All You Have To Do Is Sing

https://archiveofourown.org/users/goth_loli a blog for my general fanfic woes

[gothicdolores]

what the kids call a pinned post!

Hello - i'm a mestiza peruvian, 21+ year old bisexual cis woman (she/her) who can be reached in the following places:

GothLoli on ao3

GothitaLolita on twitter

GothicDolores here on tumblr

GothicDolores on blsky

these are all the places you can find me in terms of fanfiction, and specifically fanfiction. My ao3 is listed at the top of my blog and contains both my old pseud and my current pseud - all public for you to peruse, as it always has been.

I occasionally indulge in Dead Dove, simply mind the tags and filter out my library accordingly, as it's mixed in with my usual work!

I used to take requests, but they were mostly for small ships or niche tropes, if I happen to write for something you enjoy, I might say yes but i am not a request blog, so no promises - i just yap about my ships here on tumblr

I am very liberal with the block button - i do not debate people, i do not entertain slurs or real life criminal accusations over fiction. You only have to say something weird around me or to me ONCE, and you are gone from my internet experience. I have no interest in "defending" myself or giving whatever else attention you are seeking. You are talking to yourselves, as i have repeated time and time again. I don't know what it is your saying or doing, but good luck with that. or sorry it happened to you.

i'm MOVING alot of my old works off of FFnet, where you can find them unedited and in their original state. You will occasionally see me post decades old fics! sometimes i throw a fresh coat of paint over them. But I will always specify when i wrote them, as some are so old i was still in grade-school, if you can imagine.

All my NEW wips include:

Dear Maria Count Me In: Shadria-centric found family fic. updating semi-regularly again

Icarus to your Certainty: My current DD:DNE. Last chapter pending.

All You Have To Do Is Sing: Updating regularly! The Lullaby Arc is underway

these are LONG TERM wips! If you see me post an old fic or a new one-shot no you didn't it's just where my muse diverted me atm

WIP list will be updated as fics wrap up.

Edit: can’t believe this has to be said but THIS IS MY ONLY FANFIC BLOG I HAVE NO SECONDARY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS BEYOND THE ONES LISTED ABOVE AND ANYONE CLAIMING TO BE ME IS NEITHER MY FRIEND, FOLLOWER, NOR EVEN A COMPETENT CYBER STALKER

[fujifujiart]

Dek? Thia? 😳😳😳

[puryartist]

she wants to show thia something!

[gothicdolores]

not to brag yall, but the final chapter of Icarus might be some of the best shit i've written in a while

[gothicdolores]

I'm a little hesitant to say because someone might take this the wrong way, but being a synth, Thia doesn't get burnt out or stressed as much when she's mothering her babies. She still has to power down at night, and the kids aren't allowed to approach her with certain liquids or play with her too roughly because there's a risk of causing internal damage (impossible for human pups...but Yautja pups are stronger than they look), but Thia can keep up with her babies perfectly fine. Sure, Dek, Kwei, and Bud have to rest or catch their breath after dealing with the little hellions, but Thia still has so much energy to play, teach, and protect her precious darlings.

Am not saying that motherhood is easier for Thia. There's still so much about child-rearing that not even certain parts of Thia's programming prepared her for. She just doesn't get pooped out as much. She can literally re-enact a dance from Swan Lake across a minefield of toys without stepping on a single one while the baby is snoozing away in its crib. Poor Dek just ends up stepping on a loud ass toy and accidentally wakes up the baby lol.

and i think that's a good way to balance it!

Thia can do everything perfectly and have 4 out of 5 kids down for a nap and yet Dek will sneeze too loud and wake the whole nursery lsfejgnlaekrgnalerkgn - and no! she doesn't get tired but she DOES get irked by outside forces lmao

at the end of the day, her children are organic, same as their daddy and uncle and sister bud. They sure do know how to surprise her! and it's common for her to over-rely on her research/what her programming tells her is optimal, to the point that her getting "tired" would be more of her feeling frustrated with herself that she can't predict how best to raise her kids (what parent does lol) and needing a break.

in a way, motherhood humanizes her in different ways than falling in love did. She's GREAT, and she's always around and ready to be there for her babies, but there will still be times that Dek takes a bundle form her arms, tells her to go recharge, and that he will handle it for a while

Thia doesn't realize it until she wakes up form those hibernations that even synths have to roll with the punches when it comes to kids!

[gothicdolores]

Thia quietly asking Dek if it's okay to be covered from head to toe in jewelry, only for Dek to stare at her like O_o "Woman, if I didn't want you wearing these, I wouldn't be showing them to you, and having you try them out. Now, come up here and try these on." Like, the moment he got done beating the tar out of his father, Dek was already making plans to pick out the best necklace that would bring out the color of Thia's big eyes...maybe a few golden anklets to complement her delicate ankles, or maybe a silver-string outfit that'll draw attention to her shapely breasts and hips. By the time he's finished, Thia is legit glittering so brightly, Kwei has to cover his eyes while Bud is tipping over the half-filled treasure chest to paw around the gems, gnawing on a bejeweled spinal cord xD

dek has to explain to her that yautja high society is 60% looking the part, 20% faking it till your making it, 15% actual skill and deeds and about 5% PR

Thia isn't USED to being the person who is glammed up. Synths are made for function, not fashion. If she's not proving she matters by DOING things, she's afraid she'll get "decommissioned" which in her life with dek more means that she'll become a useless hunk of junk

but the more she learns about Yautja society, the more she adapts it into her parameters. after all, thia can talk herself through any situation, why should pagentry be any different?

most Yautja in Dek's new peer circle are used to "trophy mates" anyway. it's very common for them to assume some high ranking clan leader or matriarch have a literal pretty THING to adore and lavish attention to and show off their wealth/influence on.

what they don't know is that Thia likes being a THING....she's the unnerving, non-organic beauty who does not need for any of this but indulges in it, once she's used to it. Dek has her dressed up like a jewel-encrusted knife.

gorgeous and deadly

[zandiiangelspit]

Older Dek~

[narou-bebe007]

I strongly believe that Kwei would be very proud of Dek that he finally has his own clan instead of staying in the clan under the regime of their cruel father. also he would be very proud of Dek for finding himself a -girlfriend- emotional support synth that can be useful when hunting.

Anyways, enjoy the food y’all!

[gothicdolores]

I love your idea of Dek x Reader x Thia because Reader would be crushing so hard on Thia. After all, Thia is so terribly easy to love, and Dek loves them both equally and was a little worried that he would face the choice of having to give up Thia to be with Reader, but Reader is like, "Wait, what? No! I love her!!!" Cue declarations of love and cuddle piles and a very happy Yautja.

aoigjaer EXACTLY you get me!

like, as of writing the final part of Do You Love Her, the thing that flabbergasts Kwei about Thia is that she's VERY MUCH integrated into the dekreader relationship in a way that he absolutely refused to be, choosing instead to separate himself from the two entirely even though that made Dek feel like he was responsible for Kwei's unhappiness

THIA on the other hand?? the concept of Dek having a wife and KID back home, and doing literally EVERYTHING to get back to them, and yet and yet and yet HE COULD NOT LEAVE THIA BEHIND. the way the movie plays out in this AU is so!!! exciting to me!!

there's genuine affection there! Dek had every reason (very GOOD reasons!) to focus solely on returning home, but he risked it ALL to save Thia, how could she NOT have a crush on him?? which was very much hinted at in the final 2 chapters of Nothing Left to Prove.

Reader becomes the recipient of Thia's deep emotion as a result and well dang, WHO can not fall for Thia when she's being so ardent and helpful and keeps telling you how amazing you are and how much she admires you I NEED READER TO KISS THIA ON THE MOUTH

Both reader and dek just sort of.....cling to thia, and the angst of it all!! the mixed messages she's receiving! she's very much in the middle suffering between the two yet cannot leave them ahhh AHHHHH

....meanwhile Bud is just like i love my new family i got two moms, a lil sibling and a daddy what a nice life this is

the elephant in the room is a pretty blond synth named thia!

[gothicdolores]

THINKING ABOUT THIS AGAIN FOR REASONs

[zandiiangelspit]

The wolf and the yapper~💕

[zandiiangelspit]

Boy with the pretty hair~

[gothicdolores]

Hope your laptop is fixed and better now. I forgot to say this in my reblog and I could've made an edit....eh, I'll still send this.

You reminded me to check on it actually and well😭😭

​At least I get to edit more😭😭

[spookyboywhump]

I do really love it when women write graphic and fucked up things. I feel like so often people react to fucked up fiction with “of course a disgusting man would write this 🙄” and it often carries an unspoken (honestly sometimes spoken) message of “a woman’s PURE and DELICATE and FEMININE mind could NEVER think of something this VILE”. Thank you women in fucked up fiction 🫡

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

I was thinking about this earlier how the City Hunter/Ghost was straight up going to let LA be destroyed by his self destruct device. There's just something so....UTTERLY INSANE ABOUT THAT. The fact if Harrigan wasn't able to cut his arm off just in time, LA would've been a nuke site basically.

The reason I was thinking about this earlier because I was agreeing with a tweet talking about how people seem to undermine how evil the Yautja really are. And me saying it's sometimes easy to forget from a human perspective or any other species. What the Yautja do is REALLY FUCKED UP. Including the fact they are self aware.

And I feel this moment (Along with the fact of how wild Ghost was acting in the film) is one of those examples of just again, UTTERLY INSANE this is. Like, imagine if Harrigan wasn't able to stop it. How would the country react or the whole world?

Also, keep in mind that the Yautja are so Hell bent on not wanting to expose themselves to other species. And not wanting their tech to fall into the hands of others. Again, the fact Ghost was willing to do this instead of...it's almost stupid. There's also the fact the Lost Tribe's ship is hidden below those buildings.

I think back to the expanded material if you want to take that seriously. The Lost Tribe was watching Ghost throughout his hunt. There was a moment they were thinking about killing him because he was getting out of control. Or more so they were gonna send "Warrior" to bring him back. Just imagine if they learned he was straight up going to destroy a crap ton of LA.

Good lord, I could be wrong. But I feel like this would piss off many elders back on Yautja Prime if this actually happened.

Pictured here, Greyback and the Warrior watching Ghost acting so carelessly in his hunt:

[gothicdolores]

For me, it really IS the perfect example of how murder/violence is what’s genuinely normalized in reality which bleeds into how people treat fictional settings like the Predator verse.

I’ve said this in other posts over the years, but the Yautja as a WHOLE have decided that intelligent/sentient species are ACCEPTABLE victims, cuz they ARE victims, and no matter how we dress up their Codex as an “honor” based set of laws, they;re….not actually very reasonable NOR fair, across the board.

Mostly because their victims are not privy to what makes them “honorable prey” - it’s one thing that Ghost was running around the city killing gangbangers and other “acceptable” targets (which again, says a lot about how we;re conditions as a society but lets not get in the reeds of it all) but there are several other “honorable prey” he hits, Harrigan and several of his peers included, who are “good” people who get murdered! They get MURDERED.

The Ghosts was started to lose it even by Yautja standards is meant to placate our lizard brain sense of “see! They DO have limits!” But in the grand scheme of things, that’s only insofar as, like you point out, it begins to directly harm Yautja society, in comparison to the actual damage it’ll do to innocent people (hell, Diablo/jungle hunter;s bomb would’ve killed everyone in the chopper had they been just a tad bit closer, and they didnt fit the “honorable parameters” to say nothing of the local wildlife that was needlessly “wasted”)

This sort of lends to my speculation about the Grendel King’s goings on tbh. Cuz if the Lost Tribe deemed Harrigan as being deserving not only of surviving, but also cleaning up the mess they would’ve had to, in getting rid of Ghost, what right does Grendel’s clan to essentially “poach” him in the after credit scene, Yknow? Doesn’t seem honorable. The Tribe itself, with this in mind, seems to give Harrigan a pass due to sheer embarrassment which they wave off as being the just thing to do.

I think most of the fandom likes to chop things up to early installment weirdness or they reject Dan’s take on showing the Yautja as far more “bad” than what the fandom is comfortable with, after being used to their fanons deeming them to be far more noble and “good” than they are across “lesser canon” but at the end of the day, from it’s foundation, the Yautja seem to be very self-serving and a very much cruel in the name of personal preservation. Like - i would argue that THATS why most of the Yautja we;ve come across are sort of dickish and dumb, They’re products of a “fuck you, got mine” sort of culture.

But that’s just my soapbox sally nature coming out

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

I deeply apologize for not responding earlier. But this was the thread I was talking about.

Anyway, my deepest apologies for not responding to this since Friday. I had this in my drafts since Saturday and I've been lazy. But I wanna say your reblog is my favorite response to my post.

This is again, such an excellent post. And while I love the world building of the expanded material and the "Honor code". I do think some fans again, have forgotten the shit these guys do is....really fucked up. And while I'm hoping the tribe/clan in Killer of Killers isn't ALL of the Yautja. I do like Dan expanding more on them and someone like Njohrr representing a Yautja who embodies the worst aspects of their society.

In a weird way to look at the Yautja species and there's also the fact I have my own outlook/head canons to their society. I love the idea they are a nomadic species with each clan doing it's own thing. And there are members that aren't hunters. But the ones we see well....I worry I'm getting off topic.

Recently, and while I'm not really an Invincible fan. But the Yautja are in a way if Battle Beast himself was an entire species or...I'm getting off topic. The point being for a long time, I wanna say this.

"Sure, we love the Yautja. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE PART OF THEIR SOCIETY." Because I can tell there's a horrific reality to it if we view it from our perspective. And it makes cases like Dachande and Dek interesting because they're not the usual type of Yautja. But ones that have grown to have empathy.

I'm sorry, I don't know what else to say. Or it's just that I love this. I'm glad more fans are thinking about it.

[gothicdolores]

Hi hi YAY!

Don’t worry about lat responding! I sometimes take so long that i end up queuing my posts, so i dont mind waiting haha.

I think this phenomenon was presented best during Badlands pre-premiere “Rapley described the process hinting at feeling without humanizing the creature outright. It’s the reason audiences connect with Dek, even while still believing he’d kill them in a heartbeat." Which is one of the MANY reasons i truly love Dan’s take on the Yautja and Dek especially.

Since he was prevented from obtaining his cloak for what we assume is longer than average (based on the comics and early concepts) we sort of have a blank slate with him. Even Yeyinde, who i absolutely believe Dan based him on due to his “broken tusk”, is an older leader, and Dachande knew to respect human women but i don’t remember if either of them confirmed whether they HUNTED sentient, “human-level” prey.

We now that Dek decided NOT to continue hunting the Kalisk BECAUSE she was Bud’s mom, and they had a very strong familial bond. I would wager that Njohrr would’ve still wanted him to kill it (despite being afraid of kalisks himself) but from where Badlands ends, Dek himself REFUSES to hunt that way, or choose his prey the way say….literally every other hunter would.

Because according to nearly ALL the Yautja across the movies and comics and games, the fact that Bud’s Momma IS a mom wouldn’t have REALLY been a detriment.

Unlike in say, Pred 2 where CIty spared a clearly pregnant woman, Bud showed that she CAN take care of herself, and doesn’t NEED her mom, especially in the proposed deleted scene where Bud was supposed to actually die and show she can come back from the dead like her mom.

I think it was Celtic who killed Mr. Weyland after he decided to flame thrower him, because according to that there vague Codex, he was “allowed” to retaliate despite Weyland being a frail old man.

And we see a repeat of theses concessions up until Predator 2018 actually (despite being hated by majority of fandom), where we get the FIRST “official” moment where Fugitive spared the scientist based on what we have long been told “they wouldn’t attack unarmed “prey”” (i say official only because the studios themselves dont care about the expanded lore, and they proved that repeatedly by contradicting and retconning things established in comics/games, so despite me REALLY liking things like the toy line version of the lore, i know studios….dont! So nothing about it is “official”)- however, even this is suspect for scrutiny as Fugitive was trying to HELP humanity anyway.

Dek, in contrast, showed almost a rejection of his Njohrr’s VERY traditional mindset. It doesn’t look like he WANTS to hunt “prey” who…have a life. Unlike Scar, who we dont know if he would’ve hunted sentient life after his Chiva had he survived, but laughably similar to the ALLEGEDLY “bad blood” trio of Predators - Dek decides to hunt ~problematic prey~

He decides to hunt Tessa instead because she harmed Thia AND Bud and her mom (and his lizard). To me, that sort of sets him apart from EVERY single Yautja we’ve ever met. Because he had made an ACTIVE choice not to hurt these types of “targets” even though the codex says he can.

Naru is a good person, and so was Taabe, but according to the Codex, they are free game because they are “good hunters” and that’s all that matters (and the same CAN be said by a lot of the pretty across the lore). I dont think Dek would make that kind of call, and i believe Dan truly wants us to think about this aspect of Yautja society as a result. They really have no business killing innocent people, but they do, and due to the events of Badlands….Dek might become one of the FEW hunters who choose not to!

OF COURSE, that doesn’t make him a saint, since he’s not above capital punishment in regards to Tessa and Njohrr lmao, but it IS interesting and it’s something i hold dear to my heart. Because it does bleed a lot into fanon and fanfic, where there seems to be a rigidness at times to just…enjoy the fact that the Yautja suck. A lot of the fandom get in their feels about it, and it’s perfectly okay to like them without feeling bad about it! Or in fact, making them worse, like i like to do lmao!

😌thanks for the reply ahhhh

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

Thanks for understanding. And for Yeyinde/Dachande either he hunted humans before. That I recall, Dachande hadn't hunted humans before. But he did wonder about it. But that was before his ship was destroyed, and he was injured. Resulting in him being taken by the humans. Yet he was treated well by Miriam Revna, who's life he saved from Tichinde, even while he was restrained. And then he met Machiko, I think you know the rest. In other words, I think being treated well by Miriam might've changed his viewpoint on humans. If he had lived, he'd probably might not hunt them. It depends though, because he did die while marking Machiko. Who he had developed a huge respect for.

I don't wanna get off topic. Dachande is a character I really like. Even if he's sadly "Not canon" per say. I'll admit he's one of my favorite comic characters, even if he only had one appearance in one limited series. And then there's the novel that details more stuff.

Sorry if I sound rude, it was Scar who killed Peter Weyland, not Celtic....you know, while I like Scar. I have said it's like him and Wolf are like if you split Dachande into two separate beings. Yet none of them had a high regard for human lives. Considering Wolf killed a woman's husband, and the whole thing Wolf does. And Scar killed a bunch of people who might've had lives outside of being mercs and also this little scene here with him and Quinn.

I think most people can understand studios don't give a damn about the lore in expanded material. Yet I do think we should remember a film maker shouldn't be held back by things in comics or games. But yes, you make a good point with what you're saying.

If we get a Badlands sequel and likely we will. It's going to be VERY INTERESTING if Dek meets genuine human beings. Especially with everything you're saying.

Granted, my excuse with Tessa and I didn't think more of it was because she did kill Bud's mom and she was going to kill Thia. And it's not like anyone is going to miss it, not trying to sound like a bad dude. And Dek killing his father...or allowed it...it's gonna be interesting how the rest of the clan will view it.

I will say what you've said is very intriguing that made me think a bit more about it. Even though I think we can agree what Dan did was that he was careful when writing him. Or that....man, I really wanna see Dek meeting a human being. Because Dan was very careful with the villains he had in Badlands and...all I can say Dan is a very smart guy when it comes to this stuff.

Granted, while a part of me wants it....I don't know if I want a big crossover of Killers of Killers meets Badlands...I sound silly. I'll go with it...I don't know. I have faith in Dan. But I don't know...I wanna wait and see.

Edit also you're welcome dude. :)

[gothicdolores]

Ah see! I knew i was gonna get something wrong lmaooooo

Yeah, between the comic and the novel i wasn’t sure of my Dachande facts! I have my beef with him as a character as a lot of what he says is taken as gospel in the fandom when i feel it’s really just his character’s opinions/personality and not a reflection of the Yautja as a whole (which is the same we can say about Dek now, so history repeats!! Time is a flat circle!!)

Scar being the one who kills Weyland is even better i think, so NOT rude at all to correct me! Definitely goes into what we’re talking about about how even the better Yautja we like are more anti-heroes, given the fact that they still dont value non-Yautja life as a standard. The entirety of Wolf’s last job is just utterly bonkers to me, i know the Hybrid was an unprecedented proposition, but the level of fuck ups he did on the job in addition to the needless human casualties on his part was grounds for him to rightfully eat it in requiem I SAID WHAT I SAID

in my heart of hearts this is why my own oc su’ete thinks that wolf is kind of a blowhard idiot but i digress lol

I’ll have to re-watch avp before i put my foot in my mouth again, but another thing that rings hilarious and i think Dan did on purpose is whoever used their cloak to attack the humans once shit hit the fan in the temple is yet another example of what canon-Yautja think is honorable and what fanon thinks that Yautja consider honorable (if it was scar again i will literally start howling, that would be so funny, but i think the cloaking debacle was in fact Celtic/chopper or i will eat my hat)

I remember there was a whole debacle about whether the unblood in question was going to be reprimanded about it, because “a hunter would NEVER use their cloak to attack prey!” And the brief moments where jungle/city sort of did the same “didn’t count” because ~the lore hadn’t been established~ which i have always been frustrated about as a meta handwave instead of a legit thing we can explore, in canon.

Well ANYWAY, because of Dan’s brilliant mind, this point which was once a contention is now Njohrr’s signature move LMAOOOOOOOO

And yeah, because some don’t like his take on the Yautja and are resistant to actual lore that they can’t gatekeep, there’s still contention on whether Njohrr had lost his way or not. But regardless of where this discussion leans, it has become yet another example of how the way we perceive “honor” is in fact vastly different than what a legit alien world would consider “honorable”.

This is the first time in DECADES we’ve had ONE writer/director across multiple media, and on top of that, its for the movie canon, which studios hold to a higher regard (as unfortunate as that is). We should be very surprised and humbled that Dan was able to reveal that there was NO predator franchise bible, and that he’s gone above and beyond to give us one without being able to actually give us one

….lowkey im on the same boat as you with the KoK/Badlands possible crossover ajrtgbkaejbgkjaerb it FEELS like a daunting proposition, especially since Naru, Dutch AND Harrigan were teased, but if fox/disney is TRULY that happy with Dan to allow him to, i wouldn’t be opposed if we get an animated spinoff, which would not only allow Fanning and Koloamatangi to reprise their role (since Dimitri did Dek’s voice work and Fanning has had other VA experience (pretty sure)) but also allow the legacy character actors to return without having to worry about the aging issue.

Personally i feel like there can be so much more Dan could do with a proper animated limited series, that doesn’t HAVE the limits of live action, especially given the anime show that’s currently being fought over. Give him a show, and we just might rescue the anime out of the vault!

That being said, I feel Dan genuinely cares about his OCs lol. It would be amazing to see how Naru and Dek interact, since he spent a lot of time and care in developing them, in a more cutthroat setting like Warlord’s clan.

HERE’S HOPING!

[gothicdolores]

Pfft! Kwei thinking Thia is too weak to defend her position as Dek's mate when a female starts flirting with him... Only to notice how that same female is mysteriously gone the next day. Kwei subtly asked Thia what happened to her, and Thia smiled, placing a hand on his arm. A comforting and unnecessary gesture, but when Kwei tried yanking his arm away, Thia's soft grip tightened, her sweet smile widening unnaturally, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Oh, Kwei~. You shouldn't ask such silly little questions." And with that, she released him and waved at him, skipping away to Dek. "Bye! Bye! Kweiiiii~!" Kwei is left alone in the empty corridor...realizing with growing unease that when she had her hand on his arm...he could see glowing green blood under her fingernails. The imprint of her fingers on his arm doesn't clear up for a while.

Oh I LIVE for this kejrbfakjewrbgjkaerbgk

Thia is so unnerving in her affection for Dek, sometimes people forget that behind her smile and preppy exterior, is someone who decided to give up her old life and her own programming for him 🥰 and that means…..ensuring her new life and new, more emotional parameters.

After ALL, what kind of female can’t protect her own claim?? She knows how things work! The same huntresses who once turned their maws up at him are now desperate for Kalisk Tamer Dek, but Thia knew him before his fancy titles, and no self-absorbed bitch is about to act as if she DESERVES a place at his side - not when THIA stood beside him AND at his back on Genna😤

She;s not jealous! Cuz she knows Dek would have no reason to ever entertain such two-faced bachelorettes

But it’s the PRINCIPLE of the thing.

Kwei watches her and notices how her eyes never stop flickering this way or that. She has everyone logged in her database. She knows everyone Dek has talked to every day, adds to her endless dossier of people who like him and people who dont and people who are threats, in more ways than one. Those who try cozying up to Dek last even less than the ones who openly antagonize him.

Haughty females who claim they can snatch Dek’s attention in a heartbeat learn the hard way - the BRUTAL way - that his synth mate is not one to be trifled with. Kwei sees the group who used to covet his attention while deriving his poor brother go from sniggering amongst themselves to a dwindling number of alarmed warriors who rather fall out of favor than risk raising Thia’s ire any more than they already have. They keep trying to tell Kwei that they didnt mean it, for him to tell Dek’s mate they’re leaving or taken or that they don’t even like Dek that way.

She likes things just so, Thia does. Her by Dek’s side, Bud right behind them, and sometimes, depending on how well Kwei…adapts to her behavior, he DOESNT feel like she’s constantly watching him too.

They come to an understanding over time: Kwei stops seeing her as a small and fragile thing, and Thia invites him over to watch Dek’s vitals live when he’s out hunting.

If some upstart beauty queen starts making eyes at his brother, Kwei begins making funeral arraignments

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

I was thinking about this earlier how the City Hunter/Ghost was straight up going to let LA be destroyed by his self destruct device. There's just something so....UTTERLY INSANE ABOUT THAT. The fact if Harrigan wasn't able to cut his arm off just in time, LA would've been a nuke site basically.

The reason I was thinking about this earlier because I was agreeing with a tweet talking about how people seem to undermine how evil the Yautja really are. And me saying it's sometimes easy to forget from a human perspective or any other species. What the Yautja do is REALLY FUCKED UP. Including the fact they are self aware.

And I feel this moment (Along with the fact of how wild Ghost was acting in the film) is one of those examples of just again, UTTERLY INSANE this is. Like, imagine if Harrigan wasn't able to stop it. How would the country react or the whole world?

Also, keep in mind that the Yautja are so Hell bent on not wanting to expose themselves to other species. And not wanting their tech to fall into the hands of others. Again, the fact Ghost was willing to do this instead of...it's almost stupid. There's also the fact the Lost Tribe's ship is hidden below those buildings.

I think back to the expanded material if you want to take that seriously. The Lost Tribe was watching Ghost throughout his hunt. There was a moment they were thinking about killing him because he was getting out of control. Or more so they were gonna send "Warrior" to bring him back. Just imagine if they learned he was straight up going to destroy a crap ton of LA.

Good lord, I could be wrong. But I feel like this would piss off many elders back on Yautja Prime if this actually happened.

Pictured here, Greyback and the Warrior watching Ghost acting so carelessly in his hunt:

[gothicdolores]

For me, it really IS the perfect example of how murder/violence is what’s genuinely normalized in reality which bleeds into how people treat fictional settings like the Predator verse.

I’ve said this in other posts over the years, but the Yautja as a WHOLE have decided that intelligent/sentient species are ACCEPTABLE victims, cuz they ARE victims, and no matter how we dress up their Codex as an “honor” based set of laws, they;re….not actually very reasonable NOR fair, across the board.

Mostly because their victims are not privy to what makes them “honorable prey” - it’s one thing that Ghost was running around the city killing gangbangers and other “acceptable” targets (which again, says a lot about how we;re conditions as a society but lets not get in the reeds of it all) but there are several other “honorable prey” he hits, Harrigan and several of his peers included, who are “good” people who get murdered! They get MURDERED.

The Ghosts was started to lose it even by Yautja standards is meant to placate our lizard brain sense of “see! They DO have limits!” But in the grand scheme of things, that’s only insofar as, like you point out, it begins to directly harm Yautja society, in comparison to the actual damage it’ll do to innocent people (hell, Diablo/jungle hunter;s bomb would’ve killed everyone in the chopper had they been just a tad bit closer, and they didnt fit the “honorable parameters” to say nothing of the local wildlife that was needlessly “wasted”)

This sort of lends to my speculation about the Grendel King’s goings on tbh. Cuz if the Lost Tribe deemed Harrigan as being deserving not only of surviving, but also cleaning up the mess they would’ve had to, in getting rid of Ghost, what right does Grendel’s clan to essentially “poach” him in the after credit scene, Yknow? Doesn’t seem honorable. The Tribe itself, with this in mind, seems to give Harrigan a pass due to sheer embarrassment which they wave off as being the just thing to do.

I think most of the fandom likes to chop things up to early installment weirdness or they reject Dan’s take on showing the Yautja as far more “bad” than what the fandom is comfortable with, after being used to their fanons deeming them to be far more noble and “good” than they are across “lesser canon” but at the end of the day, from it’s foundation, the Yautja seem to be very self-serving and a very much cruel in the name of personal preservation. Like - i would argue that THATS why most of the Yautja we;ve come across are sort of dickish and dumb, They’re products of a “fuck you, got mine” sort of culture.

But that’s just my soapbox sally nature coming out

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

I deeply apologize for not responding earlier. But this was the thread I was talking about.

Anyway, my deepest apologies for not responding to this since Friday. I had this in my drafts since Saturday and I've been lazy. But I wanna say your reblog is my favorite response to my post.

This is again, such an excellent post. And while I love the world building of the expanded material and the "Honor code". I do think some fans again, have forgotten the shit these guys do is....really fucked up. And while I'm hoping the tribe/clan in Killer of Killers isn't ALL of the Yautja. I do like Dan expanding more on them and someone like Njohrr representing a Yautja who embodies the worst aspects of their society.

In a weird way to look at the Yautja species and there's also the fact I have my own outlook/head canons to their society. I love the idea they are a nomadic species with each clan doing it's own thing. And there are members that aren't hunters. But the ones we see well....I worry I'm getting off topic.

Recently, and while I'm not really an Invincible fan. But the Yautja are in a way if Battle Beast himself was an entire species or...I'm getting off topic. The point being for a long time, I wanna say this.

"Sure, we love the Yautja. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE PART OF THEIR SOCIETY." Because I can tell there's a horrific reality to it if we view it from our perspective. And it makes cases like Dachande and Dek interesting because they're not the usual type of Yautja. But ones that have grown to have empathy.

I'm sorry, I don't know what else to say. Or it's just that I love this. I'm glad more fans are thinking about it.

[gothicdolores]

Hi hi YAY!

Don’t worry about lat responding! I sometimes take so long that i end up queuing my posts, so i dont mind waiting haha.

I think this phenomenon was presented best during Badlands pre-premiere “Rapley described the process hinting at feeling without humanizing the creature outright. It’s the reason audiences connect with Dek, even while still believing he’d kill them in a heartbeat." Which is one of the MANY reasons i truly love Dan’s take on the Yautja and Dek especially.

Since he was prevented from obtaining his cloak for what we assume is longer than average (based on the comics and early concepts) we sort of have a blank slate with him. Even Yeyinde, who i absolutely believe Dan based him on due to his “broken tusk”, is an older leader, and Dachande knew to respect human women but i don’t remember if either of them confirmed whether they HUNTED sentient, “human-level” prey.

We now that Dek decided NOT to continue hunting the Kalisk BECAUSE she was Bud’s mom, and they had a very strong familial bond. I would wager that Njohrr would’ve still wanted him to kill it (despite being afraid of kalisks himself) but from where Badlands ends, Dek himself REFUSES to hunt that way, or choose his prey the way say….literally every other hunter would.

Because according to nearly ALL the Yautja across the movies and comics and games, the fact that Bud’s Momma IS a mom wouldn’t have REALLY been a detriment.

Unlike in say, Pred 2 where CIty spared a clearly pregnant woman, Bud showed that she CAN take care of herself, and doesn’t NEED her mom, especially in the proposed deleted scene where Bud was supposed to actually die and show she can come back from the dead like her mom.

I think it was Celtic who killed Mr. Weyland after he decided to flame thrower him, because according to that there vague Codex, he was “allowed” to retaliate despite Weyland being a frail old man.

And we see a repeat of theses concessions up until Predator 2018 actually (despite being hated by majority of fandom), where we get the FIRST “official” moment where Fugitive spared the scientist based on what we have long been told “they wouldn’t attack unarmed “prey”” (i say official only because the studios themselves dont care about the expanded lore, and they proved that repeatedly by contradicting and retconning things established in comics/games, so despite me REALLY liking things like the toy line version of the lore, i know studios….dont! So nothing about it is “official”)- however, even this is suspect for scrutiny as Fugitive was trying to HELP humanity anyway.

Dek, in contrast, showed almost a rejection of his Njohrr’s VERY traditional mindset. It doesn’t look like he WANTS to hunt “prey” who…have a life. Unlike Scar, who we dont know if he would’ve hunted sentient life after his Chiva had he survived, but laughably similar to the ALLEGEDLY “bad blood” trio of Predators - Dek decides to hunt ~problematic prey~

He decides to hunt Tessa instead because she harmed Thia AND Bud and her mom (and his lizard). To me, that sort of sets him apart from EVERY single Yautja we’ve ever met. Because he had made an ACTIVE choice not to hurt these types of “targets” even though the codex says he can.

Naru is a good person, and so was Taabe, but according to the Codex, they are free game because they are “good hunters” and that’s all that matters (and the same CAN be said by a lot of the pretty across the lore). I dont think Dek would make that kind of call, and i believe Dan truly wants us to think about this aspect of Yautja society as a result. They really have no business killing innocent people, but they do, and due to the events of Badlands….Dek might become one of the FEW hunters who choose not to!

OF COURSE, that doesn’t make him a saint, since he’s not above capital punishment in regards to Tessa and Njohrr lmao, but it IS interesting and it’s something i hold dear to my heart. Because it does bleed a lot into fanon and fanfic, where there seems to be a rigidness at times to just…enjoy the fact that the Yautja suck. A lot of the fandom get in their feels about it, and it’s perfectly okay to like them without feeling bad about it! Or in fact, making them worse, like i like to do lmao!

😌thanks for the reply ahhhh

[zandiiangelspit]

Thinking about ✨Him✨

First time drawing Yautja, be kind 😭