Quote from: Thomas H. on Jul 17, 2016, 11:55:58 AM
Ok, nearly done with Incursion, and liking it quite a lot. However....
Page 289, Shamana says "...surrender." Literally 6 pages later, during her torture, Liliya muses that they don't words for surrender, weakness or pain.....
Right.....
Here are some of my thoughts on that.
Lilliya was speculating or she was ignorant. Because she comes from a much earlier time before humans were probably aware of the Predators. And she only learned what the Rage and earlier research teams managed to learn compared to Isa and her most up to date research.
Because Isa Palant in Alien: Invasion states that
Spoiler
the Yautja don't just have multiple dialects, but literally multiple languages. Which can be as different as French is from English. Also Predators sometimes take mannerisms from other alien races. She noted one clan of Predators had a hint of Celt in their language structure (not Celtic words mind you, but the way they spoke). So Shamana or his clan could've learned of the human concept of "surrender" and had their own word for it. (Is this a little homage to the Celtic Predator from AvP?)
So Shamana probably spoke a different tongue compared to Hashori of the Widow Clan.
Also note that the translator isn't always literal, it can translate words to the closest meaning. For instance, when Hashori says "Yautja", she says something completely different but Lilliya's inner translator translates it to "Yautja" anyway to help her understand.
Plus Isa's translator was in its earliest stages as well. For all we know, the Predator could have said "give up?" "give myself to you?" something like that but the translator thought "oh well he probably means 'surrender' so I'll tell her that."
I like these little tidbits, it shows just how little we really know about the Predators. Characters can only assume and speculate.
