Aliens are the absolute best. This is not my opinion, it's a fact. Okay, so it's my opinion, but a lot of people share my opinion, so therefore aliens are the best. Anyways, aliens are one of my favourite creatures to see in fiction because there are so many different things that can be done with them. They can be awful monsters, they can be helpful monsters, they can be villains, or they can be heroes. The sky is more than the limit when it comes to aliens and there are so many of them in fiction that it was pretty difficult to come up with a top ten list of my favourites. The same rules apply to all of my top ten lists: only one character per series/franchise, and only aliens from things that I've seen/read/played.
Alien is one of my absolute favourite movies ever, and I'm so glad that I plucked up the courage to watch it after being too scared to for years. I wasn't too keen on the sequels (especially Aliens, but I'm probably the only one in that camp), but I do like how they managed to expand on the Xenomorph species while still keeping it relatively mysterious and scary. But, I did think that the Alien, as in the alien from the first movie, is one of the scariest things I've ever seen in a movie. They aren't really civilisation like other aliens in fiction, and work more like a hive of insects like wasps or bees, but more parasitic because they do the whole chestbursting things. Also, here's a delightful fact: the idea of the facehuggers and chestbusters came about because the writers wanted to primarily affect the male members in the audience so they made the alien have a phallic head with a yonic mouth and attack a male member of the crew instead of a female. So in the words of one of the writers, Alien is a movie "about alien interspecies rape". Lovely.
Yes, Gonzo is an alien. It was established in Muppets from Space even though it was made ambiguous before and he was just labelled as a "whatever". Gonzo is one of my favourite Muppets purely because he is an underdog. Nobody really understands his acts that he claims to be performance art, but it never stops him from trying again, which is always an encouraging property for someone to have. Also, he's funky looking, like a lot of Muppets are. The weirder a Muppet looks, the better in my view. Not everything can be an animal. Gonzo is also someone who takes pride in his uniqueness, rather than being ashamed of it, and does everything he does out of pure enjoyment. Even if it'll probably kill him.
Let's be real here: I have yet to find anyone who doesn't like Spock. Trying to come up with a reason as to why I like Spock is pretty difficult. I tend to get turned off by hammy character like Kirk, and end up preferring the cooler, more deadpan characters, like Spock. He's not an easy character to relate to especially if you've never experienced the kind of issues that he has (i.e. racism), but that's okay because not every character has to be relatable in order to be liked. The deadpan-ness of Leonard Nimoy's original performance is what mainly sticks out in my mind, but that doesn't mean that I don't like Zachary Quinto's performance. What he does is very similar, but it's also different at the same time, exploring Spock's hidden emotional side, which is always something that I'm curious to see in a context that doesn't include him being brainwashed.
These characters never appear in any canon Simpsons episodes (if there even is a simpsons canon), but that doesn't mean that I can't place them on this list. Kang and Kodos only ever appear in Halloween specials and are a tradition in the Treehouse series, whether they have a segment starring them or they just have cameos, but they always make an impression. Giant drooling green octopus things with one eye each tend to do that. The best thing about Kang and Kodos is that they are a parody of typical evil alien overlords and they're done oh so well that they're just hilarious. The fact that they're from The Simpsons means that they work so well because if they were played straight it would just come off as unintentionally funny.
For this entry I will try to restrain myself as much as possible because I love Superman with all my heart and I have a bigger post talking about him scheduled and I don't want to basically ruin that post. But anyways. Superman. He's a precious being who needs to be protected and I treasure him so much I just want to squish his face and give him a hug because I know he would hug me back because that's the kind of person Superman is. I just have a lot of feelings about Superman and get very overprotective of him, okay?
I've been a fan of Dragon Ball Z since the tender age of I don't actually remember, but Vegeta was always my favourite Saiyan. Goku's constant naivety can get a bit grating at times because he's not that well-rounded of a character. Technically Vegeta isn't either because he's always the smug angry one, but still, I always preferred him to Goku. I'm not sure what it is about hotheaded characters but I kind of have a thing for them because I get annoyed very easliy and I feel like I can relate to them. Also, Vegeta is one of my favourite examples of the Heel-Face turn (which is basically a villain that turns into a hero), because he doesn't always stick to it, which is kind of realistic to me. He doesn't exactly flip-flop between being a hero and a villain, like Harley Quinn or Catwoman, but he still doesn't make any promises that he's become a straight villain. Do I think he could beat Superman? Of course not, Vegeta's too headstrong. Plus he's died multiple times compared to Superman's one time.
It's been a hot minute since I touched the Lux series (i still haven't finished it, oops) but I do still love Daemon. I wasn't too impressed by him in the first book because his cockyness started to get on my nerves a bit, but after that I did warm up to him even though he is a tease. But he's a tease who genuinely cares for Katy and doesn't mean any harm by it, so that makes it different. Also, that first introductory paragraph of how he looks? I think about that a lot.
Oh, Zoidberg, you lovable weirdo. Zoidberg is an incredibly difficult character to describe to somebody who knows nothing about Futurama. Basically, he's a lobster-like alien with a doctorate that has nothing to do with medicine but somehow he's a medical doctor for an intergalactic delivery service. That probably does it justice. The endearing thing about Zoidberg is that he's a loser, but instead of being a loser like Gonzo where you like to see him constantly try, with Zoidberg it's funnier to see him constantly fail because that's his role as the show's designated chew toy. That doesn't mean that you can't feel sorry at times, though.
I have a thing for small cute things, even if they're potentially dangerous (hence why i adore damian wayne so much), and Stitch is kind of the personification of cute and dangerous. When I was a kid, I was hugely into Lilo and Stitch and even though I haven't seen it for an incredibly long time, I do still love Stitch. I even have Stitch slippers from Disneyland and they're probably the best slippers I've ever worn not just because they have Stitch on them, but because they're so comfortable too. I'm probably way over due rewatching Lilo and Stitch, now. Or I could always replay the PS1 game for the millionth time (it takes me just over an hour to beat it, that's how much i've played it).
Alright, time for a confession: I haven't seen the original Star Wars trilogy. I've only seen the prequels are they were... well, they were movies. I didn't think very much of them because it was a lot of politics and I came for Star Wars not Star Politics. But, that being said, my favourite character in those movies was definitely Yoda. Why? Yoda is voiced by Frank Oz. Frank Oz was one of the main Muppet performers and was the original performer of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, Cookie Monster, Grover, and a bunch of other character that I don't have the time to list because we'd be here all day. He also directed Little Shop of Horrors, but I'm not here to talk about Frank Oz, I'm here to talk about Yoda. I do know the general gist of the original Star Wars movies from Family Guy but I love Yoda's personality as being a wise teacher who is also one that shouldn't be underestimated. I will admit that the best part of the prequels was that rendering Yoda in CGI instead of having him being a puppet gave more room to showcase his abilities as a Jedi Master and made him badass.
Who are some of your favourite aliens?
