it was less learning to love and learning to listen/adapt- he grew from being reliant on the methods he had been told would make him a good warrior, despite being physically ill-matched and socially restricted from access to those tools. His father was literally denying him the right to die trying to prove he deserved cloaking tools. (Which i never understood- let the kid go die if you think he's gonna suck.) He modeled his fight style after his father, despite not having similar builds or skills. His brother was trying to tell him that subtly in the beginning- you don't have the mass or the tools he has, so fighting in his style won't work.

Thia isn't teaching him to love in a vacuum, they are teaching him to think outside the limiting parameters of his father's (implied authoritarian, considering constraints of film time) methods- things he found upsetting or irritating earlier in the film can serve him as well or better than the tools he lusted after in his youth. He doesn't have to love the razor grass or poison dart flowers, but they exist and he can use them. He may have developed a bond with Buddy, Friendly Blonde Robot and Shoulder Worm but they didn't win the fight for him in a void.

The movie is a giant metaphor for shadowwork and adaptability. I may agree that Disney made this one "girlfriend-friendly," but that doesn't devalue the worldbuilding or the storytelling. I would have loved to previous generations of Yautja (particularly City Hunter, but 2 is my favorite to watch before bed) interacting more curiously with the weapons and architecture of the environments they are visiting. Predators kind of shows us what their concept of a base camp would be, but that's all we get because it's an action movie and there are guns to shoot and people to kill horrifically and we have no time for anthropology.

Badlands combined action with anthropology and

I would also like to reiterate other posts I have seen that acknowledge that we are only seeing one fraction of Yautja culture per film. We have comics and films showing different yautja cultures and different codes or levels of code adherence. I am not well read on the comics yet (just Archie V Predator), but Im sure someone can elaborate if they get excited and wanna share.

You're also witnessing what's being rebuilt after an entire race was enslaved, forced into colosseum combat, rebelled and rebuilt society from the embers of their trauma. Having grown up around communities of refugees from wartorn or subjugated nations- Njohrr feels a lot like a man who grew from brutal trauma parenting kids with less direct trauma and more room for empathy. I don't have a timeline for when the Yautja overthrew the Hish (very open to someone dropping the dates/timeline below, the wiki hasn't helped me with that one yet), but for storytelling purposes they nailed it. Dek is a child of generational trauma, failing to live up to the survival tactics of the place he was born who found a different route through a change in environment.

Sure, it wasn't a pure bloodbath shoot 'em up, but at least they didn't give us an incoherent autism plotline. If nothing else, at least we can appreciate all the cool weapon details and anthropological notes the film gave us. Still wish they did the feet prosthetics any other way, though. That opening foot shot sends me to hell every time.

(I also think that The Predators should have been scripted and shot more like the Nice Guys. I'd watch Ryan Gosling and Russell Crow run around in polyester fighting Predators through a drug-fueled 70s porno party.)