History Headscratchers / AlienCovenant

*** Pretty much this. What we see are David's first generation of successes, not the final products that we're used to seeing. Every piece of them is inconsistent with what we know: the eggs open to being touched instead of just movement, the implantation and gestation is too quick. the chestburster is too developed and the adult grew too fast (which is saying something given how fats they usually grow). We see David taking two facehugger embryos along with him at the end and a whole ship full of humans to experiment with, odds are he's planning to improve his creation until they're the creatures that we know.

* We see he's attached by a facehugger, though it's ripped off him presumably before he can be infected, but later on he dies by chestburster. But, how did he get infected? Normally the parasite needs to remain for a few hours, not just a few seconds, or did I just fall asleep at that point in the film?
** This is just one of many things that is upsetting the more serious fans of the franchise as this contradicts the facts that (non Alien vs. Predator) facehuggers will take hours, sometimes up to a day before falling off and dying, however, when exactly in that 24 hr period does implantion happen is unknown though it is safe to assume that it is not straight away or immediately upon attachment like it happened to Lope. One of the reasonings given so far is that these are not the Xenomorphs we know, they are David's creations and so in addition to their different appearance, they may function differently, though it's still silly based on just how fast it happened and it makes one wonder why they have those oxygen bladders if they don't need to stay on someone's face for more than a few seconds.

*** [[AIIsACrapshot He's a malfunctioning, genocidal, sociopathic A.I.]]. He doesn't ''need'' justification to do whatever he wants (which considering his intelligence and resources is quite a damn bit). Yet this also leads to some nasty FridgeHorror ; if the Neomorphs are capable of wiping out a whole biosphere's fauna in that time period, what exactly are the Xenomorphs capable of?

*** I never said the neomorphs didn't act like animals ''at all'', just that they didn't act like smart, efficient predators e.g. wolves. I would compare the Neos to either a charging bull or a honey badger launching itself at a cobra; their only strategy is mindless aggression heedless of danger. By adapting a more complex and measured strategy, the Xenomorphs demonstrate the ability to plan ahead and apply foresight. The original debate was over how the Xenomorphs were superior to the Neomorphs, and greater intelligence is one hell of a game-changer.

*** I never meant to imply that the neomorphs weren't acting like real animals, just that they acted like ''dumb'' animals. Like a honey badger launching itself time and again at a cobra, their only strategy was mindless aggression heedless of danger. By adapting a more complex and measured strategy, the Xenomorphs demonstrate the ability to plan ahead and apply foresight. The original debate was over how the Xenomorphs were superior to the Neomorphs, and greater intelligence is one hell of a game-changer.

* First, they are parasites, who by definition are not self sufficient. They are utterly dependent on a host species to even be born, and If not for an "inferior" lifeform stumbling upon them via dumb luck, those things would just be lying around inside their facehuggers for eternity.
* Second, they are ''incompetent'' parasites; Most parasites are designed to keep the host alive for as long as possible so as not to compromise their means of support. As it stands, they're incapable of exploiting their host without killing it, meaning their own reproductive cycle is denying them a vital resource.

* Third, they are dead set on annihilating their only means of multiplying (the '''Look upon my Xenos, ye mighty, and despair....''' folder explains it better than I could).
* Fourth, and most damning of all, is that they are incapable of culture. They will never invent tools, build cities, or construct ships to broaden their horizons. They will never create any art, music, or other creative form of expression. While they are cunning, and [[ItCanThink smarter than one would give them credit for]], they show zero interest in developing a deeper understanding in the world around them (''i.e., I doubt they would ever read, let alone write a textbook on quantum mechanics''). However fierce and physically adapt they may be, they lack the ability to better themselves, which guarantees mankind will always surpass them given time. For someone so obsessed with learning and discovery, [[spoiler: [[{{Irony}} David seems oblivious that his "perfect lifeform" completely lacks his strongest ideal]].]]

*** Spores seem to behave and function just like mosquitoes, and IRL mosquitos sting despite having what you would call a limited range. About the suit, yes, they certainly lack the strength and tools of a Facehugger to melt their way through the protection, but that's the same as saying that had Kane wore an acid-proof helmet he would have been fine. Moreover, if spores have enough intelligence and communication to form a coordinated swarm, they might have enough to grapple to an inpenetrable suit and simply wait until his wearer has returned to his own environment and taken it off. Xenomorphs of all forms have utilized similar tactics to get in spaceships and bypass barriers in the films.
** As for the resulting offspring, the Xenomorph is just plain smarter. Chestbursters throughout the franchise have proven to be capable of killing adult humans upon birth, but they only do this if there is no other choice. I believe that the custbursters run so often not out of fear, but as a tactical retreat to muster it's strength, take the initiative, and regain the element of surprise. Compare this to the feral-minded neomorph who charged Karine within moments of hatching only to get its sorry hide booted across the room. Had tried the same stunt on someone who was properly armed and prepared, it would have been a much shorter movie.

[[/note]]

*** They refused to cede ground, but with good reason - they were cleaning house. The first Neomorph could have judged that he could single-handledly take on a team of armed humans, and for the matter, he was right, as he was wrecking them right and left without being hit until David scared it away. Yeah, real life predators use a more measured approach, but remember that Neomorphs are biological weapons and not a product of evolution: they are programmed to butcher non-botanical lifeforms, and it seems they have the tools to back up their claim. Heck, even if you are right about them acting suicidal, we don't know if Neomorphs and Xenomorphs have the same goals whenever they fight. We know xenos fight to establish a hive, so they must take the fewest risks possible and only act on behalf of their future queen, but given that we ignore how Neomorphs reproduce, charging head on and mowing as many enemies as they can might be their own smart way. What if, for instance, Neomorphs turn their own corpses and their enemies's into fertilizer for spore-releasing eggsacks after dying? In that case, then David's only fundamental "improvement" on the species would have been simply making them less biological weapon and more animal-like in its morphology. Which from my point of view is AwesomeButImpractical, because it would have made them adopt a social structure that is quite hard to accomplish when you are just a facehugger in a hostile environment. On the other hand, a single Neomorph could have an entire garden of spore generators with just one massacre.

*** It is hard to see since it's a dark scene and everything is so fast and chaotic, but the Neomorphs were not actually using hit-and-fade tactics during the wheatfield brawl; they were rapidly going from target to target like a pair of bloody, demented pinballs from hell, exploiting the chaos and maintaining the initiative. They could have fled at any time, but refused to cede ground until David's flair drove them off. Heck, the first neomorph didn't even ''need'' to fight right then and there; it was so aggressive that it couldn't resist the temptation to take on a whole team of armed humans head-on. The xenomorph from the original film by contrast was smart enough to avoid conflict while it was vulnerable, and then carefully start picking off the crew after it had matured. There is a reason why lions, wolves, and other apex predators proscribe to this method I.R.L.; a hunter who takes on an entire herd head-on is liable to get tramples into paste.[[note]]In fact, this could be why David set off the flair in the first place; he wasn't trying to protect the humans, he was driving the Neomorphs away before they could be hurt.

[[folder: Obedience of the Synthetics]]

** I think the bloodbursters's early aggressivity could be actually measured by some awareness of its surroundings, not by a mindless reaction. The first one went bananas on the woman in the medbay precisely because she was alone and it was a closed space; meanwhile, the second one resorted to hit and run to tear down a large group in an open field. A bloodburster being born in a closed chamber full of people like the Kane chestburster would have probably retreated away the same way the latter did. The "what if it bursts out on someone who was properly armed and prepared" situation would be just as fatal for a regular chestburster. More, in fact, because it would lack the bloodburster's early extreme agility and it could only crawl away hoping the humans are too shocked by the birth to chase him like a mouse (just like it happened in the Nostromo - they only let it escape because they were unarmed, shocked and with the door open).

** As for the resulting offspring, the Xenomorph is just plain smarter. Chestbursters throughout the franchise have proven to be capable of killing adult humans upon birth, but they only do this if there is no other choice. I believe that the custbursters run so often not out of fear, but as a tactical retreat to muster it's strength, take the initiative, and regain the element of surprise. Compare this to the feral-minded neomorph who charged Karine within moments of hatching only to get its sorry hide booted across the room. Had tried the same stunt on someone who was properly armed and prepared, it would have been a much shorter movie.

*** Still, people get their jaws broken all the day and I have never heard one of them died strictly only due to that particular injury. Moreover, in Ankor's case, I remember the sting only tore apart a big chunk of flesh from his mouth/cheek; I don't even think the jawbone itself was destroyed.

** Another factor could have been the strength of the blow itself. Bones are tough, and the jaw is anchored pretty firmly to your head; not only would it take a tremendous amount of force to wrench it lose, but the impact would have also delivered a nasty shock to your skull and the grey matter within. If you look at the edges of his wound, you can see that the cut wasn't clean; it was shattered through brute force.