After some thought I have decided to reverse my opinion regarding eggs transform

first the urn and then the rooster :D

Simplest way to reconcile both life cycles is the exceedingly old theory that in order to start a hive, a non-Queen can morph a host into an egg and that egg will bear a hugger that can produce a Queen. Though that isn't quite what was happening on the Nostromo.

I think the urns are kind of like the offspring as well as ceremonial offerings... and some of the male leaning hermaphrodites that could turn into Kings might even be devoured and morphed by the Praetorian morpher before she completes her cycle and molts to the Queen. That's the thing, there might be a repressing thing going on with the actual genetics. And there might be hermaphrodites that seem more like males or females. Ones that can actually fertilize themselves and those that can't, and have to inject something and morph it with the male side. But still contain both parts.

Aliens don't need kings.

IMO the victims of black goo will give rise to a hermaphrodite xenomorph-like-creature. Then this being begins to capture other life forms to turn them into eggs. From this small group one of the drones evolves into a Praetorian and then in a Queen, and now we have a colony. Finaly the queen can lay eggs with royal facehugger to create more colonies and expand the race.

In the urns I see a mixture of the black goo and alien genetics where the old genetics, with a predisposition towards the Queen and egg laying method, has been broken down, diluted, and rearranged and combined in different ratios. In essence re-born like we were from the original Engineer genetics, but this time with a different sexual order programmed into the genetics. To produce male leaning hermaphrodites that lead to more warriors, longer lifespans for male leaning hermaphrodites (the original alien dying), and the long term appearance of Kings. Kings would normally be killed/morphed/devoured by the Queen before we ever see a hive... Sort of like in black widows and preying mantises.... Not to really bring up the bug thing too much, but even the original parts of the lifecycles were based on certain bugs and parasites. With the morphing thing there's one creature that actually turns its victims into almost living zombies who carry the parasite until it hatches a number of small eggs out of them...

What purpose does a king serve?

But anyway the creature resulting from the urns could evolve into a queen instead of wrapping his victims in cocoons. Who knows, my comment above is because maybe Ridley want to restore his original idea, as well as some old ideas of Dan O'Bannon were used to Prometheus.

[quote]What purpose does a king serve?[/quote] Good question, I think the Queen does not need a king.

The King would have always been there as a backup plan for when there are no Queens or no eggs. The original Alien can't produce eggs on its own and starts to resort to egg morphing until others are produced that can become a queen. It needs to stay mobile to protect the Queen because the queen will be stationary. But like human genetics with male or female, there's a chance a male leaning one will be produced and become a Deacon instead of a Praetorian. Normally it dies as soon as a Praetorian arises out of the first created and the Praetorian uses the King to become Queen and produce/morph/feed/impregnate her offspring... There's a freudian thing to that I won't go into too much. But basically the Queens don't only repress/rule the male side. They will actually cannibalize and morph it in the process of establishing dominance and eliminating the kings less effective method of reproduction. As more servants drones/workers become available. Once more Aliens and warriors are produced the Queen can remain stationary and begin laying more eggs that will all come out pre-fertilized because of the cannibalism of the male side.... But until that time its evolutionarily advantageous for the King to remain highly mobile, and driven on instinct. Not able to have complete control over his drones... Born into the world ready to keep morphing more victims. Taller then the Queen, but more agile mean and lean. Even bigger if born from an Engineer originally. Every Queen needs a King. And vice versa. That's what I was hinting at with the fertilizing of the egg thing, and how Shaw giving birth isn't a miracle. It's science fiction. This is all about the joining of the female and male side... "how the mommy and daddy meet" The daddy in this case might be a lot bigger. In Engineers it's the opposite... Sexual dimorphism is something that means on average the males, or females in a species are vastly different in size and appearance from the other sex. They can even start to grow completely apart and start evolving separate traits... In the Engineer species the females would be larger. They're missing their Queens too. The true creators of life. The female side.

All this is based on...?

well If the first Queen lays eggs with royal facehuggers to create more colonies, then this first queen can evolve into a king to control the new colonies. Though maybe a warrior can also evolve into a king.

@ThatSM, you have reason to doubt and [url=http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/King_Alien]here's[/url] your source lol, I think that also appears in a [url=http://avp.wikia.com/wiki/Rogue]comic[/url] but definitely not canon.

Well that settles it then! Kings are pointless.

I'm thinking the Praetorian starts to make all of the males obsolete and turns them into the male drones and warriors forcing them to serve/protect her and makes the morphing method obsolete. So both sexes are needed separate, combined, and they need to trade off power to ensure the creation of a successful hive. In honey bees the word drone has those male connotations, but the males are mere workers and unable to produce honey or sting. I base a lot of this on the Ultramorph concept, which could be what the Deacon grows into. Not only that: certain themes in Prometheus, like why the sex scene is there and the mixing occurs that way. How Vickers calls Weyland king and we have a new type of Alien coming into the mix. She says "a king has his reign... then he dies, it's inevitable. The natural order of things." This may be foreshadowing. Not that Vickers knows, but Fox and Ridley may know exactly where they're going with some of the gender themes. Weyland wanted a son... He didn't want a daughter... Another thematic link. The auto med designed only for males... this symbolizes Shaw's struggle against the male only programming/genetics of the King... There's more but I also know things from conceptual stages. There could be a few different ways to take some of the king stuff... It may be King David we see running the company instead, or some combination of both storylines...

I agree that the xenomorph should have a kind of pre-gender role like its a hermie. If we consider that if the whole space jockey being impregnated by a hermaphroditic creature has to reproduce somehow because thats natures way. But the original canon about the humans or other creatures becoming the egg is to me a good idea but makes no sense in a way the movie is presented. The space jockeys are the makers or at least the gene manipulators of the creatures. Plus James Cameron did something that no one else would.....he changed the concept to make sense.

So it's more an abstract concept than an actual creature.

Does it matter whether its canon or not I mean I can understand AVP but Alien 3 not canon, come on!

and Who says that Alien 3 is not canon? lol I was referring to the King concept, that for now is not canonical and that link was just a source.

Mala'kak you need to stop making excuses for an outside movie script change. I see this from you all the time your making up stuff that Ridley Scott hasnt even invented but yet her you are spewing nonsense. There is symbolism in the movie about Vickers and Weyland but thats it. The whole king and queen thing just doesnt hold water when it comes to the actual movies. Your basing your ideas from a freakin comic-book. The king thing is Weyland NOT referring to the Engineers. The storyline has no such thing in it nor does the script. I think you make up these just so you sleep at night.