{"id":1088,"date":"2012-06-11T17:12:47","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T09:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/?p=1088"},"modified":"2012-06-11T17:12:47","modified_gmt":"2012-06-11T09:12:47","slug":"prometheus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2012\/06\/11\/prometheus","title":{"rendered":"Prometheus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Been neglecting the blog, yadda yadda, same old disclaimer, same old apologies. <\/p>\n<p>So let&#8217;s do away with the niceties and just accept the fact that I&#8217;m not posting nearly as often as I used to &#8211; but I don&#8217;t want to waste time reminding myself (and everyone else) about that so I&#8217;d rather just get right into what I feel like talking about today.<\/p>\n<p>I watched Prometheus the other day and while I think it had a very straightforward\/predictable plot &#8211; I admit there are things about it I&#8217;m not crystal clear about. Largely concerning on the different species &#8220;permutations&#8221; in it (as well as the ambiguity of the very first scene &#8211; and how it tied into the rest of the movie)<\/p>\n<p>I came across a <a href=\"http:\/\/24.media.tumblr.com\/tumblr_m5edzz5VYD1qcuhvho1_500.jpg\">picture on the internet<\/a> that summarized the permutations &#8211; and I believe if it is accepted to be correct (and I think it is) then it does explain a whole lot of &#8220;ambiguious&#8221; parts of the movie.<\/p>\n<p>So this post will be none other than my interpretation of the Prometheus storyline.<!--more--><!-- \/\/ --><\/p>\n<p>Before I begin, let me clarify some terms I&#8217;ll be using as to not confuse.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>Engineers<\/strong> are what we will [continue to] call (as the movie itself established) the bald, buff, sclera-free <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1088_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1088_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1088_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1088_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1088_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1088_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">The white part of the eye<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1088_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1088_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> albinos.<\/li>\n<li>The Engineers&#8217; black ooze is what I will call an\/the [organic] <strong>catalyst<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll call the artificial structure they discovered in LV-223, an engineer <strong>base<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Snake(s)<\/strong> is what I&#8217;ll call the snake-like creature(s) that killed Millburn (Fifield&#8217;s companion).<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ll call the infected Dr. Holloway, and Fifield <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1088_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1088_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1088_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1088_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1088_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1088_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Remember, the latter wasn&#8217;t killed by the snake, but his helmet merely corroded &#8211; and thus exposed him to the catalyst<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1088_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1088_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> <strong>reavers<\/strong> because it reminded me of the reavers in <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/u34Sz\">Firefly\/Serenity<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Squid<\/strong> is what I&#8217;ll call Dr. Shaw&#8217;s abandoned lovechild (That bitch! How could she!?).<\/li>\n<li>The last &#8220;alien&#8221; shown (bursting out of the chest of the engineer) will be called a <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/brvH2I\">xenomorph<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>First scene [while not clearly established] &#8211; I believe most people are in agreement was Earth &#8211; predating &#8220;life&#8221; as we know it. It&#8217;s a habitable environment and the engineers are there literally to experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The experiment: To see the effects of their &#8220;genetic catalyst&#8221; (the black stuff) <strong>in different environments.<\/strong> While this is a personal opinion of mine &#8211; I believe it to be very significant a nuance that can explain a bunch of other things later on.<\/p>\n<p>So in Earth&#8217;s environment, the catalyst destroys the Engineers&#8217; physical structure and both mix to become part of the ecosystem &#8211; and I guess mutate\/evolve to &#8220;life&#8221; as we know it.<\/p>\n<p>So like the picture said: Engineer + catalyst [on Earth] = life.<\/p>\n<p>Now I prefer to interpret it as an experiment &#8211; because of the existence of the common &#8220;star map&#8221; accross different ancient civilizations. This simply means that the engineers were <em>returning<\/em> to Earth at different periods &#8211; perhaps to observe their experiment&#8217;s progress.<\/p>\n<p>Now enter planet LV-223. I believe that the catalyst works differently here. And while it was never established what <strong>exactly<\/strong> killed the engineers at the base, whatever the scenario may be &#8211; this was obviously BAD for the engineers and resulted in a lot of deaths.<\/p>\n<p>So anyways, here&#8217;s what I think:<\/p>\n<p>I think the reason why the Engineer wanted to destroy Earth wasn&#8217;t because they intended to destroy it in the first place. The pilot wasn&#8217;t hostile (though that could be due to the nausea from the stasis) up until David talked to him &#8211; and I would guess the Engineer deemed it dangerous that their &#8220;experiment&#8221; has evolved so much &#8211; that it was only a matter of time that we had the same intelligence and technology as they had\/have. Given that they have been observing the Earth for centuries &#8211; perhaps they noticed that our most basic instinct is of a predatorial\/violent nature &#8211; and would abuse such knowledge\/power should we acquire it. So ASSUMING that Mr. Engineer really was out to destroy Earth &#8211; he probably just decided then and there to pull the plug on us &#8211; because we were now perceived to be a threat. <\/p>\n<p>That would explain why they did visit us periodically but never bothered to &#8220;destroy&#8221; us then (which was one of Shaw&#8217;s questions at the end) &#8211; perhaps because we were too primitive to even worry about. But now, not only have we been able to get to their doorstep &#8211; but also TALK in their language. The implications were probably of <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/5Wtye\">Skynet<\/a> proportions as far as they were concerned.<\/p>\n<p>So that&#8217;s basically how I choose to understand the plot &#8211; everything else makes sense in that context. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Engineer + catalyst in Earth = life<\/li>\n<li>Engineer + catalyst in LV-223 = <strong>MYSTERY<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Human + catalyst in LV-223 = reaver<\/li>\n<li>Human + reaver = squid<\/li>\n<li>Engineer + squid = xenomorph<\/li>\n<li>Human + engineer = who knows!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It could be possible that in such an environment, the effect of the catalyst on ANY organism might result in a lifeform, that would iterate in its evolution towards what we saw in the first alien movie.<\/p>\n<p>So for example, the maggots that became giant snakes &#8211; while they drastically different from Dr. Shaw&#8217;s squid-baby, they do share the same characteristics of impregnation\/incubating through <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intubation\">intubation<\/a>. Come to think of it, they did kinda have the same type of head &#8211; while the other had a snake for a body where the other one was a squid. Anyways, though it wasn&#8217;t established what happened to Millburn when he was intubated, we could surmise the possibility of of such a process culminating with what happened to the Engineer.<\/p>\n<p>For all we know, even a reaver&#8217;s reproductive process might&#8217;ve changed to that of the snake or squid (or the <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/rmVUzp\">facehugger<\/a> in the Alien franchise) Holloway was still in the process of evolving when he had sex.<\/p>\n<p>We also know that whatever the impregnation method (intercourse or intubation\/incubation), the result seems to be a <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/dzxmx2\">chestburster<\/a> (again, with what happened to the engineer and what might&#8217;ve happened to shaw if she hadn&#8217;t had an abortion) &#8211; so it&#8217;s not far-fetched to believe that the catalyist, while having varying effects &#8211; would still result in a mutation from a similar family of &#8220;genetic dispositions.&#8221; This would probably explain why they were curious enough to let us humans live &#8211; because the mutation that happened on Earth was nothing like what they assumed\/expected.<\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1088_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1088_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1088_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_1088_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1088_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1088_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1088_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">The white part of the eye<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1088_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1088_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1088_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Remember, the latter wasn&#8217;t killed by the snake, but his helmet merely corroded &#8211; and thus exposed him to the catalyst<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_1088_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1088_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1088_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_1088_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1088_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1088_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1088_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1088_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1088_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_1088_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_1088_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1088_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_1088_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_1088_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Been neglecting the blog, yadda yadda, same old disclaimer, same old apologies. So let&#8217;s do away with the niceties and just accept the fact that I&#8217;m not posting nearly as often as I used to &#8211; but I don&#8217;t want to waste time reminding myself (and everyone else) about that so I&#8217;d rather just get &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2012\/06\/11\/prometheus\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Prometheus&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[473],"class_list":["post-1088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1088\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}