So many of these "Expanded Universe" materials seem to completely ignore one of the most simple rules laid down in the films - the Predators only attack someone who is either armed or the aggressor towards them.
Instead we frequently get Predators stalking and killing unarmed fleshy little humans who make no attempts at combat. There are so few Predator films and so few rules laid down in them, I'm amazed at how frequently they get this core conceit completely wrong.
In the original Aliens vs. Predator story and the novelization AVP: Prey, a group of Predators descends on the Sheldon family farm. After killing the armed father the dog who runs at them, they proceed to chase down the fleeing, crying and unarmed mother and gut her. Then, as the little boy tries to escape on a hover bike, they continue to take aim at him and fire on him.
MAYBE you could explain this away by saying they were hungry for vengeance after what happened to their ship in the valley, and didn't really CARE anymore. Maybe. But what about other, more standard hunts in other stories?
The novel Predator: Big Game features one of the most egregious and hilarious versions of this breaking down. A Predator kills an old doctor and sheep rancher who are just sitting and talking in the yard, plus he kills all of the sheep inside the tiny pen, too. And this is just one Predator on a standard hunt. WTF?
Now I'm reading Predator: Flesh & Blood, and I was really hoping the NEW novel series would have avoided this stupidity. But no, and I"m getting fed up. As early as Chapter 6, the short and rather pathetic dude Ortega is chased down, shot at and run through for the sheer hell of it. Again, completely unarmed and with no aggression made towards the Predators.
Why can't they just watch the movies and figure out the very simple, very short list of rules the creatures and the universe follow? This is so obvious, and I'm so baffled.
