Alien or Predator?

[The Cruentus]

Alien is the perfect mix of biology and technology.  Predator is the perfect mix of technology and tribalism.

Not anymore thanks to

Spoiler

the Rage Trilogy, basically predators are made out to be nothing more than scavengers rather than a unique tribal society that only uses their tech for hunting purposes. Instead of being intelligent yet primitive in their society, the novels heavily suggest they are just scavengers who got what they have by stealing it, not inventing it themselves. One of the reasons I am not too fussed on the rage trilogy is because of this.

[close]

[The Alien Predator]

Alien is the perfect mix of biology and technology.  Predator is the perfect mix of technology and tribalism.

Not anymore thanks to

Spoiler

the Rage Trilogy, basically predators are made out to be nothing more than scavengers rather than a unique tribal society that only uses their tech for hunting purposes. Instead of being intelligent yet primitive in their society, the novels heavily suggest they are just scavengers who got what they have by stealing it, not inventing it themselves. One of the reasons I am not too fussed on the rage trilogy is because of this.

[close]

Actually

Spoiler

it's both.

They invent things but they also scavenge some other useful stuff.

It makes sense, nothing gets stolen/copied more than powerful weapons tech. Humans are also scavengers of technology as well.

Predators build their own ships and each one is unique and custom made by its builder, what's unique is that the pilots design their own ships and their own cloaking fields. If you learn to fly one ship, you will have to completely re-learn another one.

Also, every time humans scavenge Predator tech, the Predators will research and improve their own until very soon they have made something much better than what the humans have scavenged.

Predators will only scavenge what they deem as useful for research to improve their own technology. i don't see the fuss with that, it doesn't make them stupid and they don't exclusively steal. Scavenging and reverse engineering technology also takes a lot more brains and credit than what it's given for.

For instance, if we scavenged a plasma caster now, it'd take us really long to figure out how to use it. First, we'd notice what it's made out of and then the inner designs, then it'd take a lot of research to figure out what makes it function, what's what and how to replicate it. This could take decades.

It's why humans in Rage War don't have the liquid metal Predator ships with fading walls rather than doors, because we have no idea how to replicate this despite having stolen Predator ships. We only know how to replicate their cloaking and plasma weaponry which they keep improving to stay ahead of us within a matter of weeks.

[close]

[The Cruentus]

Alien is the perfect mix of biology and technology.  Predator is the perfect mix of technology and tribalism.

Not anymore thanks to

Spoiler

the Rage Trilogy, basically predators are made out to be nothing more than scavengers rather than a unique tribal society that only uses their tech for hunting purposes. Instead of being intelligent yet primitive in their society, the novels heavily suggest they are just scavengers who got what they have by stealing it, not inventing it themselves. One of the reasons I am not too fussed on the rage trilogy is because of this.

[close]

Actually

Spoiler

it's both.

They invent things but they also scavenge some other useful stuff.

It makes sense, nothing gets stolen/copied more than powerful weapons tech. Humans are also scavengers of technology as well.

Predators build their own ships and each one is unique and custom made by its builder, what's unique is that the pilots design their own ships and their own cloaking fields. If you learn to fly one ship, you will have to completely re-learn another one.

Also, every time humans scavenge Predator tech, the Predators will research and improve their own until very soon they have made something much better than what the humans have scavenged.

Predators will only scavenge what they deem as useful for research to improve their own technology. i don't see the fuss with that, it doesn't make them stupid and they don't exclusively steal. Scavenging and reverse engineering technology also takes a lot more brains and credit than what it's given for.

For instance, if we scavenged a plasma caster now, it'd take us really long to figure out how to use it. First, we'd notice what it's made out of and then the inner designs, then it'd take a lot of research to figure out what makes it function, what's what and how to replicate it. This could take decades.

It's why humans in Rage War don't have the liquid metal Predator ships with fading walls rather than doors, because we have no idea how to replicate this despite having stolen Predator ships. We only know how to replicate their cloaking and plasma weaponry which they keep improving to stay ahead of us within a matter of weeks.

[close]

Fair point

Spoiler

but I personally believe it takes away their independence, because now it seems they are what they are due to another species rather than actually evolving into what they are by their own means. Yes, there is still intelligence in having to reverse engineer but it makes them unoriginal, I would expect scavenging from humans but I had always thought of the Yautja as a proud and uniquely independent species.

[close]

[The Alien Predator]

Alien is the perfect mix of biology and technology.  Predator is the perfect mix of technology and tribalism.

Not anymore thanks to

Spoiler

the Rage Trilogy, basically predators are made out to be nothing more than scavengers rather than a unique tribal society that only uses their tech for hunting purposes. Instead of being intelligent yet primitive in their society, the novels heavily suggest they are just scavengers who got what they have by stealing it, not inventing it themselves. One of the reasons I am not too fussed on the rage trilogy is because of this.

[close]

Actually

Spoiler

it's both.

They invent things but they also scavenge some other useful stuff.

It makes sense, nothing gets stolen/copied more than powerful weapons tech. Humans are also scavengers of technology as well.

Predators build their own ships and each one is unique and custom made by its builder, what's unique is that the pilots design their own ships and their own cloaking fields. If you learn to fly one ship, you will have to completely re-learn another one.

Also, every time humans scavenge Predator tech, the Predators will research and improve their own until very soon they have made something much better than what the humans have scavenged.

Predators will only scavenge what they deem as useful for research to improve their own technology. i don't see the fuss with that, it doesn't make them stupid and they don't exclusively steal. Scavenging and reverse engineering technology also takes a lot more brains and credit than what it's given for.

For instance, if we scavenged a plasma caster now, it'd take us really long to figure out how to use it. First, we'd notice what it's made out of and then the inner designs, then it'd take a lot of research to figure out what makes it function, what's what and how to replicate it. This could take decades.

It's why humans in Rage War don't have the liquid metal Predator ships with fading walls rather than doors, because we have no idea how to replicate this despite having stolen Predator ships. We only know how to replicate their cloaking and plasma weaponry which they keep improving to stay ahead of us within a matter of weeks.

[close]

Fair point

Spoiler

but I personally believe it takes away their independence, because now it seems they are what they are due to another species rather than actually evolving into what they are by their own means. Yes, there is still intelligence in having to reverse engineer but it makes them unoriginal, I would expect scavenging from humans but I had always thought of the Yautja as a proud and uniquely independent species.

[close]

I think that most of

Spoiler

their stuff they came up with on their own since they do just fine with improving their things.

The scavenging may be more about refining something.

Like at the end of the third book, we already know the Yautja have faster ships than humans, but now they take a Rage ship which has a faster warp drive so they can study it to improve their own warp drives (which they may have invented themselves, but are merely improving it from learning a trick or two from this new alien technology.)

I can understand the caution, the Hish in Forever Midnight were exclusively scavengers and enslaved other races to build for them, this is something I am not a big fan of as it portrays them as brutish savages with no intelligence and makes you wonder how they even survived as long as they did as a species.

I think Lebbon played it safe, it makes sense for the Yautja to build their things but also learn something new from another alien race.

[close]

[LastSurvivor92]

Wow, I'm still quite shocked to see that more people are voting for the Predators

Aliens all day any day!!

[Yautja2117]

Yautja for me, it's easier to say there's nothing about them I don't find incredibly satisfying and awesome!

[NeoXenoPred]

For me both but if a have to chose it would be aliens. Because Aliens design are better to me and they seemed to built for killing more than Preds who are built more for hunting.

[Huntsman]

I like both for different reasons (the Aliens are more creepy), but if push comes to shove, I'm a Predator guy. I'm fascinated by their honour code, technology and brutality.

[Reichu]

For me, the Predators are just kind of there. It's always been the Aliens that interested me.

[GreybackElder]

I Love them both. Some of the most iconic monsters in cinema history. But, I think predator for me. They're just so supremely cool!! What's more bad ass than an Alien who hunts other aliens through out the stars. They've got amazing tech, can cloak and look incredible. Plus, I feel like the juxtaposition of tribal brutality and super advanced technology in its own right seems so Alien! It's such a mystery why they hunt, what's the need!? Is it physical? Religious? There is so much you can do with this character! Team Pred!

[Master Chief]

Wow, I'm still quite shocked to see that more people are voting for the Predators

Aliens all day any day!!

I can't believe the Alien has that many votes.  I mean, they're just bugs created by an android with daddy issues. 

[Olde]

By that rationale, maybe they shouldn't be called "aliens" at all...

[Samhain13]

Wow, I'm still quite shocked to see that more people are voting for the Predators

Aliens all day any day!!

I can't believe the Alien has that many votes.  I mean, they're just bugs created by an android with daddy issues. 

Too soon man.  We are still grieving

[A-L-I-E-N]

Wow, I'm still quite shocked to see that more people are voting for the Predators

Aliens all day any day!!

I can't believe the Alien has that many votes.  I mean, they're just bugs created by an android with daddy issues. 

Hey the vote has to be made on the original Alien as seen and conceived in '79 not its various iterations, aberrations and conflagrations!

[Master Chief]

 ^

By that rationale, maybe they shouldn't be called "aliens" at all...

Sentients?

Too soon man.  We are still grieving

This is how I grieve.