Was the Deacon shown to us right from the beginning of the movie, on the Mural?

There are LOTS of Christian/Biblical symbols in the film. — The 2,000 years ago connection — The foot-washing of Weyland — The rose — The Sacrificial Engineer drinks from a "cup" Elizabeth (barren), miraculously the mother of John the Baptist, predecessor of Jesus Christ Elizabeth (barren), "miraculously" the mother of Cuddles, predecessor of The Deacon ("Spike") ...

Just as Abordoli stated, I see this Deacon as the evolved and advanced creature, much smarter then it's predacessor, the Alien as we see in the original Alien. After all, that ship has been there for 2000 years, like all things, their weapon evoled or they perfected it and truly made the "perfect Organism", which is why it is on the mural, it truly is perfect as Ash stated.

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It all comes together...

@Mr.J; Thanks to you, actually. I was looking over your wonderful posts and realized the freaken' thing was right there all along.

The engineers seem somewhat artsy-fartsy with their decorative choices and ocarina instrument in which they activate their ships. Could be that this "dome" facility was charged with the design of the "deacon" on the mural.

Let me blow your mind... yes..because it was a Prophecy.. they realized that the earth life creation was their demise but alas they found this out too late. muahahahahh the reign has ended B*TCHES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! here come the ants. ok...maybe not but makes you think... dontcha think? ; P

That actually looks a lot like a queen to me, which raises the question of what the even bigger and meaner looking thing in the robe behind it is.

I noticed this on the 2nd viewing. I also noticed on the first viewing that when Holloway is standing in front of the mural he looks over sees what looks like an open ampule. You can see what looks like the things David breaks open to get the bubble that he infects Holloway with. Holloway says "This is just ANOTHER tomb" which led me to think that the mural wasn't on a wall but a door. On my first viewing I thought it was just a reg-xeno on the mural and that the door would lead to xeno eggs and that what was in that ampule displayed in front of the door was xeno dna. Now it seems the door would lead to Deacon dna.

@loseyourname...How does that look like a queen? Really, not being a smart ass. Just wondering.

With all due-respect, the "Deacon" is NOT a "proto-xeno". The "proto-xeno" was the one we saw in Alien, Aliens, Alien3 & Alien:R. It was an ancient prototype of the "deacon" found on a force-landed derelict juggernaut bomber that had been there for at least 1 million years (if not considerably longer). Original xeno = old bio-weapon. Deacon xeno = the latest bio-weapon (well at least 2,000 years old). The "container" on the altar in front of the "ancient/proto-xeno" mural is the original 1 million plus year-old bio-weapon. The container is not an ampule, but a green gem/stone/rock/amber/fossil much like the DNA extraction method in Jurassic Park 1 (in my opinion). An altar exists because it is the SOURCE DNA code for their current "deacon" bio-weapon. All the urns in that room contain the same exact life-form along with catalystic/mutanogenic "black goo" (primordial slime). Remember, you have the ampule containers which inside contain a "yolk", the 4 (possibly 8, double stacked in the taller ones) "inner ampules" with break-off necks surrounded in a by the "egg-white"....the "black goo". These "urns" are "synthetics eggs"....a much more controlled system of launching the bio-weapon (using pourous/breakable-when-impacted "urns") then their fore-fathers did playing with the actual "ancient xeno eggs". There are images in that mural that show the "ancient" egg/face-hugger/xeno life-cycle....therefore it cannot be the "deacon". If there were images of the body-hugger, then I'd be 100% on board. ...and that mural being a door? I disagree. All doors get opened by David whether desired or not.....LOL. And when he says this is just a tomb, he is correct. It is the tomb of their greatest accomplishment. The urns are ceremoniously surrounding the head like eggs used to be stored. The head in the middle isn't just any engineer's head. It is the face of the "bio-weapon" creator millions of years past. In all, this room is left a mystery in much the same way as the space-jockey was left a mystery in Alien. These questions will be answered in the sequel, I'm sure. Interesting and fresh debate! Let's work it out.....

Yes it was... like a lot of things, our explores rushed the whole gig. Places like this take time to (check safety protocols/scout the entire area/take samples/read all the walls etc./post guards and setup communications and an outpost with supplies - basically a base camp). Simple but never followed due to Weyland and the fountain of Youth hangup....

I agree about the resemblance. But how it went from black ooze, to infection, into sperm, into a human gestated squid (not squid like an actual squid) which gre into a large squid, infected a space jockey, and then burst out looking like a Tim Burton creature from The Night Before Christmas part 2 is beyond any and all logic. It was comical.

Niiiice abordoli. I think you may have hit the nail with parts of your "thesis". Regardless of what I think you may be wrong. That's why it's called a thesis lol.

There is a concept art image of an egg [img]http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u498/protoxeno86/p310.jpg[/img] And in the movie we can see a bag connected to the umbilical cord. I'm wondering if that's an egg? [img]http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u498/protoxeno86/egg.png[/img]

And if Deacon is an updated version of the Xenomorph, then ... will we see more of this creature in a sequel? ... Or ... will we see a new creature? I wonder this because the carbon-14 analysis indicates an age of 2000 years, so there may be a new version much of the deacon.

[i]Niiiice abordoli. I think you may have hit the nail with parts of your "thesis". Regardless of what I think you may be wrong. That's why it's called a thesis lol.[/i] Absolutely, I expect 50% of what I throw out to be wrong....but the exercise of throwing stuff out and being proven wrong is the fun in it. LOL!

[img]http://i1070.photobucket.com/albums/u498/protoxeno86/egg.png[/img] Yes, when I saw this I was thinking..."oh look, it comes complete with an egg accessory" (like it probably will in the action figure line). Either that or it's "placental". But coming packed with an egg is such an advancement to this "bio-weapon". All it has to do is bring the host back to the egg to get the next generation going while it takes a dirt nap (they probably still only live 24-48 hours as so programmed by the engineers). So say this thing is taking the egg to the derelict 2.0.......Deacon-boy will die, but the egg could remain lurking in stasis for millions of years....Waiting for the next round of explorers.....Muwahahahaha!!!!

@Abordoli; That OR like some fish and sharks, the newly birthed/hatched "baby' continues to feed off the placental yolk for a few hours/days.

You know what...I agree!!! I believe that the mural is a morphing representation of the current "bio-weapon" within all of those urns. The mural changes to look like the current adult version of the "product"....thus it is why it looks like the deacon. That green gem probably contains a droplet of the latest and greatest's DNA thus making it a "VHS Player" displaying the "image" upon the "screen" (mural). This is not just a tomb. It is their laboratory. It just makes you wonder what is in the other 5 "facilities".....More of the same?