#alien versus predator 2 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

victoriadallonfan · 1 month

Text

Having re-watched Alien (1979) and Aliens (1985), I think I've realized what went wrong with the further expanded film universe on a thematic level (this is not accounting for AVP films, which seem to exist within their own continuity atm).

The main issue is that these films made 2 intertwining mistakes:

Making the Xenomorph too animalistic

Removing the mystery of space

For the first part, Alien and Aliens are quite vague about the Xenomorph mind. Alien treats it almost like a serial killer at times, including a particularly interesting moment where it disregards Jones the Cat entirely, despite making a very easy target, and how it will sometimes meander up to the crew as if it knows it's inflicting terror upon them. This Xenomorph even seems to only flee when Parker goes to kill it with a knife and hides within the evac shuttle when it realizes that Ripley was going there as well.

Aliens forgoes this in favor of showing how terrifying their numbers are even in the face of superior (if greatly mislead) fire power, but then pulls the rug under our protagonists by (seemingly) cutting the power and testing the endurance of the auto-turrets. While the drones are not individually as intelligent as the original xenomorph from the first film, this is instead given to the Queen, who understands not only the danger Ripley poses to her Hive but hostage negotiations of the most blunt variety. And, of course, incredible spite and vengeance when Ripley burns her eggs.

Basically, the two films do a good job of making you wonder... how sapient and sentient are the Xenomorphs? Do we take Ash's word and think of them as simply Hostile Weapons or do we see them for the adaptable and complex - if instinct guided - parasites just trying to protect their hive? This is further food for thought when we learn that one of the cut endings would have had the Xenomorph kill Ripley, tentatively use the shuttles control panel, and speak into the intercom with Dallas voice (ala Predator).

Imo, that goes too far into making them human, but we'll circle back to that later. The point is that the Xenomorph is never clearly one thing or another, but rather, something that constantly foils our attempts to understand them completely.

Aliens 3, Alien: Resurrection, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant fail in that regard, because they take the firm stance that the Xenomorph is... an animal. A very, very, dangerous and hostile animal but an animal nonetheless. It's not some vague horror that we struggle to comprehend and reason with, because all the facts (as they are for now) are laid out: the Xenomorphs are weaponized animals that just kill, reproduce, and kill etc etc.

Nothing is entirely new about the Xenomorphs in these movies (beyond the forms and one part of Covenant, but we'll circle back to that as well), but rather trying to recapture the formula of Alien and Aliens. And even when the film isn't necessarily about the Xenomorphs like Prometheus, it still goes out of its way to copy the play by play of Alien to an almost hilarious degree (except, somehow, having a cast entirely of stupid scientists).

The Xenomorph is used as a toll for the films to talk more about the human threats who would use them, which is fine, except the same message of "Weyland-Yutani wants Xenomorphs, They Failed" over and over again (except I guess for Alien: Resurrection, but that had Walmart as a plot point so...) gets tedious. It's not longer about the folley of mankind, but rather this one company led by a man (or Android?) who keeps fucking up.

Ditto goes for the second part: removing the mystery from space. Alien and Aliens treat the Space Jockey and other (non-Xenomorph) alien life at an arms distance. They are large, grand, ominous, and vaguely defined. We don't know much about WY in either movie, nor how much is them knowing versus independent people within the company (Burke mentions cutting out his own bosses for profit for example, and Bishop the company Android is heroic and horrified at the situation they are all in, a big difference to Ash). The Xenomorphs having a Queen was a huge reveal, because we literally had no idea until then if those were actual eggs or simply pods artificially created.

Aliens 3 tries to add some mystery with the prison colony, but it's also hamfisted and given a lot of exposition to explain the situation they are in, but I will give it kudos for making Weyland (???) look like Bishop as a twist. Aliens: Resurrection... yeah, no.

Prometheus and Alien Covenant gave us a plethora of seeming mysteries, but also gives us really super simple answers. Basically, Space Jockeys are just super humans seeding life across the planets and they wanted to bomb Earth into oblivion because we killed Jesus Christ (who was a Space Jockey). And one of our androids then - possibly - goes to their home planet and bombs them to oblivion thus wiping out the human race. And they made Xenomorphs yadda yadda.

Prometheus in particular seems to despise the idea of space being a mystery, with the conversation David has with a scientist being plainly spelled out as the theme of the film: "Sometimes, humans/space jockeys just build shit, and it goes wrong I guess. No gods or mysteries here, just hubris."

Which, if handled well, is still a fascinating idea (I think it's a pretty interesting 'take-that' against the stupidity of Ancient Alien Conspiracy Theorists)... but it's not handled well. At all. And certainly doesn't work well when trying to write Xeno-Horror.

So, what COULD work?

Well, I think we need to look at how Alien and Aliens made the Xenomorphs, Space Jockey's, and Space itself all work.

For the xenomorphs, I think back to one scene I actually thought was interesting in Alien: Covenant; as a chestburster is born from a hapless scientist, it lays its eyes (???) on David and replicates his movements, mimicking the first living thing it witnesses. Nothing is ever done with this (of course), but think about the potential that could be used! Plenty of animals like crows, ravens, dolphins, octopi, killer whales etc etc can use mimicry in voices and actions, and that includes things like tool-use! And of course, the fact that they take on new forms from hosts helps with that.

For the Space Jockey's: scrap them. They had their time, the mystery is basically solved. Show us new and different alien civilizations long past. Were they also victims of the Xenomorphs? From some other threat entirely? Surely, there are extraterrestrial predators out there that don't follow the Xenomorph formula. Why not have them share the splotlight, with just as little explanation?

For space itself: stop with trying to recapture Alien and Aliens. Alien: Isolation is the only successor specifically because of the format of the medium. Alien and Aliens rely heavily on the shock factor of sudden reveals. Remove that, and you are given "bug hunt" games and movies ala discount Starship Trooper. Focus more on making human space feel almost alien and beyond our understanding as well, but just enough that we can recognize the purpose that we would have them for our society.

How I would write an Alien Story:

(This would all be backstory and setup for the actual story)

I would set it within a colony satellite with an explicit task: a skyscraper ecological time-capsule for deep space experimentation of wildlife.

It would have levels, with humans situated at the second uppermost and an AI as the manager at the top level of the satellite, with all the other animals in different levels fit for their habitats (including some non-earth, non-xenomorph aliens). It's a religious sponsored and run organization, offshoots of [Insert Church Here] that is trying to get good press with cutting edge AI and biological research.

The prize is an alien lifeform that looks like a cross between a crocodile and a panther. Usually docile when fed, it has been growing more and more agitated, harming several workers on the job. Most assume it may be some late-stage degenerative disease within it's brain.

Not all things are as it seems, as at the bottom of the station, a location no one but a select few faithful engineers are sent to maintain, a pod is damaged. A young attendant watches in shock and horror as a bloody and maimed chest burster crawls out of the pod, possibly having injured itself to burn through the lock. The creature is mewling in pain, but the young attendant makes a choice: leaving food, water, and blanket for the creature. Watching as the creature watches them, before going to feast. All under the gaze of a camera.

The xenomorph grows and grows, eating more, getting bolder and allowing its "caretaker" to feel more comfortable. Soon it begins to recognize certain sounds as they pray when he feasts, and association occurs. One day, its hiss sounds suspiciously like "Lord".

This is when the young attendant reaches out to higher, but trusted, priests to share this miraculous revelation. The first one is shocked, terrified, but intrigued as the creature mimics words like "Lord" and "Mighty". Barely audible, some would say hallucinatory, but they believe they can here this humanoid creature speak their language.

The second is equally shocked, terrified, but listens and becomes a believer.

The third one does not believe. Rightfully horrified and full of questions. Their arguments in front of the beast escalate into violence and when the young attendant shoves the priest to the ground, it is the Xenomorph that pounces. Blood is shed. the creature rises in front of it's faithful, and the Xenomorph uses the same sounds it heard over the fight. Lord. Mighty. Here-tik.

They can't be delusional or driven by guilt! This is a sign... right? This creature is speaking to them!

The faith grows. Never large. Can't risk word getting out or people noticing too many missing priests. The satellite is just barely large enough that people can excuse going missing for a few days between objectives.

But key individuals are brought in. The creature is worshiped. Animal offerings are delivered. It's changing, slowly. Growing larger (not a Xenomorph Queen, it's too maimed, but adapting to a steady diet).

Things might have escalated, had one of the priests killed not had an estranged sibling/spouse/loved one who had the pull to make a formal investigatory complaint.

The investigator arrives with his repertoire, this supposed garden of eden in deep space, none the wiser to what he would uncover. (Again, this would be the backstory, not revealed except through character investigations and evidence found during that. Defeats the purpose if it's spelled out like this).

It would play with the idea of how sapient/sentient the Xenomorphs are (do they care? do they understand? if not, why act like this? if yes, what does this mean for their continued slaughter), how much one puts into faith versus delusions, and leaves lingering questions: who put the xenomorph on the ship, why is the AI so complicit with the deaths and disappearances, and why is the one non-xenomorph alien acting so dangerously agitated despite being far away from the xenomorph's quarters?

#xenomorph #alien #aliens #alien 1979 #aliens 1986 #facehugger #chestburster #xenomorph drone #xenomorph queen #ridley scott #james cameron

168 notes · View notes

datcloudboi · 1 year

Text

List of video games turning 20 years old in 2023:

Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

Alien Versus Predator: Extinction

Amplitude (an early rhythm game from Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band)

Ape Escape 2

Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis (the Superman 64 for Aquaman)

Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits

Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge

Batman: Dark Tomorrow (the Superman 64 for Batman)

Beyond Good and Evil

Bloody Roar 4 (the last game in the series to release)

Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand (a very unique action RPG from Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima)

Brute Force

Call of Duty (the very first one)

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

Dark Cloud 2

Deus Ex: Invisible War

Devil May Cry 2

Dino Crisis 3 (C'mon, Capcom, do another one)

Disaster Report

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II

Drake of the 99 Dragons

Dynasty Warriors 4

Enter the Matrix

Eve Online

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (my personal favorite TRPG)

Final Fantasy X-2

Final Fantasy XI Online (in the States. Also the first MMO in the series)

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (the first Fire Emblem game to release in the States)

Freedom Fighters

Freelancer

F-Zero GX

The Getaway

Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Grabbed by the Ghoulies (the first game developed by Rare after being acquired by Xbox)

.hack//Infection

.hack//Mutation

.hack//Outbreak (yep, three .hack games were released in a single year)

Homeworld 2

Ikaruga (the most video game-ass video game that ever video game'd)

Jak II

Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis

Kirby: Air Ride

Legacy of Kain: Defiance (the last game in the series to release)

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Lost Kingdoms II

Manhunt

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Mario Party 5

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Mega Man & Bass (was originally a Sega Saturn exclusive that only released in Japan. It released over in the States on the GBA.)

Mega Man Battle Network 3

Mega Man X7

Mega Man Zero 2

Metal Arms: Glitch in the System

Midnight Club II

Need for Speed: Underground

Otogi: Myth of Demons (an early SoulsBorne-like game from From Software)

Panzer Dragoon Orta

P.N.03

Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire (in the States)

Postal 2

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc

Rise of Nations

Robocop (the Superman 64 for Robocop)

Silent Hill 3

The Simpsons: Hit & Run

Sonic Advance 2

SoulCalibur II (the console versions)

Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy

Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom

Star Wars: Galaxies

Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 (a remake of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the GBA)

Tak and the Power of Juju

1080° Avalanche

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

Tony Hawk’s Underground

Toontown Online

True Crime: Streets of LA (Activision's attempt at a GTA clone)

Unlimited SaGa

Unreal II: The Awakening

Viewtiful Joe

Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (the last Warcraft game before WoW)

Wario World

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega MicroGame$!

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (The Will to Power)

XIII

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

90 notes · View notes

alliluyevas · 5 months

Text

not to devote extensive worldbuilding analysis to the scintillating film Alien versus Predator but here goes:

I was actually thinking a bit about gender in the two franchises wrt the human characters already, because even the original Alien features the iconic Ellen Ripley, who is very much a different type of action lead than Arnold Schwarzenegger. I haven't seen all the Alien films, but of the ones I've seen even the non-Ripley-centric films have a female human protagonist. The Predator franchise, with the exception of most recent entry Prey, is generally much more male-centered.

One thing I'd found interesting wrt gender in the Alien movies is that there are several prominent characters who are androids but they are all male, at least in the films I've seen, which is a bit of a bummer for me because I love the Alien androids and I like female characters. This is interesting and in some ways a little surprising because Ridley Scott also made Blade Runner, whose replicants deal with a lot of the same themes around synthetic humanity as the androids in Alien, and 2/3 of the prominent replicants in Blade Runner are female. (Unless you interpret Deckard as a replicant as well, but that's a matter of debate and personally I think the movie is more interesting if he's not.)

So I'd already thought a bit about the treatment of gender for both human and human-adjacent characters in both franchises, and then Alien versus Predator raised further questions. AVP, which I guess we consider both an Alien movie and a Predator movie, also features a female human protagonist, which is typical for Alien movies but I believe was the first entry in the Predator franchise to do so. It also really leans into something else that I had already thought about when comparing the titular monster from both franchises: the comparative anthropomorphism of the Predator species as opposed to the insectoid and much more animalistic Alien species.

And this made me consider for the first time: do the Predators have a concept of gender? As in, within their own species?

The Alien species is pretty clearly modeled off of hive-based insect species like ants and bees, with a "queen" Alien that is much physically larger and produces all the eggs, and a much larger number of smaller drone or soldier aliens that perform most of the colony tasks.

The Predators, on the other hand, appear to be more mammalian, and even humanoid, in their appearance and their traits/abilities. Which begs the question: are the Predators, like most earth mammals, also sexually dimorphic? Most of the Predators we see in the films appear relatively similar, and certainly more "masculine" by human standards in terms of their build (male-presenting Predators, lol). I don't want to project human body standards onto an alien species, but are all the Predators supposed to be male? Are the female Predators all back on Predator Homeworld and don't go on hunting trips? Or are the Predators we see in the films a mixed-gender group and that's just not visible to a human audience? They could definitely also be a species that produces both "male" and "female" gametes and reproduces in a way that is foreign to earth mammals.

In terms of how Predators interact with male and female humans, they definitely seem to repeatedly underestimate female humans or perceive them as unthreatening. In the original Predator movie, the Predator essentially ignores Anna because he does not see her as a threat. (From a Watsonian perspective, this could be just because she's unarmed, because she's physically smaller than the men in the film, or because he perceives her as female, or some of all three. From a Doylist perspective, it's a male-centric action movie made in the 1980s). The Predator in Prey also underestimates Naru and initially judges her as unthreatening. (Again, because she is female or because she is young and small?) In Predator 2, a Predator spares the life of a pregnant woman, which indicates that Predators possibly have an understanding of pregnancy. They could have this because their own species experiences it, or alternately because they've observed it in other species. They clearly see pregnant women as weaker and more vulnerable (ie, not honorable prey), but that doesn't necessarily indicate that they see this difference between them and male humans as a gendered marker.

(Of course, this is an alien species and I don't want to assume that even if they are sexually dimorphic that they have a system of gender roles that is at all comparable to humans, even if they are obviously humanoid in many ways. After all, most earth mammal species have sexual dimorphism but they certainly do not have a human concept of patriarchy in any sense.)

My final thought on the matter: in Predators, there are three main Predators hunting the human characters. They discover a smaller Predator tied up in the other Predators' camp. At the end of the film, the humans free the captive Predator and it helps them defeat the larger Predators. It seems like most interpretation of this is that the two "types" of Predators are members of different tribes or subspecies. On the other hand--is it possible that the smaller Predator which is being held captive is actually just a female?

#sorry for being like this. anyway

9 notes · View notes

found-in-retro-game-mags · 1 year

Photo

Aliens Versus Predator 2: Primal Hunt

“Long before the horror began, fear stepped out of the shadows.” (PC Gamer #103, Nov. 2002)

#aliens vs predator #AVP #xenomorph #predator #sierra #monolith productions #pc gaming #video game ads #retro gaming

55 notes · View notes

coffeestripes · 1 year

Text

Thinking about Weyland-Yutani

"Building better worlds"

MY BROTHER IN CHRIST THIS COMPANY DOES THE SAME MISTAKES OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND THEY DON'T LEARN

Okay, hear me out, i hate this company so much, and i have my reasons. Canon or not, is just stupid at this point

LV-1201 - Aliens versus Predator 2 (video game)

Ok so, you saw what xenomorphs can do, every single one of the expedition teams died and they still think is a good idea to make a ENORMOUS research facility because sure, who cares about life? Proffit!!! Bruh:

The entire place got infected by xenomorphs

A whole pod felt down, costing who-knows-tons of money and lost a very valuable thing and probably lots of important information

You can't even control drones and the company wants a queen???

BG-386 - Aliens vs. Predator (2010 video game)

"We didn't learn a shit about what happened so let's mess up with xenomorphs and predators again at cost of people life :D"

"Oh yeah also let's try to control xenomorphs again"

Surprise, surprise, they escaped again!

"Whatever the queen died, is still a good place to-"

NO. UNDERSTAND, THINGS ALWAYS GO WRONG AROUND THEM, CONGRATULATIONS, DARK IS BLOWING UP THE WHOLE PLACEEEEEE

Besides, Bishop Weyland knew what Six (The xenomorph we control during its campaign) did a whole revolution… And they really thought it was a good idea to captivate her? Of course, she killed everyone again and became a queen

I don't have more examples like those but i don't doubt there are a lot more because like i said, they make the same mistakes over and over again

Probably i'm missing many other things because my knowledge is not good enough. But whatever, i really wanted to take this hate out of my system. Keep doing crimes against humans Weyland-Yutani <3

Side note: I'll be doing more blogs like this, is fun. Jungle Hunter i'm coming for you >:3

#weylandyutani #weyland industries #aliens vs predator #avp #xenomorph #predator #yautja #avp game 2010 #avp 2 game #avp 2 primal hunt #kofi.text

23 notes · View notes

savage-kult-of-gorthaur · 1 year

Text

CUE A REALLY GREAT CHARGED G.B.H. SONG FOR THIS ONE -- "I AM THE HUNTED!!"

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on promotional artwork of the "Gotham City Hunter" yautja for the "Batman versus Predator" Vol. 1 three-issue mini-series by DC/Dark Horse Comics. January-March, 1992. Artwork by Andy Kubert.

Alright, so, the inked Predator advert was featured inside the pages of "Shade the Changing Man" Vol. 2 #19. January, 1992. The colored version was used as back cover art to "Aliens: Hive" Vol. 1 #1. February, 1992. Both are Dark Horse publications.

Sources: www.chrisisoninfiniteearths.com/2017/12/19/shade-changing-man-vol2-19-1992 & eBay.

12 notes · View notes

wildwildwasteland · 10 months

Text

btw if any alien/predator fans out there want a game rec. acclaimed title Alien versus (not "vs.") Predator 2 is on my abandonware dot net and you should download it and play co-op with me

#me and drbread played a lot of co-op campaign this weekend and its Scary. also honestly it makes me wanna stream #i sense twitch watchers are the type of sickos who wanna see a grown man go “im scawed. eep.” and such. and i do

6 notes · View notes

keycomicbooks · 4 months

Text

Alien Versus Predator - Battle Scene - Alien takes out 2 Predators. This 1st movie of the encounter between Aliens and Predators was in my opinion ok, maybe a tad above average movie (yet way better than the 2nd AVP movie); but I do have to admit this was one fantastic fight scene. This alien was able to dispatch 2 Super Predators. The effects were off the charts. #AVP #Aliens #Predators #ScienceFiction #Horror

#aliens versus predators #aliens #predators #AVP

2 notes · View notes

1stprototype · 2 years

Video

21 years later and Alien Versus Predator 2′s Marine campaign is still one of the most terrifying and nerve wracking things I’ve ever played. The atmosphere and tension building is so masterful. Monolith Productions was the king of horror FPS.

#FPS #horror #alien #xenomorph #avp 2 #monolith productions #was screaming like a little bitch at this part

35 notes · View notes

valentinecult · 2 years

Note

Just asking from your perspective as a fan, but how much of the Predator franchise is considered canon? I've read a ton of crossovers (Batman versus Predator/Superman versus Aliens etc)... but how much of the info on Predators is accepted?

It's a lot to cover on what is considered canon and believe it or not, some crossover stories create a lot of confusion and division among the fanbase. Oh, I'm sure you heard of Marvel bringing in the hunters into their own universe, pitting them against the superheroes (I'd kill to see Spider-Man going up against a Veteran Predator <3).

But for the sake of simplicity, I'll keep it grounded on the Predators' own universe, movies, and comics that tie into the movies. I'll even add in tidbits of the Alien franchise. Be prepared, this might be a loooong post XD

The most famous 'crossover' that accepted as canon (despite some fans regarding it as not) is Alien vs. Predator. Everybody obviously knows that one Easter egg in Predator 2 that showed the City Hunter's trophy collection and what do we see?

The skull of an alien aka the Xenomorph. That's enough to confirm that both franchises and their respective stories are canon and linked together officially!

Now, lets dive into the WHOLE Predator franchise and the canon timeline.

In Alien vs. Predator, the story established that the Predators had came to Earth since 3000 D.C., the Temple Building Era and were a major influence to human civilization and culture.

Now, we fast forward to 1718 The Adolini Hunt and 1719 where the movie Prey takes place. This...is rather confusing for various reasons. Originally, the comic Predator 1718 was considered canon because it featured Raphael Adolini, the owner of the famous pistol from Predator 2 that was carried by the Elder Predator known as Greyback. In that story, Raphael was a pirate captain and an absolute badass, which is why Greyback respected him and took the pistol in honor of him.

Unfortunately, the Adolini pistol story changed and the comic book isn't canon anymore (*facepalms*) because of Prey. Raphael wasn't a pirate captain, just a member of the French Trappers that helps them with translation. After dying, he passed the pistol to Naru, making her the new owner of the firearm. We get to see an ominous end credit scene that displayed various Predator ships invading Naru's village, it's safe to assume that it is Greyback and his clan. He probably obtained the pistol from Naru from that point on.

That's not the only thing that changed. According to the director and his crew, the Feral Predator is said to be the first Predator to have arrived on Earth, which isn't true as evidence suggested in Predator 2 and Alien vs. Predator that these hunters all have been visiting Earth since the dinosaur era! This could be an oversight or retcon to the story. Perhaps more specifically, the Feral Predator could be the first of his own clan to have arrived on Earth.

So, Prey has a few changes and possible retcons (still a badass and awesome movie ^_^ b).

We move forward into the modern era and this is from what I believe was the Alien vs. Predator novel. Charles Weyland written a report about what happened to the Norwegian whaling station before the events of Alien vs. Predator.

By 1904, a successful Norwegian whaling station was operating out of Bouvet Island off the Antarctic coast. According to the controversial Charles Bishop Weyland report ("Alien vs. Predator"), on an unknown date, the settlement claimed to experience a number of mysterious events that ranged from unidentifiable lights in the sky to unusual seismic activity. The Weyland report claims that the whalers eventually retrieved an object from the ice — a metal pod that released a Yautja.

The report further claims the Yautja annihilated the whalers along with a number of Xenomorph drones that had been somehow released from the alleged temple, long since frozen in the ice. The entirety of the Weyland report remains in doubt, and there is no physical evidence to support that the 1904 desertion of Razorback was due to localized intergalactic conflict. It may be possible to re-open this investigation as a tragic mass hysteria incident such as the Smalls Lighthouse disaster or the 2016 clown panic.

Now we go into the events of the first Predator movie and lets assume the movie release date years are the same as the in-lore dates.

1987- The Guatemalan Slaughter (Predator)

We all know the story of Dutch and his team of mercenaries. This is the first Predator in history to take on modern day soldiers. Prior to the events of the movie, the hunter already killed off another team of soldiers before Dutch and his friends arrived in the jungle. So, this Predator must’ve been hunting for a while.

After successfully defeating the Predator, Dutch survived, but his involvement to the Predator franchise doesn’t end there.

1990 - The Los Angeles Wave (Predator 2)

Another hunter enters the hunting grounds, the City Hunter and this introduces the group known as the OWLF (Other Worldly Life Forms program). Peter Keyes and the organization were secretly investigating the 1987 incident with little help from Dutch. So the OWLF have been dealing with aliens, most especially the Predators/Yautja for a while. The organization expressed great interest and admiration for the Predators’ advanced technology and wanted it for themselves. This obsession over the hunting tech is probably one of the main reasons why hunters NEED to activate the wrist bomb should they fail their hunt or if they are in critical condition to continue. So the OWLF was presented as a major threat to the Yautja species.

Unfortunately for Keyes, the OWLF soldiers were picked off by the City Hunter due to the Predators’ different vision modes from their biomask. So at that moment, the OWLF probably underestimated the Predators and assumed from limited intel that they can track your heat signatures. Secondly, Predators demonstrated from that point that they’re very adaptive to their environment and they are always advancing their technology.

2004 - The Weyland Report and Gunnison Incident (Alien vs. Predator and Requiem (2007, but in lore it takes place in 2004) )

In this timeline, we are now in the events of Alien vs. Predator. With the true identity of Charles Bishop Weyland in doubt, much of the rest of the 2004 incident is questionable because the Weyland-Yutani history is unclear and the actor Lance Henrikson played different people with the last name Weyland, good lord...it hurts my head. That’s one of the few reasons why fans express doubt that AVP is canon, despite the connections and evidence given.

Anyway, the AVP story...

Independently wealthy, Weyland gathered a small crew of experts from a variety of fields to investigate the Bouvet Island "temple" location ("Alien vs. Predator").

Upon arrival at the ruins of Razorback Station, this field team, along with Charles, claimed to enter the temple via a tunnel alleged to be of recent Yautja creation.Inside the temple, the team entered a conflict between Yautja and the reawakened Xenomorphs. Weyland is alleged to have died in the temple to help other field team members to escape. One survivor, Lex (Sanaa Latham), claims to have allied with the Yautja to push back a possible Xenomorph escape. With the temple and its Xenomorph queen destroyed, the alliance was successful. There is no clear evidence of Weyland's actual goal. However, a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer may have been a factor in his actions.

It’s unknown what happened to Lex after the events. Lex's story is uncorroborated, though OWLF later recovered a Yautja-style bone spear. Once again, the OWLF is involved!

Next, Requiem and the events take place in the same year of the first film.

The mystery of Charles Bishop Weyland is compounded by the involvement of someone who claims to be a Ms. Yutani (Françoise Yip), who may have also released the initial Razorback Station report. Miss Yutani's secondary report alleges that a further situation arose from the Bouvet Island temple encounter, involving a mutated Yautja, or rather a Predator with Xenomorph characteristics.

This chaotic and generally unreliable report suggests that not only was the town of Gunnison, Colorado, at the mercy of a Yautja attempting to contain this "Predalien" situation but that it went out of control so far as to require a scorched earth response from the United States military. To date, there is no confirmed tactical nuclear response — much less on U.S. soil — and no global radiation reading to suggest the Gunnison event happened. In truth, this situation may be best explained as a false flag report left as a watermark to trap an agent selling confidential documents with the event taken out of context by conspiracy theorists.

2010 - The Game Preserve Abduction (Predators)

The introduction of Bad Blood Predators and different Predator species. Through unknown circumstances, a team of highly trained killers with vastly different origins were abducted by several hunters and placed on another planet that takes on the likeness of Earth’s jungles (and hilariously enough, this literally blew my mind XD).

When the group encountered a Yautja that is tied to a tree, Isabelle, one of the Elites, recognized the alien and referenced the 1987 Guatemalan massacre and Dutch’s survival. Originally, the film crew had the idea of bringing Dutch back into the movie as the most experienced member, but supposedly Arnold had other plans going on and the film likely would cause schedule issues.

Oh yeah, everything is all coming together. It’s all making sense. Now we’re talking.

2018 - Precursor to alleged invasion threat

As much as I don’t care for this movie, I unfortunately need to include it because it expands more on the Predators and the entire franchise. Anyway, The Predator...

Once again, the annoying and stubborn OWLF is BACK! OWLF's later reports of an incident within an unidentified U.S. suburb ("The Predator," 2018) do not leave investigators with a clear understanding of events. What is known is that a Yautja landed near an active military operation, getting into conflict with soldier Quinn McKenna.

During this time, the OWLF is replaced by another organization that is more intent on studying the Yautja. Meet...Stargazer! Stargazer is the new and better OWLF! Who is the man in charge of the operations? Meet Sean Keyes, son of Peter Keyes from Predator 2!

The Fugitive Predator, despite killing humans and being violent, wanted to deliver a weapon called the Predator Killer to mankind to fend off the incoming Predator invasion (not really a Predator’s forte but then again, not all Predators follow the same tradition and rules.)

This film made reference to the first and second films, connecting the lore all together, despite a few errors with the dates (CinemaSins on Youtube pointed out this silly mistake lol).

2020 and beyond (2025) - OWLF Expansion and more hunters become active. (Predator Hunting Grounds)

Surprise surprise. The video game Predator Hunting Grounds ties majority of the films into its lore. It’s confirmed that Dutch is alive and Isabelle managed to escape the game preserved planet from Predators. Both characters are now dedicating their lives in hunting and killing Predators.

It’s suggested in the game that more Predators are becoming active and according to Dutch, better and more skilled hunters are encountered almost daily. This introduces the female Predators into the franchise and as said in my previous posts, the females don’t screw around, but the same could be said about the males.

The human race at this point is sparking up a lot of interest for the Yautja species. They are sending in a lot of hunters to go after people the Yautja deem as worthy prey. If we connect this back to The Predator movie, this could the supposed invasion that the Fugitive Predator was trying to prevent.

It’s unknown what happened to the Predator Killer suit, so I suspect it is ‘retgone’ out of the story or the Predators managed to retrieve it from Stargazer.

The lore can be told from the audio entries made by Dutch and Sean Keyes. It’s revealed that after the first movie, Dutch has been secretly providing information for the OWLF about his encounter with these hunters and possibly the one who told them about Predators seeing heat signatures through their mask. Dutch met Sean’s father in a hospital where the former mercenary was suffering radiation sickness from the wrist bomb of the Jungle Hunter. Luckily for him, Dutch discovered that the blood of the Yautja can prolong a human’s lifeforce. This explains why Dutch is able to continue fighting and killing Predators, despite being an old man. He even said that he feels like his younger self again.

Up until now, Dutch is determined to push the Predators back and willing to send a message to them that humans are not to be messed with. However, the hunters aren’t backing down from a challenge. I’m not sure how long Dutch has to continue fighting because after his encounter with a female Predator, he should’ve been dead, but I guess the female knew who he was and was setting a lesson and a warning that not all hunters are the same nor pushovers.

Long story short, this is what I believe is accepted as canon to the franchise, despite a few retcons and oversights.

Prey

Predator

Predator 2

Alien vs. Predator

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem

Predators

The Predator

Predator Hunting Grounds (video game)

Anyone that wishes to add onto these are welcome to do so.

#prey 2022 #prey #predator #predator 2 #alien vs predator #alien vs predator requiem #predators #the predator #predator hunting grounds #dutch predator #yautja #OWLF #Peter Keyes #Stargazer #canonical #holy hell this is a long post #oof so much typing

33 notes · View notes

theowlhousefanboy · 1 year

Text

Good/Great Games That Sorely Needed Expansion Packs/DLC Stories, if not More (And What They Might Have Entailed):

X-Wing Alliance (tying up the loose end that is Uncle Antan, whilst maybe extending to the Liberation of Coruscant)

Quake 4 (eliminating the remnants of the Strogg while fighting what may be fellow humans sent to hunt you down)

Return to Castle Wolfenstein+Enemy Territory (just more B.J. Blazkowicz adventures)

Star Wars: Squadrons (modding, more ships like the Assault Gunboat and E-Wing, and a far better and more expanded story campaign akin to X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter: Balance of Power)

Battlezone II: Combat Commander (probably cleaning up General Braddock's remaining yet fanatical forces, with an alternate campaign showing the full extermination of the Scion)

Batman: Arkham Origins (basically, a singleplayer campaign between Batman and Dick Grayson Robin based on the premise of the now defunct multiplayer)

Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000 (just more missions for the Colonial Marine, Alien, and Predator; maybe even more modding tools)

Original War (an Arab campaign that explains the main game's plot holes, among others)

SiN: Wages of Sin (perhaps an alternate timeline where the elusive Elexis Sinclaire was actually killed, thus preventing the existence of the lackluster episodic sequel)

Valiant Hearts: The Great War (an extension involving the American intervention, the fall of czarist Russia and the rise of Communism, and the end of WW1)

Command and Conquer: Tiberium Wars+Kane's Wrath (basically, Kane's Wrath-like takes for the GDI and the Scrin, with maybe a bonus campaign involving CABAL remnants and an actual crossover with Red Alert 2 by way of a Nod agent about to be sent back in time named Yuri)

Brutal Legend (even I can't think which)

Singularity (mayhaps an interquel involving another time traveller who may or may not be helping the protagonists)

Impossible Creatures (again, I can't think of anything)

Shadowrun Returns (Dragonfall and Hong Kong are great, but really, we need more)

BattleTech 2018 (same as Shadowrun Returns)

Mad Max (more adventures, vehicles, and franchise fanservice, and I don't mean the skin kind)

Halo Wars (just some side stories over the course of the Human-Covenant War)

Total War: Shogun 2 (Mongol invasion, 'nuff said)

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (I don't really need to say more)

Act of War: Direct Action+High Treason (either a campaign that shows us the fall of the Consortium or, better yet, a full blown alternate universe Consortium campaign)

House of the Dying Sun (more intriguing missions and ships, I guess)

Edit: OK, Valiant Hearts actually got a sequel named Coming Home in late January 2023, in a different medium that does show the American intervention and thus the end of WW1. Suffice to say, heard it did well.

18 notes · View notes

winterhalters · 2 years

Note

This year Starz relased 2 series that portray adultxteenager relationships that happened ok the past... There was so much expectation about Seymour/Elizabeth, the most famous of the 2 (I expected the show to be more straightforward about It being abuse & wrong, BTW), but not so much for the lesser known Diane/Henry in Serpent Queen... My question is: do you think the Diane/Henry scenario is similar/different to the creepy, abusive Seymour/Elizabeth?

i think i must have been crafting a reply for about an hour and i'm still stressed out it will come out wrong lol

the interesting thing about elizabeth/seymour versus diane/henri is that, to me, both dynamics are indeed using grooming mecanisms but in different ways. Now, I'm not a specialist when it comes to Seymour/Elizabeth, so maybe other people could bring you a better answer when it comes to them, but a lot of their dynamic rested specifically on the authority he held over her, and the imbalance of power it created. Seymour was a predator, who used and abused his position to ensure that Elizabeth would remain under his complete control.

The dynamic is naturally very different from the start between Diane and Henri; while Diane was indeed the governess of the royal children, it was a formal title and a formal position that had little to do with actually raising the kids. She was not a mother figure to Henri and never claimed to be, no matter what historians have been making up over the centuries.

Interestingly enough we can draw parallels between Henri and Elizabeth on several aspects of their childhood. They both lost their mother at a very young age (3 for Elizabeth, 5 for Henri), were subsequently removed from their father's care (she was ruled a bastard, Francis was captive in Spain), and led very reclusive lives for their formative years (Elizabeth under Seymour's 'care' and Henri in captivity in Spain). Those traumatic events happened in an excessively rapid succession and created what i can only assume would be devastating, lifelong emotional consequences, that probably rendeered them both very pliant in certain situations and, perhaps, prone to abuse and grooming.

It's immensely difficult to come up with a definitive answer for Diane because you need to break down a lot of stereotypes and detangle five hundred years of sexism and misogyny. Men too are subject to grooming, especially young men in desperate need of affection and validation like Henri was. It's also true that an imbalance of power with women at the top and younger men at the bottom was (and still is) considered attractive on some level, okay on others, suitable sometimes. For a long time, in the decades and centuries following the rise of courtly love all the way to the Italian quattrocento and later on, women of aristocratic backgrounds, generally older, were often asked to teach younger men the 'ways' of society, mainly in the art of conversation and manners; i haven't found any conclusive work led by gender-studies specialists to know if those theories are still maintained or have been debunked ever since.

Either way, what remains of those theories to this day is that for a long time it was somewhat okay for older women to have near-complete authority over young men, and if it became sexual, then it wasn't perceived as anything reprehensible (key word being, perceived). Considering the way society looks back on cases of grooming over young men in this day and age, i wouldn't be entirely too surprised to find that this level of toxicity was already part of the social landscape of the 15th-16th century.

It is possible that the dynamic that developed between Henri and Diane in his late teen years was motivated by a relation of interdependence between education and grooming. Diane had an impeccable, spotless reputation at court as a very dutiful, gracious and down-to-earth figure; it wouldn't have been alien for people (including Francis) to perceive any form of friendship between her and a very moody royal prince perfectly suitable. People are generally split into two categories when it comes to Diane and Henri entering a sexual relationship. Some say 1538 (which would make him 19), other say it's unlikely they became intimate before his rise to the throne nine years after that. Regardless, Henri was already married (1533) and a father (to a bastard girl, 1538) by the time he consumated his relationship with Diane, who was walking an extremely tight rope herself.

Their dynamic is unique in the sense that Diane had everything to lose in pursuing a sexual and intimate relationship with a younger man, Dauphin or not, after spending years carefully crafting a reputation at Court. An aspect that is often slept on when it comes to Diane is that her much, much older husband could be brutal with his words, and that his own father had murdered his mother in cold blood after finding her in bed with a lover. Entering a marriage at only fifteen with such a heavy precedent in a household can't have been an easy thing for her to navigate through. It's possible that the age difference in her own marriage affected her perception of men/women dynamics and/or created/affected her emotional needs.

In contrast, Seymour could have lived well enough without assaulting a minor under his care. Had he been a decent father figure, it seems unlikely that Elizabeth would have turned her back on him after ascending the throne. I'm not saying there was only love and an innocent romantic bond between Diane and Henri, as opposed to Seymour and Elizabeth. What I'm saying is, the patterns are different from the start because Diane never had any substantial authority over Henri. If she used grooming methods on him (which might honestly be the case), i do believe those may have been enforced by the context and the toxicity of men/women dynamics of the period.

#ask #answered #anon

9 notes · View notes

imthefailedartist · 2 years

Text

Predator: Complete Series Review

One of the best creature feature creatures to ever feature. Every time that helmet comes off I want to vomit and cover my eyes. It's like a blown open vagina with eyes and teeth. It's truly terrifying and it makes me wonder if I can take it.

As these movies go on they suffer from "I'm the biggest and baddest thing to ever exist but you keep making sequels". Eventually, they need to make one of these where the Predator wins.

Question: From a skill hunting standpoint, does the Predator be cheating? I mean, it's going after animals with teeth and claws using technology. Same for it going against a person. It's got radar, heat vision, auto aiming/firing weapons, bombs, and it's strong as hell. Sure, humans have some of that, but never the person(s) it's hunting. Take that suit off player, and let's see wha-- Oh god, it snapped me in half with its bare hands.

Predator (1987) Fantastic. Really smart use of a small budget. Makes staring at trees entertaining. No bullshitting around gets right to the action. The way it shows the Predator stalking them, learning. So good. Features the world's strongest handshake. Bill Duke(s) with the machine gun. Arnold with the mud. The name Dutch. Great fucking time.

Predator 2 (1990) Very 80's in a bad and good way. I like the idea of hunting in the concrete jungle but also I hate it. I like that it's more investigative than outright hunting but these thrive in the forest. They don't use enough elements of a city for my tastes. Going after gangsters isn't the same as going against a trained hunter. They don't operate the same, so it's really just ends up being a skilled killer going after regular assholes with guns. Overall it's a good time.

AVP: Alien vs Predator (2004) deserves better than the dust y'all paid it. It was a fun ride. It's a cool way to bring two "ultimate killing machine" worlds together. They didnt need to tie the alien history together, no one cares. I also don't need the bred to hunt history lesson, but I dont mind it. We just want to see 'em fight. Sanaa Lathan kicked alien ass and lived to tell about it. My question is how did they decide which creature would win? Coin toss or the humanish one is more relatable?

Picture it AVP: Some R word, the predators are back on Earth because of a Xenomorph and the Predator finds Alexa because of her earth knowledge and together they hunt it down.

Aliens Vs. Predators: Requiem (2007) when do the Xenomorphs start versusing the Predators? Because 40 minutes in and its a lot of human bullshit and aliens, of both persuasion, doing stuff but not together. This could work if it knew how to use the aliens. Also, cut the damn lights on, can't see a goddamn thing. Also, why the hell was this called requiem?

50 minutes, and still no predator vs alien.

60 minutes, with no A-ing versus P-ing.

70 minutes, the title has nothing to do with the movie.

75 minutes, finally the A's are v-ing the P's, but for some reason the humans I give no fucks about are taking up the screen time. Should be called Aliens Exist: Can't See 'em Though.

Is this worse than The Predator? Yes and that's saying a lot. At least some action happens in TP.

Predators (2010) really enjoy the fish out of water alien planet element. Answers some questions without ruining the mystery. The twist with Topher Grace needed to be more laid out to have a better payoff. Would've liked to see more of how and why the Predators use this planet as a testing ground. What makes this planet special, the terrain, the atmosphere, the flora and fauna? Because its unpopulated? Without all of that they might as well be on earth. Would've been cool to see each person's hunting style more. Basically this is the I need more movie. It's fine to just watch but a little more wouldn't hurt. Laurence Fishburne needed more screen time.

The Predator (2018) Absolute shit. Paint by numbers studio picture. Why make a Predator 15' tall and then do nothing cool with it? This doesn't understand why people like these movies. A 15' Predator isn't interesting or scary for the same reasons as a slightly above the average human Predator. It requires no skill, no hunting prowess. This is one of those "we have better computer graphics, let's show off" movies. The 2010's loved a let's make a well known baddie a "goody" plot twist. It was shit then, its shit now.

Trevante Rhodes being here does give this like half a bonus point but he's not the lead so. . . Also, Sterling K. Brown.

The fire alarm goes off the teacher leaves the room before making sure ALL the students have evacuated.

All these years later I thought Boyd Holbrook was that tall blonde Swede, not that one, the other one.

Every female character is the worst version of third wave feminism. Science woman: I'm super smart but also super hot and I know some bad ass stuff and I have an idiotic and deadly need to figure out what's happening. Wife woman: I'm not a nag and were divorced because he wanted to soldier more than husband, but I still love him. I'll do something defiant to the bad guys to prove that I'm not in this movie to just be his damsel.

This movie tries so hard to be every sci-fi/adventure/war propaganda movie you've ever seen.

Who the fuck wanted answers about Predator genetics? No one!

Everybody has sleeves under their clear lab suit but of course shockingly hot nerd lady scientist has on a tank top.

Follow sterilization protocols: but have your mouth and your hair uncovered.

Why did Group 2 need to be like this? What do all of them being mentally different add to this movie? Other than 18 minutes of crass unfunny, uncomfortable jokes.

Why did they shoe horn in this kid. This is the laziest most obnoxious plotline. Was trying to get his gear back not good enough to stand alone?

Adding "dogs" was interesting and alien world expanding without doing too much. But did it need to look like a Predator? It's not like human hunters dogs look like their owners. That's a studio head idea.

I forgot they tried to set this up as a series. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAhahaahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahhahahahahhaha.

Prey (2022) fucking fantastic. Should've been in theaters. Amber Midthunder (and co.) did what needed to be done. I love that the Predator itself is less teched out than the ones "before" it.

I would not be mad if Prey set off a string of prequel sequels. Paleolithic. Medieval. Ice age. A battle Royale with winners of yore. I'd love to see the evolution of the Predators weaponry and hunting skills. Even a future sequel. Let's see the Predator battle a human with equal future tech.

12 notes · View notes