Hammerpede + Deacon = Xenomorph

fu3lman
MemberOvomorphJuly 07, 20123175 Views26 RepliesI had articulated a very, very long and well thought-out thread to try and kick this discussion into gear, and for whatever reason the page decided to log me out without notice and I lost every bit of it upon hitting 'start discussion', so I'll give you the short version and hope you can fill in the gaps.
Short Version: When I see a traditional xenomorph, it's pupae, or it's egg, I see a combination of deacon and hammerpede.
- Hammerpede had acid for blood. Deacon had 'reddish' mouthparts, insinuating human-like blood, and not Mountain Dew.
- Traditional facehugger is practically half hammerpede, half cuddles. I'll gladly go into more detail if asked.
- Traditional xenomorph having 'segmented' physiology, particularly the tail (something the deacon doesn't have at all), and the 'veins' lining its body.
- The egg-based lifecycle (as demonstrated in Alien) is a pretty 'wormy' sort of thing.
- The physiology of the egg. Those 'lips' that open up. They're right there on cuddles when she's getting ready to hump grumpys word-hole.
There's a lot more but I'm too tired to remember them. I'm pretty sure there's enough here to at least get a good conversation started...or at least get 953 responses telling me I'm not the first one to notice this, or that I should use the search feature, or that this movie sucks for whatever reason and I'm reading into it far too much.
July 07, 2012
Worth mentioning is that the deacon was, essentially, left alone to wander a planet where the only other known living organism was a hammerpede or two, and 50 gallons of spilled Quakerstate, and it probably doesn't care that much about deacons lineage, just that it wants to snuggle up in his face.
EDIT: The engineers appear to be 'wearing' suits that consist of nothing more than their own genetically manipulated flesh. This artificial 'trait' may very well be why the xenomorphs have a bio-mech physiology to begin with, and tend to be, to quote Ash "one tough sonofabitch". It's entirely possible that the engineer-suit genetic information was 'expressed', for whatever reason, later than the deacons generation...or at least that state of its lifecycle. This one possibility fascinates the hell out of me; artificially engineered traits with obvious artificial origins somehow finding their way into the natural physiology of an organism. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be disappointed if this weren't the case.
July 07, 2012
Your observations really make sense. But I think the xenomorph is older than the hammerpedes, the deacon and even the black liquid, unlike some theories that represent the xenomorph as a product of black liquid and another creature.
My guess is that the xenomorph was the engineer's first weapon, since the derelict with xenomorph eggs seemed very old. The black liquid is a new weapon they're developing in their militar base in LV-223.
Have you heard of phoenix asteroids?
They glow in every color of the rainbow...they travel endlessly through space...
July 07, 2012
@Jigsaw (Xenomorph 54)
I also believe that, while it may not necessarily be [i]the[/i] start, the, "xenomorph" is far closer to the start of a sequence of events than it is to the end of that sequence of events.
@fu3lman
On your final point: Exactly.
The instant I saw that ugly spike-headed thing - where the impression was given that it was to be left alone, to wander at will and shove it's pointy face into business that doesn't concern it - the thought went through my head that, surely, the first or second thing it is going to do is wander into that temple and either, get its throat immediately stuffed, up to the teeth, with Hammerpede; or, ignorantly dip its claw into the rivers of goo flowing through the place and so get itself transmutated before it even knows what day of the week it is.
Presumably, the transmutated version doomed to make exactly the same mistake at some point, and ad infinitum.
Unless, of course, the ugly spike-headed thing somehow magically knows to avoid Hammerpedes and goo and every place where Hammerpedes and goo are likely to be, or some other little piece of plot is slapped on to save the day, ensuring that it somehow has a reason to stay away from the places where 'Pedes 'n' goo are likely to be - which, unfortunately, would seem to be the only other places in the area it is possible to visit, apart from bits of Human vehicle wreckage...
Or, perhaps a reason will be given to make it immune to 'Pedes 'n' goo, when nothing else seems to be.
July 07, 2012
I originally thought that too Xeno54, but it actually makes more sense if you think about it this way...
- The Engineers create the Black substance to seed life on primordial worlds
- Purpose to add to their genome via their children (us-explains their visits)
- Plan changes, they decide to take our DNA by force
- LV-223, former temple converted into an outpost, Xenomorph DNA created, sourced from Engineer DNA (Black Liquid) combined with the "Seed", deployed using the urns.
- Plan goes ahead and works beautifully.
- Craft lands on LV-223 picks up urns heads off to target plan and deploys the urns.
- Craft waits in orbit as the Xenomorphs use up all viable hosts and inevitably die.
- Craft returns, picks up eggs and sets off to LV-223/Engineer home world/system.
- An egg hatches, Facehugger loose and jumps the lone pilot
- craft autopilots down onto LV-426
- Engineer wakes up, realizes whats inside him and starts the beacon
- LV-223, next target Earth, Engineers prepare
- Urns accidentally triggered, Engineer infected, LV-223 quarantined
- Under quarantine 4 Engineers enter hyper-sleep, 3 die because of infection, 1 survives
- Xmas day 2093, humans land on LV-223
If you haven't already check my thread on the [url=http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/7023]Black Liquid[/url].
July 07, 2012
OK, S-bottom, you lost me big time...
However, getting back to 'Pede + Deacon = Xono: can't be true because there was a mural of a Xeno in the Goo Chamber -- so Xenos already existed.
July 07, 2012
I completely get all the different explanations, my only issue was reconciling a segmented, biomech, acidic xeno with -anything- that the deacon was/is in ways that tend to be too 'specific' for ambiguous explanations, the most common of which being 'That's just what the goo does'.
I think the acidic blood tends to be my biggest point of contention, as there was no reason given to insinuate the deacon was acidic, and likewise, acid blood was only demonstrated as a characteristic of hammerpede (or indirectly, the worms; indigenous or not). It would then stand to reason that the two traits had to have crossed genetic paths at some point.
July 07, 2012
"However, getting back to 'Pede + Deacon = Xono: can't be true because there was a mural of a Xeno in the Goo Chamber -- so Xenos already existed."
Thought about that too, and it's just as possible that what we're looking at on the mural is a deacon, and not a proper xeno. In my opinion, it favors a deacon a bit more than xeno, and would still lend credence to my hypothesis, but I honestly don't have a dog in this fight, I just like finding excuses to nerd-out.
July 07, 2012
Are you two saying that "all goo leads to xenos"? If so, then why does it have a "life-giving" effect on the suicidal Engineer?
July 07, 2012
OK S-bottom, I clicked and then read 4 pages of Solar System lingo; but no mention of the Black Liquid...
July 07, 2012
*()&*(@#$!()*$ Like so many on this site, I too fell victim to being timed out after atetmpting to post a lengthy reply!!!!!!
*(&@#$!$&*@#$!#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK, peanut version now:
A. There is no proof that the goo in the glass vials is different from the goo that seems to surround the vials. After all, two "identical" hosts (the Seeding Engineer and Holloway; identical DNA, anyway) ostensibly ingested the same material and one "seeded" a planet within minutes while the other took hours and hours to begin a zombie-like transformation, like Fifield did.
B. I believe it's too great a stretch to conclude that eggs for harvesting facehuggers would result from an ostensible bombarding of Earth circa 1 B.C. or A.D. Just one reason: there's no evidence xenos "die off" when there are no hosts available (e.g., eggs seemingly abandoned on LV-426 were still viable eons later). Also, what "good" are facehuggers to Engineers -- other than to produce Engineerian-ish Aliens?
July 07, 2012
okay glad you read it...
Firstly A. you answer with your proof to that of which you claim there is no proof - in other words... if the substance inside the vials was the same as the rest, why have the vials in the first place.
Also the substance inside the vials is more clumpy and broken, whereas the substance outside the vials is more drooly and slimy. But the point remains that we have two substances, for if there wasn't then there would be no need for the vials.
Holloway was infected in the same as the Engineer, but not the same as Fifield. Holloway did not mutate, but slowly began to deteriorate like the Engineer (falling over, intense pain, black veins). this is because they both consumed the substance within the vials.
Fifield on the other hand was infected by a combination of both substances, same as the hammerpede, which explains his mutation.
Aliens propagate using hosts to incubate their young. They cannot add to their numbers without hosts. Therefore if they exhausted their supply of hosts they could not add to there numbers and would eventually, inevitably die, with only their eggs remaining to be gathered by an Engineer craft (a la the derelict craft on LV-426).
As for why the Engineers want the eggs, it is hypothesized in the thread that they may extract the DNA (which the Aliens have extracted from their hosts and handed down genetically to the facehugger) to add to their own. While this is a theory, it does fit in with the themes of sex, reproduction, DNA and mutation present not only in Prometheus, but all the Alien movies.
July 07, 2012
For the deacon to have ever existed before Prometheus takes place, the engineers would have had to manufacture the cuddles creature. Given its size and the look on the engineers face when he meets him, i dont think hes ever seen a cuddles. Too many things have to happen(DNA) to recreate a deacon, i think it was by chance it was even made.
July 07, 2012
It will be interesting to see what kind of trouble that goofy little deacon gets into in the sequel, given that there's a distinct lack of amusement parks and/or haunted houses, and a surplus of weaponized fish-bait waiting to dry hump his second jaw.
If the xeno isn't the result of deac-and-pede, I'm cool with that, and am anxious to see the results, but I'm callin' it right now, if for no other reason than the movie seems to be setting those rascals up for a collision by merit of having literally nothing else for them to do after the credits roll.
EDIT: Anyone else notice the engineer ships 'arms' almost look like a deacon and hammerpede coming face-to-face?