Quote from: LordCassusSnow on Nov 23, 2015, 02:32:47 AM
Sorry to argue bud but theres no mention of the slug-like creature being a worforce for the dog-like aliens in incursion. The android Liliya outwardly states on the second page of chapter 18 (towards the bottom) that the dog-like aliens are in fact some kind of pet to the engineers (or "builders" in this case). Now to me both bird and dog-like aliens are some kind of slave to the engineer as well as the slug( though the slug was most likely a creation). If you own The Art of Prometheus you'll notice the Engineer and bird-like alien mural at the beginning of the book. Next to it you'll notice what seems to be the bird creatures claws holding up an open xeno egg as if preparing to sacrifice itself for impregnation. This could be the same case for the dogs as well. Now whether or not Engineers created these races is beyond me but what could make sense is that the engineers discovered these races, were worshipped as gods by them and were taken by the engineers to be sacrifices to the engineer xeno army. In Fire and Stone a race of technologically advanced insectoids had a giant statue of an engineer. In Predator 2 the xeno skull found in the yautja ship was the same as the human strain soldier xeno found on acheron. So they might have taken a few of us at some point as well. Also, i'm sure they grow their own tech as anne jordan states that walking through the derelict was like walking inside a dead organism. Going back to the slug though, it seems very curious that it and the xeno are able to secrete seemingly endless bio organic matter. The slug secretions actually being more advanced and creating tech for wherever it is. I'm not saying other races wouldn't have been able to grow their own tech too but in this case, with the dogs, it seems their nothing but some kind of pet as is stated. What i got from lebbon stating that the bird and dog are not related is that their not the same species as we are not related to either of them as well. Notable mention, In the time of Weylands TED talk, in the Prometheus extra features, it seems Bladerunner is canon to all this as well as Weyland speaks of Tyrell. And in Bladerunner were able to replicate animals and humans( maybe jones wasn't a real cat?) so it seems if almost every race that is somewhat humanoid in the Alien/Predator universe was created by engineers, maybe were all genetically committed to create bio tech at some point. Thus following in the footsteps of our creators. In actuality, if there are humanoids out there in our reality, it'd blow everyone minds as it should be impossible for that to happen!
I swear it was the "slug" that was the pet? They tried communicating with it when they found it because they assumed it was intelligent, but all it did was go around and build. The very description of it says it "eats, craps and builds". That sounds very much like a pet that builds to me. They continued building because even long after the Dog-Aliens died, the slugs kept building and hence "the planetoid was still growing". The book specifically states this.
So logically, it was a work force while the Dog-Aliens are the intelligent race.
I checked out Chapter 18 and Lilliya is looking at the Dog-Alien skeleton. She does say "yet I knew so little that these things could just be the builders' pets", she may either be thinking the slugs are the Dog-Alien's pets, or the Dog-Aliens are the slug's pets (which is unlikely seeing as how the slugs behave compared to the Dog-Aliens who have or had a thriving civiliation, Out of the Shadows explores them a lot more.)
Because the Engineers aren't mentioned at all. If they were, I would've known as I am really fascinated with them. The Engineers were in River of Pain.
But now that I think about it more, I think you're onto something LordCassusSnow and I like what you wrote. I also loved those sections in Fire and Stone showing other Engineer creations like the four armed Goro aliens and the insect things as well as this highly advanced armoured creature that was shot down by Ahab's plasma caster before he looked at the hologram of an Engineer.
You say that all humanoid races must be their creations, do you think the Yautja are? Maybe the Yautja are this rare humanoid race that evolved as a result of "convergent evolution" and due to a sheer and utter coincidence, happens to look like us. Like someone in Rage War said, "if the universe is truly infinites, then out there somewhere is a square planet".
Same logic applies here, heck, if the universe is truly infinite, somewhere out there could be Yautja.
Speaking of Fire and Stone, the Engineers seem to keep contact with all their races, the three other examples besides humans all have some kind of evidence for the Engineers such as cave paintings, statues and holographic pictures. The Yautja weren't shown to have this, Ahab was amazed every time he stumble upon these relics and got more obsessed with finding and hunting an Engineer like Captain Ahab and the white whale.
And Hicks, thanks for the interview man, I loved reading that.
So it seems the
Spoiler
prologue was a little mistake then? Although I rationalized it as being some top secret cloak and dagger USM operation that was so wrapped up that no one major heard of it. And Lilliya destroyed the only sample and records so Wren couldn't have known (or wasn't informed or maybe was lying to Ripley 8 ). Interestingly a "company" was mentioned but not Weyland-Yutani if I'm not mistaken.
And the other reference in the book during 2692 states that Weyland-Yutani had "live samples" which didn't turn out well. I assumed that was the "reference" to the ending in Sea of Sorrows
So even if it was a mistake it wasn't something major. Remember the description of the Derelict in River of Pain? That was a huge scenery mistake of the pilot room that I had to completely re-imagine how it looked.
Lebbon's little "mistake" is easily explained rather than having to be ignored.