Davids Motivations in AC

I think David will be both God and the Devil.Both creator and deceiver.I believe this will be David's story.

David has been on a free 10 year laboratory course-

The History of Noval Principals and Applications for The Black Goo.

All he needs are more lab rats!

Davids face when he was told he had no sole by his master was only bettered  by his disappointment just before he had his head ripped off!

Add this to his infatuation with shaw and he has all the motivation he needs...

I concur he will be deceiver, hero, mad scientist, god and the devil

Roll on May

I think David has a lot more emotion than a Android should have, he feels disappointed at how he was treated by Humans, he does not see himself as being merely a Tool...

He accompanied the Prometheus Crew and their ambition to find out the key and answers to the creation of Mankind, Davids own creator was hoping that maybe these Gods could grant him immortality.

But they discovered these Gods are not Gods, they are Mortal and they are not Miraculous beings as Gods are seen as, they are but just a more advanced Humanoid race who are Mortal and just posesses more advanced Technology.

They maybe could not help Weyland... but they would choose not to.

So David discovers Mankind was created by a Mortal Race who are no more Gods than current Mankind in Prometheus would appear to Mankind from thousands of years ago.

Mankinds creation is nothing special, and our creators had little care or interest in us,  he sees maybe we are viewed by them as he is by Mankind.

He then realises there is nothing immortant of special about the Engineers apart from the Technology and Rituals they held... they was all gone on LV-223 apart from one.. and that one did not take to David well.

So David would be interested to find out a bit more about these beings where they came from, and who created them, and their Agenda.

Depending what he finds... and if they are all gone, or the Engineers are just creations like Mankind and like David... then i think David would be alone...  there would be little or nothing left of these Gods who Mankind assumed they would be.

But they have their Technology and if thats left behind, well it now allows David to play with it and to be God himself.

Mankind was Mortal and a creation of the Engineers, they are Mortal and a creation  of something else... all that separates them is Technology and Power they have from it.

Now David has access to this and if there is little or nothing left of these Gods... then well David can now play God... and who is to stop him?

@Big Dave

I understand David is the last of his kind, superceeded by a less emotional Walter? So he's a perfect storm really

David quotes 'Mortal after all' when the head explodes, so you feel he considers Engineers no better apart from their technology?

And you feel David won't be more driven by disappointment and rejection, but more so by his thirst to tamper with the Engineers technology and having no one to hold him back?

i think he will want to unleash his tampering and understanding of the technology on the new arrivals to not only extract some kind of revenge, but also to elevate himself to something superior 

what if it has nothing to do with David as a sentient being? He could just be continuing his search for human immortality because he never got reprogrammed after Weyland was killed. It's not like he has any problem with shots in the dark (see Holloway) then you have to wonder. What if he's still trying to figure out how to make humans immortal with no worry about whether the human form is kept?

I personally think we may be looking too deep into what passes as an Android's thought process.  Consider all Davide has ever know prior to the Prometheus journey was what he was programmed to know. His expectancy was also just that.  Programmed limitations.  Perhaps his quest to interface with the Engineers and the study of their language during the journey out, freed him of some of that programming limitations, especially after Peter Weyland was killed.  For David, now it is become a quest for establishing a place for himself wherein he is looked upon as a creator and not simply a creation. Remember, He is not bound by human morality nor human sense of right or wrong so the methods he uses are simply that; methods! This is his journey to ascertain what he discerns should be his rightful place.  This is just my 2 cents worth.

All these theories here are great.

While it's certainly difficult to grasp what David truly wants so far, there are some key aspects about him that were presented in a more or less vague manner. 

- He definitely shows signs of "emotions" despite being a "robot". Whether it's his reaction to harassment and the harsh realization that he's merely an android, or his weird affection to Shaw.

- He likes to observe and research everything ranging from human emotions to history with ancient cultures, and even pop culture. He is a curious child.

Taking these two examples into consideration and also keeping in mind that he's had 10 years worth of research on the planet, then surely he's up to something, probably big and "mind blowing" as in revelations or actions against humanity I guess.

I stand by my opinion that he has a finger in creating or altering something (bio)organic.

All this by his own motives or ordered by faceless executives of W-Y (or Weyland), a company that is a very important link to Alien after all if the narrative focus even lies there in AC.

@ Neomorph, I think you have it about right

Some very measured feasible feedback by everyone 

i like the theory that he is just continuing with what he has been programmed to do by Weyland but his childlike thirst for knowledge, with little boundaries resulted in chaos ( for Holloway and Shaw anyway). Humans just seemed to be ' throw away items' in his quest to follow his orders.

Several vague items pointed to where David may be going

He was infatuated with Lawrence as he viewed himself in a similar way. Could this effect the way he acts towards his new hosts in AC?

He was infatuated with Shaw, however this could have been in his programming

He was clearly emotional by Weylands comments re his Soul

That precious look just before he was beheaded, ecstasy to agony

No real regard to orders from anyone apart from Weyland, opening the head room, turning off his camera to Vickers

When he meets his new hosts probably as a hero at first, I don't think he will respond to orders very well, especially from Walter

Im king here, off with his head

I think this is a great thread. It begs the question re the nature of creation in general; that we create for purposes of advancing ourselves and seeking either godlike status or dominion over our own mortality. David seems more concerned with finding dominion over his own creators and has more of a nihilistic view in general. In essence, The world is Davids oyster and he is free to dispose or tinker and like whomever he chooses. The engineers it would seem wanted humans to have some sort of worship or reverence for their creators thus explaining why they chose to kills us all with the xeno. David may or may not have such plans. He seems more of a cross between nihilist and an anarchist. He definitely enjoys a good intellectual battle and knocking down other people from their pedestal. His only loyalty ever seemed to be for Weyland himself -- from whom he is now free.

in an earlier thread I conted that Ridley is heavy with literary allusions. He's jumped from Greek mythology to Milton and now it would seem Nietzsche. That is l, eviscerating the concept of god as we know it and illuminating mankinds journey to transcend his own mortality and primative nature towards becoming ubermensch.

David seems to want or use technology to his own aim to keep perhaps a level playing field. And he has no issue with infecting whatever rubes get in his way or challenge him.

@ intheyear 2525

I like it, you could say David did act like a nihilistic teenage anarchist, epesically to Shaw on the table telling her she was pregnant and what he did to Holloway

i will check out your other thread as it sounds intriguing 

I think your right about Elizabeth. He seems to admire that she survived and outwitted the engineer despite her perceived naïveté and romantic notions about everything. Holloway was an arrogant prick to a certain extent and David took pleasure in both his infection as well as Elizabeth l.

Didnt fassbender liken his acting to an autistic person of fame? Clearly David feels and is careful to let others into his own motives and feelings.

David will never grow old. He will never die. He cannot appreciate these things because David has no soul as Weyland states in Prometheus. Essentially David is immortal. Perfect. David is unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. He knows there is nothing.  That's why he doesn't understand why Shaw still believes ("but who made them?") even after everything that has happened and finding out the Engineers are just mortal beings. David can't grasp the concept of "want". What desires does he truely possess in his programming? Is he truely free because Weyland is dead? Does he even understand what that means? David admires Shaw for her survival skills and at this point they need each other to survive. I imagine David will now help Shaw in her desires to head to "where they came from." What happens next, who knows! 

Perhaps it is even the case that on arriving in Paradise, David found living engineers who then reprogrammed him to live in their image. I wouldn't be opposed to the films exploring the concept of an android coming under the manipulation of the engineers much as many humans do with gurus/spiritual leaders.

This would be a delicate concept to present however. Attempting to execute it without the right considerations could damage the tone of the plot. 

I have covered Davids Emotions and Soul in a number of threads and so i wont go over it here... but i will look at some other things.

The whole Prometheus set up was a tale about Creation, Sub-creation and Rebellion.

Prometheus has many clues in it... Holloway was the key narrator to the reason for Creation while Shaw was the key narrator to what had happened.

Holloway claimed maybe Mankind created David because "We could" David then proposed how would he feel if Holloway heard that from his Creators.... which would be disappointing but then as David said its lucky he cant be disappointed.. but this in part is a lie.

Holloway tells Shaw that there is nothing special about creation a few splashes of DNA and a Petra dish is all thats needed.

David came to find out that indeed our creators the Engineers are MORTAL after all..

So David knows that all that made these Engineers Gods, was just the Technology they had, all that allowed Weyland to create David was the Technology that Mankind had now evolved to.

David feels unwanted and unloved by Mankind, he sees that Mankinds creators hold Mankind in the same regards.

The Engineers are Mortal, they posesses Technology that makes them Godlike but they cant control it to the degree that David maybe could.

So he realizes that the Engineers are no different to Mankind and all that separates them is the Technology the Tools the Engineers had for creation/destruction and the knowledge of how to use them.

So now David has both those Tools and Knowledge and he wants to go to Paradise to gain more Tools and Knowledge, and this would allow David to be the GOD now.

I feel he will however perform the same mistakes as Mankind had, and that the Engineers had before them and no doubt the Engineers creators before them.

David may now wish to Create his own Life, maybe he would think he could have a sense of accomplishment in doing so.

But no doubt... David will find out his creation will end up turning on him or being something he can not control.  And so the theme Prometheus set out will continue.

As the Source i had claimed.... it does not start with the Engineers and does not end with David.

@ Big Dave

Your phrase "David feels unwanted and unloved by Mankind, he sees that Mankinds creators hold Mankind in the same regards...." This is totally in line with what I was thinking (You Just explain it so much better).

I believe that somehow Peter Weyland's programming on the David Model has evolved itself so that this particular unit (David 8) now thinks in terms of self-needs, goals, and aspirations. This is in stark contrast for the original programming which is based on doing what is best for the mission and by default Peter Weyland.

I still think that there are breadcrumbs that lead to this path of self-discovery. 1) The journey out and his fascination with Lawrence of Arabia; obsessed with becoming more "human."

2) The study of the engineers language and subsequent interface with their ships control of the Juggernaut. After this, he seemed more calculating and his actions more mysterious.

3) The death of Peter Weyland may have been the coup d' grace that finally freed him from the vestiges of control (despite being sans a body). Without a master, David now may feel empowered to establish his own role versus having it defined for him by others.

Anybody else out there that has any ideas, I would love to hear them as I think this is a fascinating topic.

I think he is much the same as Holloway when he finds out his creators r nothing more than mortal beings themselves. the disappointment Holloway feels is probably how david sees his own existence having been created my the lowly human race but now david has been given something else to focus on. becoming god himself. he sees humans and engineers as expendable beings for his quest to experiment. though like engineers and mankind, he will see the error in his ways. he definitely has admiration toward shaw. maybe a form of mother figure to teach him and act as a form of conscience but like so many teenage children, he breaks the rules until he sees the error of his ways, thus leading to his redemption at some point 

I think I got this 90% right!