The Rage War: A three part Alien / Predator epic by Tim Lebbon

[happypred]

The Yautja concept is often accused of being "space samurai"-ish

...but let's put this way, historical samurai were often complete douche-bags, not noble, honourable dudes. There were noble honourable samurai...but they arguably weren't the norm.

In Prey, Dachande seems like an honourable warrior, but it's almost like he's the exception. He even admits to himself that he wouldn't have hesitated to kill Machiko had this been a human hunt. Dachande's students are defintely "thrill of the hunt" types. They go around killing whatever they encounter, including a family of three and the pet pooch (the kid gets away but they try to kill him)

I think Perry's Yautja are a bit more complex than most people care to admit

[RakaiThwei]

The thing is with the Yautja concept, so far it seems to be Fox's status quo on what the Predators are. And if you take NECA's backstories as something serious considering that some sources say they are written by Fox's inhouse writers (I don't take them as canon as these stories are for.. you know, toys) then this further cements that the Yautja concept is here to the status quo, whether folks like it or not. Space Samurai or not.

Also, it has been a long time since I've read Prey.. Been since.. middle school. Oh man, those were good times and that book saved my ass from being held back. So that book means quite a lot to me but.. alas... like with all my other stuff, it's in storage and I won't see it for a long ass time.

[happypred]

My point is simply this:

Broken Tusk isn't representative of all Yautja

Tichinde and many other Yautja students are thrill-seeking arseholes. People seem to ignore that when the Yautja concept

[Corporal Hicks]

My list of books to read (and re-read) continually grows. I don't recall that being the case - my understanding was it was the younger Predator (can't recall his name) who took over the hunt wasn't representative of all Yautja. But I can't really talk about that accurately as you've now got me questioning my memory and I'll re-read Prey again after I've finished reading my current book.

http://www.avpgalaxy.net/literature/reviews/aliens-vs-predator-prey/

Just checking back and looking over my review from 2013 and here's what I'd got.

[RakaiThwei]

I remember writing a review of Prey too.. It was a pretty lengthy one, and a much better one than my review of Batman and Superman vs Alien and Predator. It's somewhere lost in the literature threads.

[happypred]

my understanding was it was the younger Predator (can't recall his name) who took over the hunt wasn't representative of all Yautja

To be fair, I doubt either Dachande or Tichinde (the Yautja novice you're referring to) are representative of all Yautja. The question is...do the majority of Yautja resemble Dachande or Tichinde more?

I don't think we're able to answer that question based on Prey. What Prey does tell us is that the Yautja have some sort of code of conduct akin to an honour system. At least one individual (Broken Tusk) sincerely adheres to it. Others only follow it out of social pressure. Once that pressure is gone, they do whatever they like.

Jungle Hunter could easily fit within this framework. He's an individual like Tichinde. He's more of a sadistic pleasure-seeker than a "noble savage" who hunts for honour. If an individual like Tichinde goes too far and gets caught, he might be labelled a Bad Blood. That's how I think about it.

[RakaiThwei]

In Hunter's Planet, there was Bakuub who was one of the more honorable Hunter's and I think he was either an Unblooded or a Young Blood. Or probably a Blooded but I can't remember what rank he was. I do remember that he had expressed displeasure when Shorty took over the clan from when the rightful clan leader was killed by a shotgun wielding Xenomorph (What?) and he had moments where he had expressed honorable/heroic moments. There was a Bisor which was about to be killed by a Xenomorph, and he saves the creature by lancing his spear through the Xenomorph. Then Bakuub takes over the clan when Machiko kills Shorty and winds up working with her to take down Livermore Evanston's XenoBorgs.

[happypred]

In Hunter's Planet, there was Bakuub who was one of the more honorable Hunter's and I think he was either an Unblooded or a Young Blood. Or probably a Blooded but I can't remember what rank he was.

He was Blooded, most likely a veteran as after Shorty is killed by Attila, Bakuub becomes Leader

I do remember that he had expressed displeasure when Shorty took over the clan from when the rightful clan leader was killed by a shotgun wielding Xenomorph (What?)

More like a cybernetic xenomorph wielding an assault cannon/large pulse rifle

and he had moments where he had expressed honorable/heroic moments. There was a Bisor which was about to be killed by a Xenomorph, and he saves the creature by lancing his spear through the Xenomorph.

I'm pretty sure Bakuub would've savagely killed humans had he been on a "ooman" hunt. He's noble in the sense that he cares about preserving the supremacy of his clan and his people. Hunting "oomans" is a pleasurable distraction. Eliminating the cybernetic xenos is more important than personal glory or entertainment.

Minus the thread of the cyber-xenos, Bakuub would've had no qualms about slaughtering armed humans.

[RakaiThwei]

I'm not arguing that Bakuub wouldn't have hunted humans, where are you getting that I am?

I'm just saying that it wasn't just Dachande who was seen as the more honorable type. If anything, I would say that it's the Unblooded to Blooded ranking warriors who are the brash assholes where as the more experienced and higher ranking warriors are more patient and recognizing of the talents and skills of other races. They're more lenient than the lower ranking warriors but they've got no qualms about hunting other humans.

It's been since middle school since I read Hunter's Planet, so you have to forgive me if I don't get all my details right.

[happypred]

I'm not arguing that Bakuub wouldn't have hunted humans, where are you getting that I am?

I'm sharing my opinion, not necessarily criticising yours

I'm just saying that it wasn't just Dachande who was seen as the more honorable type.

I'm not sure if we know enough about Bakuub to say with certainty how much he resembles or doesn't resemble Dachande. Relative to Shorty, Bakuub is less selfish and insecure

If anything, I would say that it's the Unblooded to Blooded ranking warriors who are the brash assholes where as the more experienced and higher ranking warriors are more patient and recognizing of the talents and skills of other races. They're more lenient than the lower ranking warriors but they've got no qualms about hunting other humans.

Maybe...but Blooded is a very broad class. It would include higher ranking predators. It would also include predators who were Blooded last week.

We haven't seen that many "higher ranking" predators interacting with humans. I suppose the Elders in P2 and AvP support your point. In the comics, other than Dachande, I can only think of Blue (the predator in Duel). The marine helps him kill the predalien and I don't think Blue subsequently kills the marine (though it is left ambiguous).

I'm not really sure whether Blue would be considered an older warrior. He's originally a student of Top Knot. He seems to be more like Dark in AvP 2010. A young predator who pulls off some amazing feats whose stock quickly rises.

I'm not sure Top Knot would be respectful of humans. He seems to be a bit of a bully...what Tichinde would've become had he survived to rise to the rank of Leader.   

[RakaiThwei]

I'm sharing my opinion, not necessarily criticising yours

Fair enough!

I'm not sure if we know enough about Bakuub to say with certainty how much he resembles or doesn't resemble Dachande. Relative to Shorty, Bakuub is less selfish and insecure

It has been years since I have read Hunter's Planet and if I had to say when I last read it was somewhere between 2001 and 2002. So it's been a very long time since I've read it and my memory of it is very rusty but I do remember some of the characters and the situation which was gong on in the comic. To me and this is based on memory, so I could be wrong, but Bakuub seemed to be one of the Hunters who had adhered to the honor code. Maybe not necessarily as tightly as Dachande but he most certainly didn't agreed with Shorty's approach to leading and he just let everything played out. When Shorty was killed by Machiko, it was then he took on the role of leader. Thinking about it now.. he didn't have much interaction with humans and I can barely remember his interactions with other Yautja.

Maybe...but Blooded is a very broad class. It would include higher ranking predators. It would also include predators who were Blooded last week.

Mmmnnnneeeeeeegggggh... For it including higher ranking Predators? Yes and no. Yes in the fact that higher ranking Predators are still blooded in that aspect is true and no in the fact that higher ranking Predators such as Warriors and Honoreds, more or less are seen as Hunters who earned their place out from the lower ranks and move high on up to get the better perks-- such as better weaponry and sleeping quarters, and of course the right to breed. Of course the higher ranking Hunters are still not as lenient as Elders and Ancients, if anything.. they could be bigger assholes than the lower ranking ones.

We haven't seen that many "higher ranking" predators interacting with humans. I suppose the Elders in P2 and AvP support your point. In the comics, other than Dachande, I can only think of Blue (the predator in Duel). The marine helps him kill the predalien and I don't think Blue subsequently kills the marine (though it is left ambiguous).

I will say that I do agree with you that we haven't seen many ranking Predators such as "Warriors" and "Honoreds" interacting with humans. Except for of course Greyback in Predator 2... and if you consider both AvP's as a legitimate continuation of the first two Predator movies and a precursor to the Alien films (leaving this as an option like how some DBZ fans let others consider GT as a legit continuation)-- then the Ancient from Alien vs Predator could support my point.

I am sure that there were others in the old EU material. You mention Blue, whose official name from what I remember (I have the comic in front of me, courtesy of Yancy Street Comics in Oldsmar, FL) is Light Stepper. In the case of Light Stepper, he didn't do it out of the kindness of his heart (of course not, Predators NEVER do anything like that) but rather practicality in order to ensure survival when he teamed up with Glass to kill the PredAlien.

And then there was Dragon Predator in Eternal.. who had took an unconscious McBride (that was her surname) out of the sewer and left her on the street after she feinted from her whole ordeal with the Xenomorph.

[happypred]

Mmmnnnneeeeeeegggggh... For it including higher ranking Predators? Yes and no.

In Prey and Hunter's Planet, there are Unblooded and Blooded. Dachande himself is referred to as Blooded...but obviously he's the leader.

There is no mention of "Honoured"

[RakaiThwei]

There is no mention of "Honoured"

According to this site, there is an Honored ranking but it seems to be interchangeable with Elite.

http://yautjaencyclope.altervista.org/honor.html#Ranks

[happypred]

Any recent news regarding this upcoming series? Really looking forward to see how it handles the Aliens vs. Predator concept.

Do we know whether it'll ignore Fire & Stone? I'm hoping for it'll take F&S into account

[Ultramorph]

No recent updates. I would also like if it referenced F&S somehow. It would be cool to go back to LV-223 at some point.