Being a cowl head I'm still not convinced of the necessity of having praetorians when it seems normal adult Aliens could fulfill the role adequately.

However I did like the idea of the Queen stinging the adult to bring on the change to praetorian. Haven't heard that one before and I find it more interesting than adults taking a bath in Royal Jelly.

Anyone got any thoughts about this piece and/ or praetorians in general?


(Note to Elite Guard and BB: I corrected a couple of typos - mainly Ubber to Uber. Please let me know if you are not okay with this and I'll change it back.)

Well, they are big and black. Also I like their huge head and funny voice.
Also:
I JUST GOT A D@MN Idea! What would hapent if a Queen face hugger will jump on Predator? What will be Queen look like?

Speculate away Trinity - or is there another essay in the offing?

Basically as stated in the Essay, the Queen would institute a foreign agent, a bacteria, virus or even an extra DNA code into the Drone. The result would occur over a few hours, forcing the Drone to go through an intense molting process. The pain would be immense, hell, even the injection is painful as the Queen drives her stinger-like tail into its chest.

It was Bum Burster's baby, and from there on her and I expanded. Knowing that you are a Cowl head I do not need to fit myself into Caste view for you. But there was much speculation after that, that the newly formed Praetorians would be able to progress to Queens, which would mean at some point a great battle would break out til one was left to be Queen. But it was also felt that some would remain in their position as Praetorian.

For the fact that they would be something like Juvenile Queens, Bum Burster and I believed them to look like the AvP versions, sub Queens if you will.

Trinity - I am very interested in this idea, even as an essay. I am curious to your take on DNA Reflex and how far it would go. Many suppress this view of the DNA being altered by the host, but again, I am ready to read it.

Also, I will answer any questions on Praetorians.

Nope, but there is enother story in my head! Good Bye TSIOF!

Well Bum Burster thought through Cowl theory, that the Royal Jelly bit was definitely ridiculous since nothing would stop the Drones from dousing themselves in the stuff.

The Queen uses her tail to inject a virus, bacteria or even a missing DNA code, into the Drone. It is a VERY painful process, one Drones do not wish to go through. The next stage is an hours long molting process, one that is also painful. Soon emerges a Praetorian.

These types of Praetorian have the ability to become Queens and at times, the more aggressive ones will challenge the Queen. The others will serve the new Queen until they feel confident enough.

I'll answer any other questions if you have them.

all i know is that praetorians are AWESOME in avp2 multyplayer also in a marine mission (i cant remeber its name) its mission brefing talks about the origins of praetorians... oh yeah and all that queen jelly crap in Aliens: genocide is ummm crap

Well In Genocide the Royal Jelly was not used to make the Praetorians. It was just a substance needed for Xenp-Dip

Lets not forget about the deleted sceen in alien, where the drone has made a hive and has live webed captures. Why would a drone store victims or make a hive without a queens direction, unless its instincts told it too. I dont beleive it would be instictual for an alien to make a hive withough royal intervention cuz of the disorder a bunch of drones maken hives and planting victims would cause. Seems to me if you take the deleted sceen as valid toward the AvP universe then there is a posibility this drone was planing for the future ie. progresion to the point of egg laying. Why would ripley be convinced that one alien could whipe out the human race in the begining of aliens if that lone alien was not able to reproduce without the aid of a queen, which she didnt even know about yet. Also notice that the two movies in which Giger was directly involved in the creation of the alien no hive was seen in the final release, I dont know how that is relevent but I beleive it shoudl be concidered.

The queens and aliens are controlled by the Mother queen. The queen was intelligent, but all aliens were controlled telepathically by the mother queen. All chestburster eggs have a gland that produces small amounts of royal jelly, and a queen cannot tell another drone to morph into a queen because she would be usurped i feel. Only the mother queen can instruct a drone to undertake this.

never heard that... but its true... drones can become queens if one is not nearby... and start a new hive...

Except in rogue, the praetorians only seem to be guarding the queen mothers. They do not seem to normally protect regular queens. And the queen in rogue might have been a queen mother herself, she seemed pretty powerful and intelligent. So the chance of praetorians turning into queens is very low just because praetorians are generally not in a hive environment. Probably the most likely source of praetorians is a special praetorian egg that the queen mother lays, or perhaps the queen mother just picking the drone and administering a pheremone. I think the whole virus/bacteria thing probably doesn't make much sense. It is shown in the comics and/or novels that drones can turn into queens and it is shown in the comics that queens can turn into queen mothers. That means every alien must have the DNA for every other type of alien in their genetic code already. So based on that logic it is almost certain that the code for the praetorian is also stored in the genetic code already. Using a virus or bacteria is incredibly risky and probably not a very good idea, and it would seem completely unnecessary if the DNA was already in the alien drone's body. So that means that some other means must be used to trigger tha development. Either they are born that way, or a phermone or some other chemical is used in adults or chestbursters. That chemical could be queen mother royal jelly, it is established what a queen chestburster will turn into a more powerful queen in the presence of queen mother royal jelly, it would be a logical extension of that for a drone chestburster to turn into a more powerful drone when exposed to queen mother royal jelly (i.e. a praetorian).

Asking the necessity of the praetorians is like asking why the president isn't guarded by regular police officers. Police are good, but they need specialized defenses for the really important officals since killing them would be much more damaging, and the extra cost is worth it in those cases. The queen mother is more important, she needs extra protection. Actually, that is where the name came from. Praetorians were the elite guard of the emperor in ancient rome. As I said before, praetorians do not seem to guard normal queens much, if at all. It would probably be a waste using resources to make a praetorian to protect an easily replacable queen. But the queen mother is different.

In the comics, drones could become queens in a queenless environment. And subserviant queens would sometimes develop from queen eggs in large hives. So yes, queens can and do make extra queens for their hive by laying queen eggs. But normal drones do not seem turn into queens in a normal hive. And there is never any mention of royal jelly playing a part in the drone's development into a queen. The only use mentioned for royal jelly is in making a queen mother using queen mother royal jelly.

I think it is wrong to say aliens "want" or "don't want" anything. They make the point very clear in the comic that the whole concept of "want" is completely foreign to the aliens, they have no concept of that. Everything is for the hive. They have no desires or needs of their own outside of doing what is best for the hive and the species. Even the queens, with all their intelligence, are the same. The only one who seems to have any notion of want or choice is the queen mother. So to say the aliens would not "want" to do something that could help the hive is just wrong, it is completely opposite how aliens work. Aliens do not operate that way, as the comics make that very clear. And something would stop the drones from dousing themselves, it would hurt the hive and thus they would not do it. It seems like you are thinking aliens have free will, that is anthropomorphizing them. Aliens do not have free will, they do exactly what is best for the hive. They have no desires for power or grandeur, no desires to be better than they are. Those are all human desires, aliens lack those entirely. Their own lives are meaningless. So aliens would not douse themselves with the stuff because that would hurt the hive or go against the queen's will, things aliens cannot even comprehend not to mention do.

In the comics, there are hives that have been established for an extended period of time, including ones that have been closely monitored, with absolutely no mention being made of a praetorian fight for dominance. You think spears in book 2 would be trying to use praetorians if there had been a fight for dominance there, and that hive had been there for an extended period of time. There are no praetorians in most hives we have seen, including ones that have been in existance for many years. So I would say it is pretty safe to assume that praetorians are not a normal part of hive life.