More "Fire and Stone" Previews

[Ultramorph]

I'm curious how they'll explain the goo working on an android...do we know much about the inner workings of androids in the Aliens universe? Are their organic bits purely for appearance? Does the black goo work on a more "metaphysical" level (i.e. it works on any being with self-awareness)? 

Is Engineer tech going to be at least somewhat rooted in known science or is it going to be completely out there in that it might as well be magic to us?

I think they'll establish that Elden is some kind of older model synthetic with human tissue; something like a Replicant. On the other hand, you may be right about sentience being the key to whether the goo effects an organism. Cavalorn speculated back when Prometheus was out that an individual's mental state and motivations may be key to how the goo effects them, so maybe DH will go in that direction.

As far as Engineer tech and real science, I'd say to expect a small amount of real world science, but for it to mostly be "magic."

[happypred]

This is a long wait...

[Ultramorph]

This is a long wait...

Most definitely. Hopefully DH blows our minds with their answers to the AliensversusPredator.net interview. We also have the second Titan book in late July to tide us over, I suppose. 

[happypred]

Regardless of how they fare against each other, I'm hoping the aliens and predators really dominate the humans, like tear them to shreds. I hope they make the xenomorphs really fast like how they are in the AvP FPS games. The predators should agile, stealthy hunters, not lumbering bruisers who football tackle xenomorphs and swing them by their tails...none of that silly sh*t please 

Xenomorphs should have a raptor-like predatory cunning. Predators should be tactical and skilled

[shadowedge]

I am curious about this guy's laser gun. Maybe it is an Engineer weapon?

[Corporal Hicks]

I'm pretty sure that is the case. Looks very much like it.

[happypred]

I am curious about this guy's laser gun. Maybe it is an Engineer weapon?

I don't see what else it could be. It has Engineer written all over it

[episodenone]

Huh?? 

David had the goo on his finger tip and it remained inert.

The goo should not in any way work with androids.  That's plainly silly.

[SM]

It would seem that the goo needs to be ingested to work.

[RakaiThwei]

It would seem that the goo needs to be ingested to work.

Or inhaled.. as was the case with Fifield.

But even then.. it seems really farfetched or impossible to have it work on Androids, which are inorganic.

[SM]

Inhale/ ingest - same thing really.  The goo has to somehow get inside the organism if Charlie, Fifield and the Engineer at the start are the examples.

[Ultramorph]

It's also good to remember that we really have no idea how the black goo works, or what exactly Francis does to Elden, or even what Elden is (I've speculated Replicant-like), so we'll have to wait and see. Maybe Chris P will enlighten is tomorrow!

[happypred]

But even then.. it seems really farfetched or impossible to have it work on Androids, which are inorganic.

We don't know that Elden is a standard android. He could be something else

[RakaiThwei]

We don't know that Elden is a standard android. He could be something else

Yeah, yeah.. the Replicant idea which Ultramorph has hypothesized. I'm just not sure how to feel about that. Just seems like if that is the case, then they took the Blu-ray tidbit joke a little seriously.

[Ultramorph]

It's also possible that they take the Frankenstein angle to an extreme and have Francis do some really messed up experiments on Elden, grafting tissue onto him, exposing him in different ways to the black goo, etc. My guess is that Francis will be a morally gray-leaning-toward-evil character. We'll probably wind up having some level of sympathy for Elden.

Doesn't shed any light on the synthetic issue, but here's Sebela on the plot from back in March:

"Francis is a scientist, a deep thinker, a keeper of secrets. He's also drawn to the unknown, he's trying to fix something, to find a solution he's been pursuing for years," tells the writer. "Elden is an artificial being, just another cog in the machine, until he gets ripped out of the comfort of being told what to do and has to start figuring things out for himself. They're sort of locked in a battle of their own, the bright hot flame at the center of a war that includes xenomorphs and predators.

http://www.newsarama.com/20676-aliens-vs-predator-back-in-the-hunt-at-dark-horse.html