The different effects of black goo

This was a reply to a YouTube video comment post I wrote a couple weeks ago.

This post discusses the differences in how the black goo in "Prometheus" affected Holloway (compared to Fifield).

The thing with Holloway was, that IMO, he was actually disintegrating in a manner similar to the Engineer in the early scene of "Prometheus", because Holloway ingested black goo, which was beyond simple (well...) skin contact, and the goo began doing its intended work on disintegrating Holloway's DNA. But the black goo did so at a much slower pace, because Holloway had ingested less than a drop mixed into fizzy wine, while the early Engineer ingested a mouthful.

Note, that the sacrificial Engineer then fell into a river of water, which apparently quickly stabilised the resulting DNA strands, that went on to mix, match and become a source of all life on Earth.

And because the dosage of black goo in Holloway was small, and the effect slow, he managed to pass some already-randomised / –transmogrified DNA into Shaw. The rest, in terms of "Prometheus", is history.

Another theory is, that everything the black goo affects, makes transformed life extremely aggressive, and always with a need to procreate, seed, and spread themselves around, case in point being hammerpedes.

End of comment.

More theories from here on.

The thing about the black goo is, that it's probably a baseline material for creating xenomorphs, as evidenced by the very xenomorph-like silhouette / relief embedded in the wall or ceiling inside the (compromised) black goo repository on LV-223.

Though I do not know, why or what has lead the black goo to be like that. Theories abound...

So, my theory is, that the black goo is blood harvested by Engineers from a species older and higher-order than even the Engineers themselves.

Assuming, that this is true, then "Prometheus" offers at least a couple hints to this; one being, that this even older species was in the beginning scenes of "Prometheus"; the other is, that the head in the Engineer laboratory is the dead head of a representative of that higher-order species. And the black goo was then harvested from the head and body of the higher-order/older species. (To me, the black goo is not Engineer blood.)

What may probably run counter to that, is that the xenomorph-like relief in the wall/ceiling is actually a Xenomorph trapped. It might be live, or might not, or might be in stasis instead. Think of Han Solo frozen in Carbonite.

Now, the head of the higher-order-species appears to have been housed in the Engineer laboratory dome—or the dome laboratory was built around the head. The Engineer ships were located inside and around the dome. The rest of the body was apparently kept buried underground, until the Engineers discovered it and surveyed the dead body... for something useful.

The dangerous nature of the black goo is, because it's the blood of a dead higher-order humanoid species. The blood of such a live person would have different and hopefully more benign properties than the blood of a dead person.

As it is in real life, then in time, dead organic matter begins to disintegrate and becomes increasingly dangerous to health.

This may have been cause for religious rules that require respect for the dead and prohibit disturbing the grave.

All this is just theories, hypotheses, and speculation for your reading enjoyment.