Xeno aesthetics

[S@tanicoaldo]

So guys let's talk about aliens.

More especifictly alien aesthetics.

In your opinion what is the best and coolest looking aliens around media?

Can be any thing, scary looking, feral looking, advanced civilizations or just cosmic powerhouses.

These are my top 3:

1-The Eldar from warhammer, I just love their aesthetics, their long helmets, their powers, their armor, their weapons and their love for triangles I think they evolved past the "space elves" thing and got their own unique look. I'm not a big fan of generic fantasy elves but I sure love the Eldar, a race so advanced their orgies and psiquic powers gave birth to a chaos god? So intense they were? Heck yeah I love them!

2- Shi'ar from Marvel universe, I just love their tech, their triangular feather hair and their armors, they are advanced, they are imperialist and they are humanoids who evolved from birds. Did I mention they have no eyebrowns? Awesome.

3- The weird and mysterious space jockey race. I just love how enigmatic and mysterious they are, their technology has a distinct organic feeling and that makes you wonder how they looked like before they were attacked, that is such an iconic and great setting and world buildings design I can never get over them.

How about you guys?

EDIT: I heard that the Prometheus movies retcon part of their lore and that they have some conection with the Engineers or something, but I haven't seen that movie and I prefer to ignore that. :smallbiggrin:

[Wardog]

The Vorlons from Babylon 5. Fromtheir weird squidy-looking spaceships with their mottled, changing skins and glowy "petals", to their encounter suits, to their "whatever your species thinks an angel looks like" fake form, to their glowy jellyfish-thingy true forms, I think they look really cool, and (at the time at least) were far more interesting than most of the aliens you saw on TV.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6xoH967aC00/SmTPcwBD4YI/AAAAAAAATdc/Xbubf2uApcY/s400/ship-vorlon.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/stars5/vorlon/vorlonspaceship.gif
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/10900000/Kosh-Naranek-babylon-5-10955700-438-648.jpg

The Shadows are also pretty cool too.

[Draconi Redfir]

i'm always a fan of organic / feral bug-type aliens, Xenomorphs from the alien franchise, Tyranids, Zerg, (Maybe less so Zerg then the others) etc. i just love the idea of super powerful predators who can fly around in space in organic ships. (Xenomorphs don't do that last bit granted, but still.)

[Tvtyrant]

Space Orks. The idea of how different a genetically crafted race would be to natural ones is very interesting, plus they are toxic masculinity made into a species.

[Amazon]

plus they are toxic masculinity made into a species.

And that's a good thing? :smallconfused:

Anyway aesthetically speaking anything done by Jack Kirby.

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cr86mPBrgXU/V3dx8eQUqcI/AAAAAAAAaPo/jct6IGHqymgMCwLfxrLqIUZMo_oz_PHpgCKgB/s1600/the%2Bcelestials%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BEternals%25237.jpg

I also love Lovecraft aliens, I think i like his aliens more than his gods.

Moon beasts, color from out of space, the Mi-Go, The Yithians and in special the Elder things.

They are just like us, they are curious, with a inquisitive mind and scientific knowledge, their first instinct when they find a human is to kill and open it up not ebcause they are mean but because they want to know what these enw creature is all about, that's something very similar to what humans would if they ever find aliens IMO plus their design is very unique and original.

Finally the Daleks, just because that fact that beings of such a simple design were able to become so iconic warms my heart.

[Tvtyrant]

And that's a good thing? :smallconfused:


Sure. It makes them entertaining, and fulfills teenage boy impulses I have long since pushed down.

The Boyz in Mad Max: Fury Road are popular and quotable for the same reason.

[Rynjin]

I too am a fan of bug people like the Thri Kreen and Endless Legend's Necrophages (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgdWwCb8fyo).

I like reptilian aliens as well, like Star Wars' Trandoshans or Mass Effect's Krogans.

[Brother Oni]

And that's a good thing? :smallconfused:

In terms of a properly alien race, yes. Their regenerative biology and spore based method of reproduction feeds into their utter disregard for things like safety protocols, basic surgical hygiene and friendly fire casualties.

In addition this also feeds into their very straight forward system of governance where the biggest ork is in charge because he's physically the biggest ork. Since fighting makes them bulk up, the biggest ork is also the best fighter; challengers to the position additionally start bulking up instinctively.

Any normal race would have become self-extinction if they had the same culture as the 40K orks, yet they would be the most powerful faction in the 40K verse if they could ever organise; there was an ork warboss that was as big as a tank and nearly took down the God Emperor of Mankind until his right hand general, Horus, jumped in to save the Emperor.

This is aside from 40K specific weirdness like ork technology being based on the power of belief - if they believe that putting bullets into a gun-shaped box makes it fire, the box will fire like a gun, even if it has no working parts; if an ork engineer believes he can fix an engine with nothing more than percussive maintenance, then all he needs to do is to continually hit it until it starts working. The more orks that are around, the stronger this belief field is; get enough of them together and you can power spacecraft and 30m tall fighting robots.

[Lacuna Caster]

The more orks that are around, the stronger this belief field is; get enough of them together and you can power spacecraft and 30m tall fighting robots.
Based on my limited exposure, I much preferred the earlier editions where the Orks were just another spacefaring race that genuinely knew how to build things, even if they were a little more uncouth than usual.

[Amazon]

In terms of a properly alien race, yes. Their regenerative biology and spore based method of reproduction feeds into their utter disregard for things like safety protocols, basic surgical hygiene and friendly fire casualties.

In addition this also feeds into their very straight forward system of governance where the biggest ork is in charge because he's physically the biggest ork. Since fighting makes them bulk up, the biggest ork is also the best fighter; challengers to the position additionally start bulking up instinctively.

Any normal race would have become self-extinction if they had the same culture as the 40K orks, yet they would be the most powerful faction in the 40K verse if they could ever organise; there was an ork warboss that was as big as a tank and nearly took down the God Emperor of Mankind until his right hand general, Horus, jumped in to save the Emperor.

This is aside from 40K specific weirdness like ork technology being based on the power of belief - if they believe that putting bullets into a gun-shaped box makes it fire, the box will fire like a gun, even if it has no working parts; if an ork engineer believes he can fix an engine with nothing more than percussive maintenance, then all he needs to do is to continually hit it until it starts working. The more orks that are around, the stronger this belief field is; get enough of them together and you can power spacecraft and 30m tall fighting robots.

I'm sorry I know there must be a lore aspect behind and it must make sense in the context but this sounds very dumb.


I too am a fan of bug people like the Thri Kreen and Endless Legend's Necrophages (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgdWwCb8fyo).

I like reptilian aliens as well, like Star Wars' Trandoshans or Mass Effect's Krogans.

I also love bug aliens in special bee like aliens, oh and hive minds, I love hive minds! Like the Borg and their cubic shaped ships. :smallbiggrin:

[Brother Oni]

I'm sorry I know there must be a lore aspect behind and it must make sense in the context but this sounds very dumb.

Congratulations, you've grasped the essence of Warhammer 40,000. :smallbiggrin:

[Amazon]

Congratulations, you've grasped the essence of Warhammer 40,000. :smallbiggrin:

I know the lore looks very interesting and it's suuuuuuper deep, I know the basics, it has everything that a setting could have that would make a huge a fan but it's just too over the top and convoluted to me. Sadly because it looks great and there are so many different types of space marines and factions.

I also don't think there are many female units, are there? So not a game I would really enjoy or support :/

[S@tanicoaldo]

I know the lore looks very interesting and it's suuuuuuper deep, I know the basics, it has everything that a setting could have that would make a huge a fan but it's just too over the top and convoluted to me. Sadly because it looks great and there are so many different types of space marines and factions.

I also don't think there are many female units, are there? So not a game I would really enjoy or support :/

We have a lot of important female characters like the Howling Banshees, the imperium of man has less representation but we have an all female gorup called Sisters of Silence.

[Cheesegear]

I'm sorry I know there must be a lore aspect behind and it must make sense in the context but this sounds very dumb.

It is very stupid. That's why the 'Powered by Belief' aspect of Orks hasn't been talked about in over 15 years and has effectively been written out of the setting.

[Brother Oni]

I know the lore looks very interesting and it's suuuuuuper deep, I know the basics, it has everything that a setting could have that would make a huge a fan but it's just too over the top and convoluted to me. Sadly because it looks great and there are so many different types of space marines and factions.

I also don't think there are many female units, are there? So not a game I would really enjoy or support :/

Space Marines are uniformly all male due to their method of creation involving implantation of genetically engineered organs (females don't survive the transplantation process due to tissue rejection). Other than that, the Imperium is generally an equal opportunitys employer as it doesn't matter what gender you are if you're just being thrown into meat grinder style attrition combat.

There are plenty of female units, from whole factions (The Sisters of Battle of the Imperium) to races heavily dominated by females (the Eldar/Dark Eldar) to important single characters in the novels and other media, some of whom have near ultimate authority (Inquisitors Amberly Vail and Adrastia) to positions of command (2LT Mira of the 203rd Cadian).
The Imperial Guard also have all female regiments although mixed regiments are rarer. The Ciaphas Cain series of books feature heavily the mixed gender 597th Valhallan, led by Colonel Regina Kasteen and a number of named members of the regiment are female.

Orks are outwardly male, although technically genderless as they're ambulatory fungi, while other races you can't tell (eg Tau) and others don't matter (eg Tyrannids).

There's also Slaanesh, but discussing them isn't appropriate for this forum. :smalltongue:

If you'd like some recommendations as to where to start, there's a 40K fluff thread over in Gaming (Other) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?559958-Warhammer-40K-Fluff-Discussion-XV-You-Must-Be-THIS-Tall-To-Witness-The-Grimdark) where more knowledgeable people than me can offer better starting points.

Edit: As evidenced by Cheesegear, my knowledge of the lore is very out of date. :smalltongue:

[Lacuna Caster]

I know the lore looks very interesting and it's suuuuuuper deep, I know the basics, it has everything that a setting could have that would make a huge a fan but it's just too over the top and convoluted to me. Sadly because it looks great and there are so many different types of space marines and factions.
You know about versus-threads/death-battles, right? Where you take two unrelated persons from incompatible settings with orthogonal motives and stick them together like bugs in a jar and shake 'em up until they fight, using whatever contrived nonsense is necessary to justify their sustained and nihilistic hostility?

WH40K is basically one long series of versus-threads/death-battles amped on steroids and executed on a cosmic scale. Orcs vs. Xenomorphs- who would win? Space Inquisition vs. Space Fae- who would win? The Terminator vs. Samurai Mecha- who would win? This prospect will either horrify and dismay you or come across as the best thing since sliced bread, depending on your tolerance for the number of ornamental skulls that can be used to stud every square inch of an anachronistic sherman tank and whether you think the Tau make everyone else look stupid. (Which they do.)

If you really want to go down that rabbit hole, a number of helpful guides (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2nM1GEllg) treat the material with the delicacy and reverence it deserves, but I wouldn't get too hung up on the topic of gender equality, because the setting is so rampant with fascist butchery, reflexive xenophobia, caste apartheid and religious brainwashing that not letting girls into the treehouse might not even crack the top ten list of problems here. So, again, mileage may vary.


Anyway, for my money, the all-time champion title for Best Xeno Aesthetics goes (https://waynebarlowe.wordpress.com/artwork/expedition/) to Wayne Barlowe. Or... just check out anything from moebius (https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/383368987009859025/?lp=true).

https://waynebarlowe.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/sea_strider.jpg

[Eldan]

Anyway, the all-time champion title for Best Xeno Aesthetics clearly goes (https://waynebarlowe.wordpress.com/artwork/expedition/) to Wayne Barlowe. Or... just check out anything from 70's sci-fi art (https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/383368987009859025/?lp=true).

https://waynebarlowe.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/sea_strider.jpg

Oh man and hereI thought Barlowe would be the one no one else but me would mention. I love his work so much.

Anyway, nonhuman is the way to go. In fact, I prefer entirely unlike Earth life in general, if possible. Like, Krogans as mentioned above are still too normal for me. So, let me name a few that have stuck with me over the years:

I have a thing for planet-wide consciousnesses. So:
Alpha Centauri's fungus/Planet. At first encountered by the colonists as a network of fungal hyphae that covers large parts of the planet, including deep down into the crust (it seems to use geothermal heat for energy), and swimming on the ocean. It's very unpleasant for the colonists from the beginning, with toxic spores and, when threatened, worm-like defence organisms that have the ability to cause paralyzing terror and pain in victims at a distance before burrowing into their heads. Over time, it responds to the colonists by becoming more intelligent, eventually making psychic contact with colonist leaders.

Pattern Jugglers from Revelation Space. They are colonies of microorganisms on many aquatic planets and moons, though no one knows how they spread, as they have no technology. It is unsure how intelligent they are, but people who go swimming in their oceans report visions. Sometimes, they dissolve a human completely, maybe to study them. Sometimes, they put a human back together differently. Some visit them on purpose, trying to change their own mental architecture, which seems to work in some cases, as they seem able to respond to specific wishes.

[Aotrs Commander]

On to topic:

I have always liked the Daleks, as being the single most notable non-humanoid enemy that is still a villain, not essentially a monster. There are not enough of those to go around, really. Something you can engage and talk with and maybe, in some sort of twisted way, reason, but are by the same token, not remotely human.




It is very stupid. That's why the 'Powered by Belief' aspect of Orks hasn't been talked about in over 15 years and has effectively been written out of the setting.

Which is a shame, since the orks and that system were one - if not the ONLY - thing about 40k that was quite clever (and that I actually liked) and that was not solidily rooted in basically, well, Lacuna Caster put in best - trying to win an internet verses argument with itself (and anything else outside of itself) since before internet verses arguements were an actual thing.

(No, I do NOT have a very high opinion of 40K as you might gather - never have, even during the period I actually played bits of GW and used their models. As it started to take itself more seriously and the next generation of writers basically started to believe - and canonise - its own hype1, I soured on it more. So you may consider me the council for the other side...)




but I wouldn't get too hung up on the topic of gender equality, because the setting is so rampant with fascist butchery, reflexive xenophobia, caste apartheid and religious brainwashing that not letting girls into the treehouse might not even crack the top ten list of problems here. So, again, mileage may vary.

Indeed. It is well to remember that, if viewed from outside, there are basically NO good guys in 40k, only bad guys of various flavours (except MAYBE the Tau, and from what my minimal understanding is, possibly not even then as of later stuff). It is an IP INHERENTLY based around factionalism (so as to better encourage people to get competative and buy all the latest models when GW is in one of its less charitable phases). And while there is a certain logic to that in that it is much easier for anyone to fight anyone (which is what you sort of want for a wargame) if everyone is Evil (rather than just neutral, like, say BattleTech), like everything else, 40k turns it up past 11 to 33, and only not 34 since it still thinks girls and sex are a bit ikky. (Remember, for many years, their target demographic was teenage boys and they've never really exorcised that background effect from the lore. Heck, if anything, with the banishment of Slaanesh, onew might even debate they have technically backslid a bit.)

(But GW has... Not had the greatest track record in this sort of area. I did have a glance at the Age of Sigma rules when they first came out and were available online, and among the very silly special rules (of which the gentleman at my club who play it sensibly disregard - I don't recall seeing any of them making pantomime horse noises anyway), the one that stood out was the one in which gave you an actual mechanical bonus to [something] if your were [probably dwarves, but I wouldn't swear to it] if you, the player, had a better beard than the other player. I am inclined to believe incompetance rather than malevolence, but, one felt, a certain level of lack of thought.

And the Sisters of Battle have not exactly always been given... The best treatment from some of their writers, which really does not help.

Maybe in the last few years they have had a remarkable change around, but I feel that would be uncharacteristically optimistic of me.)



And if all that seemed harsh, I will just point out that I am not even going to touch my opinions on the Shi'Ar; and for good reason, for this is a civil and polite board...



1Because when it started and crossover between 40k and WF were a thing, Space Marines were quite capable of being killed by goblins with arrows.

[Shamash]

Oh boy! Where to start?

First of all I love Mars, there is something about the red planet that just does it for me.

John carter books because it looks great and I love muscles.
http://www.edgarriceburroughs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/john-carter-mars-onlne-comic.jpg

Martian tripods from war of worlds look great:
https://t00.deviantart.net/_Y6EujAz1hF76GDAdTdTksYjIVk=/fit-in/700x350/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre00/d97a/th/pre/f/2010/296/4/7/war_of_the_worlds_by_domigorgon-d31dggq.jpg

Dc comics Mars:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/b/b9/White_Martians_001.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090427003859

Adventure time mars:
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/adventuretimewithfinnandjake/images/f/f8/S4e15_Mars_Top_view.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20120725194123
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/adventuretimewithfinnandjake/images/5/58/Sons_of_Mars_martian_city_background.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120723184623


Dc comics Krypton and their Cristal based tecnology:
https://hqrock.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/fortress-of-solitude-movies.jpg

The arrival aliens and their ships:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQT6BGaeWNDrdgBdiMtr72havcA3GXXT T7bsfTAAVBSQBcd4YlM

Everything on the desert planet Arrakis, their people, culture and sandworms.
https://r.hswstatic.com/w_907/gif/stufftoblowyourmind-23-2015-09-spice_mass_by_lukeoram-blog.jpg

Naboo from star wars, both the excruciatingly beautiful human cities to the beautiful Gungan cities. Yeah I like Phantom menace sue me.
http://www.parkeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/jarjarbinks-736x288.jpg
http://www.niubniubsuniverse.com/References/PicsE1/Naboo/GunganCity/GunganCity_RefDVD_Pics/GungCity_ExtEnter.jpg
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/5/5b/Otoh_Gungan-Star_Tours_II.png/revision/latest?cb=20130202000641
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/5/57/TheedAttack.png/revision/latest?cb=20120927141009
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b2/a7/03/b2a703232dfa83ad2c13ed574d22543d.jpg

[The Fury]

Design-wise, I really liked the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za and Kohr-Ah from Star Command 2. They always reminded me of huge centipedes and came off really cool and intimidating.

[Eldan]

(But GW has... Not had the greatest track record in this sort of area. I did have a glance at the Age of Sigma rules when they first came out and were available online, and among the very silly special rules (of which the gentleman at my club who play it sensibly disregard - I don't recall seeing any of them making pantomime horse noises anyway), the one that stood out was the one in which gave you an actual mechanical bonus to [something] if your were [probably dwarves, but I wouldn't swear to it] if you, the player, had a better beard than the other player. I am inclined to believe incompetance rather than malevolence, but, one felt, a certain level of lack of thought.

There was a good dozen such rules, yes, but they were all in the conversion document to use outdated old models with the new rules and my friends who still play it tell me they didn't do that kind of thing anywhere else, at least.

[Eldan]

Design-wise, I really liked the Ur-Quan Kzer-Za and Kohr-Ah from Star Command 2. They always reminded me of huge centipedes and came off really cool and intimidating.

Ooh, yeah. Star Control had a lot of good aliens. I like the Orz.

[Shamash]

Oh yeah, still on the Star wars prequels I love some Kamino aesthetics.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/2/2c/TipocaCity-CC.png/revision/latest?cb=20130505022521
https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/databank_kamino_01_169_f9027822.jpeg?region=0%2C0% 2C1560%2C878&width=768
https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/kamino-1_c976e209.jpeg?region=0%2C0%2C800%2C340
https://starwarsblog.starwars.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/kaminoan-1536x864.jpg
https://media.giphy.com/media/etL1DxgV4Ynjv3UXvV/giphy.gif

[Rynjin]

I feel like Animorphs had some of the consistently best alien designs for almost any type of media I've consumed. Even if it is a kids' series.

All of the races are distinct, interesting, and have cool biological quirks that make sense with their race's evolution.

Andalites, having the most screen time, get the most of that, but the writer(s) did a good job diversifying all of them.


https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/aliens/images/b/bf/Andalite.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100109050745


https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/animorphs/images/d/da/Hork-Bajir.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20180402201334


https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/animorphs/images/6/60/Animorphs_43_the_test_inside_cover_only_high_res.j pg/revision/latest?cb=20161111083456

[The Fury]

Ooh, yeah. Star Control had a lot of good aliens. I like the Orz.

The Orz were interesting too. What I liked about them, is that they seem silly and ridiculous until you start to grasp what their actual nature is and they start to resemble something more akin to an eldrich horror than some goofy aliens from a Saturday morning cartoon.

Even their dialog being absurd and silly-sounding can have a sort of sinister implication. Your ship's computer can apparently translate virtually any alien language so it's perfectly understandable, but the Orz are so alien that the best you can get is something weird and barely comprehensible. I love that because I'm not sure if it's terrifying or hilarious.

"Goodbye is the game! Hello, I am only joke. It is funny enough. Do not forget to enjoy the sauce."

[Zurvan]

Wait, is this thread about how alien species look or about their motifs?

Anyway, I'm a big fan of the Chozo from the metroid series, both their tech and their culture.

And there is no way to talk about star wars aesthetics and not mention Bespin, cloud city seems like a very chill and fancy place to live.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c6/31/ea/c631ea88b9a4c50ac0e65479b1a9eaf4.jpg

I also like the Sovereign from guardians of the galaxy, but only their aesthetic not their personality.

[Shamash]

One of the reasons I'm such a huge fan of Warhammer 40.000(Still a fan just not as big of fan as warhammer fantasy) is because of how they made amrs look ugly.

What they did to my dear red planet is almost criminal.

[Doorhandle]

One of the reasons I'm such a huge fan of Warhammer 40.000(Still a fan just not as big of fan as warhammer fantasy) is because of how they made amrs look ugly.
.


Odd reason to like the armour. Can you give me more details?

Can't think of too much off the top of my head for scifi: a lot of what I pick as great design is etheir applied as an artstyle or is fantasy. The aliens of X-com stand out for me however.

I particularly like old-style chrysalids with the psychotic grin they have for no good reason... and the old design of snakemen, which looked snake-like but are clearly not earthly beings.

https://img00.deviantart.net/3520/i/2011/169/2/3/it__s_zombie_time_by_karooz-d3jafmg.jpg
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/846951118462905405/87870E05190630E049018904FD54B959977E49C2/



The various lines of apocalypse also stand out to me, due to being your "aggressive biotech species" but breaking away from the mould of Starship-troopers. Even if they do look like dumpy claymation figurines.


https://lparchive.org/X-COM-Apocalypse/Update%2038/xcoma030.png




ADVENT from X-com 2 are also good, being a nice mix of "actually alien" and "Apple's illegal military division".


https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oH6V7rZXblQ/maxresdefault.jpg


https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/251464760160684727/8BE2432940ADCB1431183E7B0EDFB2B6FFD32717/


http://www.ninja-blues.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/JPXCOM2-Ep1-ADVENTIsNonHuman.png


https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/shacknews/assets/editorial/2016/01/muton.jpg





Anyway, the all-time champion title for Best Xeno Aesthetics clearly goes to Wayne Barlowe. Or... just check out anything from 70's sci-fi art.

No kidding.

[Shamash]

Odd reason to like the armour. Can you give me more details?

That wa a typo I tried to write Mars. :smallredface:

[Lacuna Caster]

Indeed. It is well to remember that, if viewed from outside, there are basically NO good guys in 40k, only bad guys of various flavours (except MAYBE the Tau, and from what my minimal understanding is, possibly not even then as of later stuff). It is an IP INHERENTLY based around factionalism (so as to better encourage people to get competative and buy all the latest models when GW is in one of its less charitable phases). And while there is a certain logic to that in that it is much easier for anyone to fight anyone (which is what you sort of want for a wargame) if everyone is Evil (rather than just neutral, like, say BattleTech), like everything else, 40k turns it up past 11 to 33, and only not 34 since it still thinks girls and sex are a bit ikky. (Remember, for many years, their target demographic was teenage boys and they've never really exorcised that background effect from the lore. Heck, if anything, with the banishment of Slaanesh, one might even debate they have technically backslid a bit.)
There is a certain corner of my mind that thinks a trimmed-down version of the setting would make for an interesting RPG (of which there are of course several already extant, I just... haven't quite gotten the right vibe from them.) Because the core idea behind the mythos- the dream of progress as shattered by the frailties of human attachments- seems like a perfectly viable jumping point for character drama, given the right procedures. (Heck, it's essentially what Burning Empires is about (https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15868.phtml), and the setting clearly derives some inspiration from 40K, among other things.)

But there's a powerful sense- much the same as I get when reading anything from Blizzard's lore department- that the background info isn't coming from a genuine love of setting or a drive to construct narrative so much as it does from the compulsion to expand product lines. Which is, of course, exactly what the driving force behind development is, it just gives the setting a feeling of being overcrowded and patchwork, rather than organic. The Tau, I think, simply marked the point where this density progression reached critical mass- whether or not they're evil is rather secondary to the fact that they're sane, which marketably distinguishes them from other factions while heavily implying that the Imperium would have collapsed within a century, never mind ten millennia.

I also quite enjoy the Tau aesthetically, for what it's worth.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/38/84/27/3884277772896dc2fefbf983f432c864.jpg

[Kitten Champion]

I'm generally fond of Farscape's aliens. Lot of interesting designs, and their skill with and willingness to use puppets allowed them to convey a stranger, more eclectic universe than what TV usually gives you. Even the little robots aboard Moya are a mix of odd and strangely adorable.

Character, Farscape has character.

I also liked the Taelons from Earth: Final Conflict as they did a pretty good job realizing an androgynous species, one with only a vaguely physical shell remaining in the world. Where, the two-faced idea is there but in a non-blunt kind of way. I believe they cast Taelon from predominantly petite French Canadian women, which leaves an interesting impression with their accent and mannerisms blending into the general alien concept the show was trying to instill.

I saw an interview with one of the Taelon actors in make-up, it was weird as hell.

[Lemmy]

Well, I always thought the boob-plate armor and "alalalalalala" screaming were silly, but still fitting, considering how cheesy and campy the whole thing was!

Wait... Xeno aesthetics?

Nevermind, then... My mistake :smallbiggrin:

[TeChameleon]

Many that I'm fond of have already had mentions here (the Ur-Quan and the Orz, the Daleks, Barsoomians, etc.), but I think I'm going to have to agree with Amazon on this one...

Anything designed by Jack Kirby.

In particular, his Asgardians had the most magnificent hats in the known universe, and I love his Fourth World Kirbytech. Plus, who else but Jack Kirby would put not one but two of the most badass (male) supervillains in the history of comics in miniskirts? :smalltongue:

[SaintRidley]

We can knock James Cameron's Avatar rightly for so much, but the one area it succeeds is in Pandora's sheer beauty. Pure visual spectacle that landscape. I'd love if he just scrapped any pretense of plot for his planned sequels and just did nature documentaries set on Pandora instead.

[Shamash]

Many that I'm fond of have already had mentions here (the Ur-Quan and the Orz, the Daleks, Barsoomians, etc.), but I think I'm going to have to agree with Amazon on this one...

Anything designed by Jack Kirby.

In particular, his Asgardians had the most magnificent hats in the known universe, and I love his Fourth World Kirbytech. Plus, who else but Jack Kirby would put not one but two of the most badass (male) supervillains in the history of comics in miniskirts? :smalltongue:

And the most iconic and powerful cosmic creatutre has a pink/purple bucket in his head.

http://www.marveldirectory.com/pictures/individuals/g_1d/galactus.gif

That's the kind of stuff only Kirby was able to pull of that's why movies were so afraid to do it until recently.

http://www.nuclearbagel.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/DL0_OFrXcAY3vrs.jpg

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvelcinematicuniverse/images/b/b7/Esonsearcher.png/revision/latest?cb=20141126104220