A poll on hastily conceived throat humping endo-parasitoids

[bhu]

Is it just me or do face huggers seem specifically designed for attacking humanoid species of a particular size range?

[Gazzien]

... Or anything with a skull of roughly the same size, I would think. But humanoid seems the most probable.

[ketaro]

Everybody loves it in the face.

[Nanshork]

Everybody loves it in the face.

 

[Amechra]

You're right... there's some big conspiracy targeting humanity!

Them darn Xenomorphs, adapting to whatever prey they can get faster than actually scientifically possible.

 

[bhu]

I ask because I'm designing the xenomorphs as a template and the more I think about it, the more limited in some ways it seems it would be.  After all they've never been shown to go after anything other than Humans and Predators, both of which are structurally similar.  And mebbe dogs if you count Aliens 3.

[altpersona]

its been a while since i watched it,

but didnt Prometheus give a mild explanation?

otherwise, i think the logic of the face huger is that most living things have a hole somewhere. 

did they not kill the navigator in the first one? or was that a grown moph that did it?

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Easier to get the face location by the censors, than the other location(s) ... 

[CaptRory]

VG Cats: At least one of them enjoyed it.

[bhu]

its been a while since i watched it,

but didnt Prometheus give a mild explanation?

otherwise, i think the logic of the face huger is that most living things have a hole somewhere. 

did they not kill the navigator in the first one? or was that a grown moph that did it?

It's implied that the Trilobite did that in Prometheus (the Trilobite being the rubbery Facehugger the size of a rhino).  Prometheus raised more questions than it provided answers.  It's implied the xenomorphs are biological weapons used to cleanse planets of life before the Jockeys re-seed the planet with their own DNA.  It's assumed the Trilobite and Deacon are either prototypes of the xenomorph, or a variant of them.  If they're variants, then that means the xenomorphs might indeed be limited to what species they can infest.

Think about this: The Facehugger somehow renders it's victim unconscious after grabbing them.  If it's a chemical atack, that would only affect so many species unless the facehugger can mix chemicals on the fly.  If it's never encountered a species though how does it know what chemicals will be necessary to put them to sleep?  There's also the question of their acid blood: Why wouldn't animals just bite down?  Intelligent species like humans or predators would realize not to bite down on the throat tube because the acid would kill them.  Most animals would do it reflexively, unless it paralyzes them on contact.

[bhu]

Easier to get the face location by the censors, than the other location(s) ... 

Yes but they have no eyes.  How do they tell where the face is?

[brujon]

Easier to get the face location by the censors, than the other location(s) ... 

Yes but they have no eyes.  How do they tell where the face is?

Maybe carbon dioxide exhalation or some way of detecting airflow?

[ketaro]

Easier to get the face location by the censors, than the other location(s) ... 

Yes but they have no eyes.  How do they tell where the face is?

Maybe carbon dioxide exhalation or some way of detecting airflow?

Hope nobody has a flatulence problem when these things are around 

[bhu]

If you were designing xeons as a template, how many special attack/qualities would you allow them to keep from the base creature?

[altpersona]

i rewatched Prom last week.

imo the xeno's incorporate the dna of their prey into their own. this solves the mouths and chemical issues. as long as they are hunting compatible prey, they should be capable of doing their thing.

of the species shown as options, the xenos freely attack humans, predators and engineers. i dont think they are shown to actively seek out the cats. and they leave themselves, hybrid ripley and androids alone.

the cats bit strikes me as weird.

the androids are not dna based (afaik)

i assume the engineers created the predators, its not clearly addressed that i can find. if not then things get more iffy / weird.

an engineer seeded 'life' (the scene in prom showed plants already here (they did a decent job of not showing it, but they clearly had it, to include modern trees that are a pretty recent thing), at least thats what the xeno wiki says.

so, cats and people are both descended from engineers. why would the xenos leave the cats alone? do you have to be at least 4ft tall for them to target you?



 

[phaedrusxy]

Because cats are evil little bastards, and on the same team as the xenomorphs? 

[bhu]

Perhaps as suggested the cat is too small for the facehugger to get a proper grip.  Or perhaps it only targets larger prey because it is programmed genetically to do so.  It wants the best candidates for drones to defend the hive.

[CaptRory]

I doubt a cat is much of a threat. It could be going after the most dangerous creatures first. Which makes me wonder what would happen if you put a Grizzly Bear, a Human, a Honey Badger, and a Wolf into an area to find out which it'd go for first.

[altpersona]

i think we already established that a cat is more dangerous than a human 

[bhu]

i think we already established that a cat is more dangerous than a human 

Yes but it isn't obviously so