#afaa speculation

i am 100% convinced (ok maybe not 100% but a good 87%) spider breathing pandoran air will have a powerful and negative impact on both of them (particularly neytiri) and i think they might even bond over it. they will both see it as like “eywa saved him but not my son/home” (even if i firmly believe his miracle will be kiri’s doing, not eywa’s, but that’s not the point). i feel like this will cause neytiri’s faith and identity crisis (paralleling what happened to varang after she lost her home), while for varang it will cement even more her hatred for eywa. neytiri might start feeling betrayed by her and even grow rageful towards her, emotions that varang has felt for years, and they’re only going to grow after spider’s miracle, which she will see as yet another betrayal by eywa. and if neytiri and varang find each other after neytiri’s crisis has begun… varang is not only going to see herself in her, she’s also going to feed her doubts and her rage even more.

but if coming back from that belief will be easier for neytiri, for varang it will be much different. she has spent almost all her life in grief and rage, holding on to them, embracing them, becoming one with them. if neytiri and varang are going to bond over their pain, they’re still eventually going to part ways, making their conflict grow even more. and i absolutely can’t wait to see it.

This is obviously just my opinion since the movie isn’t out yet, but I think there is a misunderstanding going around when it comes to Spider’s “miracle”. I see many many people saying that Eywa will save him, but I don’t think that’s true. I don’t believe it will be Eywa, I believe it will be Kiri. Which is a big, big difference. In my opinion it won’t be a “Eywa saved Spider but not Neteyam” kind of situation; I think it will be more like “Kiri is desperate to not let Spider die and manages to save him with her powers”. In fact, Eywa might not even approve.

What leads me to believe this is particularly this leaked part of the script, that I haven’t seen anyone discuss yet:

It looks like Kiri saving Spider is something she will do completely on her own, without Eywa’s guidance or blessing. And it seems that Eywa will not like this, and will therefore shun Kiri (at least temporarily). Obviously this is nothing official, but since every other script leak ended up being true, I don’t see why this part should be any different.

What struck me in this new still of the kids hanging out with Payakan is that Kiri is still wearing her funeral paint and outfit. We can’t see Lo’ak, so we don’t know if he’s still wearing it too, but it’s probably right before or soon after Neteyam’s funeral (I think before is more likely, as the funeral took place at night, but it could possibly be after too—maybe she’s “holding on” to her funeral look because she doesn’t want to let Neteyam go?). Either way, Kiri in particular looks so sad and devastated, focusing on the object in her hands (I’m not sure what it is, possibly something for Neteyam’s funeral? if you have any idea please share) rather than the other kids. I really, really hope that the movie will explore her grief too, Neteyam and Kiri’s relationship is so special to me and so underrated, and Kiri’s pain regarding his death is so incredibly overlooked. She can’t even visit him in Eywa and I’d really love to see how this impacts her and her grief journey, even if it will be absolutely devastating.

I love Ronal so much. I was pretty neutral about her at first, but she ended up growing on me a lot. I don’t like how she picked on the kids at the beginning, of course, but I understand that she never actually hated them or had a personal agenda against them, and that she was only hostile because her priority was to protect her people (and the worst thing is that she ended up being right). She’s an incredibly fierce but also wise woman and I admire her for it. I do think her behavior will change, in the sense that she will definitely become more openly friendly with the Sullys and an important ally to them. At the end of the movie their relationship is already clearly improved and I can’t wait to see how it will continue to evolve. I am curious to see her dynamic with two people in particular: Neytiri and Kiri.

With Neytiri I think there will be a long time coming, heartfelt confrontation. We don’t know how well they got along while Ronal was training her (not very well probably, judging by the deleted scenes), but either way their relationship is so beautifully complicated, now more than ever, and it goes far beyond their initial friction: Ronal is about to give life to a new child while Neytiri has just buried hers, and in Ronal’s home at that. Neteyam is forever part of the Metkayina, and Ronal and Neytiri are now inextricably intertwined in the most tragic way possible. And Ronal has also lost her spirit sister and her baby, very much like Neytiri, who lost her sister too. I can’t wait for them to take a moment and have a very much needed heart to heart conversation. Whatever happens to them, I believe they will become strong allies and, I hope, good friends as well.