Xenomorphs - ruthless killing machines or just misunderstood?

[dmase]

Prometheus indicates they are more like accidents and are really meant to cause death. I wont go farther than that, but of course aliens canon, like all story canon, is subjective in how people can apply it.

 

[AgentNein]

If I'm not mistaken, the xenomorphs are actually genetically engineered weapons of a sort.
As in, they were deliberately created to be literal ruthless killing machines, going above and beyond the call for brutality that a simple beast struggling for survival would operate by.

Can we all just pretend that Prometheus never happened?

I'm pretty sure this was a thing a long time before Prometheus was even a shadow of a thought.

Hmm, I don't remember that in any of the movies pre Prometheus, but perhaps I've forgotten.

Pretty sure that was never stated but it was my pet theory from Aliens on. It simply didn't make any sense for an animal to be that deadly as a consequence of evolution - especially when they go into hybernation as soon as they've exterminated all other life in their area.

I'm intrigued. Why doesn't it make sense to you that they'd be so deadly as a consequence of evolution? I mean, if they were an alien animal that came about naturally, we know nothing of their environment and ecosystem to say what they've delt with on a normal day in their world. Maybe wherever they're from they're that worlds analogue of a lion, or even a house cat. Of course you could be talking about the fact that they seem perfectly suited to use humans as a food source/incubation system. Which IS exceedingly unlikely for an animal that's had no contact with humans throughout its evolutionary history. I've always just chalked that up to writers who've got no clue, but bio weapons made specifically to target humanity (or maybe just bio weapons designed around the idea of being extraordinarilly adaptive with it's food sources/ procreation sources) makes a certain sense. Imagine the need to quickly wipe out a planet's life, for whatever silly reason, send in a species that can essentially convert everything to itself, and as long as you've got a rock solid kill switch/removal system for them then bam, shiny new planet freshly scrubbed of all that messy global ecosystem.

 

[AgentNein]

Yes, I do lack context and I'm fairly certain that my entire theory will crumble to dust after watching the rest of the movies, however, based on the first movie alone, it's actually quite simple to make that assumption and back it up. And yes, I kind of came up with the idea just for the kicks. It's interesting how everyone takes he topic so seriously though. I just wanted to see what it would be like to look at the xenomorph from the first film through a different set of spectacles.

You were bound to get a strong reaction seeing as how you posed a statement that was contrary to what is essentially established canon. But really Xenomorphs are what they are, there really aren't very many ways you can look at them. Everything about their lifecycle requires killing other species, they're apex predatosr.

Still, it's funny to think of the Xenomorph from the first movie as just being an innocent animal trying to survive in a hostile environment.

I mean really though, that's what it is innit? It's both this apex predator and this lost kitty doing its best to survive in an unfamiliar and hostile environment! And in the mean time he's got all these damned intelligent mice trying to fuck with him. Poor fella.

 

[RJ 17]

Yes, I do lack context and I'm fairly certain that my entire theory will crumble to dust after watching the rest of the movies, however, based on the first movie alone, it's actually quite simple to make that assumption and back it up. And yes, I kind of came up with the idea just for the kicks. It's interesting how everyone takes he topic so seriously though. I just wanted to see what it would be like to look at the xenomorph from the first film through a different set of spectacles.

You were bound to get a strong reaction seeing as how you posed a statement that was contrary to what is essentially established canon. But really Xenomorphs are what they are, there really aren't very many ways you can look at them. Everything about their lifecycle requires killing other species, they're apex predatosr.

Still, it's funny to think of the Xenomorph from the first movie as just being an innocent animal trying to survive in a hostile environment.

I mean really though, that's what it is innit? It's both this apex predator and this lost kitty doing its best to survive in an unfamiliar and hostile environment! And in the mean time he's got all these damned intelligent mice trying to fuck with him. Poor fella.

By definition an apex predator has nothing to fear from anything beneath it. Xenos kill things because that's just what they do, pretty sure the history of the series shows that.

 

[AgentNein]

Yes, I do lack context and I'm fairly certain that my entire theory will crumble to dust after watching the rest of the movies, however, based on the first movie alone, it's actually quite simple to make that assumption and back it up. And yes, I kind of came up with the idea just for the kicks. It's interesting how everyone takes he topic so seriously though. I just wanted to see what it would be like to look at the xenomorph from the first film through a different set of spectacles.

You were bound to get a strong reaction seeing as how you posed a statement that was contrary to what is essentially established canon. But really Xenomorphs are what they are, there really aren't very many ways you can look at them. Everything about their lifecycle requires killing other species, they're apex predatosr.

Still, it's funny to think of the Xenomorph from the first movie as just being an innocent animal trying to survive in a hostile environment.

I mean really though, that's what it is innit? It's both this apex predator and this lost kitty doing its best to survive in an unfamiliar and hostile environment! And in the mean time he's got all these damned intelligent mice trying to fuck with him. Poor fella.

By definition an apex predator has nothing to fear from anything beneath it. Xenos kill things because that's just what they do, pretty sure the history of the series shows that.

Correct me if I'm wrong but human beings are defined as apex predators too yes?

 

[Machine Man 1992]

It's both. A relentless killing machine that's also misunderstood.

It's also happens to be the ultimate life-form, at least according to Charles Darwin. A creature is considered a failure if cannot pass it's genes, and do it fast enough to prevent competing organisms from driving it extinct.

Xenomorphs can reproduce with just about any oxygen breathing organism of sufficient mass to support a chestburster, facehugger eggs can remain viable, even after millennia in a hostile atmosphere, and a planet can go from "no Xenomorphs" to "absolutely bloody infested" in the span of a week, something only certain microorganisms can achieve, if that.

We aren't used to something that can outcompete us biologically, so of course we regard it with terror and disgust (the deadly parasitoid part certainly helped, though).

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Also watch the sequel 'Aliens'. This will support all that 'remorseless predator' lore you have picked up over the years.

I think James Cameron's Aliens completely altered what Alien was about. It turned it into a space shooter...some 15 year old Michael Bay fantasy where someone would think up 'what would happen if the xenomorphs were fighting soldiers!'..and then actually made the movie.

It's one way to look at it, assured. But I think it was a good shake up to the psyche that most people need.

A lot of us don't even consider ourselves animals any more. Our computers, our beds, our language, we're so removed from what we believe to be the animal kingdom because of our intelligence. I'm sure a lot of proud males came away from the Original Aliens and say "Give me a shotgun and it wouldn't be a problem."

But for all of our advanced weaponry, all of our fancy machines, the Aliens rolled over the big and tough Marines with really little problem. There where guns in space, sure. A lot of Aliens fell. But the marines knew they didn't have a chance after contact one. The biggest bad asses of the supposedly 'superior species' went from over brimming Machismo to running with their tail between their legs, hoping for the next plane off the rock so they can hug their mommies.

It was humbling to a kid like me who grew up on G.I. Joe and the best gun solves everything. I quickly learned that wasn't the case the first time I saw that.

 

[cerebreturns]

The novels are pretty clear that the aliens prefer to drag their prey back alive to use as host for their children. They only kill when they feel they have to or it's a iminit threat.

But they are ruthless killing machines, in a very real sense. They are functionally ants in a hive mind, perfectly willing to be sacrificed, and serve as little more then worker bees.


The race as a whole is very insect like, and in general they show little intelligence, though in one of the books they were taught to use guns...and as soon as they could threw them down and went back to just being aliens.


I think there is a lot more open for debate when dealing with predators as they are actual intelligent humanoids, where as the aliens are...bugs.

 

[Risingblade]

I find it hard to sympathize with a rapist with acid blood sooooo....death to them all!

 

[Wereduck]

If I'm not mistaken, the xenomorphs are actually genetically engineered weapons of a sort.
As in, they were deliberately created to be literal ruthless killing machines, going above and beyond the call for brutality that a simple beast struggling for survival would operate by.

Can we all just pretend that Prometheus never happened?

I'm pretty sure this was a thing a long time before Prometheus was even a shadow of a thought.

Hmm, I don't remember that in any of the movies pre Prometheus, but perhaps I've forgotten.

Pretty sure that was never stated but it was my pet theory from Aliens on. It simply didn't make any sense for an animal to be that deadly as a consequence of evolution - especially when they go into hybernation as soon as they've exterminated all other life in their area.

I'm intrigued. Why doesn't it make sense to you that they'd be so deadly as a consequence of evolution? I mean, if they were an alien animal that came about naturally, we know nothing of their environment and ecosystem to say what they've delt with on a normal day in their world. Maybe wherever they're from they're that worlds analogue of a lion, or even a house cat. Of course you could be talking about the fact that they seem perfectly suited to use humans as a food source/incubation system. Which IS exceedingly unlikely for an animal that's had no contact with humans throughout its evolutionary history. I've always just chalked that up to writers who've got no clue, but bio weapons made specifically to target humanity (or maybe just bio weapons designed around the idea of being extraordinarilly adaptive with it's food sources/ procreation sources) makes a certain sense. Imagine the need to quickly wipe out a planet's life, for whatever silly reason, send in a species that can essentially convert everything to itself, and as long as you've got a rock solid kill switch/removal system for them then bam, shiny new planet freshly scrubbed of all that messy global ecosystem.

More than anything else it's their lethally parasitic reproductive system that made me think there had to be a third party involved. Killing your host is a huge evolutionary no-no - ideally a parasite should cause as little inconvenience as possible, even form a symbiotic relationship like our mitochondria. The more you trouble your host the harder they'll try to protect themselves, and if you actually kill them you're screwed either way - if they DO protect themselves you can't find a host and die / if they CAN'T protect themselves you kill them until you run out of hosts and die. Now for an LV-426 xenomorph the host is only necessary for reproduction but in evolutionary terms reproduction is the whole ballgame - a parasite that co-exists with host can breed more easily, therefore more often, and will thus out-compete a lethal variety. A lethal parasite can crop up from time to time as a mutation but it's an evolutionary dead-end, a strain that doesn't kill it's host will drive the old one to extinction as soon as it appears.

The acid blood is another big problem though - very scary and useful for melting holes through steel but in practical day-to-day terms it just wouldn't work. First; it would require the xeno's entire physiology to be built around highly acidic conditions. All of the xenos' internal organs would have to be extremely resistant to chemical reactions and if if an organism's insides are extremely non-reactive then it becomes very difficult to conduct the chemistry the organism needs to live. Second; if the xeno had a naturally acid-proof internal physiology that would mean that the animals it developed from would also be naturally acid-proof and the acid blood would be worthless as a defense. Now obviously not everything needs to have an adaptive function in a living organism but since acid blood seriously complicates the xeno's biochemistry and offers no benefit in return you wouldn't expect to see something like that in nature. Third; even on Earth there are much simpler ways to keep other creatures from eating you like toxic secretions in the skin or harmful/disgusting squirt-glands. I'd point out that although a poison arrow frog or monarch butterfly has to get bit before it's attacker gets punished, both llama spit and skunk musk permit the animal to use it's natural defense to avoid injury entirely - definitely better than acid blood which accomplishes nothing until the xeno's blood starts getting splattered around. Acid blood only really comes into it's own when your species is living among creatures from a completely different evolutionary lineage and getting violently dismembered around armored barricades ...and neither of those happen often in nature.

For the most part I like the idea of LV-426 xenomorphs as macroscopic bio-weapons because although their defining attributes are evolutionarily impractical and ecologically unsustainable they're also excellent for creating fear and exterminating all other life. If they were deliberately made to mess up other people's planets then it all makes sense.