#avatar ask

And I really like that it wasn’t her trying to murder Spider in the end. She’s not evil, but deeply wounded, so when Jake’s cold military utilitarianism takes hold and he decides to sacrifice the boy FOr the GrEaTeR GoOd, she rushes to stop him. At the end of the day, she’d never want innocent blood spilled.

I see what you mean but for me it felt really weird to see Neytiri lose so much to humans and then turn around and have unwavering loyalty to protecting a select few, including a kid she never had a reason to care about (and who saved the man who became a threat to her and her family again).

Even if Spider wasnt Quaritch's son and just wanted to feel at home with Jake and Neytiri's family unit or among the Omatikaya, I dont see why Spider's desire to be accepted outweighed her grief and need to be liberated from the terror of human colonization.

Sure colonization is a system and not a trait or habit of being human, so Neytiri could have seperated the system from the people and accepted Spider's attempts to prove loyalty and assimilation. But when the majority of humanity came with intent to invade and pillage for extractive industry at the endless cost of Pandoran life, it makes sense for Neytiri to have solidified a hatred of human beings by associating the terror they caused with their presence.

I mean after all humans are aliens. They can and did go back to where they came. Not to mention they killed so many people she knew and loved, displaced her from Kelutral and destroyed their spirit tree (access to cultural and historic information), and killed so much of the forest and its other 'people' (flora and fauna).

And tbh i dont even understand why se humans get to be honorary Na'vi at all? They too are alien and are still liabilities, potentially defecting again for the RDA or otherwise human-centric interests (we see how some of the defector humans that stayed got rlly worried abt staying on Pandora long term w/o contact from Earth, and how the McKosters or whatever turned face in the comics and aided Ardmore in the space battle n shit. I gotta read it again). We saw how Spider saved Quaritch, which made him a major liability that he never got to rlly pay or reconcile for.

If Neytiri felt human riddance was what would finally bring her and her world peace then I cannot blame her. Its a radical position, but it wasnt a bad thing that she felt that way considering the insane trauma shes endured by humanity, even when shes knows humans can assimilate and sympathize w the Na'vi.

So yea I just dont see the point in Neytiri, the native of Pandora who lost so much to humanity, being portrayed as wrong for her reactions against humanity's actions and for suggesting to kill Spider, bc to me it felt cheap and honestly in rlly poor taste to portray Neytiri as a reverse racist, and her loss of empathy for human suffering on Pandora and Earth as evil. The fate of Pandora—herself and the collective of life shes a part of—over the life of an alien child that she doesnt know brought her more suffering.... from her perspective, one is clearly so much more important, and im inclined to support a narrative of native self defense and determination.

Call it speciesism or cruelty but her having that moment of unwavering, radical passion and protection of her people and Eywa'eveng was so much more important to me especially than some cheapshot at portraying double standards and spiraling grief and hate.

And her accepting Spider as an honorary Na'vi also rlly made her look like a model minority, portraying what a white man seems to think how colonized ppl should manage their anger and trauma at colonizers who destroy and truamatize them.

I dont really dont like how theres an implication that Pandora has to be a melting pot of human settlement to be "fair" to humans, and that having hatred from pattern recognition and trauma from a real threat is shown as poor personal character that needs improvement. Cant even say Neytiri wanted seperatism cuz shes home and humans arent, so her want for Spider to be "with his own kind" isnt.... like, its not racism! Not even xenophobia!

Curiously, how much has lepwopx changed compared to when you started it? Like,, in the sense when you made JUST the first chapter and mayhaps a layout for how the story was - and compare it to you presently. Has much changed in the process and timeline?

fun question thank you mx nothing burger

i feel like not too much has changed... okay, that's a lie.

i started lepwopx before most of the dlc had dropped. as in, only skybreaker had released.

obviously, this means that i had to alter some details on the fly when secrets of the spires, and more recently into the ashes, had released.

one such example of this is the sarentu player character - tamtey.

Thank you so much for everything, I would be nothing without y’all. Hope I can keep entertaining you with my fics and stories. 💜💜💜💜💜😭😭😭

Also, in order to celebrate I am going to propose you a few short thing in a roleplay-like manner, where you can ask characters from avatar. I am going to keep doing my requests, drabbles and headcanons but now I add the category of “Ask the character”. I hope you guys like it.

(It can be nsfw if you want ;) )

Zuko: What's the most important thing in life?

Family. And by family, I dont mean "relatives." Relatives are not automatically your family. You don't get a say in who your relatives are, but you DO get to choose your family. Maybe it includes some relatives, or maybe your family is made up of a collection of close friends, or a combination of the two.

Whoever your chosen family is, thats the most important thing in life. Spending time with people you love, and who love you.

*I made my little Vex icons using a site called Bebinator.

Link to Bebinator

*I use Bebinator on my desktop computer. I have heard that the mobile version is heavily bogged down with ads. On the desktop, it runs fine with an ad-blocker installed and is very easy to use.

*The only thing I had an issue with was making the colors perfect, so I opened the finished icons in MS Paint, used the color picker, and then used the paint bucket tool to make sure the shirt, apron, and hair matched on each icon.

Spider does not need to be Na’vi. The Na’vi do not owe him anything. Spider is not to blame for his father’s crimes, but as a human, he is automatically part of the oppressive group on Pandora. Therefore, the Na’vi, who are the oppressed, are not obligated to consider Spider to be one of them.

💙💯

And it doesnt take becoming your ally or comrade to be an ally or comrade to them.

Theres no such thing as being "trapped in the wrong body" or having an "indigenous spirit", so Spider can easily live alongside the Na'vi (particularly the Omaticaya) as friends of the tribe/family or trusted comrades.

While Spider acquiring an Avatar would make his relationship to the Na'vi more convenient when traversing Pandora, its not necessary and quite frankly (imo) would be super cliché and take away from that important aspect of allyship (the necessity to reconcile privilege and play a role in dismantling systemic oppression, but embrace and celebrate differences and syncronise cultural ties).

Omashu: what's your favourite childhood memory?

Finding my dog!! I was five, and it was the CRACK of dawn and I went out to the laundry to get to the toilet, and there was a cardboard box on the floor in the laundry that I only noticed enough to make sure I didn't trip on it, and it was as I was coming back from the loo, passing the box a second time, that this little black triangle just visible inside the box caught my eye, and i went over to look in the box, and there was a puppy in there.

I was GOBSMACKED. I went RUNNING into my mum's room, all "MUM, MUM, THERE'S A PUPPY IN THE LAUNDRY," and mum -- 95% still asleep -- was like "are you sure?" and "nah you must have been dreaming" and "well go and get your little sister too and if she can see the puppy as well then youll know whether or not you're dreaming."

So I CHARGED into my two year old sisters room, and she was standing up in her cot, bouncing, and i dragged her out with absolutely no finesse or gentleness, and we went to the laundry, and -- yep. There really was a puppy.

We named her Jess and we had her for 17 and a half years and she had a story in our local paper once and she was our "babysitter" the first time mum left us at home by ourselves and apparently she took her duty seriously because when mum got home Jess wouldn't let her into my and my sister's bedroom, and she followed my sister to school on her first day and snuck into the classroom, and one time my nanna was looking after her and some robbers tried to bust into her house and Jess tried to eat them, and Nanna Did Not get robbed that day, and she was the best dog and finding her in the laundry at 5.30 am one day is my FAVOURITE childhood memory.