How has Alien: Covenant affected your personal canon?

[marrerom]

For me I found that Covenant cleaned up many things in the series that I had difficulty reconciling continuity wise. Now things are simpler:

1) The AvP films are out.

2) With the AvP films gone the retcon of Bishop II being a "covert model" is also out. (back in is the original concept of his being the human designer of the Bishop model)

3) The explanation for the ridged headed Aliens being a result of their advanced age is back in (This was endorsed by James Cameron himself...Then AvP-R came along).

4) The new EU (fire & stone, life & death) is out.

Again, this was how Alien: Covenant affected things for me. I'm not  looking to start a fight about what's "officially canon" I just wanted to hear some thought/reaction people had to how covenant changed how they view the continuity of the series.

[Kel G 426]

I separate film canon into 5 lines of continuity:

1. The Prometheus series, leading presumably to Alien.
2. The Alien series, the original 4-part saga.
3. The AlienS series: Alien, Aliens, Alien5 (it'll happen!).
4. The AVPs, which counts all A&P films up to 2007 as canon. 
5. The Predator series.

So Covenant doesn't really change anything for me. I just file it in the appropriate section.

[The Cruentus]

For me I found that Covenant cleaned up many things in the series that I had difficulty reconciling continuity wise. Now things are simpler:

1) The AvP films are out.

2) With the AvP films gone the retcon of Bishop II being a "covert model" is also out. (back in is the original concept of his being the human designer of the Bishop model)

3) The explanation for the ridged headed Aliens being a result of their advanced age is back in (This was endorsed by James Cameron himself...Then AvP-R came along).

4) The new EU (fire & stone, life & death) is out.

Again, this was how Alien: Covenant affected things for me. I'm not  looking to start a fight about what's "officially canon" I just wanted to hear some thought/reaction people had to how covenant changed how they view the continuity of the series.

I agree with this and while I like Covenant, it brings along its own continuity problems, including an ironic AVP like life-cycle. The Lope incident and the fact that David created the Xenomorphs which means they are no longer an ancient horror but a pet project of an android dissatisfied with humanity and the Engineers. I also don't particularly like how villianous David is. Androids are not supposed to be able to be good or evil really, they can only mimic emotions but not feel them. As far as I know anyway.  This is one of few issues that I had with the early Prometheus script, which was much better than the film but David was too evil for a synthetic.

[marrerom]

I agree with this and while I like Covenant, it brings along its own continuity problems, including an ironic AVP like life-cycle.

Lots of people have complained about the sped up life cycle but I don't see this as a continuity error. David mentioned that his work had stalled and so the Alien we see in Covenant is more of a rough draft then a finished product. Differences in behavior/gestation speed/and physical characteristics are to be expected.

[Samhain13]

So much it's not part of my personal canon. 

But the novel is since it has David saying the eggs were made by the Engineers.

[The Cruentus]

I agree with this and while I like Covenant, it brings along its own continuity problems, including an ironic AVP like life-cycle.

Lots of people have complained about the sped up life cycle but I don't see this as a continuity error. David mentioned that his work had stalled and so the Alien we see in Covenant is more of a rough draft then a finished product. Differences in behavior/gestation speed/and physical characteristics are to be expected.

That is a fair point and the novel does explain it that way more or less but regardless if its a rough draft, the problem is that its not plausible, especially compared to before where the willing suspension of disbelief didn't require that much stretching. Hours is not too bad, minutes or seconds is pretty supernatural. These films are supposed to be sci/fi but these days they are anything but.

[Protozoid]

I'm not  looking to start a fight about what's "officially canon" I just wanted to hear some thought/reaction people had to how covenant changed how they view the continuity of the series.

Before Covenant, I saw four canons: Prometheus, Alien, Predator, and AvP. There were connections between all of them, but they all had wiggle room to do their own thing.

To me, Covenant is another AvP movie: Alien versus Prometheus. I do not like that these canons are now linked together directly. It destroyed the storyline and the two franchises had opposing philosophies because they belonged to different genres: sci-fi and horror.

Clearly the studio intends to lump franchises together in any combination that they think will make them money. So now I only see one, totally fractured continuity that lumps together all franchises into one. You might as well have Freddy and Jason in the next Alien movie for all I care. Prometheus was the most promising franchise in recent memory, and they totally blew it. There is no coming back from the events in Covenant. It was a mistake that cannot be corrected, and it forever destroyed any chance that Prometheus would be its own unique franchise that would take us to unexplored territory.

[marrerom]

For the people who divide up the series into multiple continuities, what's your rationale for doing so? Is there a guiding principle or is it based on your personal preference?

[Kel G 426]

My guiding principal:  Canon is whatever story or stories that another story needs in order to exist.  Continuity flows in order of production.

[bobby brown]

Canon IS overrated in my book.
I treat it like a buffet, I take some stuff that I like and leave what I don't.

I enjoyed Covenant, But it doesn't change what I feel and think when I watch the original ALIEN.

When I watch a sequel, I only keep the relevant previous movies in regard.
So for example, David is only the creator of the xenomorphs when I watch Covenant. The space jockeys are only Engineers in flight suits when I watch Prometheus and covenant. When I watch ALIEN, I regard it for what was intended at the time it was made.

How else would you survive as a fan with all the abysmal comics and video game storylines? (Isolation is great though)

[marrerom]

My guiding principal:  Canon is whatever story or stories that another story needs in order to exist.  Continuity flows in order of production.

Going by this view then wouldn't predator 2 and predators not be in the same continuity? Do you see that as a problem?

[Kel G 426]

They would indeed be separate, though I usually put them together just to be tidy.  I'm not heavily invested in Predator as a series.

Canon IS overrated in my book.
I treat it like a buffet, I take some stuff that I like and leave what I don't.

I enjoyed Covenant, But it doesn't change what I feel and think when I watch the original ALIEN.

When I watch a sequel, I only keep the relevant previous movies in regard.
So for example, David is only the creator of the xenomorphs when I watch Covenant. The space jockeys are only Engineers in flight suits when I watch Prometheus and covenant. When I watch ALIEN, I regard it for what was intended at the time it was made.

How else would you survive as a fan with all the abysmal comics and video game storylines? (Isolation is great though)

I'm with you.

[Mr.Turok]

It ruined my perception on the Aliens themselves. Like a product of a defective android who has daddy issues cuz he can't create stuff. Not to mention the species isn't an old ancient horror that very few managed to not only encounter, but survive.

[acidreign]

Canon IS overrated in my book.
I treat it like a buffet, I take some stuff that I like and leave what I don't.

I enjoyed Covenant, But it doesn't change what I feel and think when I watch the original ALIEN.

When I watch a sequel, I only keep the relevant previous movies in regard.
So for example, David is only the creator of the xenomorphs when I watch Covenant. The space jockeys are only Engineers in flight suits when I watch Prometheus and covenant. When I watch ALIEN, I regard it for what was intended at the time it was made.

How else would you survive as a fan with all the abysmal comics and video game storylines? (Isolation is great though)

This is pretty much how I approach it. Only way to stay sane, really. 

[bobby brown]

Like take James bond for instance, are you supposed to take the entire movie series as one cohesive storyline? they are just vaguely connected, Divided into generations. The alien franchise is almost 40 years old, I don't think it would be unreasonable to apply the same logic. If you prefer it that way of course.