Favourite Alien Species (and why)

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I've read into the idea before but for me I felt it was all a little too anthropocentric. I think life is just far too weird and wild to be so rigid in its design. On earth alone we have termites that have constructed cathedral like structures as tall as 8-metres and slime mold (an entirely brainless organism) that is capable of navigating complex mazes; we simians just conquered the world before anything else could. *flash forward 30 years from now - post-space-conquest-era - and I'm seething at my neighbor who is a blue human from Gleepios IV*

I can understand the "anthropocentrism" but I'd still say that opposable thumbs made it vastly easier for us to be able to produce everything we're seeing around today.

Termines can construct complex structures and slime mold can navigate mazes but ultimately those two species are just adapted for one task and cannot create any form of art nor complex technologies. Even crows which are smart enough to use simple tools cannot go beyond simply because they're limited by their beaks.

Also I'd say that most species are still unable to simply ask "why" regarding things around them nor trying to tell themselves how they could replicate them.

It's not just about being smart and having opposable thumbs but also having that "thing" that made us want to see beyond the sky.

Aleister Crowley. Reading into their life is definitely a healthy decision...

Thanks.

Tbh, Xenos as it's used in 40K is probably directly inspired by Aliens - there is a lot of Aliens DNA in early 40K.

I also think that StarCraft's Zerg were inspired by them. But you could argue that there was also Starship Troopers that popularised the "invading insect-like alien" trope.

Yeah, I never liked the derogatory term alien but if I'm being perfectly honest, even though it's the theme of this thread, I don't like the term alien full stop. Like, cause what do you even mean when you're saying that? Like the alien in Alien (1979) was assumedely found on it's home world - the humans were the "aliens". Maybe I'm being fussy, but it seems like a term primarily designed to segregate, and outside of the context of me wanting to tweek out on some forum, I probably wouldn't use it even if I was talking about an organism found on Europa or some shit.

Alien has had its meaning altered from "foreigner" to "not from Earth" thanks to pop culture...

In a funny way we are the aliens if we were to come to their home-world instead.

Hey btw, if you have never read any H.P.Lovecraft stuff, based on your picks, I think you might like stories involving Elder Things (the species - not to be confused with Great Ones which is Cthulhu and co). I was reading At the Mountain of Madness today and it just came to me. I don't wanna spoil too much but they're basically proto-humans - not in morphology but in their advocacy towards scientific endeavour.

Ah yeah, I liked The Colour Out of Space. I should read the other ones too.

"The Thing" novel is almost feeling like a lovecraftian horror story.

 

[MrChester]

I can understand the "anthropocentrism" but I'd still say that opposable thumbs made it vastly easier for us to be able to produce everything we're seeing around today.

Termines can construct complex structures and slime mold can navigate mazes but ultimately those two species are just adapted for one task and cannot create any form of art nor complex technologies. Even crows which are smart enough to use simple tools cannot go beyond simply because they're limited by their beaks.

Also I'd say that most species are still unable to simply ask "why" regarding things around them nor trying to tell themselves how they could replicate them.

It's not just about being smart and having opposable thumbs but also having that "thing" that made us want to see beyond the sky.

Although I agree we do have qualities that made us naturally more inclined to the life of science, I'd still argue correlation over causation. Firstly, I just don't think the traits we have are necessarily a product of our form - thumbs are obviously very primate, but I don't think higher dexterity is restricted to thumbs. Similarly, what i think is our greatest boon as a species, is pattern recognition, and once again I just don't think anything about our morphology is crucial to that development.

But secondly, my reservation on that idea is that it doesn't factor in the possibility that life can develop in radically alternative ways to how it did for humans. In terms of cellular development it's been theorised that Earth is just a really violent planet and life on other worlds may develop through a system sharing resources rather than fighting for them. Life on a planet like that would look very different but they might still develop the need to travel that influenced our own intelligence so heavily. There's also the very real possibility of the development of entirely manufactured life - both organic and inorganic, which, by design, would not be limited to humanoid structures. Not to mention, there's also the concept of non-cellular life which, although unfounded, is not entirely unreasonable.

The theory has a lot of merit in isolated circumstances, but I think the broader the perspective you take the more it boils down to simple justification for human evolution.

I also think that StarCraft's Zerg were inspired by them. But you could argue that there was also Starship Troopers that popularised the "invading insect-like alien" trope.

Idk anything about Starcraft but this just made me intrigued enough to finally check it out. I'm not old enough to have been there myself to say for sure, but Starship Troopers is a parody of Aliens (and maybe 40K??) so I'd assume it was already a somewhat established trope by 1998. Then again, it could have been the film that brought it into the mainstream - I have a few Squaddy friends that aren't big on nerd culture shit but love Starship Troopers (ironic, right?)

Ah yeah, I liked The Colour Out of Space. I should read the other ones too.

"The Thing" novel is almost feeling like a lovecraftian horror story.

Funny you should say that because I found this when I was looking up whether to read the novel the thing is based on ('Who Goes There?', later extended and rereleased as 'Frozen Hell')

"Interestingly enough, the Frozen Hell version reads a lot like a direct sequel to Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, so I've read them back-to-back the last couple of years." - RedditMan

So I'm reading along and pretty excited to see how that pans out - having a biological reason for explaining the incomprehensible nature of the thing in the mountain just really clicks with me.

I like Lovecraft, but damn, the man sometimes spends multiple paragraphs explaining the exact measurements and structure of a creature like he's some kind of biologist. You're a writer, have some fun. Fantastic for the artists and the wikis, but sometimes absolutely awful for the reader


[EDIT] I forgot to say, you mentioned slime mold and termites being developed for one specific task and I wanted to rebuttal that so are we - our intelligence was a necessary development to fulfill our need to travel because we were unfit for survival in a lot of enviroments that were constantly changing

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Although I agree we do have qualities that made us naturally more inclined to the life of science, I'd still argue correlation over causation. Firstly, I just don't think the traits we have are necessarily a product of our form - thumbs are obviously very primate, but I don't think higher dexterity is restricted to thumbs. Similarly, what i think is our greatest boon as a species, is pattern recognition, and once again I just don't think anything about our morphology is crucial to that development.

Depending of how we build tools maybe anatomy is only one of many factors. Cephalopods seem to be advantaged by prehensile tentacles for tasks we could be able to do as well.

Pattern recognition is another important point as you said but I think there are other factors.

But secondly, my reservation on that idea is that it doesn't factor in the possibility that life can develop in radically alternative ways to how it did for humans. In terms of cellular development it's been theorised that Earth is just a really violent planet and life on other worlds may develop through a system sharing resources rather than fighting for them. Life on a planet like that would look very different but they might still develop the need to travel that influenced our own intelligence so heavily. There's also the very real possibility of the development of entirely manufactured life - both organic and inorganic, which, by design, would not be limited to humanoid structures. Not to mention, there's also the concept of non-cellular life which, although unfounded, is not entirely unreasonable.

We've yet to discover lifeform not from this planet. Our case was statistically very thin (and even thinner for sentient lifeforms that are intelligent and sapient).

The theory has a lot of merit in isolated circumstances, but I think the broader the perspective you take the more it boils down to simple justification for human evolution.

That would open another debate about how we came up to this level.

Idk anything about Starcraft but this just made me intrigued enough to finally check it out. I'm not old enough to have been there myself to say for sure, but Starship Troopers is a parody of Aliens (and maybe 40K??) so I'd assume it was already a somewhat established trope by 1998. Then again, it could have been the film that brought it into the mainstream - I have a few Squaddy friends that aren't big on nerd culture shit but love Starship Troopers (ironic, right?)

Starship Troopers was written before WH40K and StarCraft. I think it could be the source of the "insect like alien" trope. The movie came decades later and while it's a great one the source material was much more serious.

Funny you should say that because I found this when I was looking up whether to read the novel the thing is based on ('Who Goes There?', later extended and rereleased as 'Frozen Hell').

"Interestingly enough, the Frozen Hell version reads a lot like a direct sequel to Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, so I've read them back-to-back the last couple of years." - RedditMan

So I'm reading along and pretty excited to see how that pans out - having a biological reason for explaining the incomprehensible nature of the thing in the mountain just really clicks with me.

I like Lovecraft, but damn, the man sometimes spends multiple paragraphs explaining the exact measurements and structure of a creature like he's some kind of biologist. You're a writer, have some fun. Fantastic for the artists and the wikis, but sometimes absolutely awful for the reader.

Lovecraft isn't an easy read I agree but it was his style. I didn't know that it got a re-release with a new name.

[EDIT] I forgot to say, you mentioned slime mold and termites being developed for one specific task and I wanted to rebuttal that so are we - our intelligence was a necessary development to fulfill our need to travel because we were unfit for survival in a lot of enviroments that were constantly changing

I think I read a similar thing about why machines cannot be entirely like human if they're only trained for one specific task. They can do calculations better than us but they are unable to adapt for something entirely new.

 

[Retro Doomer]

The Vulcans from Star Trek I guess

The Tau from Warhammer 40k are Interesting to and I do find the Chiss from Star Wars Interesting to
those are all I can think about now

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

The Vulcans from Star Trek I guess

The Tau from Warhammer 40k are Interesting to and I do find the Chiss from Star Wars Interesting to
those are all I can think about now

Sorry friend but OP said

Absolutely no "they're humans but with blue skin and telepathy" or other pseudo-fantasy races will be tolerated - this one is for the eggheads.

Although I do agree that Taus are nice (well, the only nice species in WH40K lol).

Chiss from SW? Seems like you have some fondness for blue ones. What do you think of the Na'vis then?

 

[Retro Doomer]

What do you think of the Na'vis then?

Just some normal Human things you know.
So in short I am not a fan of them and I rooted for the Humans in that Movie
for the Emperor !!! oh wait wrong franchise well still on the Human Side on this Movie

and then we have Classic Dalek

Funny litte guys

 

[MrChester]

Depending of how we build tools maybe anatomy is only one of many factors. Cephalopods seem to be advantaged by prehensile tentacles for tasks we could be able to do as well.

Pattern recognition is another important point as you said but I think there are other factors.


We've yet to discover lifeform not from this planet. Our case was statistically very thin (and even thinner for sentient lifeforms that are intelligent and sapient).

I agree with the spirit behind all of this, but for me that's enough to consider humans the exception and not the rule - I think we just got a lucky combination of traits that allowed us to completely dominate the entire planet very quickly. Assuming we aren't the only sentient life that will ever exist, I'm sure the principles of certain traits might be universal (i.e. our approximate size, advanced sensory organs, dexterity, and tool usage), but I refuse to believe we are the pinnacle. Like you say, "depending on how we build tools..." but consider a species far more evolutionarily advanced than humans that can develop tools internally (biotech) - all I'm saying is the universe is too big to be so easy quantified.

That would open another debate about how we came up to this level.

Rebuttal: "this level" is a bias perspective. Non-human animals are seen as lesser intelligent because we thoroughly conquered this planet and all other life is judged in comparison to "the human world". Sure, you might not consider a dog to be as intelligent as a human in day to day life, but if you put a human and a dog into a perilous situation, a dog will never ignore the problem at hand in favour of doing something inane like praying. Even something as important to us as pattern recognition can backfire in the wrong situation. I'd argue most humans aren't intelligent (and I don't mean in an edgy "you don't understand X movie so you are a moron" type of way) but a lot of us prosper greatly from the systems already in place and our ability to communicate and store information rather than our individual ability to effectively parse information. The greatest minds of our world would probably get smoked in a nanosecond anywhere but the safety of our world in the present day.

Personally, I don't think intelligence is a scale that goes up and down but more a catagorisation of certain qualities. It's all about relativity and perspective. A dog isn't going to split the atom, but they can recognise behaviours in a lot of other animals to a degree far more accurately than any human can. A human isn't going to bark at a TV screen, but we also self-destruct frequently, often taking out everything we can with us.

Starship Troopers was written before WH40K and StarCraft. I think it could be the source of the "insect like alien" trope. The movie came decades later and while it's a great one the source material was much more serious.

Had no idea this was a book - awesome.

I think I read a similar thing about why machines cannot be entirely like human if they're only trained for one specific task. They can do calculations better than us but they are unable to adapt for something entirely new.

Rant abound. I've read through a bunch of shit like this and straight up, these people are wrong. Humans in the past thought a lot of shit we consider to be basic to be impossible. Our most advanced machines are not even 1 millionth as powerful as the human brain... for now. These people can only get away with saying this shit in the context of the next 20-30 years but what about 1000 years from now? What about 100,000 years from now? It's theoretically possible, and if it's theoretically possible, we'll eventually try it. Stuff like teleportation and alternate universes is genuine sci-fi drivel founded on nothing, but robotics? That kinda technological expertise is just an expansion of principles we already understand but on a scale that far surpasses anything we've done before.

and then we have Classic Dalek

Funny litte guys

Thanks for respecting the no humanoids rule... but Daleks are just mutated Kaleds, and what do Kaleds look like?

That's right...

Hmmmm... actually, it's kinda nice hearing people mention the Tau and it not following the sentence "man, I really fucking hate -"
Alright, you can keep 1 ball

EDIT: @Ikagura, I see your Starship Troopers book, and I raise you H.G.Well's The Empire of the Ants 1905

 

[Retro Doomer]

Thanks for respecting the no humanoids rule... but Daleks are just mutated Kaleds, and what do Kaleds look like?
View attachment 121830
That's right...
View attachment 121831
Hmmmm... actually, it's kinda nice hearing people mention the Tau and it not following the sentence "man, I really fucking hate -"
Alright, you can keep 1 ball

EDIT: @Ikagura, I see your Starship Troopers book, and I raise you H.G.Well's The Empire of the Ants 1905

Come on take em if ya can anyhow I don't like the Tau as a Society its a Totalitarian Regime that uses manipulation but I do like them as a Species and that they suck Society wise is a product of the world of Warhammer 40k as remember they are no good guys and no not even the Tau.

Also those guys if they count are nice and no I don't remember there name but they are from Toy Story.

 

[sandogma sandogma]

This cute little bugger.

And these lovable hellions.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Little Alien Cinnamon Rolls that could end you; Mars People

The best Waifu of Evangelion

Oh Mook, i forgot the mooks from Earthbound

Kang And Kodos from The Simpsons count too

But so far my favorite one must be

Spoiler: NOPE huge spoilers

Jean Jacket from NOPE, all the movie we are lead to believe the farm is being invaded by an UFO, however as the plot unravels we find the UFO doesn't carry Aliens, THE DAMN THING IS THE ALIEN, its design is, care to say, Biblically acurrate

 

[GuyZero32k4]

I like the Xenos from Aliens, and of course the Transformers especially G1. Many of the picks listed actually.

Tell you what though, I tell ya one son bitch I never liked even as kid. Mind you I was taken to the theater when this movie was new, E.T. Look at him he has those shifty eyes like he does shit to you in your sleep. Then his long ass neck, look like the god damn lockness monster. "Here's your three fifty, now fuck off."

Especially when he and the main character meet in the storage shed. Fuck that guy.
Now, I'd go to my storage shed with my shot gun and if this fucker hopped out, I'd shoot his ass, thinking he's a bear or some shit.
"He had death in eyes, blood on his breath. He came at me going HOME! So I shot him! Look his finger's still glowing! I've seen enough MCU to know I could have died!"

 

[diet_orange]

-Bajorans from DS9
-Minbari from Babylon 5
-Delvians from Farscape

Really basic reasoning tbh, I just find religious people and religions in general very interesting

 

[sandogma sandogma]

I like the Xenos from Aliens, and of course the Transformers especially G1. Many of the picks listed actually.

Tell you what though, I tell ya one son bitch I never liked even as kid. Mind you I was taken to the theater when this movie was new, E.T. Look at him he has those shifty eyes like he does shit to you in your sleep. Then his long ass neck, look like the god damn lockness monster. "Here's your three fifty, now fuck off."
View attachment 122019

Especially when he and the main character meet in the storage shed. Fuck that guy.
Now, I'd go to my storage shed with my shot gun and if this fucker hopped out, I'd shoot his ass, thinking he's a bear or some shit.
"He had death in eyes, blood on his breath. He came at me going HOME! So I shot him! Look his finger's still glowing! I've seen enough MCU to know I could have died!"

YES! Everyone loved E.T. and I felt like I was the only kid that was traumatized right from the beginning when Elliot found ET in the cornfield.

 

[PhaseJump]

Hynerians.

Why? Because:

 

[GuyZero32k4]

Gonna go back. Way, way back. Like before I was even born back. I always liked this version of War of the Worlds. Yes, even more than that Tom Cruise one or the others done even recently (Ice Cube and Amazon? Come on man...) In 1953:

"They're not tripods!" Oh yes they are, the 3 spots on bottom of ship, invisible legs.
The aliens looked like this, silly sure:

Then, in 1988, they made a sequel TV series where they updated the look where they took over peoples bodies. You never see a whole body shot of them.:

What surprised me about the TV series back then, was how much violence they got to get away with. They showed a nurse get her leg ripped off and another person get their face pulled off for example.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

Me.

 

[MrChester]

Little Alien Cinnamon Rolls that could end you

Loving all of the squishy dudes. When I get abducted by martians () I hope they look like that and not Greys.

Tell you what though, I tell ya one son bitch I never liked even as kid. Mind you I was taken to the theater when this movie was new, E.T. Look at him he has those shifty eyes like he does shit to you in your sleep. Then his long ass neck, look like the god damn lockness monster. "Here's your three fifty, now fuck off."

Man, you're speaking directly to me. Fuck this guy. Actual creep. Child manipulating space bum. Nothing about that wastoid makes me trust them. I'd prefer having to deal with Gremlins over having to deal with E.T. because at least if a Gremlin fucks with you, you'll know with certainty it's not a creepy sex thing.

Gonna go back. Way, way back. Like before I was even born back. I always liked this version of War of the Worlds. Yes, even more than that Tom Cruise one or the others done even recently (Ice Cube and Amazon? Come on man...) In 1953:
View attachment 122087
"They're not tripods!" Oh yes they are, the 3 spots on bottom of ship, invisible legs.
The aliens looked like this, silly sure:
View attachment 122088
Then, in 1988, they made a sequel TV series where they updated the look where they took over peoples bodies. You never see a whole body shot of them.:
View attachment 122089 View attachment 122090
What surprised me about the TV series back then, was how much violence they got to get away with. They showed a nurse get her leg ripped off and another person get their face pulled off for example.

Glad someone mentioned the Martians. I like War of the Worlds (anything before the Tom Cruise one I mean), but for me, you just can't beat the original.

The Martians, or more specifically, the Martian technology as described in the original work, gives the Martians a degree of desperation that I think works really well for the narrative. To cut it short, Martians are not the pinnacle of technology, they seem to be a civilasation in decline - the tripods have glaring design flaws that can be exploited, but due to a couple of highly effective pieces of weaponry that they employ, they're able to rapidly brute force their invasion.

There's an interesting dichotomy between the human tech of 1898 vs the martian tech, with both sides using somewhat-crude weaponry, and there's this implicit understanding as it turns from an invasion into a war that the Martians anticipated far less resistance than they got. Although it's alien, their technology mirrors our own (relative to the time) with specific advantages and disadvantages: instead of projectile artillery they use heat rays that travel instantenously, thus making ground to air combat more effective, but the horizon makes ground to ground combat less effective. Even though humanity is outclassed, there's still room to find an advatage to exploit and fight back.

(^^ Using a cannon that fires black smoke grenades that causing choking ^^)
It really puts emphasis on it being a WAR of the Worlds in a way newer interations can't emulate simply because the scale at which we wage war has changed since 1898. Tripods are a design firmly rooted in the late 1800s. Tripod's can't really be built to simultaneously mirror and withstand earth tech because our most devastating tech nowadays would be continent wiping nukes. It doesn't leave room for narrative. Instead, when adapting them, Tripods have to be completely foreign in function and composition - they can't be damaged in conventional ways and they use weapons that behave in incomprehensible ways. We CAN'T fight back. It's certainly not a bad thing - I think the 1953 film uses this to make something wholly unique and oppressive - but it does mean that a lot more of the story has to hinge on the martians getting sick from earth bacteria. It undercuts the "yes, the WHOLE of earth is fighting back, even to the smallest level" reveal of the original and cheapens it to something more akin to "silly aliens didn't account for germs" (which is also addressed in the books as Martians had long since sterlalised their planet meaning they were very unaware of germs).

All that narrative-dissonance bullshit aside though, you're right, the 1953 and follow-up 1988 ones slap.

As a kid, any time I went to some geeky I would always see this model kit. Something about it felt overwhelmingly destructive to me (which is kinda funny looking at it now) so whenever I think of alien invasion stuff, it comes to mind.