omgg please tell me that you’ve seen the extended atwow extended cuts?? they’re phenomenal and canon and i can’t be told otherwise.
The Parents from hell one had me on the edge of my seat I was so scared even though I know the outcome, well now we know that Neytiri was definitely going to kill, not even to bargain for Kiri but for revenge and that’s just ughhh i can’t wait to incorporate this in my fanfic
I gotta say, I do fundamentally disagree, at least about the parents one. It's not so much of a deleted scene as a full rewrite of the scene. If Neytiri's goal was to kill Spider and take revenge over saving Kiri, why did they do with the version where she lets him go immediately? I don't know, man, to me it seems like they filmed that and then decided it didn't work with the character or for what they had planned. It definitely makes sense to me that they chose not to go with that version. Even the name, "The Parents From Hell," it makes it seem like it's a dark alternate universe.
But yes, scenes that were missing and not included I am all for thinking of as canon! But this is a full rewrite. It's not canon, because it's not what happened in the final version. I think the reason they chose to change it is more telling than the fact that it was filmed in the first place.
But of course, I am mad it exists. I wish they never released it. I don't like what they seem to think of Neytiri's character. I don't like the framing of her as less sympathetic than Quartich (even though a lot of idiots still took it that way which is still on the writing team as well), but I'm glad they understood they had to change the scene. I'm trying to withhold judgement until I see the full arc they intend for her, but as of now I'm not very pleased. She should be the heart of this series if it is to stay it's course as a true love letter to indigenous communities and what has happened to them. I hope they don't forget that.
I didn’t mean to insinuate that, at least not that she held less sympathy than Quaritch of all people. I didn’t think of it that way because even in this “rewrite” she doesn’t kill spider. To me that already says a lot, I thought of this scene as a visual of how deep her sorrow actually was, after everything she’s been, after everything that’s been taken away from her, there came an opportunity to take control.
For once to be the one take take. Not just for her son, but for all the people she lost at his peoples hands. This comes in form of Spider. While I personally don’t doubt that she might’ve killed him had Quaritch not folded, I think it’s also clear that she’s not revenge hungry woman which I think necessary especially considering the indigenous point of view. This is the only situation I could see her doing something like that and she did what she had to do.
Because of this I’m glad this scene was changed as many people have either twisted it the wrong way or learned nothing from it. Neytiri isn’t cruel, she’s the daughter of a Tsahìk and with a big heart that doesn’t get to shine as often as it should. She may not care very much for him but she still values life, even the one her greatest enemies child.
In the final shot you can see the moment of realization when she pushes Spider behind her(in the movie). She didn’t keep him there longer than she had to and as soon as Kiri was safe. Also when I said I wanted to incorporate it I meant in a way of self reflection and intrusive thoughts,
“What if I/she did it?”
“What if he didn’t her go,” and other such thoughts because she’s a person, people do things they don’t expect from themselves a lot. It doesn’t mean you get to dehumanize them.
Outside of the blatant mischaracterization, I found it very insightful on how much Jake actually cares for Spider, for the first time we see him pleading for someone other than his wife and kids and I think that also says a lot.
