#analysis of alien covenant

[julianobungus]

Neomorphs are the 'peeled', natural versions of Xenomorphs, stripped of the psychosexual symbolism and design that permeates through them.

Spoilers for Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

Okay so, my headcanon/idea is that the Neomorphs are essentially the 'natural', or unaltered form of the xenomorphs which haven't been too altered by David's experiments.

That's not to say they haven't been engineered by David already, but to me, they feel like mainline Xenomorphs but *without* the symbolically-applied sexualised aesthetic (giant penis head, mouth dripping with pre, oral r@pe of facehugging).

The Xenomorph's life-cycle *feels* sexual, with every facet of it being akin to rape and reproduction... but the neomorph lifecycle doesn't come off as that; it's much less complex, being very cut-and-dry. Overall, it feels more focused on the organism's birth in a bloody, efficient way, rather than the Xenos' rigid reproduction plan and its quasi-sexual undertones.

I made a prior thread detailing my idea of the Xenomorphs' biomechanical design and sexualised aspects being a symbolic representation of David's repression, but brought to horrifying reality. The Xenomorph is the next step of the Alien's evolution, with David basically perfecting his creation: an animal that focuses on survival and procreation, but also kills all other life around it without judgement or abandon.

We can basically say that the Praetomorph (the 'Xenos' we see in Covenant) and the mainline Xenomorph are one in the same, with later iterations adopting the biomechanoid aesthetic of their grandfather, David 8.

Furthermore: The neomorph design was lifted from unused character designs from Prometheus, which would have included the 'Holloway Alien', or the 'Beluga-Xenomorph'. Much like the Neo, the Beluga-head was a pale white, non-mechanoid version of the Xeno, and was implied within the script (then titled Alien: Engineers) to be the natural, base form of the Xenomorph.

Carlos Huante, the original designer, intended for the monsters of Prometheus to stand in stark contrast to Giger's aesthetic, as the film canonically took place before the series: he wanted every creature to have a ghostly white visage, like a beluga swimming through the murky depths (paraphrased from him) - hence the albino, black-eyed look of the Engineers. As we can see, the Neomorph's design was influenced heavily by Huante's design of the Beluga-head - a creature intended to be the natural Xenomorph, free from genetic, specialised alteration for purposes of war or combat.

So, tl;dr The mainline Xenomorphs are symbolic stand-ins for David's sexual frustration and sociopathic tendencies/ideation, and the Neomorphs are the 'peeled' version of them; lacking those nuances and frustrations that their father would bestow to their brothers.

[captaingimpy]

Retrospective Essay: The Alien Franchise – A Journey Through Fear and Survival

Few film franchises can claim to have shaped science fiction and horror as profoundly as Alien. Since Ridley Scott’s original masterpiece premiered in 1979, the series has spanned over four decades, captivating audiences with its unique blend of terror, action, and existential musings. From claustrophobic corridors to sprawling alien worlds, each film in the franchise has experimented with tone…

[shutupineedtothink]

X files mini review/analysis 3x02 "Paper clip"

Coming as the final part of what is basically a trilogy of episodes starting with the s2 finale, this was easily the craziest ep and probably the best I've seen in the show so far. I actually watched it twice!

First of all this ep covers hella ground. The amount of stuff they packed in here from mulder showing back up and the Spiderman face off with Skinner to secret files on anyone and everyone apparently including our scully and Samantha mulder to wait there were aliens in there?? To Melissa Scullys death at the end and MS final convo + hug was crazy. With cameos from the lone gunmen, scullys mom, Albert, CSM, etc etc. Lots going on and it still felt coherent and well paced to me.

Some highlights:

- how did you know? I just knew. -> biggest "we are about to kiss" energy I've seen so far. Also i more or less predicted this scene before we saw it from previous episodes, but it was no less excellent.

- scully verbally gunning for nazis was not something I knew i needed until now, please do more

- secret rich guy organization is kinda meh overall but I like the British guy

- Albert is the real hero of this ep for flying to DC just to pray over Missy

- love an old spooky mine, very scooby doo of them

- also the music? Went off this ep

- scully is really sweet for her concern over what they will find about mulders dad, but sweetie this is not the time also this man is out for answers

- sassy Skinner is my favorite skinner

- the file room/mine area gives ark of the covenant vibes slightly

- i love that mulder is immediately looking for her file and then his sisters

- fox mulder do not leave your partner behind in the creepy mine to chase aliens

- omggg the aliens running past scully got me

- looove the spaceship rising through the windows

- so that was a fuckin ufo and we're just gonna move on cool cool cool

- this shootout was fun ngl, v 80s action movie energy

- hm they kinda just get away, I think it'd be fun if there were some leftover aliens that took out the swat guys

- they really just hitchhiked to this diner huh

- they both have food but neither are eating, that feels deliberate

- what are you hoping to find agent Mulder? Why they killed my father. And what happened to my sister. And what they did to agent scully. She's his Family!! My heart.

- this convo is sooo good. Gillian acting the shit out of it as always

- interesting that mulder can't quite bring himself to make the deal, but he leaves it to scully basically already knowing what she'll do

- Actually, it is like he's giving up his family for hers in that moment, Jesus. And then Missy dies anyway. Fuck.

- so im not getting the white buffalo logic. If the mother died and the baby lived, wouldn't that mean Missy should live? Wait are they saying because mulder lived Missy had to die? I'm confused.

- krycekkkk!!!! Sucks!! Get blown to hell mf see if I care

- mulder finally getting "the truth" and maybe it wasn't what he wanted hmm

- so krycek has the tape now. You know what that is kind of interesting. And csm is lying about it. OK yes this is good setup.

- so mulders dad AND mom knew that Samantha would be taken??? Jesus.

- again, sassy Skinner is my favorite skinner.

- I like Albert being the living file but what is stopping them from killing all those guys really. I guess unless Skinner really is bluffing?

- i LOVE LOVE LOVE this ending hospital scene, specifically the lighting and the framing of the shot. Her sitting in the chair, him kneeling next to her, the light between them but they're both in darkness from the back, ugh it's so good.

- I think its about fate... idk if you should say that to someone after their sister just died.

- I've heard the truth mulder, now what i want are the answers. Banger line!

- I wonder if they planned that hug or he just went for it but I appreciate it either way.

- I hope scully gets to shoot krycek. Let her have revenge i would love to see it.

Overall great ep. A little all over the place but in a good way. Rip Missy I didn't think they would actually kill you.

[deromanuscoven]

This year our prompts are inspired by the seventh art, by horror cinema, as our beloved Marius, the character to whom our coven is most dedicated, had a brief career as a filmmaker.The prompts are not only titles of more or less famous films in the horror genre, but have been chosen from sub-genres of horror culture contained within the Vampire Chronicles. We have tried to cite all the genres contained in the books themselves, with the last day of the event, dedicated to Anne Rice, citing the first novel in the Vampire Chronicles, and also the 1994 masterpiece film that resulted from it.We would like to make it clear that you do not need to know the films cited, they are just themes you can draw inspiration from. If you know the film to which the prompt is dedicated, you can be inspired by it, for the creation of any artistic content, or let yourself be carried away by the theme that the title holds. We have tried to quote the films as internationally as possible, for horror, the unknown and fear, belong to any culture, just as Anne Rice's books have been translated into so many languages and have become international. The event is dedicated to all the characters of the Vampire Chronicles and the more terrifying side of the saga, which remains a pillar in the Gothic horror genre that revolutionized the figure of the vampire.

⚰️You can submit any kind of work:

🦇fanart

🦇moodboard

🦇fanfiction

🦇meta

🦇analysis

🦇poems etc.

What we ask, and has always been our one true inviolable rule, that love be brought and given to Anne Rice's work and her characters. And another thing, we value words and their use. Our coven wants to bring fun and love to the fandom, so we ask that you choose carefully and thoughtfully the words you include in your work.On pain of exclusion from the event.

⚠️Please tag your work with " deromanuscoven" and if you notice that your work has not been found, please contact us so that we can add it to the others. Thank you for your cooperation.

-Banners are free to be used by those who wish to accompany their work

Thank you all and have fun!

♱Below you will find all the prompts from the Halloween event:

DAY 1 : Theme -> Vampires 1- Prompt-> Thirst or Theme -> Ghost 2-Prompt -> Ju- on

DAY 2 : Theme -> Witches

1-Prompt-> Suspiria

or

Theme -> Witch hunting

2-Prompt -> The witch

DAY 3 : Theme -> Pagan cult

1-Prompt-> The wicker man

or

Theme -> Demons & Spirits

2-Prompt -> Possession

DAY 4 : Theme -> Talamasca

1-Prompt-> X-FILES

or

Theme -> Alien

2-Prompt -> ALIEN

DAY 5 : Theme -> Lovecraft

1-Prompt-> In the mouth of madness

or

Theme -> Medical horror

2-Prompt -> The human centipede

DAY 6 : Theme -> Cannibalism

1-Prompt-> The silence of the lambs

or

Theme -> Weird

2-Prompt -> Crimes of the future

DAY 7 : Theme -> Satan

1-Prompt-> Angel heart

or

Theme -> New Orleans

2-Prompt -> Interview with the vampire

[jakey-beefed-it]

Apparently I've got the Alien franchise on the brain today, so I'm going to try and explain why some of the entries fell flat for me. Obviously other people are going to have different interpretations and responses, so bear in mind this is all subjective analysis.

The main thesis, if there is one, to the whole franchise, is that space, and the universe, are fundamentally inimical to human life. It's 'cosmic' horror in that the cosmos is vast and uncaring and hostile, that there is no one coming to save us, and that flinging ourselves into the void is the height of hubris. This much is stated outright in the newest entry, Romulus, by the synthetic character Rook, but it really does tie back into the first movie especially, and to varying extents in all the others.

The franchise also depends, to varying degrees, on ignorance. The first movie is about basically space truckers who are in waaaaay over their heads and have no idea what they're up against, both in the titular alien and in the company. The colonial marines in the second one expect a 'bug hunt', and maybe if they'd been able to actually use their pulse rifles they'd have fared a bit better in the big ambush, but fundamentally they also suffer from underestimating their foe and the treachery of their corporate overlords. The prisoners in the third one have no clue what's going on, and the mercs in the fourth one are similar. The colonists in Covenant and the crew in Romulus are similarly ignorant to the various dangers that face them. The scientists of Prometheus really should have known better.

Prometheus is, on some level, a movie about first contact, with a crew of experts. Contrast it with Arrival and you'll see what I'm getting at when I say that the crew of the Prometheus are forced by a sub-par script to behave in wildly idiotic ways.

Editorializing more than usual here, Prometheus is a deeply stupid movie with a terrible script so full of mind-blowing idiocy that it almost completely obscures the crumbs of good ideas it incorporates, and I hate it. I hate it. I hate it so much.

[Ahem]

Part of my problems with the Ridley Scott prequels are that they make space too... cozy. Like, obviously, it is still full of monsters and bio-weapons and murderous androids, but the very existence of the Engineers as a concept, their Earth-like worlds and atmospheres, the simple fact of them as humanoid precursors who evidently did just fine for themselves (for a time) in the distant past makes the whole thing seem... too easy. Space in the other movies is vast and lifeless and hostile and the only way humans expand is by wresting habitable worlds out of lifeless rocks through brute force, and even that results in dismal colonies full of ailing wage slaves who owe their souls to the company store.

And so, in addition to any other weaknesses the Scott prequels may have like poor plotting, dubious cgi, and forcing the entire cast to behave like shit idiot morons, they just... fly in the face of the whole theme of the franchise.

[space-blue]

Also, one poet may well write some thoughtless, drugged out poem with zero intention behind any choice, but the anti intellectual mindset of "then we shouldn't do analyses" means you're suddenly cutting yourself from the ability to understand every other poet who ABSOLUTELY depends on you having critical thinking and analysis skills to understand and appreciate their poem!

Also poetry, like art, really suffers in this argument, because a LOT of it is context dependent... and the context of a sickly noble poet of the 18th century is VERY different from yours.

Let's look at Keats for my example, the opening of Ode to a Nightingale.

My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains          My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains          One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,          But being too happy in thine happiness,—                 That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees                         In some melodious plot          Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,                 Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

Do you know, 21st century tiktok gooner that you may well be, who Lethe is? Or what? What does Lethe-wards means??

Well, assuming you know what Hemlock is, you know we're talking about poison (from a plant that is native to Europe btw so you can already tell it's not a south american poem...), of emptying opiates down your gullet.

Lethe is the daughter of Eris, the greek goddess of strife. Lethe meanwhile is the personification of forgetfulness and oblivion.

Matches much better with "drowsy numbness" now, eh?

But Lethe isn't just a person. She's a river. One of the five rivers of the underworld. The shades of the dead had to drink from her to forget their human lives.

So like, frankly it doesn't really matter if Keats was high as a kite while writing out his envy of a little fleeting bird... He's using terms and expressions that you have to learn about and study in order to appreciate what the poem is trying to express.

The lack of curiosity behind the argument is saddening. Not only would you understand poems more, or art, you get to DISCUSS them. And maybe you were forced to discuss some dull stuff with people you don't like at school, but wouldn't you want to learn more about the badass poem Ozymandias, and discuss it with friends? It's anti-military, and much like Dune, a warning against men of great power, and the pointlessness of their earthly rule.

You can hear it read here by Mr. White of Breaking Bad himself

And THEN, because you now know it's a poem from Percy Shelley, you can appreciate this mini plot twist in ALIEN COVENANT

And you can also appreciate the irony (and dark future) of the Watchmen character who dared call himself Ozymandias!

Because culture always calls back on itself, and knowing the history and logic and meaning of the Ozymandias poem leads you to having a better and deeper understanding of recent, contemporary media that in turn calls back to it!!

Have some culture, baby!!

[hellopollywood]

Alien Romulus changed me.

Alien Romulus -2024

Not to be dramatic, but this film actually opened up a whole new world for me. Of course, I was aware of the previous Alien films beforehand. I even went to see Alien Covenant in the cinema, which was a rogue move for me at the time. But this film had me in the palm of its hand.

My Fiancé was overjoyed when we walked out of the cinema, having successfully traumatised & tantalised his soon-to-be bride. He promptly took me home, where we began to watch all the Alien movies in the franchise over the next week.

Having this whole new gooey world splurge out before me, I can't help but jot down a few quick musings on all it has to offer

As amazing as they are I couldn't help but feel a sense of loss watching the original, knowing that if I wasn't watching it through 2024 eyes, I would probably be terrified beyond belief, and if I hadn't seen clips from Aliens multiple times in my life, I probably would have felt a hell of a lot more adrenalin course through me.

In my opinion, Prometheus & Covenant are, in their own way, pieces of art. They feel like a celebration of the concept of world-building & franchise lore. I enjoyed them, however, I could see why a hardcore Alien fan might leave them disappointed.

Bringing this all full circle, Romulus felt like an Alien film for the fans & for the franchise. Fede Álvarez has managed to strike that balance perfectly. Not only does it derive heavily from the game Alien Isolation, but it builds on the gooier (literally) elements of lore built up in the world. The pack of kids taking on the pesky Xenomorphs are a breath of fresh air as opposed to the hardened military squads or space explorers we are used to with an Alien flick. I loved watching this fresh-from-Glasto-feeling bunch in an action horror. It was scary, funny & gut-wrenchingly gory all at the same time, without, in my opinion, jumping the shark.

Bravo, Mr. Álvarez, gimme more horrific abominations of human DNA in space, pronto.

PollyWood

x

P.S. Alien 3 & Alien Resurrection require a deep internal analysis too complex & soul-wrenching for a quick post.

[oasis-nadrama]

Canon does not exist and is not an useful tool to discuss fiction

All of the discourse around "canon" is just flavour and aesthetics. "Canon", as "a set of works that are officially defined as true and reliable", means nothing in terms of fictional legitimacy and media analysis. People will accept or dismiss statements, even by the original creator(s), at every turn. People will accept or dismiss sequels, even by the original creator(s), at every turn. To some people the Alien canon starts and stops with the 1979 movie, for some others it stops with AlienS, or Alien 3, or it ONLY contains Alien + Prometheus + Alien: Covenant, etc. Furthermore, there's a thousand franchises out there which switched hands a thousand times or were even continued against the will of the original creator(s). "The one and only canon" isn't a thing. It is a delusion produced by the capitalistic necessity to establish a specific line of products as authentic and high-quality, derivative of the necessity for hierarchical religions to establish a monolith dogma. There's a thousand franchises out there which switched hands a thousand times or were even continued against the will of the original creator(s). For creators and audiences alike, canons have always been a shifting set of overlapping systems of "legitimate" works, whose mutations and number vary according to the magnitude of the franchise. Relinquish the illusion of canon, embrace deeper discussion.

[bishops-severed-torso]

Ranking all the synthetic characters in the Alien franchise, as of Covenant

Massive spoilers for all the movies + Isolation

From worst to best:

6) Samuels (Isolation)

Firstly I’d like to clarify that I actually do like Samuels, even though I put him in last place. The problem is that he was underutilized. The fact that he’s an android barely affects the plot and is only a thing because it’s an Alien game and you have to have an android in an Alien game, dammit.

YMMV on this, but the reveal could have been handled better.  I think it was a stupid idea to just have it casually revealed in dialogue. “But @bishops-severed-torso,” you might say, “surely it would have been pointless to have a dramatic reveal when everyone probably guessed he was an android in the first ten minutes of the game.” Well, yeah, you’re right actually. But the way they handled it was even worse.

They should have either:

Straight-up announced near the start of the game that he was an android. That way, people who haven’t seen the movies wouldn’t be like “???” when it’s revealed and people who have seen them would link him with either Ash or Bishop and it would create tension over whether or not he was going to betray you.

Instead of having that small reveal over the phone/radio/whatever it was, they should have just held out until Samuels beats the shit out of that one Working Joe, which was not even an hour later. That could have been a really cool “oh shit” moment, but no, they had to blow it.

Neither of those options are perfect, but the way they actually handled it legitimately made me think I’d missed a line of dialogue or something earlier on. I almost feel like the actual reveal happened earlier, but the level it was in got scrapped for time/pacing/whatever.

This could have been mitigated if Samuels had been a more interesting character, but he doesn’t really do anything to stand out. He’s a solid dude but he only really has one memorable scene (fat F in the chat) and other than that you don’t see much of him.

5) Call (Resurrection)

My main issue with Call is pretty similar to what I just said about Samuels: She doesn’t have much to do. She’s just kind of there, to the point that I actually don’t have much to say about her. She’s one of the more memorable characters in Resurrection, but that’s only because everyone else was so underdeveloped.

I rank her above Samuels because she had a couple of genuinely good lines (“Jesus Christ, Johner, what do you put in this shit, battery acid?”) and her android reveal did actually surprise me. She also displayed crippling self-loathing which was interesting and also made her relatable. 

Also, she was angry as fuck 100% of the time. It was hilarious. She was so done with everyone’s shit.

4) Walter (Covenant)

So yeah, my man Walter is a fucking bro and I love him. And he’s definitely alive on Planet 4, shut up. I was debating whether or not to bump him up a spot, but decided not to. He’s mainly there as a foil to David, and he suffers from that because he ends up being kind of bland as a result. I feel like this is an editing problem, because (and this also applies to everyone else in Covenant) if you stick the deleted scenes back in he has more of personality other than just “nice and also introverted”. He argues with MUTHUR about whistling. He grows weed in the ship greenhouse. He goes out of his way to comfort Daniels. If we ever got an extended cut I’d probably move him up the list.

He also gets points for the part where he pulls David off of Daniels and beats the shit out of him. Like, yes Walter, fucking get it mate.

3) Ash (Alien 1)

So I’m giving Ash third place purely because his android reveal was so well executed. Like, at that point, you don’t even know androids exist. So when he does his thing you’re all like “wait what the fuck whAT ThE FuCk”

I find Ash really interesting, mainly because of how he chooses to kill Ripley. Like instead of just beating her to death, he hesitates, picks an incredibly inefficient murder weapon and then completely freaks out and starts leaking fluid everywhere. So this would imply that he was either malfunctioning or he was actively fighting his programming to some extent.

You could also make the argument that he was trying to kill her in a way that wouldn’t leave marks on her, so he could deny it when her body was found.

And then there’s also the whole magazine-standing-in-for-his-dick thing. I’m not gonna go into massive detail on that because it’s been talked about numerous times in other posts, but what I do want to talk about is Ash having a massive hard-on for the xenomorph (which, honestly, fair enough). He straight up tells the crew how cool it is and how much he likes it and how it’s the perfect organism.

Now, as everyone knows by this point, the xenomorph (at least in the OG movie) is basically a giant walking rape metaphor. So I find it kind of interesting that Ash might have been trying to imitate the xenomorph in some way when he attacks Ripley.

12 year old me thought Ash was scarier than the alien and 12 year old me was absolutely correct. He was fucking terrifying and it did not help that he was played by Bilbo Baggins.

He also gets a subtle fourth wall break and it’s possibly my favourite bit in the film.

I also really like the little running-in-place thing he does before the crew head out to the derelict (at least I’m pretty sure that’s when it was, I haven’t seen it for a while). Like it’s just weird enough to make you think something’s off about him, but you don’t know what.

This was supposed to be a short list and it’s turned into an essay. Oh well.

2) David (Prometheus/Covenant)

Remember when I said how scary I found Ash? I feel like Ridley was personally attacking me when he wrote the prequels.

“Hey kid, heard you thought Ash was scary, fucking watch this” - Ridley Scott, circa 2012

Anyway, David is by far the most interesting character in any of the prequels. Again I’m not gonna go into detail because I don’t have much to say about him that hasn’t already been said, but he’s super fucking interesting. He watches Lawrence of Arabia. He dyes his hair (he probably stole the dye from Vickers). He’s very bi. He’s also the only android other than Bishop to appear in more than one movie.

I do want to say that I prefer him in Prometheus because they obliterated his character in Covenant and I preferred shady, morally grey David. Hence why he’s only in second place.

1) Bishop (Aliens/3)

Yeah, like it was gonna be anyone else. Bishop is probably my favourite character in the whole franchise.

I could write pages of analysis on Bishop, but I mainly just love that he’s creepy as fuck but he’s still a good guy.

The first time I saw Aliens was like a day after watching Alien 1, so the trauma from the whole Ash business was pretty fresh. Bishop was a scary dude.

Special mention goes to the scene where Spunkmeyer tries to talk to him and he turns around and just fucking stares at him (the shot in the gif).

“oh god what the fuck is wrong with him” - Me watching Aliens for the first time, whenever Bishop did literally anything

Like, I was 100% convinced he was gonna betray everyone. Even when he volunteers to crawl up the pipe, I figured he was going to take the ship and abandon them.

Anyway, he turns out to be a precious cinnamon roll who I would trust with my life (and he definitely does not die because 3 and 4 were just Ripley’s nightmares in hypersleep). He even saves Newt after being literally bisected by the xenomorph queen. Half of him was more useful than the entire human crew. Bishop alone is the reason Aliens is my favourite movie. I literally love him.

Anyway, he gets first place because he’s a creepy red herring villain and I’m a sucker for creepy red herring villains. He also has great forearms.

[halofcrged]

He kept most of his attention focused on the creature; he'd already made a sweep of the rooms of the laboratory that were currently accessible and confirmed that, by any standards he could use to judge, they were alone. There was a faint smile offered as the form mimicked the symbols on his chest, and a slight nod. "Yeah. That's me." A head tilt, trying to decipher the sounds and clicks that followed. Kra? Did it even understand what he was asking? "We're going to have to work on this ... conversing thing," he mused.

"Cortana -- I know you've got a vast library of ancient alien knowledge to absorb, but I'd be mighty curious to know if you're getting any readings from our ... " The entirety of the human language at his disposal, and he couldn't think of an accurate word to describe the entity that was making itself more tangible by the moment. "Traveling companion now that its seemed to have taken on a more tangible form."

He knew it would take even Cortana time to work her way past whatever security protocols were in place to protect the machinery and data banks down here but she was capable of multi-tasking. "If so, can you give me some projections of the relevant data, a comparison of genetic code and physical makeup, side by side, to human and known Covenant species."

A moment later, the holographic form of his AI flickered to life; many of the systems in the bunker were still out of bounds, but it had been easy enough to siphon off power and gain access to the basic systems including the holographic projector arrays that were scattered plentifully around the rooms they were currently occupying. "Of course, John," the blue woman announced, offering a smile to both John and the companion in question. "I'll need a few moments to run analysis."

Oh, that was a noise she recognized. More than one noise. "No" meant "thing is forbidden" No also had a movement, she knew that too, well enough to try and copy it. As for "biting" that was that thing that was done with mouths.

Wait, she had a mouth, and it had sharp things in it. Things like the claws she manifested, not like the ones that her kin had. Hers were better, definitely better, and a quick test of them on one of her new limbs brought a new sensation, one that was uncomfortable enough for her to decide against trying again.

Kin…no, john john 117, it had a symbol, little lines that meant something, and little sounds that meant it was a specific thing. That was puzzling, very different from the hums she had used for identifying it. Those were its hums, from its core, the sounds it used were something else. Still, she would respect the designation, drawing the lines out with shadows before gesturing to Johnjohn117 with one of her limbs.

The creature supposed she could try to figure out something, the designation her kin had tried didn't quite fit, but she couldn't really think of anything, not when she wasn't entirely sure how her new vessel was making noise.

Then again, perhaps her kin could sense her hum as well, so the creature attempted to gesture to themselves and force that hum to the forefront, not entirely sure if it was doing anything…or if the strange vibrations in her core would interfere with the communication.

[muthur9000]

Corpse Lily

Fig A(juvenile)

Growth and propagation as with so many of these giant lilies, analogous to the Terran corpse lilies and stinking or rotting flowers, have incredibly hardy condition even for the most lush environments they flourish. Buds and shoots are often very self contained for protection. 

One interesting aspect of so many of the flora long and more muscular, primal and oversized version of Terran species is that their primordial and primitive structures have persist-ed. 

Fig B(mature) Fig C(mature)

Seeds are sealed within the outer husks tomb like thickness protecting therein until presumably a genetic marker sounds the alarm with the most of decrepitude, simultaneously weakening the walls enough for their dissemination. While mostly this seems to be self driven I’ve noted the tell tale signs of what seems to be ragged holes indicating bird like and rodent intrusions.

Corpse Lilies

Fig A (juvenile)

Fig B (mature)

Fig C (mature)

As with many of these giant lilies, analogous to the terran corpse lilies and stinking or rotting flowers have incredibly hardy constitution even for the most lush environments they flourish in. Buds and shoots are often self contained for protection.

The corpse flower was first discovered in Sumatra in 1878 by Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari, according to the UC Botanical Garden. The plant grows in the wild only in tropical regions of Asia.

Chemically the stench consists of:

dimethyl trisulfide (also emitted by cooked onions and limburger cheese)

dimethyl disulfide (which has an odor like garlic)

trimethylamine (found in rotting fish or ammonia)

isovaleric acid (which also causes sweaty socks to stink)

benzyl alcohol (a sweet floral scent found in jasmine and hyacinth)

phenol (sweet and medicinal, as in Chloraseptic throat spray)

indole (like mothballs)

The corpse flower is classified as “vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Plants. The flower could become endangered, however, if the factors threatening its survival and reproduction do not improve. Its main threat is habitat loss and destruction. As of now, the Sumatran rainforests are under major threat of deforestation as huge areas are logged for timber to clear space for palm plantations. In fact, it is estimated that around 72 percent of the original rainforests in Indonesia have been cleared out and the scale of deforestation continues at an alarming rate.

Corms of titan arums have been used to treat stomach ailments, fever, swelling, and diarrhea.

Another member of the family, the Amorphophallus Konjac, is grown in Asia for its storage organ, which is made into candy, according to Dudley.

“It’s got a very chewy consistency, but it’s also used for medicinal purposes,” she said. “When it blooms, it is very cool.” - Dr. Susan Dudley, professor in biology at McMaster University

For more Alien investigations go to https://yutani.blog

[julianobungus]

This might be a very basic interpretation of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, but I feel as though a lot of the horrible things that happen in those films were caused by David's repressed and frustrated sexuality.

Spoilers for Prometheus and Alien: Covenant.

Firstly, it's obvious that David is set apart from his human 'peers'/creators, being treated as something 'Other'. Even his creator, Mr. Weyland, perceives him to be imperfect, going so far as to say he has no soul. He's also set apart emotionally from humans, coming off as an essential psychopath in his mannerisms, values and motives.

We especially see this frustrated gap in companionship regarding his relationships with Elizabeth Shaw and Daniels - the former he essentially manipulates and abuses before straight-up killing, and the latter he literally tries to have his way with, despite her clear objection.

What I'm getting at is this: the Xenomorphs, being David's creation, are a physical expression of his frustrated, repressed sexuality and his misunderstanding of meaningful, romantic attraction. Indeed, the Alien's inherent violence to every other being can be seen as a reflection of David's own misunderstanding of human relationships; that is, he responds with hostility when he deems it appropriate. David is fundamentally broken and antagonistic to all other persons, and so his perfect organism is too, while being a physical embodiment of his repression.

Like, psychosexual interpretation and imagery are pretty central to the Alien series already, and look at the later, 'perfected' Xenomorphs: they're literally biomechanoid dick-heads - they carry the biomechanoid patterning of their synthetic father.

[captaingimpy]

Alien: Covenant – A Well-Crafted, Yet Predictable Journey - Alien Retrospective Review Part 2

Alien: Covenant, directed by Ridley Scott, is a film that attempts to balance the philosophical ambitions of Prometheus with the horror and suspense that defined the original Alien series. It’s a movie that executes its story with technical precision, delivering stunning visuals and eerie atmosphere, but it ultimately struggles to surprise or fully engage, especially for viewers familiar with its…

[gothic-fiction-in-space]

The death scene in the shower.

I don’t see it as a “out of nowhere” scene that was meant to simply reproduce the “murder in the shower” cliche of the horror genre. When I saw Alien: Covenant the first time I immediately saw a reference to one of the most famous death scenes of the first Alien movie in it (Lambert’s death) and I thought, speaking to the Xenomorph: “ooh it’s really you. You are back”; but now I think there’s more than a simple reference to other movies in this sequence.

Rick’s and Upworth’s death may have a meaning connected to the themes of the whole movie, to the theme of creation and to David’s goal to not allow mankind to “start again”. We have a couple in an intimate moment: the moment that allow mankind to reproduce and continue to live; we have a couple of colonists, colonists that have to expand mankind, to make mankind survive on other planets. And here, the Xenomorph (David’s creature and the embodiment of all his problems, his most cruel and violent tendencies, the specie that has to substitute mankind in David’s plan) puts its deadly tail between the two colonists, making Upworth pulling back, separating them. And then it kills them. This scene seems to me an allegory of David’s (and his creatures) goal to prevent mankind’s survival in the universe.

I don’t think all of this is casual, as like I don’t think putting David and the Xenomorphs against all these couples is casual.

[iamquantumalice]

Coming Soon...

Well I have recently acquired some freetime on my hands... Guess I'll catch up on some lite reading...