Alien Differences

Snorks, ok, let me throw this twist at you. How in Alien Blu-Ray it says that a xenomorph can swing 5-11kph and a Queen can produce 15EPH if neither were meant to be? Albeit I just noticed Brett was half turned into a Facehugger Egg and about to have his face zippered up into it the other day What you are saying makes total sense, though. Think of it like this Ruffles (Pred) for Ridges and a Baby smooth bottom (Human) for Domes. But then again A3 throws a curve ball with the dog/cattle breed. Let me ponder this one for a bit. With the exception there was nothing docile about the Ridged Head Aliens. You aare probably recalling the scene where they obeyed the Queen to back off in Aliens and the hospital scene in A3. What blows my mind is the understanding between the queen and ripley when she used the flamethrower to leverage the queen into calling off the mob that was about to decend upon her and newt. Rick

Well I thought about this some more, arguing that maybe the Jorden parents visited a different section of the derelict than Kane did and thus happened across a different breed of the Alien. but then I realised I was wrong. Because we all assume that the two Facehuggers in Alien 3 (Ripley and Dog/Ox) were laid on the Sulaco by the Queen when she was hiding on board the Dropship at the climax of Aliens. In Aliens she had sired an army of ridged carapace, but the facehugger that pounced the dog/ox resulted in a domed carapace. Back to the drawing board, until i realised the answer is so much simpler. It seems that the appearance of the ridged and the domed carapace aliens seems to be determined by their environment and whether the Queen/Facehuggers feel substantially threatened enough to produce the warrior-esque domed carapace aliens. If not the worker-esque ridged carapace Aliens are instead produced... [b]Domed Carapace[/b] Alien - Lone Alien in dangerous territory (space), against an unknown enemy. Alien 3 - Lone Alien in safe territory, against an unknown enemy, but protecting the Queen (within Ripley). Alien Rez - Multiple Aliens in dangerous territory, against an dangerous enemy. AVP - Multiple Aliens in dangerous territory, against a dangerous enemy. [b]Ridged Carapace[/b] Aliens - Multiple Aliens in safe territory, against a docile enemy. AVPR - Multiple Aliens in safe territory, against a docile enemy.

I may have a explanation on this (depends on your view of Canon as I have read all the books) The reason why the Aliens have differences is because they are different. I think the best way to describe what I am trying to say is there are different Classes. There are Drones, Warriors, Defenders, as well as exotics. If you remember when the Aliens movie came out they had like a thousand it seemed different kinds of Alien toys each different. For example the toy for the Scorpion Alien had a longer tail and if I remember what the box said I believe it said that was the Alien that got Hudson. In some of the books its states that a Alien get certain attributes from the host, such as the Dog Alien in Alien 3 looks like a Dog/Alien mix, but that is more often not the case as when you seen graphic novels and you see the Alien being birthed by some type of cattle and still looking like a normal drone/warrior and not like a hybrid. I dont know if I make sense saying this as I am typing at 30 WPM and my mind is going 100 WPM lol. Oh, back to the Classes, everyone knows the top the Queen, then there are the defenders and from what two of the Aliens books have said there are the normal defenders who care for the eggs and protect the Queen. The Queen Mother (this Queen is only in books, if you with to know more let me know) has Elite Defenders which are about 1.5 times the size of a normal Alien and have Horns, this breed is very fast compared to the Alien norm and much more Agile as well as very aggressive. Drones go looking for food and host in areas already "controlled" by the hive, they also receive the host captured by Warriors and cocoon them. Warriors are the Aliens that attack other Hives and other threats outside the hive. Also I have the McFarlane Alien/Predator action figures/toys lol the one with the smooth shell is labeled Alien and the ridged one is Alien Warrior....dont know if that carries any weight but yeah lol. So my guess would be domed Aliens are Drones. On a side note in the book Alien Genocide there is a civil war between two different races of Alien the Traditional Black and a Reddish Alien.

Snorky, There can be whole other aspect here. I think Domes have an inferiority complex that makes them more cunning, sneakier, smarter, and completely ruthless in comparison to Ridges. Ridges are always enmasse. To me the domes are always a single shot lone alien. Kind of like the Ridges would be the infantry version and the Domes would be Sniper/Spec Ops Aliens. I also think the Domes are significantly larger in size than the Ridges and have a more mechanical aspect to them than the Ridges which tend to be built more organically to break body lines along hive walls. With that said I think Alien 3, needs to be removed from the Equation. I can factor it out based on the 2 eggs on the Sulaco being placed by the company with a small side story based on these facts from the films. There is no other way the company could be at (Fiorna) inside a couple days unless they were already in orbit or really really close (fiorna isn't far from zeta retic). I would be willing to bet the company while the marines were distracted at the atmospheric processor was raiding the derelict for eggs or landed shortly their after. Look at it like this. Why send one ship when you can send two and have twice the prize. This is also loss mitigation and cost vs benefit factor analysis. At this point its really a given, with Prometheus around the corner and the company involvement, Ash being planted last minute, Burke having insider knowledge and manipulating Ripley at the inquest, then tagging along for the ride with the marines, and etc. At the very least there is the possibilty that Bishop communicated with the corp when he remote piloted the drop ship from the Sulaco. This side story completely bypasses the Cameron Ridged Xeno Eggs being laid by the queen. Thus the eggs under the grate would be domes from the derelict. That could be a whole other story to the genre unrelated to A3 and the rest. Seeing the company scientist actual involvement along a parallel story board and there "real" goals for the aliens so we can get a whole other feel for whats going on behind the scenes at the company. Rick

ill go with the atmosphere trick. in alien, there was a horrible atmosphre hence a dome. aliens had a proccesser which made air breathable. no dome needed. alien 3 must have had negligible air in the atmosphere of fury 161 so a dome was formed. only thing i can come up with, but alien res does kind of screw with that theory

I think me and rick are the ones closest to this. @ Rbrown - What you mention there is the books/graphic novels/comics/games which is called EU (extended universe). EU is not canon, canon is the films and the films only because that is where the franchise started. For example dark horse did a bunch of stories about Hicks and Newt set after Aliens, but when Alien 3 killed the characters off the characters in the comic where changed. Don't get me wrong the comics have some good ideas, but most of the time their ideas are way too farfetched (ie Predator-Human-Alien hybrid). @ rick - I kinda like the Alien 2.5 story except for one logistical problem - if the company entered the derelict during Aliens and took some eggs, why bother with infecting the Sulaco, why not just take them home for observation. @deadcell - Yep Alien Rez screws that idea up, as does AVP.

I think deadcell is on to something. Not neccessarily the atmosphere, but the operational environment. What if the Alien can change its appearance to suit its environment. In Alien/Alien3/Alien Res there is a lot of piping that the alien uses to blend in. There is even several cases where a victim confuses the alien for machinery or pipes. In Aliens/AVPR they operate in a more open environment. Aliens does have machinery, but look at the terrain of the planet. Jagged volcanic rock formations. In the book it mentions the the first few colonists were infected by being dragged back to the derelict for embryo implantation. In AVPR you had Earth with its vegetation. Naturally a ridged carapace would blend in better than a dome here. The only one that does not completely fit my theory is AVP. The only (admittedly thin) arguement I can make is the sacrificial chamber was rounded with lots of curves. The aliens evolve dome heads to fit the style of the chamber.

@ Rakkasan, how could an Alien know the shapes of an environment it has yet to explore.

If an organism can stay alive in the vacuum of space, or an egg can support its host (facegugger) for the millenia that it takes to fossilize a sj into its chair, then anything is possible. Of all the images I was able to find of the chestburster the 3 main head types appear to be the Predalien, the Queen, and a domed carapace one. I was unable to find a ridged carapace chestburster. Granted my knowledge is not as extensive as some here, but if there are only domed headed chestbursters then it is logical that the ridged carapace is formed during growth of the Alien into adulthood. We know it sheds its skin so during this period it changes its appearance (however minute) to adapt to its environment. A pretty nifty trait for the "perfect organism"

Assumingly the chestburster in Aliens that comes out of the colonist cocooned in the hive would be a ridged carapace alien chestburster.

Hard to say, the only pic I could find was a frontal view, and from that angle it did not look like it had any ridges on its head. [url=http://aliensandpredators.tumblr.com/post/598818720/chestburster-aliens-this-was-important-to-show]Your text to link here...[/url] If not, then my theory is that it comes out with a domed head and the ridges form as it grows to adulthood.

The explanation is: Artistic license. Nothing more. Nothing less. W/e we come up with now to try to link the different looks of the aliens through the sequels is just fan-fic. Fun to do, but it had nothing to do with the concept designers original intent.

@ draekus - I know full well why the ridged carapace appeared in Aliens. James Cameron thought it looked better, would create interesting lighting, help the creature blend into its surroundings better and proved more practical when filming. When asked in an interview what the story reason was to the difference he just said "...Maybe the dome falls off..." Artistic licence had nothing to with. The point of this thread is to try and "imagine" a logical and plausible reason for the difference. @ Rakkasan - there are better images in the documentries of the chestburster i think.

@Snorkelbottom I get it. I wasn't trying to rain on your parade. I know the Cameron interview you are talking about. But quote "[i]James Cameron thought it looked better, would create interesting lighting, help the creature blend into its surroundings better and proved more practical when filming.[/i]" = pretty much means "Artistic License". (He did it cause he thought it would look better/ was easier to film.) While I have no way to prove it, I believe when he said "[i]Maybe the dome falls off[/i]"...was just his attempt to explain a decision he made based only on his artistic license. (IMO he didn't have to explain himself...after all he had the "license" to do it.) Still i understand its fun to theorize and link the different looks. by all means continue...

@ draekus Whoa man buzz kill. I thought Snorkelbottom started a really thought provoking thread here. Of course we all know what the reason is in reality, but we are delving into the world of imagination here. Afterall the Alien it self is not real...we hope. @ Snorkelbottom I do not have the documentaries so if you can produce a chestburster with a ridged carapace image then I will cede the point. If not I will stand by my theory. Interesting to note though that Cameron nearly fit my theory with his comment that the dome fell off... to blend into its surroundings. The only difference was I said the ridges grew as it matured.

Snorky, To continue on topic in Aliens 2.5 there isn't really a logistical problem, its a tertiary back-up plan to Infecting the Colony which was clearly the corporation goal in Aliens. Plan: Xeno Bio-Weapons Study Primary Goal: Infect Colony Analyze Xeno Fall-Out Secondary Goal: Study Xeno Tactics and Retrieve Eggs Continuation Goal: Infect Colony Survivors on Sulaco The process repeats just as in all of the other Alien, AvP movies and we then have continuity. You know Aliens 2.5 with a corporation side story would be totally fricken awesome. I so want to see the marionette strings that the corporation uses with the xenos. Regards, Rick