In Alien 3, is the Ox/ Dog xenomorph a Queen?
I guess this is a plot hole (amongst several others) in Alien 3, as it has NEVER been clarified as to how the Ox Xenomorph is different from other xenomorphs we have seen thus far, apart from the fact that it walks on four legs and with high speed, which aren't really radically different.
The ox (or dog, depending on what version of the movie you watch) was face-hugged by a queen face-hugger, so wouldn't that mean that the xenomorph that burst out of it is a queen?
Remember, both Ripley and the Ox were impregnated by the SAME facehugger. Yet, the Ox Alien is simply quadrupedal and fast, and not enormous and dominant as the queen we see in Aliens. And I assume the version we see in the movie is the alien as its most mature. Even at birth, we see that it's way bigger than a regular chest-burster, implying that it's a queen. Yet we never see it go that direction for some reason.
Best Answer
I've thought about this A LOT, after rewatching the movie. The important factors that determines what a Xenomorph can be are the characteristics of the host itself. Yes, that includes gender.
That being said, the Ox alien couldn't have been a queen, since the ox itself was presumably male. So why is the queen in Aliens so much larger than the ox alien? Because in various interviews, it is said that the traits of the xenomorphs resemble those of actual insects in real life (that's what influenced the "acid for blood", the hive, the queen, the cocoon, etc.) The biological fact that females are larger, stronger, and more dominant for various different insects and animals around the world seem to correspond with the Alien universe as well.
There were several female colonists in Aliens that got cocooned up and gave birth to female xenomorphs. Why weren't any of those queens? Because their female hosts weren't facehugged by the queen facehugger.
In short,
- queen facehugger + female host = queen
- queen facehugger + male host ? queen
- regular facehugger + female host = female xenomorph (not queen)
This restrictive mating condition would also explain why there aren't that many queens.
Pictures about "In Alien 3, is the Ox/ Dog xenomorph a Queen?"
What is the Xenomorph in Alien 3?
One of the more out-of-the-box ideas that Fincher and his team came up with when making Alien 3 some 25 years ago was to use an actual dog, in this case a Whippet, and dress it up in a specially made latex suit to become the animal based version of the deadly xenomorph.Can a Xenomorph turn into a queen?
In the 2010 Aliens v.s. Predator, the main Xenomorph, "Number 6", Molts/transforms in to a Praetorian then into a Queen after the first queen and hive was killed by an explosion.What happened to the dog in Alien 3?
Spike was a Rottweiler who resided in the correctional unit on Fiorina 161 and was the canine companion of inmate Thomas Murphy. He was impregnated by a facehugger after it had emerged from the wreckage of one of the Sulaco's EEVs. Spike later died during the "the Dragon's" birth.What movie is the Xenomorph Queen in?
The first Xenomorph Queen that appeared in a theatrical film was the Queen from Acheron that appeared in Aliens. Another Queen was featured in the fourth film in the Alien legacy, as well as in the 2004 film Aliens vs....Xenomorph QueenFirst appearance:Aliens (1986)Last appearance:Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013)7 more rowsThe Runner Alien: Ox or Dog?
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Pavel Danilyuk, Pavel Danilyuk, Alexandru Rotariu, Karolina Grabowska