David 8 and Ash

I’m pretty sure on Tumblr, David 8 is the most popular character in Prometheus, and it’s not hard to see why. While I can be cynical and say that it’s because he’s played by the absolutely stunning Michael Fassbender (both in acting skill and in appearance), the fact is that David is the most interesting character in the film. There’s a lot we don’t know about him by the time the film ends, but while there’s room to speculate on his motives, he doesn’t show the lack of common sense or character inconsistency that the others do. Furthermore, he’s also the most developed character next to Shaw.

But what makes David even more interesting is when he’s compared to Ash from the original Alien. In general, I think that comparing Prometheus to Alien is a terrible idea; the two films really don’t have much in common besides the very basic premise (crew goes to planet, finds alien stuff, everything goes horribly wrong); the structure of the film and the themes are so radically different that expecting anything like Alien automatically breeds disappointment. While Prometheus still has serious problems, treating it as an Alien prequel makes it a complete failure. But it is interesting to look at David as the precursor to Ash. I read on Tumblr someone asking how Ash would be an improved version of David, and that got me thinking. On first glance, David seems like more of a success than Ash; he’s friendly  and congenial where Ash is distant and cold, he seems to be more capable of emotion than Ash (or at least has the capacity for empathy), and above all, he wants to be human (or at least accepted as such).

Think of how we meet David; even if you hadn’t seen any of the promotional material, you find out very early on that David is an android, and it’s very quickly established that he admires humans and tried to be like them. He models himself after Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, down to meticulously dyeing his hair, and although we’re told he cannot feel emotions (which in sci-fi is almost always a lie), he shows visible disappointment when Weyland says that he can never have a soul. We are meant to empathize with David from the very beginning: he just wants to be accepted alongside other humans.

[Actually, empathizing with David is kind of how I started thinking about all of this; I was having a discussion with a friend about how Tumblr tends to want to mother characters that they sympathize with, even when they are not really a “sweet baby ____”. (I’m looking at you, Loki fangirls!) I mean, I’m not completely free of that, but there is almost definitely a sector of the internet that sees David as some sort of “sweet baby robot Pinocchio prince”, despite the fact that he does some really creepy and amoral shit. I was joking that wouldn’t it be funny if Tumblr treated Ash like some sort of “sweet baby corporate robot”? My friend replied that it would never happen because Ian Holm isn’t all handsome and pretty like Fassbender, and while that is definitely true (though idk, there’s something to be said for men Of An Older Age with brownish-grey hair and blue eyes…) there’s definitely more incentive to like David.]

don't judge me man

All of this makes sense within the film as well; David’s original purpose was created to take care of humans and work well with others, so he would naturally try to make a pleasant impression on others. He’s got these big blue eyes that kill you every time he looks hurt, and his status as a surrogate son allows him to have a unique personality compared to other androids of his same model. We learn that he’s taking orders from Weyland, but we never find out what they are, and they seem to be flexible enough that David can devote time to fixating on Shaw.

Ash, on the other hand, is pretty much the polar opposite of David. [I should note now that I’ve only seen Alien once, and that was a while ago, so I may not remember every Ash detail.] We assume he’s human for the first half of Alien, though he separates himself from the rest of the crew. He’s much shiftier than David, but while David can fall into the uncanny valley of creepy smiles, Ash’s creepiness is much more plausible as human. We can see that something is off about him, but he just seems at worst like that guy you might be a tiny bit wary of when you’re the only two in the subway car at three in the morning.

This all makes sense if you consider what Ash was presumably made for; he’s a science officer. His primary duties have little to do with social interactions, so he doesn’t bother with them. He doesn’t even really seem to like humans all that much; he’ll pass as one, but he’s much more attracted to the alien, to the point where he emulates the facehugger by trying to shove a magazine down her throat. (Of course, there’s more to that scene than pure emulation, but the rapey overtones of that scene and the facehugger could be its own article.) Ash has no desire to be human; he just plays the part when it suits him, and completely drops the façade once Ripley finds out his orders. He’s purposefully more not-human that David, automatically distancing himself from the viewer’s sympathies.

But the question is still unanswered: How is Ash an improvement over David? The improvement is Ash actually sticks to his purpose and nothing else. David is, by robot standards, unpredictable; he certainly wasn’t told to be the dream equivalent of a peeping tom, and while he may have been told to bring back the alien goo and infect someone with it, he clearly chooses Holloway out of malice (and probably jealousy). Ash fulfills two main purposes: pose as the science/medical officer for the crew, and bring the alien back at all costs, and everything he does is directly related to those orders. Some people speculate that Ash attacking Ripley is actually a malfunction, but it follows the second order; Ripley was definitely going to warn the rest of the crew, and he had to prevent that. What’s the easiest way to keep her from talking? Kill her. This isn’t to say that Ash is completely logical; once again, his choice of weapon proves that. But his desires still match up with his orders, whereas David’s were completely unrelated.