Small addition to this, this, this, this and this posts, where I analyzed the morbid aspects of Balto-2, Aniu and the husky-father, Aniu's nature and the whole Balto's past and parents in the sequel's version, also analyzing the information from interviews with the writer.
For short reminder: Aniu is very ancient white wolf deity, revered and worshipped by wolves, in ancient times she was a regular grey wolf, who loved her pack and pups, but after death she became this white totem spirit, much later she mated with random stray mutt and left him (i.e. the stray mutt has no idea about Balto's existence and never cared about possibility of offspring), she gave birth to Balto and was with him few time until young Balto accidentally got lost and was adopted by Boris, and all it was a part of a grand design and prophecy. And, yes, Balto is a demigod, a half-spirit, and the writer of Balto-2 confirmed that Aleu inherited her abilities from Aniu, making her part-spirit as well, i.e. Aniu's death and Balto's accidental separation from her have zero connection, since Balto was her only cub and was only with her, these events are two separeate events and happened in different and distant time moments.
Here I want to focus on the small moment in the conversation between Aleu and Balto. Again, the writer of Balto-2 most likely simply didn't write a backstory of the reason for Balto accidentally getting lost (storm, avalance, flood, wild animals etc), since the writer doesn't remember and didn't give a proper answer in the movie itself.
However, what caught my attention is Balto's wide knowledge that hunters hunt and kill wild animals for meat and fur and then Aleu's sarcastic and actually disgusting question "Did the wolf teach you how to know, when a human wants to kill you?"
(I mean, did this brat think about that Balto saved her life the same way this "wild animal grandmother" potentially saved Balto's life in the past, for example?!).
(from another side, looking at this thing on the bag, the event with the hunter was planned by Aniu and the spirits for their prophecy to happen, so Aleu was safe...)
Like, yes, if to look at the context, Balto just explained to her the nature of hunters (what is weird, because he should explain it much earlier and that hunters can do the same with own sled dogs), and his such reaction was 'cause he worried about Aleu's life, while Aleu said it with emotions after being near death and due to reaction at "horrible reveal".
Plus, through the line "I was accidentally separated from her when I was young, so I never spent much time with the wolf" Balto himself debunks the idea that hunters killed his wolf-mother and even took away her fur and that she taught Balto to understand the intentions of humans this way and that humans were the reason of why Balto was separated from Aniu and hence became orphan. Or else he'd mention all this directly. He doesn't even mention that hunters could chase him and Aniu, Balto fell into something, while hunters didn't notice him etc. Not to mention that in such conditions Balto would hate humans and dogs even more than he should in the sequel, he'd never deny his wolf side, he'd never want to be a sled dog and to be accepted by humans and dogs, he'd go away with a wolf pack and would be proud of his wolf heritage. Or else he's a disgusting hypocrite.
And in this scene his facial expressions show no fear, no pain, no trauma and no grief. Just sadness that he accidentally got lost at the very young age and nearly never knew the she-wolf. In fact, if you watch the whole scene, Balto always turns away with shame and disgust, when he needs to discuss that he's part wolf and that his mother is a wolf, he even never calls her as "mother".
But let's assume for a second that hunters (or one hunter?) could be the reason of why Balto was accidentally separated from Aniu. Not death of the mother, not kidnapping of puppy Balto from the den etc, not chasing him and the mother, just the reason that led to Balto getting accidentally lost.
And even with such scenario I see nothing what could and would make impossible for young Balto and Aniu to reunite. Aniu is a spirit for centuries, she can disappear and turn into a mist or fog, hence there's nothing dangerous for her in encounter and confrontation with hunter(s), the encounter with them is deadly for exactly young Balto, so she easily could distract hunters and lead them away from Balto (and the den) for long and safe distance, then disappear, maybe merging with trees or rocks and hence hiding, and return to Balto and move him into another safer place, so no one will notice them, Aniu has no scent and no tracks just like other totem deities.
Like, Nava is still a living mortal wolf, not even a spirit, but he can avoid wounds through becoming a fog and hiding in trees, for example. That means, even as a mortal she could do that.
Plus, there's question, why Aniu made a den and raised Balto in areas with huge chances of meeting a hunter (ah, yes, grand design...). Like, Nava's pack lives far far away from humans and stuff, they started to suffer quite recently due to hunger and lack of food.
So, even in such tiny moments the sequel fails and raises tons of questions, again only confirming my thesis that the idea to make Balto's mother to be his wolf side is the worst idea and decision of the sequel, where her divine nature is the final nail in the coffin. And Aniu is the main villain of this all.
As well as I still don't understand, where the fan-theories about Aniu's death due to hunters and Aniu's death in general as the reason of Balto's being orphan come from, if both the interviews with the writer and the movie itself debunk it.
snowghoul
gamechangershow
gummygunk
stormborns
