SuperBored

in honor of afaa finally being on Disney+, I wanted to give some praise to my glorious queen PEAKtiri, but also talk about how her entire arc in afaa was completely overlooked, especially by some of her stans.

first of all, the sentiment that neytiri has “every right” to hate and *want* to kill spider. if anyone of you beautiful people had a brain, i don’t think it’d take too much shaking of it to understand why she did not in fact have any god-given responsibility to do so. is neytiri a victimized, oppressed, strong, formidable character? yes! does she have reasons and explanations as to why she hates humans, and even spider? 1000%! but does she have every right to kill a 16-year-old boy who has never personally wronged her (yes, spider did save q*artich from dying, but neytiri does not know that)? nooooo! jake’s whole speech to her in that one scene is literally him pulling her back from the edge.

secondly, he arc (which is connected) is completely overlooked. i see so many people talk about how they were disappointed neytiri didn’t get her revenge and wasn’t able to comfortably practice her rage against the sky people and the rda…😐 my brother in christ, her entire arc was realizing that she did not need to take revenge! she spent a whole half of the movie holding a knife to spider’s neck, but when she finally was told that he had to go, she realized she was just becoming another varang, who took life before it was supposed to go, and who didn’t submit to eywa in her fury. she realized that not all na’vi are good and not all humans are bad and was able to forgive and accept a species which she could previously not reconcile with. and isn’t that a much more beautiful sentiment than ending a potential relationship in contempt?

idc that you don’t like his dreads

he’s not a bad father, he’s the subject of a interspecies war, while having 3.5 kids after his first born died

no, he’s not a white savior, he’s a competent war veteran

no, neytiri is not going to end their relationship just because he told her not to hate

yes, he does he care that his first born child died (everybody seems to ignore the fact that he too went on a rampage like neytiri?)

nobody makes a movie or show or story just for the people consuming it to act like it’s no big deal. these stories reflect the human condition, they mirror and propose theories, and offer characters as scape goats to magnify what otherwise could have been overlooked by ourselves due to our own lives happening around us. these stories, sure, are not supposed to make you unhealthily obsessed with the characters, but to feel something for a fictional character is not a sign purely of weakness or obsession. it’s a human reaction to what has been perceived as human experience by the brain. shut your mouth and let people get emtoional over characters decisions. let them fight about their dilemmas. let them mourn their deaths.