I wouldn't have minded if one or both had been killed on camera. That's what sticks in my craw about the whole thing.
I've always thought it's a bit like the next Superman movie opening with Batman saying to Superman "It's shit that Lois died the other day, man..."
I just think it was wrong that they were offed cos reasons... That I don't like it doesn't change it (only in a retcon!).
If they had both survived the movie and Ripley still makes her sacrifice - I'd have liked that too. It'd still be pretty bleak but at least with some sense of hope at the end?
Though, I do get that 3 was the nastiest and most nihilistic of all of them and that's not to be degenerated - it's a horrid universe. But both Alien and Aliens end "happily..." I think 3 could have had both if, as I say, they off Rippers, but Newt and Hicks survive.
