Quote from: Trash Queen on Mar 23, 2021, 05:38:54 PM
I agree the Drone's what you get with an Alien and human, the Runner's what you get with an Alien and animal, the PredAlien's what you get with an Alien and Predator, they all have an obvious trajectory, even if we do not quite understand every aspect.
I also do not see in any way that this comes across as something the Engineers or humanity might create.
We know Ridley Scott's understanding on it's influenced by our real world, and in that respect as he often likes to say, The Pathogen's got a logic to it of clearing out the meat as fast as possible and then die out so things can start again in a way the Alien does not.
I believe David's the one that instituted the Alien having black skin and something evocative of biomechanical beginnings, The Pathogen's always produces the opposite, white skin and nothing biomechanical present.
But even if that's revealed not to be the case, the fact the Alien's a rapist's part of the focal point of it's identity with or without a creator's influence, able to spread farther through longer incubation periods, self sustain, and then stay dormant waiting for anything that's not itself to find it again in essence farming anywhere it's able to take over completely.
The Alien and The Pathogen exist as fundamentally unique from each other in this way, related in that one comes from the other, but the latter does not carry all the features of the former that much's clear.
- As for what David did, imo he duplicated what the Engineers created before. On the relief sculpture in the shrine room in "Prometheus" there is a Xenomorph egg.
In the "Covenant" commentary Scott says that the creature (Xenomorph/"the Alien") is weaponized (from the Neomorph). Who did that? David in Covenant. Before that the Space Jockeys/Engineers did it.
In film there is no connection between David and the Derelict.
David's story is done AFAIK meaning imo Disney will not continue it.
- I agree that the Xenomorph ("the Alien") is not a first stage creation from the black goo (the "Pathogen").
As you pointed out, there are features on the Xenomorph which are not apparent on the Deacon, or Neomorph.
However, that does not eliminate the concept that the Engineers/Space Jockeys had a hand in the creation of the Xenomorph.
- It has already been stated by Ridley Scott that the Xenomorphs were weapons of the Space Jockeys going all the way back to the DVD commentary.
- In the "Prometheus" writer's commentary it is mentioned that there is a relationship between the Deacon and the Xenomorph.
This is explored further in the Blu-ray extras by Steven Messing, Visual Effects Art Director for Prometheus, in the 3D Blu-Ray set (Enhancement Pods/Xenomorphology: The Deacon). The Xenomorph evolved from the Deacon/ultramorph.
QuoteThe Xenomorph in my mind was a descendant of the Ultramorph. It was the pure form of this kind of almost virus that these Engineers had created.
They're a lot about sacrifice, so in my mind, there was an Engineer that sacrificed himself with this virus and it created this horrific creature, this being that was gonna eradicate planets. It was like a parasite that would destroy the planet and then make it start over and rebirth it.
And they kinda worshiped it, and that's where you see this relief sculpture where it's almost a religious sculpture.
As it got kind of... the virus spread and got polluted, the Xenomorph was an evolutionary descendant that was not as pure.
Such Deacon to Xenomorph evolution would have been monitored/guided by the Engineers. After all, the Derelict is carrying Xenomorphs.
Quote from: Trash Queen on Apr 07, 2021, 11:20:26 PM
So just applying the features of the Alien to anything you want, arbitrarily through the Pathogen's just lazy at best, and a total misunderstanding of the core at each's function.
I don't think I've misunderstood anything and I certainly don't believe that my thinking is "lazy at best".
Quote from: Trash Queen on Apr 07, 2021, 11:20:26 PM
(lol using AVP as a form of evidence)
You brought up this;
"the PredAlien's what you get with an Alien and Predator,"The PredAlien idea comes from the AVP franchise including "Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_vs._Predator%3A_RequiemIf you bring up the AVP franchise, I can too.
Quote from: Trash Queen on Apr 07, 2021, 11:20:26 PM
They can spit acid.
Spitting is barely a ranged weapon effective for a few feet / meters in the films (more about that below). In my first comment in this thread (which you responded to) I wrote;
"the Xenomorphs... are biological creatures with some upgrades but they are not much more lethal than a grizzly bear combined with a spitting cobra."So, you should already know that I realize that the Xenomorph can spit. The question is whether this is an effective ranged weapon (In the movies) compared to what modern humans can create. No it isn't.
A spitting cobra could be killed at distance (far beyond spitting range) by a machine gun, a bomb, or a rocket. Same with a Xenomorph.
Quote from: Trash Queen on Apr 07, 2021, 11:20:26 PM
It's never shown in the films that fire can kill the adults.
Fire does kill young xenos but you are right about adults in the films. Which means you don't count the games such as.
https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Ripley_(Space_Marine)I don't either. More about that below.
Quote from: Trash Queen on Apr 07, 2021, 11:20:26 PM
It's fairly clear within the laws of the Alien fiction both via ... The RPG and especially The Cold Forge, Into Charybdis, and Phalanx that victory for the humans' a rarity not a commonality.
In the movies the Xenomorphs would be wiped out by the full force of a modern military. In the films the Xenos are defeated every time by a handful of people.
As I wrote, I don't count the games. Imo in 50 years "Alien" will be remembered and these games will be forgotten.
- But I can see that you have been strongly influenced by the games in your conclusions.
Fair enough. We can agree to disagree.