What do you Like/dislike about Elizabeth Shaw?

I think if you do not challenge all ideas - always, then you risk the same growth of dangerous and close-minded behaviors. I'm not advocating that different schools of thought be gagged and suppressed, but rather they be scrutinized and critiqued. Only then can bad ideas die away and good ideas stay. And I think this forum is a fine example of how to debate ideas and opinions.

I like her.

She seems innocent, albeit naïve.  She clings tightly to her faith/belief system, but her inquisitive and knowledge seeking personality just makes her likable to me.

She also seems to look at the best in people - to me, Holloway came off as a major douche-pickle but her innocence seemed to see past that.

@stan. fair enough.

However, to be certain, too many people approach "challenging an idea" as "I have got to get rid of it"  because they have already formulated in their mind it is a bad idea. A lot of People nowadays tend to think their own ideas are "good" and things they don't agree with or like as "bad". Thats too simplistic. 

True challenge requires understanding other's point of view. To effectively do that you have to see things through others own eyes without the clouding of your own lens (thoughts).

A lot of deep controversial thinking but its why I am able to work with, be friends, and help so many different types of people. It's not about me.

Enough of all that... If I run into you one day, we'll have a beer together and maybe play a round of golf..

A bothersome thing about the movie was that the mission seemed ultimately greenlit because of a choice to believe- they found similar drawings from different cultures at different times and decided it was an invitation and didn't even discuss the possibility it might mean anything else.

@dk - Maybe it was actually a distress call and not an invitation.

"Ya'll are still primitive as you can get, but one day, as you evolve and can come help us....come help us, because we are boned", or something along those lines.

Maybe all those murals were directions/instructions on how to reach the stars to help some galactic agenda?

@Nycro- Possibly, but it in practice it played out as an invitation to be killed.

@dk. I considered that. What was "Amazing" was that the plotline had Weyland funding this whole traveling smorgasbord based off so scant evidence.

Considering that (most) business don't hand out huge amounts of money unless the legitimately feel that they will make a good return on the money. This by itself makes me think Weyland knew more than what was indicated. 

Maybe Weyland want the innocence of Dr. Shaw aboard to counter the programmed malevolance the mission...?

She just had some flawed written Character Attributes, but there was potential for the horrors she witnessed in Prometheus and then further Home Truths she could find on the way to Paradise or on Paradise herself could really have made her change into a interesting Character.

suwhited

I don't know what you mean by programmed malevolence.

In the quiet eyes viral video,she more or less convinced Peter Weyland will her beliefs.I believe he granted her wishes only because he he's his own agenda.Were it not for him,they may have never believed her and the mission would have never happened.

Shaw personally admitted that "we were so wrong" and STILL stated that she deserved to know answers to her questions. WTF?

That's also a good point.

@dk. I think Weyland wanted somebody with what he considered the favor of God to offset his unscrupulous plans to obtain immortality (and possibly something else...).

Bottom line: A good luck charm.

suwhited

Fair point- the confidence of a priest with four aces?

"A bothersome thing about the movie was that the mission seemed ultimately greenlit because of a choice to believe- they found similar drawings from different cultures at different times and decided it was an invitation and didn't even discuss the possibility it might mean anything else."

Shaw and Holloway formed a hypothesis and four years later Weyland has flown them to a place to test it.  The Isle of Skye find was the latest in a string.  It's implied they've been working on this for a long time and didn't fly to LV-223, 'just cos'.

Then they should have had a contingency plan for safety- except WY never seemed too concerned about crew safety.

"I'd be more inclined to agree if she was a female superhero. "

Why?

Because no human being can endure all that physically (post c-section aerobics) and mentally. 

If this was a Marvel or DC comics film, and not a Ridley Scott film, I'd leave human capability logic out of this.

I can buy into her amazing endurance to some extent, but then it went too far imo, and that applies to her choice of actions at the end as well. 

I'm in camp Shaw, I think she is cute.

@suwhited well said. The two party system in America is absolutely killing our country and dividing us to the point of no return. Forget the race wars, it's a political war, and I don't see it getting better.

"I can buy into her amazing endurance to some extent, but then it went too far imo, and that applies to her choice of actions at the end as well. "

I thought her actions were completely in character.  Charlie laments finding another and tomb and sees a dead end.  Elizabeth starts asking more questions.  Turning around and going home empty handed would be out of character.

The character of Shaw is meant to represent humanity.

Humanity is curious, it is strong willed, it endures...all traits she shared/expressed throughout the movie. She tried to keep her faith, ultimately was proven God was a figment of humanity's imagination, yet still continued to believe, proving her a flawed character. Again, another trait shared by humanity...flawed.

As for her superhuman effort at the film's climax...yeah, a little over the top in my opinion. For the C-section Olympics, she can take home the gold medal.

Personally, I didn't like her character. Too preachy, even when things were blatantly not going in her direction.   

I absolutely loved Shaw's character and thought Noomi was great. The character itself should be at odd's being a scientist and christian but instead found peace in being both. I was personally disappointed to hear she had such a minimal part in AC but not knowing the plan for her I'm still holding out hope she shows back up in a good way instead of an experiment.

Shaw is more of a badass than Ripley, it will be an incredible mistake if she's killed off.

Hicks/Hudson:

I believe that humanity has more character traits than that. Mankind is more diverse for better and/or worse. Honestly, if she is a symbol for humanity then it isn’t surprising why the world looks the way to does. She probably isn’t supposed to represent humanity although there might be some people that are closer to her personality in real life, if that makes sense. That is probably a question that you should ask those that made the script if you really want to know.

Hopefully she is dead so we don’t need to see her stupid actions in the next movie. Shaw’s story (as a living human being) should be finished by now if they don’t really need her in flash-backs in the next movie (if there will be a Prometheus 3).

ninXeno426:

I haven’t watched Alien versus Predator (2004) for a long time but as far as I know I never got annoyed by the main woman in AVP but I got annoyed by Shaw. My point is that I disagree with you that Shaw is better than the main character in AVP because as far as I know she wasn’t stupid like that although you can probably find things about her that are dislikeable if you really look.

Her feet and cute pout.

She also has lovely eyes and great cheekbones.  But honestly it's my opinion that you don't fail till you quit trying. It's better to die trying than quit. I admire that about Shaw.

@Thoughts_Dreams - I more so meant the insatiable need to know/learn things. Humanity always wants to grow and learn and become better and understand things. Shaw, in the face of everything negative and terrible, STILL wants to go "meet" the makers and ask MORE questions.

Again, I'm not a fan of the character, just trying to explain what her motivations might be and why she acts the way she does.

Personally, if my significant was burned alive in front of me, I performed my own surgical removal of a squid from my stomach, learned that my "makers" were intent on destroying me and my kind, saw most of my expedition mauled at the hands of said "maker" and then attacked by the "maker" and my now gigantic squid offspring, and then left in the company of a deranged robot head severed from his body, I think I would've just rathered called it a day and went home lol.

@ Hicks/Hudson THAT is why you fail... ;)

True. I'd be a failure.....

But a living one at least :-)