Ah yes, the “lampshade defense.” The cinematic equivalent of “I meant to do that” after you trip over your own shoelaces in front of a crowd.
Dek looks like he crawled out of PS3 cut scene, but you see the writer's addressed this so when audiences say, “That Predator looks dumb,” the correct response is, “No, you don’t understand, it’s canonically dumb!”
See they designed Dek in the dark with someone describing a yautja's appearance...it's symbolism!
Just because you lampshade a bad design doesn’t mean you suddenly get away with it. It’s still bad, it’s just self-aware bad.
You can’t sell me a burnt pizza and then say, “Ah, but in the story, it was supposed to be overcooked.”
@moviecynicYT nailed this. It isn’t about “thematic intention,” it’s about visual regression. The new guy doesn’t just look smaller and scrappier he looks cheaper and blander.
I understand if anyone doesn't like the design but it needs to be taken into consideration that it's literally the entire point of the movie that Dek is an underdog runt who doesn't look like other Yautja and is ostracized for it. Other Yautja in the film have the classic look.