The "Hive" concept introduced in Aliens... Good or bad?

It was already sort of implied in Alien, all Aliens did was expand on the idea. The only thing it really introduced was the Queen, which the Xenos didn't need to complete the cycle at all (I'm thinking fans of Alien probably thought drones were already capable of regularly making eggs on their own).

^ If anything, the egg-morphing idea would let them be more of a threat than ever.

It's a lot more... psychotic. It's not bad enough that they use humans as hosts for the things that come out of the eggs, but they use them to make the eggs, too.

I can understand how that would be counter-productive, though, in situations like Alien where hosts were limited. The Queen may or may not have been a 'just because' thing.

If they wanted to make them less like bugs and more like Aliens 'which I think they should do'. They could always explain that it is simply a bunch of males competing for the females attention, thus why they are so protective over her and her offspring. I always thought it was that Aliens are genderless, but there's always the plausible theory that they're indeed bi gendered, and there are both male and female aliens, females obviously being larger, more agressibve and having an extra pair of limbs, classic case of sexual dimorphism.

^ That's actually not a bad way to look at it. Ever hear the theory that the Queen was just a Jockey-ALien hybrid?

I actually like the idea that their society is based on a hive, but I don't like the idea Aliens gave us that they become mindless when a Queen is present. The Xeno in Alien had its own mind, and although I didn't know what it was thinking, it sure as hell wasn't the same bug I saw in Aliens.

I like them as bugs. And i'm also a supporter of the Praetorian idea, a hive should have special guards for the queen. So in my mind the alien life cycle isn't complete yet. but so far the lifecycle in my mind is like this:

Egg - Facehugger - Chestburster - Drone - Morphed Egg - Superfacehugger - Queen Chestburster - Queen - Egg

So i'm alright with what Aliens did.

How dose a Pratorian get made anyway?

I know how drones and runner and predaliens come along but how do the Pratorians come in?

Are they super tough, Giant, Battle exsperienced drones or something?

Well praetorians aren't canon, but i'd say drones could simply gow into praetorians...

I like to think of them as immature Queens. You know, they're not some special type of Alien or anything, just what a Queen is before it reaches adulthood.

Of course I'd be some kind of hypocrite by saying that, considering the fact that I always call my RPG character, which IS a Praetorian, a royal guard.

I'm just one kind of fucked up. Don't hate.

Ah, well i was thinking of praetorians as simply a "more" grown-up drone, like the newly developed drone has a smooth domed head like in Alien, the gown-up drone sheds the dome and looks like in Aliens and when the hive is secure drones would have time to morph into praetorians, developing a greater exoskeleton that would eventually make them too heavy to wallwalk. Because we all know in AvP amd AvP2 praetorians couldn't walk on walls.

Deathdrop, I personally prefer to think the Aliens' origin is far more Alien than simply being created in a Jockey/Mala'kak lab, I think they discovered the ruins of a planet of a race of beings, so far advanced that their technology had 'fused' with their machinery, forming a 'second nature', of this 'second nature' were the Aliens, or 'Xenomorphs' as they are foolishly termed by Humankind. Anyway, Bloo, It would only help explain why it was so calm, my theory, there was no female around, nor other males around to compete with, thus explaining why the Drones in 'Aliens' were so much more aggressive and 'feral-like' than the one in Alien, another possible theory, of why it's cowl was smooth, is it could have just been a different sub-species, sort of how there are different nationalities of humans, kind of like the red aliens from genocide.

A sub-species is a great possibility, though I still like to think of Warriors as matured Drones. I'm not saying I'm any more right than you are, I guess a large part of my opinion is formed from my reading the Anchorpoint Essays.

The Anchorpoint Essays, while they may use alot of the science we know, are still heavily flawed, as they are trying to explain something so far fetched and something so complicated and so alien, alot of that stuff doesn't even apply. And I understand alot of you will like the idea of the 'Hive' better, but I think comparing them to something as lowly as an 'Insect' is heavily degrading to something as extraordinary and creative as what the Alien Giger created it to be was originally supposed to be depicted as. I do like the Queen, but I prefer to call it a Female and the Drones/Warriors, simply Males.

I always liked the aliens with the ribbed skulls better than smooth, looks cooler. As a subspecies its a possiblity, but at the same time they were from the same space jockey ship, so i just think it was a design change

This is true. But then again, those Males were from the Female, not the same Female that layed those eggs, Kane's Son came from those eggs, the Males in Aliens came from the Female that came from those eggs that Kane's Son was from which came from a completely different Female altogether.

I never liked the idea of aliens having genders, it makes them too comparable to other species, less 'alien'. However it does make sense, but I like what Ridley had going with the first movie making hosts into eggs, very strange and a bit counter productive, but it certainly is a different concept, something that would seem to suit the aliens better than just having a queen.

Having a queen takes the 'scare' out of the aliens, makes you look at them as if they were ants or bees. Now you see the aliens as stupid drones running around doing as the queen commands and if they were to lose her, utter choas would insue. In the first movie we were led on to believe that this creature was an unstoppable killing machine that felt no remorse and was governed by no higher entity. A perfect creature.

...Soooo, I may not care for the queen, but she is definitely awesome as is the legendary movie Aliens.

Ace, holy shit. By now I wouldn't be surprised if K2, Topdogg or Ash showed up or something, what with the recent activity boost and the people coming back happening.

As for the essays, I'd have to agree with you. Overall they're just a collection of the most widely accepted and popular theories, though I, as well as most people here, agree with said theories.

I wouldn't think calling Aliens 'insects' is belittling them. It's not like the term is used as an insult. Well, maybe it is (for example, one Youtuber's wonderful and insightful opinion: PREDS R CUL BUGS SUCK LOLOLOL).

Me? Sometimes I refer to them as bugs not to disrespect them but because I like to remind myself that they're... unnatural. They're not human. They're more than just simple aliens. There's a reason I like them more than Predators.

It's more a slang term done right. That's only my opinion, though.

Well, while I only partly agree with the above 2 posts, here is my take on things. The Queen being introduced was simply an attempt to make them seem even 'more' terrifying. I believe Cameron accomplished that well, seeing that we know knew that this 'killing machines' were coming from a larger, badder, meaner, stronger, faster, over all more frightening killing machine... the Queen, or ruling Female as I call it. The only reason the males in Aliens didn't seem so was because the Marines were armed to the teeth with phase plasma pulse rifles that would rip anything short of a brick shit house to bits, had the crew of the Nostromo had these pulse rifles, they could have dispatched Kane's Son with ease, same goes for Predators, if Dutch's team had pulse rifles, they could have easily taken out Anytime.

^ I don't know about that last part. It wasn't that the guns were ineffective, it's that the Pred was hiding in trees sniping them the whole movie.