Alien Franchise's True Main Character: The Doomed Ensemble

There's one character in theAlienfilms whose name is near-synonymous with the franchise—Ellen Ripley. Since the late-70s, Sigourney Weaver's formidable Xenomorph-brawling heroine has cemented herself asone of the greatest female characters in sci-fi and fantasy. However, after rewatching the 1979 classic, one thing has become increasingly clear to me: Ripley is not the franchise's main character.