Conflicting Drone Behavior

predator428, Yautja, 15 years ago

The "motivation" of the drone aliens in the films always seem to change with each one. In Alien, the drone spends its time killing half of its victims and capturing the others. Since Scott obviously couldn't have known about the future alien queens and how her childern served her, it's understandable that his creature didn't follow a method that would make the strongest hive.

When Aliens comes along, we see the drones putting all of their efforts into capturing their victims and only killing them if absolutly neccessary. This follows a pro-hive creation method that I have known and prefered. It would make sense for a species that requires living victims in order to reproduce to put all of their efforts into capturing live hosts.

The thing that confuses me comes up in Alien 3. The dog-drone spends the entire film recklessly slaughtering every living thing in sight and makes no attempt at simply subduing its victims, regardless of the fact that it is aware of a developing queen inside Ripley. Wouldn't it make sense for the dog-drone to concentrate on gathering a large supply of hosts for its queen?

predatoress, Yautja, 15 years ago

This is interesting question. Could it be that the drones in Aliens have herited the humane "nurturing" instincts and ability to thing their actions further rather the one developing in the dog (or ox)? Even though this theory doesn't seem right either, 'cos I can't imagine any other creature taking such a good care of the pack than a dog (or a wolf), but again animals lives in the very moment, and if there's no packleader there's no instinct for submissive behavior either, even the females would be pregnant for the future alpha.

I can't remember in which state Ripley got infected... Or impregnant how ever you say it with aliens. Maybe the queen was so small the dog alien didn't yet consider her as a ruler/didn't sense her as the Queen 'cos of lack of pheromones or something?

Bloo... We need you in here...

Atin_Fordo, Yautja, 15 years ago

Hmmm. My assumption? Time was the determining factor. See, in the first movie, the drone had a reason to act like that: No active Queen was around to do anything, so it made sense to simply eliminate the threats around and not worry about anything else.

In the second movie? Well, you covered that already.

In the third, however, we're back to a similar status as the first. Yes, there is a Queen that is being CREATED, but isn't ACTIVE. There's no reason to capture anybody. They'll just sit and rot for a long time.

Also, consider this. How easily can a chestburster defend itself?

The Queen has yet to get the chance to grow. Meaning that any living beings are a threat to the Queen, and hence, a threat to the Hive. Much easier to just eliminate all threats, and worry about the rest in the long run.

I haven't watched the alien movies in a very, very long time, and I do not pretend to know ANYTHING about Aliens, so I can't say. But those are just a couple of my thoughts.

TDN, Yautja, 15 years ago

To Predatoress: Well actually in the movie if you remember the Dog Alien actually had a chance to kill Ripley as it had its jaws right in front of her. But it didn't kill her because of the Queen chestburster inside her. So it must have known or else Ripley would've been dead.

Lucifer, Yautja, 15 years ago

actualy the queen is still small and a lot more fo a fragle " woman " if yo ucan even call her that she delicate lol so with eliminating all possible threats to her groth and survival i say killing them all was perfictly reasonable ... and for the fact no face huggers or enything to truly keep the captured people under the rag if ya know what i mean

-Bloo-, Yautja, 15 years ago

The reason the the drone in Alien behaved much differently than the others was that it was a grey. It couldn't afford to get killed or let its presence known, so it used stealth and patience to take care of the crew. By the time it had pursued Ripley, it had done its job by turning a host into the egg that houses the Superfacehugger. What it didn't know was that Ripley actually destroyed it.

Or a different scenario is that it followed Ripley seeking revenge for the destruction of the future Queen.

The Warriors in Aliens were in mass numbers, obviously not needing a stealthy approach to the situation at hand. There were hundreds running around, and counting. The need to create a Queen had already been accomplished, all they needed was more hosts to further their conquests. But you can still see large groups of them hiding in the shadows, like when almost all of them had nearly cornered the humans in that one little room and hid in the ceilings.

The drone in Alien 3 wasn't nessecarily a 'regular' drone. It was more of a guardian than an assasin or host gatherer. It would make much more sense if it had just used its victims as hosts, but being a gaurdian, its nature was most likely hostile. The Queen was a precious asset, the only reason the Superfacehugger carries a second embryo is so that the second one acts as the guardian of the Queen until she matures, which also explains why the runner was the one that was "born" first.

predator428, Yautja, 15 years ago

The guardian concept is something that has always interested me, mainly causing me to question what the queen's long term goals are. Is she only looking towards her individual survival, or the survival of her race? Most likely the former, since the guardian would most likely kill all possible hosts in the vicinity of the queen, thereby destroying the future of the drones in order to ensure her survival. Seems odd, but I guess it just shows how determined they are to keep the queen alive.

predatoress, Yautja, 15 years ago

TDN - I remember this, but maybe the dogalien didn't yet know the embryo was a queen but sensed she was either way impregnant to an alien?

But I need to read the other comments.

Ahh there was lots of interesting ideas in there, so I don't yet know what to add. Except the fact I hate the term superfacehugger 'cos it sounds damn silly<

PREDATORv2, Yautja, 15 years ago

The 'dog' alien was trying to eliminate any threat to Ripley i.e the queen inside her. If the behavior of that is linked to the alien behavior from Aliens, it would make sense to destory any and all threats, because when that queen bursts we all know shes not going to be full grown in 30 seconds.

Lucifer, Yautja, 15 years ago

woot so my post wasent random crap i contributed a good one ! :3

-Bloo-, Yautja, 15 years ago

Exactly. It was acting as some sort of guardian. Naturally it would take hostile actions. However, I don't know whether to believe that the runner would serve as the Alpha Male or not, since it wasn't the first born to the Queen. It was also much different than your average drone.

PREDATORv2, Yautja, 15 years ago

Yeah, see in Aliens the queen was grown, and the threat of her being killed was much less so their behavior changed to gathering. As for the dog getting alpha status it depends, I don't think the queen is picky on whos protecting her as long as shes protected.

OTANG, Yautja, 15 years ago

I also agree with the idea of the Runner killing off any threats while the Queen can mature. It may not even have known of a Queen in Ripley until later.

However on the flipside, the Runner could have captured hosts for future if it so wanted to, even if it meant no immediate Queen would be born yet maybe the runner could spontaneously turn into a Queen as some sources state.

The entertaining part is the many many scenarios that can take place with this species, and not seem far fetched from some kind of reality.

-Bloo-, Yautja, 15 years ago

I personally don't like the idea that a normal drone can turn into a Queen. That would defeat the whole purpose of the Superfacehugger method.

Also, nice to see you again man.