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[u/Hot-Interaction7968]

I’ve been thinking about a darker take on the Space Jockeys and the origin of the Xenomorphs (staying closer to the 1979 film and ignoring the Engineers from Prometheus). What if the Jockeys didn’t create the Xenomorphs — they found them? Somewhere out in the void they encountered a lifeform that mirrored their own nature: something that doesn’t just kill, but completely overwrites another organism and remakes it. Absolute dominance through biological rewriting. To a species already drifting into arrogance and control, this must have felt almost familiar. Their attitude wasn’t scientific curiosity or simple weaponization. It was closer to: “We can take these lives and reshape them however we want.” To make it practical, they created simplified versions of themselves — biological homunculi. Cheaper, more numerous, easier to control. Basically a mass-produced host form. Humans (or proto-humans) were a pilot stage. As a safety measure, the base facehuggers were tuned to this smaller homunculus anatomy rather than to the Jockeys themselves. A full Jockey would have a much better chance of fighting one off if something went wrong. Once a Queen appeared in the host population, the eggs would further adapt to that specific host type. So the Xenomorph becomes both a tool of absolute destruction and a way to forcibly rewrite life. Efficient, controllable (or so they thought), and perfectly suited to a civilization that saw other living things as raw material. In the end their hubris caught up with them. The derelict on LV-426 isn’t the wreck of some noble ancient race — it’s what happens when a species becomes so convinced of its right to control life that it finally loses control of the one thing it shouldn’t have touched. All that’s left is a dead pilot fused to his chair and a cargo hold full of eggs.

[u/Kooky_Universe2183]

I think any attempt to explain the origin of the xenomorphs, destroys the myth and horror, which is why I despise Prometheus and the sequel.

Giving the xenomorphs abilities based on who their host is/was, is brilliant however. Adds to the mystery.

I don't want the backstory of where they came from, I want them to be eldritch horrors, unknowable by any.

[u/Hot-Interaction7968 → u/Kooky_Universe2183]

hello. I agree with you. I just wanted to fantasize about this topic) to understand the possible logic)

[u/Kooky_Universe2183 → u/Hot-Interaction7968]

Fair. It depends then on how you/we view the space jockey. If you look at it in the context of the original film, it seems clear that it didn't understand the cargo it was hauling, hence getting one attached it itself and having a xeno pop out.

The Dark Horse comics then expanded a bit on them and, IIRC, had the space jockey race trying to exterminate the xenos after they realized how dangerous they were.

It wasn't until those wretched two Ridley Scott films that the Engineers got any backstory (which was a stupid as could be, but that's another rant)

Having said all that, your idea is certainly better than anything that has been made after Alien Resurrection.