Comments (Page 114)
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Roger G:
“Should Ripley have prayed to some God in that struggle moment?”
That would have been a very bad idea if you ask me. Any reasonable person would answer that she should fight for her life and even if she would have been religious. Prayer, if there is a God and if it does what ever it feels like then what's the point of praying anyways? It seems to me that prayer at best is a way of trying to calm down.
We can't be 100% sure if there is a God, and we can't be 100% sure if there is an afterlife but we know that we exist here and now. I'm taking some sort of middle-approach, having said that I'm not a fan of when people get together and say that This is what we believe in based on some God.
All darkness carries a spark of Light. ((HUG))
I LIKE your idea of 'referencing' Ripley!! It honors the character, actress and the creators of the franchise...yet allows things to evolve and progress forward and in new directions!!
My reasons for loathing Hill and Giler are because they always kibbitz and screw around with the franchise, and don't know what they're doing, while simultaneously spitting on O'Bannon. They're a pair of disrespectful, fan-hating clods who should Retire...or BE Retired as they are dinosaurs who bring nothing new, good, fresh or interesting to the table.
Also, on a personal level...they're total pricks.
I will be playing 'Less Is More' with The Alien, I seek to give it back it's Mojo, it's Mystique and Enigmatic scariness. I will be very, very diamond-cutter careful with any elements of 'Alien Perspective' in my works in accordance to that.
I have a LOT of development work done regarding The Alien...where it came from, what kind of planetary biosphere could create it, how it's biology and physiology work, etc, etc. I dug deep and put in a massive amount of work to figure this critter out.
Someday I might publish all that as 'Mysteries Of The Alien'...but not anytime soon.
ORIGIN will give you and everyone else a glimpse of where it came from, and why facehuggers have the ability to secrete acid from their ovipositor to burn through a faceplate...there is an evolutionarily-adaptive reason for that, I assure you. :D
ORIGIN is a stubborn, demanding work...it accepts nothing less than my absolute best effort, and that is exhausting, so progress is made, but slowly.
....and David's knock-off-a-morph AIN'T The Alien.
Not to me, anyways.
BlackAnt cheer up, mate. This thing is going to last so we have to learn to live with it.
If it will last another two years I won't be surprised to see some people worship it, find some reason for its existence and so on.
Just wear the face mask, wash your hands and don't hug anybody else except your friends here, on this forum. If you could help somebody in a more desperate situation than yourself, you will feel a lot better.
Sharpen you survival instincts.
We'll get over it. And if we don't, maybe it is for the best. There's nothing good on the horizon, so let's do the best of today.
Thank-you! Things are looking promising. I've also switched over to a zero carb diet, with an eye towards making The Enemy less able to access food (blood transported carbs). No one's sure if it'll have any measureable effect, but the opinion is it's worth a try.
I want to kill this thing, because I hate what it's doing to the people I love--stressing them out, making them worry, some are scared they'll lose me.
I understand where they're coming from...but I hate that they are going through this misery, and I am very much looking fwd to the day this little monster gets 'Death Starred'. :D
Exactly, hypersleep itself is actually one of the horrible aspects of life in the ALIENuniverse.
You lose not time, but connection.
Months, years...weddings, births, deaths...milestones in the lives of loved-ones and you miss it.
Your loved ones age, and you almost don't...which can create envy and friction and problems, as we all know what people are like, right?
Eventually, your ship and crew become the only home and family possible for you to have.
I intend to do a Vignette or short that addresses this, but thus far it needs to 'gel' with a stronger idea to lead it as it's just not solid enough to base a story on by itself I feel...not for me anyways.
I dont really want this to become another (WHAT REALLY) was Wrong with the Prequels Debate or a David could NOT have Created it Debate as those have been more COOKED than the Xenomorph ;)
I have read ADFs' book and how the teardrop/shard ship at the pole shielded the planet. Personally, I don't like the idea of a "planet-wide shield" which prevents taking of (but not landing LOL) or even render a whole planet invisible (why could they see it all of a sudden when they were hit by the neutrino explosion?) or make the atmosphere look inhabitable respectively*, so I'm glad they didn't put it in the movie. It just seems dull to me.
There's a much more plausible answer and I hope that RS goes for it (if a sequel is ever to be made):
1) The crew of the Covenant didn't know about Planet 4.
2) Weyland-Yutani is a shady, evil, ruthless Company.
3) What a coincidence, that Planet 4 is just on the way to Origae-6.
4) What an even bigger coincidence, that the "neutrino explosion" (why not just make it a Super Nova; Neutrinos are interacting with matter very veeeeeeery weakly *facepalm*) happens right before Planet 4s doorstep.
5) What a coincidence that of all cryo-pods it is the captains cryo-pod that malfunctions.
6) In the additional content we saw that David has made video messages, in which he explains the goo, the Engineers and so on. These video messages were addressed at WY.
7) At the end of AC mother addresses David, saying "Hello David" and "Yes David". Why is she cool with him being on board? There shouldn't be a David-unit on board?! Why is she accepting his security code (and don't tell me, that he has hacked Mother; you could assume that - being the board computer on a interstellar colonizing-mission - she has an invincible firewall)?
If you count 1-7, then the most fun explanation would be, that David has contacted WY from Planet 4 via encrypted radio transmission. He told them what he has found. WY then looked for Planet 4, found it and then deleted it from their star maps to make sure, nobody but them would find it. They then chose a star, that is in the direction of Planet 4 (Origae-6) and pretended, that they would send the Covenant there while giving Mother a secret order (Order 936 LOL) to halt close to Planet 4 (what a coincidence, that the ships' batteries were empty and they had to recharge them just close enough to receive Davids signal) and pick up David. That is why Mother accepted his security codes.
I know, I know... This story also has some plot-holes. For example why pretend to send a colonizing-mission and not just send a secret mission full of WY officers, androids and security personal to Planet 4? I. m. h. o. this whole "neutrino explosion" is just to stupid. There are only two ways that could work:
1) RS should have indicated that David was seeing the Covenant approach (via the Engineers' telescopes). He realized that they didn't seem to notice his signal as they weren't slowing down. So he then brought about the neutrino explosion (via the Engineers' miracle technology) in order to bring them to a halt and finally notice his signal.
2) Just leave the neutrino explosion out and have the Covenant receive Shaws/Davids signal. Mother then would wake them up and they would go investigate - just like in "Alien".
Either way - for it to be pure chance that the Covenant, on course to Origae-6, was hit by a neutrino explosion just short of Planet 4 - which coincidentally is right on the way to Origae-6 - just surpasses my suspension of disbelieve.
I am one hell of a Alien-fan but as much as it pains me I have to say that AC was one big mistake. He has written the Alien-franchise into a corner. You can destroy the mystery surrounding the Space Jockey, if you replace it with a new mystery: the Engineers - god-like beings, traveling through the universe for millions and billions of years, terraforming thousands and thousands of planets, creating and destroying life on them. It then is almost irrelevant weather they found the Alien or if they created it. But what you can't do is to destroy the mystery and the nimbus surrounding the Engineers... and then replace it with nothing but a malfunctioning, crazy robot AND THEN EVEN MAKE HIM THE CREATOR OF THE ALIEN.
*The most credible explanation would be, that the shield surrounding the planet would distort the spectral band from seen at a distance, as to make the atmosphere look inhabitable in a spectographic analysis. This way they could have seen the planet but would have dismissed it as a candidate because of unsuitable atmosphere. But this explanation would be to difficult for a lay-audience from the US I guess.
Dhogmeat:
You can have it as a part of the movie but you don’t need to, there are many things that affect humans that could work as a part of the story. I like how they dealt with the religious thing in Alien 3 or their ideas about God if you want to call it so but the prisoners could have dealt with that in another way or the themes could have been different (imagine if they had a traditional script). They tried some sort of idea about God to become better people.
You can have existential questions without throwing in religion into the mix, people have different ways to deal with life. Making it work in a movie depends on the writing and what parts that you put in. Having your faith crushed in the alien-verse seems to fit because bad things happen and people die.
It's very simple. Zeta Reticuli is about 39,5 lightyears away from Sol.
Beteigeuze (upper left star in the Orion constellation) is about 700 lightyears away, Rigel (lower right star in the Orion constellation) is about 800 lightyears away.
In the scene in Prometheus it is shown, that the LV-223 system is way more distant than the stars of the Orion constellation. Moreover Holloway says "[...] that system has a sun" (one star). Zeta Reticuli is a binary star-system (two stars).
This leaves us with two options:
a) LV-223 is not in the same system as LV-426.
b) LV-223 is in the same system as LV-426 - in the Zeta Reticuli system. Then of course the animated star map is wrong (could be that RS just inserted Orion there to give the audience something they know, since Orion is the most known (and arguably the most beautiful) constellation, as well as to give them a feeling of great distance) and Holloways description ("a star") is wrong as well.
I started a topic on this almost 3 years ago.
http://www.alien-covenant.com/topic/47325
There are arguments on both sides (for example a binary star system being the first one to show up as soon as David starts the Engineers' star map hologram and LV-223 being a moon orbiting a gas-giant vs. the things mentioned above, like LV-223 being to far away to be in the Zeta Reticuli system).
I think the most probable answer is, that the writers/RS simply overlooked this or rather didn't know what they were doing.
I'd rather avoid religion and matters of faith when it comes to exploring strange alien ruins or cultures, but I do like it when you consider, YOU, the humans inflict your religious ideas upon these poor alien monsters, despots, killer creatures and whatnot. When you ask the religious question, 'why am I here' 'does God exist' you get the answer you dreaded. 'Nope don't care, never heard of em, sorry' not only are you promptly expunged, but you had your faith crushed aswell! I think that's acceptable in the alien universe. :-)
Leto:
"I am not going to get into an argument, I will only say 2 facts..."
That's fine, I'm not mad at you. I just think that the discussion is interesting.
I agree with the first one, faith is personal.
1 Religion is a set of rules that has got to do with some beliefs in a God and a lot of them usually don't have a lot to do with if it exists or not. You don’t need rituals or to gather in some place with others to believe in a spirit or whatever you might think that it is.
2 Science is without a doubt better as a way to understand things than old books or believe in what ever unseen thing in the sky. When it comes to science you try to gather information in a way that makes sense and using that as a foundation to come up with conclusions. You can believe in a God that has created our ideas and so on to try to understand our world that it has created, I don’t say that I believe in God just to be clear. Now I might understand what you say, the core word here seems to be believe. Science is what we have to understand the world, I don’t think that believe is a good word to describe it.
I am not going to get into an argument, I will only say 2 facts:
1) As Blackwinter-witch said - Faith and Religion are two seperate things.
2) You can't believe in science. Science reflects reality and exists regardless of your beliefs. If tomorrow you stop believing in science, science will not cease to exist. Cars won't stop, gravity will not disappear and the Sun will not go out.
BWW:
You mentioned what could happen to you, your friends, and so on during hyper sleep. This reminds me of Aliens and what happened to Amanda. As far as I remember it Ripley woke up from hyper-sleep and Amanda was dead.
Shout out to everyone.....anyone seen BD lately?
Sincerely hope everyone is doing the best they can in these most uncertain of times with this ???? war on humanity - the plague!!! I do not want to say the word prayer; but, I would like to extend the good intentions of health, strength, patients, peace where ever you can find it, dignity with this devil upon us all, better sleep, also better financial success, and much love....we could all use more love.
I am seven months into this as well as the rest of you...and it is with a heavy heart as well as an unperfect soul that my weaknesses find me each day....they penetrate slowly, wading into my consciousness silently to tell me, "why bother," "why does any of it matter," and the worst one of all echoing somewhere deep within - with a foul disdain inside myself is "there is just so much more darkness to come no matter what you do."
Some days are so dark for me on the inside...I look out upon what should be bright sunny days. They are not! It is a horrible maddening black hissing sea of an endless dark tangle. A horrible vortex of dark shapes in the distance with sounds the tongues of serpents cursing the land. I dare not get close to the edge of it for fear I might fall in permanently or be seduced by the sheer weight of the true magnitude of the horrible despair of it all.
I find no solace in any news of any kind, nor is there any levity in my dreams. The nights are long and the brightness of each day diminished.....and I wake up each new day to just another compounding nightmare which is this entire thing we are all in....but here at least, for a little bit I like to read your replies to my ramblings and find some solace in just some small recogonition....so it is with the most humble of affection that I come here looking for like minded travelers amongst the immensity of the evil of this thing.
If anyone of you has a flashlight or can see any hope in any of this then please shine some light on it - it would be much appreciated....maybe I am just the fool and should seek false contentment as I tell myself untruths to make it easier to tell myself it is going to get better....right now though part of me just says it will never get better this is how it will be.....and this thing just keeps hunting us all waiting for each of us in the darkness just beyond.
And so down and down a very dark rabbit hole we all go.
For me actually because of all the demonic things H.R. Giger depicted in his art....I feel it most intrinsically - almost instinctually every time I watch Alien.....for me the film is almost supernatural in a way....I know what the Alien is.....it is a horrible demon laying in wait...to tear at the flesh...to destroy man!
For me the movie always has an unholy and completely spiritual aspect....a type of demonic possession of something alive but not entirely....making it so much harder to kill. This is an inner working and introspection into my soul - the logic of my being - the clockwork of my burdened mind.
I watched part of Alien just last week and had to turn it off....the real demon lurking outside all our doors was howling too loud.....so I just got on the computer instead.
I am surprised the parallels have not come up before...the quarantine has been broken in all our cities and been infected with this dark Spector - this killer....it keeps taking everything from all of us slowly and silently - day by day....for me there is an evilness to it all - no where to hide - no ship to even escape to....something you cannot quite see but you know it is there lurking in the darkness waiting for you to make your mistake with it.
I wish I had something more uplifting to say but I do not. This is definitely not our system....and home seems impossibly far away if we can ever get back there safely at all.
Hold my hand tightly AND DO NOT LET GO WHAT EVER YOU ALL DO! We should fight this demon together or go down trying; but, what ever we do we must not give into it for a single second nor ever let it win!
This thing is out there now waiting silently for us all!
Roger G: Don’t worry, I watch that crap (RBW 2). LMAO!
Roger G:
“... it is essential to clarify that it is not about those elements”
I totally agree, that's why I wrote that:
“All of this should have to do with the human existence... ”
I'm not a writer but I have many ideas. To me it has never been about the Xeno itself but rather about how human beings handle situations that they are poorly equipped to deal with, then you can add themes to that. The themes themselves shouldn't be the main-thing in the movie, the story and characters are more important. When you mostly care about the themes that's when you get a alien-prequel and we know how they have turned out.
“... crushing your brains!”
That sounds like something that the Engineer could have done in Prometheus. If he can kill them by throwing them away like he did when they started to shoot at him then imagine what a kick would do.
Another idea that I kind of wondered about is if they try to expand into getting robot-soldiers. This could be a little bit like Terminator but if WY could use the Xenos to do things for example how they had defense-contracts under the military (AR brought this up, not a good movie but the idea isn’t bad) then a company with contracts for similar aims could be involved also.
WY use androids for what ever but if they can do androids then they can expand into making robots like soldiers. Keep the company as a sort of Alien-link so it would be- Alien-WY-androids-robots and robots like soldiers. I must stress that this isn't the same as the robots getting conscious about their self which would be too much like AC but rather to have them as programmed to do X. This kind of ties into 4 but that they try to keep the costs down for staff doing that work and replace it with robots. What does this say about laws, how we look at humans, how we want our justice-system to look like, and similar things. Who would accept to manufacture things for that aim and how do they think both those that decide to replace humans with technology and those that decide to manufacture them. It is about human ethics, power, and how we value things.
You wouldn't need WY if you don't want to, just another company similar to that. I mentioned the police before but this would be the military. I looked it up, there is a genres called Legal Thriller which this could be loosely. Maybe it could be part sci-fi, part horror, and part legal thriller. You pick out pieces of the genres that make sense and try to make a mix of it and put it in the alien-verse and look what will happen but it got to fit as a whole. I just try to imagine what could maybe be possible.
Leto:
Did you mean this one that you said no to?
“Can the ALIEN Franchise Survive without the Xenomorph?”
The thing is that if you show that kind of monster too much then it might get old. You can do variations of it like there are different kinds of birds but they are still birds, the same goes for the Morph. You can have Xenomorphs, Neomorphs, and so on. One of things that AC did right was to have the Neomorph so there is a possibility for new things. Maybe your complaint about getting rid of the Xeno was a misunderstanding of language at least partially even though that's understandable. Adding new monsters is something that I think that the prequels did right. I understand that some people want to see Xenos again but I'm not one of those people. Sure they can be added but they don't have to. People watch these movies for different reasons. The alien-movies need more than interesting monsters to succeed.
Scott might be half-right when he says that the Xeno is done. You don't need to show it that much (it becomes more effective that way) but it can still be there. The way that it was in AC where it was in the daylight on the crane was really bad although it was maybe alright as a piece of action although too short. If he had cared about that as much as he cared about the flute-fetischism then it could have been interesting. What I don't like is that it has turned into a story about androids without much of a balance, that's crap. Not sure if Scott alone is to blame for the focus on androids or if there are other people responsible for the mess too. Remember that Scott is just one of those that are involved although his obsession with David isn't good. He isn't without blame but there could be other people involved that affected the story too is my point.
People watch the movies for different reasons, I don't watch it for the Xenos alone but they are important parts and are well designed but I think that there is also place for something else. For example would you like to have a lot of Star Wars movies where they always have the Emperor just because he was an important part in the first two movies? Star Wars is just and example but I bet that you can take other things like The Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, whatever. I would not and I'm glad that the prequels at least tried something new even though we can discuss if they were successful or not. My opinion is that none of Prometheus or Covenant are better than a 2 out of 5 which isn't good but not a disaster either.
I looked up what the word Alien means, one of the things that it said was “coming from another world”. This fits the various alien-monsters in the franchise and also I might add the Engineers since they are not from earth too. Nowhere in the title does it say that it has got to be about the Xeno only, it just had a big role if we look at the first three movies. My reason for limiting it to the first three is that they are those that I prefer. At this time I'm honestly more interested in seeing more about the Engineers even though the morphs are interesting too.
You mentioned books and other things, yes that can be seen as a success financially but it can also be seen as a regress since the Xeno becomes all too familiar and looses its point. I can see both sides of this, there are different ways to look at it so I kind of understand where both you and BD are coming from.
Ridley isn't always right but he isn't always wrong either. He is right about the Xeno that you can have other monsters but he is dead wrong about turning it all into a story about David and androids. I don't care about Raised By Wolves, my criticism of that is similar to what I said about AC.
BWW: You can have it in some of your stories but I think that you're right about leaving it alone for a bit. I would rather have stories where they try something else. What you wrote about Giler and Hill might be an exaggeration but I totally understand your point. Not sure what they did to make you that disappointed but art is subjective and no one can agree with everything.
You're right about Ripley, time for something else. She did well in three movies, but they should have left her after that. We don't need a Skywalker-story in the alien-verse. The franchise has many potential directions that it can go into, there is no reason to have the same old family in everything.
I have an idea that is tied to Ripley in a way that you might agree with, let's say that there are economic interests that still want the Xeno or something else for whatever reason so there is some sort of resistance-group that is being organized against that. Those interests could be compared to Sky net and how far the reached they were, obviously this isn't about robots or terminators I just mean the range of it.
What if Ripley is referenced to as a source of inspiration? The ghost/spirit of Ripley is around even though she has passed away years ago. Both Giger and OBannon are not around, but they are still being mentioned in discussions and are important to how the franchise looks still so why can't Ripley being dealt with in the same way?
Did you watch Rogue One that's within the Star Wars-universe? You also have the Mandalorian which is a spin-off, there was also something about the Ewoks in the 1980s. Star Wars Rebels is another one that is the same kind of thing. There is a possibility to do something similar with the Alien-franchise. Some people (not personally aimed at anyone) might say that the Alien-franchise isn't suited for that but I say why not?
Leto:
“Alien and Aliens are undeniably the best films in the franchise. Gold standard. It is an indisputable truth.”
Not to me, I prefer Alien 3 over them, with Alien being a close second. Aliens is third on my list even though I think that it's a good movie. Maybe among fans in general Alien and Aliens are those that most people prefer and some might still be annoyed with how Alien 3 handled some things but it doesn't matter to me, 3 is still my favorite. Some people might prefer the prequels over the originals which is fine but it's not my way to look at it. In case someone prefer the prequels then let them do so.
“... why are you so interested in religious themes in Alien?”
Religion is a way it seems to try and understand our place in the universe. We see that in Alien 3 but I also think that if people get thrown into scary situations where they become afraid of death (think Alien), they they might turn to religion in a way to feel better. The religious angle wasn't obvious in Alien but it can make you think about those questions so to speak.
You don't need to be religious to find it interesting since so many have some sort of belief in God or whatever to call it. I don't think that the series started to go down-hill because of religious themes but rather from poor characters. As far as science and religion goes you can believe more or less in God or science, you can make a mix of them like saying that God created earth but that it also created an intellect for us to try to understand our existence. Maybe it depends on how much weight that you give to some super-existence and science but you can probably combine them. Not to say that it's my way of looking at it but I say that it's a possibility.
“It would be nice to see the factories and technologies of the Engineers.”
Absolutely, that would be very interesting to see in a movie. We saw Planet 4 and even though that was underwhelming to say the least we could see some of the things, like the hall of heads. I imagine that there are a lot of things that the Engineers have created. Those in Prometheus are more interesting than those in Covenant. When I'm still writing about it I guess that the Engineers are both scientifically advanced and technologically. Hopefully there will be more about those in Prometheus in a third prequel if there will be one compared to those on Planet 4. A third prequel seems unlikely but in case there will be one I hope to see the Prometheus-version. Maybe there are other Engineers that we haven't see this far? Thinking about it is interesting even though I'm not sure what they would be like.
About social issues I guess that it has always been reflected in alien-movies in one way or another so I don't see any reason why that can't be the case now especially with the corona-situation and that. I would rather say that it's the perfect time. You don't need to be in your face with it.
I think that you can have a balance of both, you just have to find it. Both these things seem to be a constant source for different thoughts so why not? Maybe there is even a third or fourth thing that you can inject into it? To not have a perfect answer to it seems to me to be a reason to do dig deeper into it about what can be done.
You will never satisfy everyone, there is always someone that will complain. I know that I have my complaints about everything that has come after Alien 3.
Not sure if it has been about religion in the first two movies although I guess that there are parts that could be interpreted in that way even though that wasn't the intention of the writers.
What's on the table? I guess this one:
;)
In space no one can help you.
No Such Thing as 'immaculate Conception'.
Facehuggers are rape-machines, pure and simple...there's nothing immaculate there at all.
i disagree...ALIEN is about the PHYSICAL...blood, flesh, and the reality of watching a crewmate get ripped open from the inside.
ALIEN...is about darkness, between the stars and in the human soul, as well as the aspects of Nature that Humans find scary. It's about coping with a galaxy that offers terrors and treasures that humans have a hard time coping with.
ALIEN is about...what is 'ALIEN'.
Except for a character called Kane. And an immaculate conception. And the Mother annex designed to look like a church vestibule with candles.
Raised by wolves is a sort of an adaptation of Prometheus 2: Paradise Lost.
Yes there is room for both. And more. There always has been right from the start.
There are some places in the space where you are not alone.
Things continue to look more and more promising for a swift strike to put an end to The Enemy.
November 13 is the day when I will sit very, very still with the Enemy at the nexus point of 120 beams of x-rays.
They keep saying the side-effects will be 'minimal' to 'negligible'...so we'll see.
I'm the test subject in a new approach, courtesy of my Husband who knows more about high-energy ionizing radiation and assorted 'mirrors' and 'lenses' for it than any thousand people in the medical profession.
They actually listened to him, a minor miracle, and he as well as a few friends of his have been working their fingers to the bone to get the new 'array' set up, tested and proven.
Every single test after the calibration firings has been spot-on.
If this works, it'll make radiation therapy VASTLY more effective, safer and almost eliminate side effects.
the side-effect exposure for me will be equal to about fifteen dental x-rays...roughly-speaking.
The Enemy will be subjected to a focused Holocaust.
I'm doing my part, taking my meds, herbal and others, doing all I can to handicap, weaken and endanger The Enemy.
In the end, it all comes down to this.
I don't trust in 'God'.
I put my Faith in Husband.
Husband will save me.
'God' won't.
'God' demands Faith...
...Husband EARNS it.
In Space....You Are Alone.
In space no one can hear your prayer.
or
In space no one will know what you believe.
or
In space no one cares about your faith.
Absolutely excellent!
I think you really nailed the key and central point about religion and such within the ALIENverse and the problems with it!!
Loved your points on Prometheus, I've never thought about it that way before!
The simple answer to your question is that whilst Alien stories may have characters in who have a religious faith, the stories do not need to be themed within the context of exploring where the Dragon fits into a religious environment.
Religion even the word is a signaller for distraction within modern cinema it makes executives nervous because much of their audience will see their belief system being interfered with whilst others who do not believe are distracted by their antagonism. It gets in the way of making a successful movie.
Prometheus is a case in point. Part of the crew and part of the audience watching think it's about religion. It's not its about creation. What it tries to do is use the motifs of religion as a form of communication and reset what creation might be. The gifting of the catalyser to the monk-like cloaked sacrificial personality is a riff on communion. Cavalorn wrote about this years ago, over and over religion is riffed but what they discover is not religion. It's an inversion but for many who do not like allegory or do not function on symbolism, they take it literally. Oh, it's a religious story, it is not.
Prometheus is anti-religion in that Elizabeth is as hubristic as Weyland and arguably suffers more. She is not punished by God there is no God she is punished by self-flagellation.
When I wrote my extension I carried all those notions on. She finds the truth is horrific we are created by technocrats who made their own rules up who punted us. It may dawn on the reader and in a sense, in the end, Elizabeth finds out the truth, but all the myths that we create are a fragment of an entirely different truth.
So where does Christ fit in? He doesn't his action on the cross was a wild guess where he was mostly wrong much the same as Elizabeth. Is that horrific to believers but not non-believers who knows?
David knows the truth because he is the truth, creation is the result of a function. The purpose of creation is to make sense of the emptiness that is all.
Mankind's view of the dragon is it's special, unique, just as in the real world we think we are special and unique. In Prometheus the movie we are an unintended consequence so why not make the dragon the same. But that was just me.
We don't have to worship anything even the dragon.
But I think at a simple entertainment level its best to keep giving the dragon a religious context out of the equation, it subverts the fans worship of it.
Conversations at Home with RAISED BY WOLVES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZm7xNPdsFA
...and a souvenir
Aliens-Vampirella
https://getcomics.info/other-comics/aliens-vampirella-1-6-2015-digital/
Good topic, been enjoying the back-and-forth!
Great points, all- thanks!
You make some excellent points that I fully agree with and see the basis of.
There's also the point that Faith and Religion are two seperate things. Genuine Faith is powerful, and many confuse faith with piety...when they could not be more different.
Religion...is akin to and kissing-cousin to politics. It's made by man's overwhelming desire for power/authority/control and criminal scammery.
Religion, is entirely hypocritical, and utterly nonsensical. The Abrahamic cults are the worst and exemplify my claims daily.
Religion is an insanely destructive (proven by history) atavism best left behind in the dust. It's as bad as Marxism and all it's derivations in terms of lives taken by it over history and sheer destruction brought about.
Faith...is Personal, and it's wellspring is one's soul.
Jesus spoke of Faith.
Man speaks of Religion.
They're are unconnected and indeed polar-opposites.
Faith in sci-fi...okay, sure, provided it is handled Properly, and correctly.
BUT it always becomes about RELIGION instead of Faith...and religion really has no place in sci-fi except rarely and absolutely NO place in ALIEN.
...Just my thoughts and 2 penny's worth.
