[Spoilers] Shaw's "presence" in the film - yay or nay?

[shawsbaby]

So, now that I have had time to process the grief/irritation many (most? some?) of us felt upon realization that Shaw was shortchanged so profoundly in the overall prequel narrative, I do find myself (especially upon second viewing) appreciating a bit more how her presence was felt throughout the movie:

- her garbled voice on the transmission/appearing in Tennessee's helmet
- Daniels finding her tag on the ship and the photo of her and Charlie, wondering what she was doing out there
- the crew watching Shaw's hologram on the ship (and Rosie lamenting, "Poor thing")
- So much of David's dialogue being about Shaw
- David showing Walter where he "buried" Shaw, placing the flower on the tombstone
- the rather beautiful juxtaposition of David watching the Xeno emerge from Oram with David coming across the bizarre, horrific state of Shaw's corpse
- Daniels finding the sketch of Shaw and confronting David, and the chilling but spare promise that he did to Shaw "what I'm going to do to you"

That's a considerable amount of attention paid to her as a character and didn't feel to me like cheap exposition to explain her away. I would have very much liked to have seen Shaw alive in the film, or to have seen a flashback where David's experimenting on her began to take fruition, but I think using the filmed footage of her with David for the viral prologue was a better idea than starting the movie with that scene or showing it in flashback. Something about the way that footage was put together didn't feel like it belonged in the film proper.

What do others think? Now that we've had time to assess it and some of us have seen the film multiple times, what are our thoughts on Shaw's presence in the film in the context of the finished cut? I think we can all agree she deserved better and she deserved more, but given the film as is, she felt rather important without needing to be seen.

I also wouldn't count out that the next movie (if there is one) could very well bring Noomi Rapace back in to film a flashback to open the movie as they did with Guy Pearce. Having Weyland in that opening really made up his underwhelming appearance in Prometheus.

[LogCabinByTheLake]

Ridley has said in recent interviews that the next prequel will take place between Prometheus & Covenant. That almost guarantees more insight into what truly happened to Shaw.

[Gash]

I think the influence she's had over David is massive. I believe his declared love for her is a very important part of understanding where his experiments began.

So..

Shaw's story here is probably a lot more interesting than any story that could have been put together that had Shaw meeting what she believed to be her creator. As David said to her in Prometheus 'does it matter?' Answer - no. But maybe in the context of loneliness and infertility the thoughts of what went on in those ten years between their leaving LV 223 and the Covenant crew arriving on the dead Paradise make for interesting speculation on David's emotional development. 

[Bishop2]

Is that f**king weird thing that they find on the table Shaw's actual corpse.... or just a sculpture that David made that expresses both his love for her and his interest in screwing up the internal organs of organic matter?

It's hard to say. It seems more likely to be the latter given its weird state.

She is definitely wasted though - and she was a great character compared to Daniels, who is given very little to work with.

[Richman678]

I feel the same way about Shaw as I feel about Newt in Alien 3.

[Bishop2]

I feel the same way about Shaw as I feel about Newt in Alien 3.

Exactly.

The treatment of the Engineers and Shaw is very much like the treatment of Hicks and Newt in A3.

One of many ways this film seems to mirror Alien 3.

[Gash]

I feel the same way about Shaw as I feel about Newt in Alien 3.

Well, I wasn't that happy.

[motherfather]

I'm not sure a human corpse would be so well preserved as that though. The plot thinnens even more when you start thinking of the logistics of it all...

Shaw would have probably been dead by the time the juggernaut crashed. Otherwise she would have inhaled the spores or remnants of the bombing as she made her way down to the citadel, and probably would have chestbursted on her way there.

Or, David carried Shaw unconscious, or dead from the juggernaut all the way to the citadel.

Either way, I can imagine there are some more Shaw scenes as DVD extras, otherwise what was Rapace doing there all that time in Australia?

[CainsSon]

I feel the same way about Shaw as I feel about Newt in Alien 3.

Exactly.

The treatment of the Engineers and Shaw is very much like the treatment of Hicks and Newt in A3.

One of many ways this film seems to mirror Alien 3.

Not too mention that this film is basically PROMETHEUS 3.

The killing off of characters isn't an issue for me though I admit they could have done so, in a better fashion.

[acrediblesource]

Just so you guys remember there were two or three images David drew, and the second one i believe looked more like Giger's facehugger painting depicting the asophogus.

To add to the OP, I believe whatever affection  David shown to Shaw was pretty gruesome and defiling in nature and I don't believe we will see this Prequel made, but maybe in the sequel to Covenant, we will see something similar or explaining what was done to her corpse if it were defiled at all. In my other post called Egg, I mention the effects of the spore being integrated into the human being and thus an egg would form, essentially i believe it might form on the head engulfing it completely. But whatever some kind of merging happens to form an egg.
And maybe the ribcage is transformed into the fingers of a facehugger.
All just theory.

[Jenga]

I'm not sure a human corpse would be so well preserved as that though. The plot thinnens even more when you start thinking of the logistics of it all...

Shaw would have probably been dead by the time the juggernaut crashed. Otherwise she would have inhaled the spores or remnants of the bombing as she made her way down to the citadel, and probably would have chestbursted on her way there.

1 - I would love it if it was a re-creation of Shaw but all of the animal bits on display from all the different creatures (including Shaw) were clearly preserved by David. We are left to fill in the gaps about how he found or created such an effective preservative but that's clearly happened here   I think it's really weird that Ridley chose or approved of the fact that it recreates (roughly) another Giger piece. I didn't notice it in the theater but looking at the corpse on the leaked behind the scenes photo clearly shows that it's an approximation of Giger's "Li 1"

2 - She wouldn't have been infected by the spores because he said he create them so that would have been long after she was probably dead.

[shawsbaby]

Ridley has said in recent interviews that the next prequel will take place between Prometheus & Covenant. That almost guarantees more insight into what truly happened to Shaw.

I thought we confirmed that Ridley had simply misspoken and this won't be the case. The prequel novel should cover what happened between Prometheus and Covenant.

[Bad Replicant]

I feel the same way about Shaw as I feel about Newt in Alien 3.

Well, I wasn't that happy.

[Prof. a]

I feel the same way about Shaw as I feel about Newt in Alien 3.

Exactly.

The treatment of the Engineers and Shaw is very much like the treatment of Hicks and Newt in A3.

One of many ways this film seems to mirror Alien 3.

Yes, valid point. I commented on that in another thread. I do think that any feelings of grief/disappointment about Shaw is intentional and does tie into the overall nihilism of Alien: Covenant. At the end of the day, the series has more in common with something along the lines of "Game of Thrones" than a superhero movie. Point being - people die, many times unceremoniously and without achieving the objective of their life. It's a sort of crude realism or some may say negativity. But, the Alien series has never been shy about that.

I really do believe if the filmmakers wanted to make a movie involving speaking to creators or at the very least have Shaw featured more in Covenant, the studio would've been fine with it. They already distanced themselves from Prometheus with the title and the creatures in the film. I do truly believe Scott was trying to make the same depressing, but crudely realistic point as Alien 3.

[Salt The Fries]

I feel the same way about Shaw as I feel about Newt in Alien 3.

Well, I wasn't that happy.

I didn't feel that way. Maybe because I wasn't really a fan of Noomi Rapace in Prometheus in the first place.