injuries don't define a character. If Grid survived AVP, the wounds would've healed and he would be just another warrior. The Queen and Predalien on the other hand, have very different abilities and behaviours from regular aliens.

[Mr. Domino]

No, he wouldn't have been just another warrior. The injuries were not what defined the character, they were just what was used to visually identify him. He took out two Preds and led the emancipation of the queen.

[Xenomrph]

Yeah, "Grid" was given the grid marks as a visual marker for the audience.

Likewise, the ones identified by missing limbs in the comics were done so as a visual indicator so the readers would know that they are specific Aliens and you should pay attention to them.

[Pred Killer]

Yeah, "Grid" was given the grid marks as a visual marker for the audience.

Likewise, the ones identified by missing limbs in the comics were done so as a visual indicator so the readers would know that they are specific Aliens and you should pay attention to them.

Or there could be one warrior that is visualized as alpha because he has ridges? Like he's the eldest? That could also have been done. Another, like taller, or larger than the others, or have a lighter skin tone.

[Extroheal]

Another way to put my question is: if the Alien was a monster in an RPG game, would the Warrior and Runner have different stats?

[Xenomrph]

I guess that would depend on how the players wanted to handle it. The Runner and Drone definitely have different "stats" in the AvP2 video game - the Runner moves faster, but can take less damage.