Studying the Engineers Civilization: Theories

Started by Immortan Jonesy, Mar 02, 2018, 04:34:34 PM

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Studying the Engineers Civilization: Theories (Read 25,982 times)

Frosty Venom

The Space Jockeys are referred to as Mala'kaks in Aliens Original Sin. Which I think is a decent name.

The Old One

The Old One

#91
Titans, Pilots, Giants, Engineers > "Mala'kaks"

Xenomrph

It's just a species name, like "Yautja".

Naginata

Yeah, but you need a bit more distance between the audience and the Jockeys for them to be properly Lovecraftian, and giving them a species name undermines that a little. Makes them a little too familiar, you know? Besides, if those things are as advanced as they'd have to be to do the stuff they're portrayed as doing, then concepts like biological taxonomy might not even apply anymore...

They could always retcon "Mala'Kak" to be what they're called by other species; maybe it's a Predator word meaning "those guys we stole the xenomorphs from"  ;D

Huggs

Quote from: Xenomrph on Oct 21, 2018, 04:47:58 PM
It's just a species name, like "Yautja".

Likely came from poking somebody in the butt and they screamed Yowza!

And I guess it...kinda stuck.

Immortan Jonesy

Immortan Jonesy

#95
Quote from: Naginata on Oct 21, 2018, 07:10:41 PM
Yeah, but you need a bit more distance between the audience and the Jockeys for them to be properly Lovecraftian, and giving them a species name undermines that a little. Makes them a little too familiar, you know? Besides, if those things are as advanced as they'd have to be to do the stuff they're portrayed as doing, then concepts like biological taxonomy might not even apply anymore...

They could always retcon "Mala'Kak" to be what they're called by other species; maybe it's a Predator word meaning "those guys we stole the xenomorphs from"  ;D

Aye, If you put too much hard science on the Space Jockey, you are distancing such a concept from the Lovecraftian corners. Also, Mala'Kak sounds like a Star Wars name.



On the other hand (and if we want the cosmic horror back) why not explore the bizarre architecture of the original Derelict. I mean, the spaceship seems to be a Tardis-like-device: it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.


Ok, maybe it's just a movie mistake; or an artistic contradiction like the Space Jockey size. But I'm going to scrap the technical and rational explanations, cos...

a) I'm a nerd.
b) Of the two fanon explanations: 1) The thing is bigger on the inside, 2) It is an underground facility; my favorite is the first one.  8)

So, maybe there is some kind of crazy five-dimensional architecture playing around, with nanotechnology that is constantly expanding things from the inside...or like a timeless structure similar to a space portal, creating links between two or more worlds.  :P




It can be like a sci-fi equivalent of the haunted house concept. However, there is something similar in modern literature. A psychological horror novel (House of Leaves), written in a very peculiar format (Ergodic literature), about a creepy house that is bigger on the inside...and people slowly descending into madness:





But overall,  I believe that if you give to the science fiction an otherworldly shape, you are successfully entering in the Lovecraft zone. Sadly, is the other way with the prequels. :'(

Frosty Venom

Almost all creatures of HP Lovecraft do get given names.

I would most prefer the more casual term 'Pilots' because it describes them so perfectly whilst keeping them mysterious but I wouldn't mind Mala'kak as the scientific term.

Baron Von Marlon

One Lovecraftian element's surely present: forbidden knowledge or the lack of, being able to drive a person mad  ;D

The Old One

The Old One

#98
Indeed.

Delta Echo Alpha Delta

Quote from: Immortan Jonesy on Oct 13, 2018, 08:29:55 AM
Wishful thinking, I know. But perhaps the chosen one for the sacrifice was being watched by other kind of people. Not the Elders of his kind, but the real Jockeys.

https://i.imgur.com/84yiaVA.jpg

I felt that at one point, but aren't the engineer's gods supposed to be dead for them to have the pathogen?

And there's the whole "not knowing" who their gods are which I think we should keep with since the reveal of the Engineers/space jockey disappointed so many.

Frosty Venom

We wouldn't have to see these 'Gods' or 'Elder' Space Jockeys but just hear about them.

The Old One

The Old One

#101
Or utilize the Derelict contradiction.

Immortan Jonesy

Immortan Jonesy

#102
Maybe I'm no the first with this idea, but when I was thinking in the sci-fi movie Dark City while I was replying on another thread, I started to have the notion of the Engineers as host of the Space Jockeys.


In the aforementioned film, there are gelatinous spider-like-creatures called Stranger who inhabit the dead human beings in order to carry out their experiments. Maybe I'm reading too much on the idea (or dealing with it in a too literal way), but such idea somehow got a merge with Carlos Huante's jellyfish-like Engineers (and with other works of the artist).

So maybe the Engineers are avatars of the real Jockeys (but in a Matrix style twist, they don't know it, as the Jockeys are implanting fake memories in the albinos.), and they are using them to perform their experiments (like terraforming or bioengineering). The reason? well, perhaps like the Strangers from Dark City; the Jockeys have some kind of phisical limitations or something (the Strangers are photophobic and fearful of water). However, the mere existence of the biomechanical flight suit make the idea ridiculous and pointless, but it was fun any way.  ;D




D. Compton Ambrose

Quote from: Immortan Jonesy on Nov 13, 2018, 01:39:51 AM
Maybe I'm no the first with this idea, but when I was thinking in the sci-fi movie Dark City while I was replying on another thread, I started to have the notion of the Engineers as host of the Space Jockeys.


In the aforementioned film, there are gelatinous spider-like-creatures called Stranger who inhabit the dead human beings in order to carry out their experiments. Maybe I'm reading too much on the idea (or dealing with it in a too literal way), but such idea somehow got a merge with Carlos Huante's jellyfish-like Engineers (and with other works of the artist).

So maybe the Engineers are avatars of the real Jockeys (but in a Matrix style twist, they don't know it, as the Jockeys are implanting fake memories in the albinos.), and they are using them to perform their experiments (like terraforming or bioengineering). The reason? well, perhaps like the Strangers from Dark City; the Jockeys have some kind of phisical limitations or something (the Strangers are photophobic and fearful of water). However, the mere existence of the biomechanical flight suit make the idea ridiculous and pointless, but it was fun any way.  ;D




It would be interesting too if the Engineers were a form of "psychic shape-shifter," that mirrored the physique and biology of the species that were interacting with them or in their vicinity, which included their DNA. The "xenophage" was a form of distilled of their genetic makeup, and due to their ability to shape-shift, the creatures and life that resulted from their 'cosmic gardening,' took on forms of this ability across the spectrum of life (which, of course, had its own biomechanical omega point - the Alien).

bb-15

Quote from: Immortan Jonesy on Nov 13, 2018, 01:39:51 AM
Maybe I'm no the first with this idea, but when I was thinking in the sci-fi movie Dark City while I was replying on another thread, I started to have the notion of the Engineers as host of the Space Jockeys.


In the aforementioned film, there are gelatinous spider-like-creatures called Stranger who inhabit the dead human beings in order to carry out their experiments. Maybe I'm reading too much on the idea (or dealing with it in a too literal way), but such idea somehow got a merge with Carlos Huante's jellyfish-like Engineers (and with other works of the artist).

So maybe the Engineers are avatars of the real Jockeys (but in a Matrix style twist, they don't know it, as the Jockeys are implanting fake memories in the albinos.), and they are using them to perform their experiments (like terraforming or bioengineering). The reason? well, perhaps like the Strangers from Dark City; the Jockeys have some kind of phisical limitations or something (the Strangers are photophobic and fearful of water). However, the mere existence of the biomechanical flight suit make the idea ridiculous and pointless, but it was fun any way.  ;D




The host idea is an interesting one which is also used with the Goa'uld in Stargate and several beings in Star Trek such as the Trill.

Though it's tough to blend in with what Jon Spaihts was going for when he created the Engineers in his draft scripts for "Prometheus".

QuoteGiven the age of the wreck as it's characterized in the first Alien movie, my first thought was that these ancient giants must have been the von Daniken‑style aliens who some believe helped to shape ancient civilizations, and raise our early monuments, and, perhaps, even to shape the development of the species itself.
I imagined them as the Engineers who fomented sentient life on earth and then schooled that life into their own image, both cognitively and physically. I suppose the closing idea was that that elephantine alien face of the space jockey was merely a mask. Underneath it, to our astonishment, it would be revealed that they looked like us. Or, perhaps more accurately, that we looked like them.
https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/interview-part-1-jon-spaihts-5cf713ab14c4

* Anyway, I know you wrote that the idea was pointless but maybe there is a way to get from Spaihts' idea for the Space Jockeys/Engineers and hosts.

;)

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