#thomas sully

1814 Thomas Sully - Portrait of Mrs. Edward Hudson

so this is going to be a 3 part ask.

what if Spider unearthing human cultures unknowing creates something to bond with Neytiri over? Like yes, the boy undergoes her and looks damningly like his father. But he shows her children this and eventually she asks. And she can see what human were like before their greed overtook their minds and made them ruin their own planet. Spider just sitting in an open plaza watching old Planet Earth Documentaries trying to figure out a way to fix it. To bring back the wonder drawing up blue prints and ideas to make it so that the air can be clean again. And Neytiri who stalks this boy hoping that he’ll slip up seeing that he is dedicated not to Earth and their cause but making it better, brining back what beauty he can.

2nd ask.

In a recent ask, the one abt how being with the Recom’s rubs off on spider.

it sucks majorly yeah, but Jake and Neytiri have no one to blame but themselves. All they had to do was show that boy they gave a damn. All they had to do was acknowledge that he was good and that they saw him. But now his hair is short, he looks like his father more than ever, he has stepped back, and now, he refuses to listen even to the scientists. All the RDA has to do is wait. Jake Sully or Neytiri (her more than likely) will say something harsh, something that will crush him so, and they’ll be there to make sure that he has his peopl to turn to. Heck this could turn into the Propaganda AU all over again, except spider is speaking up about how the locals, the human scientists, how Jake Sully the one man, who should understand him more than anyone, shunned him on the regular he allows his memories to be used becuse is Jake and Neytiri want a villain l? They want someone to hate for being human? fine, spider will fit those boots. Quaritch is so eager to rub it in Jake and his Mrs’s face, look how easily they were able to turn the kid who adored them against them. Quaritch didn’t have to do shit, just talk about his experiences with Jake and how Jake betrayed his own race all because of Neytiri, how he didn’t care for human anymore. what’s worse?

spider becomes what they feared he would.

and pt 3:

imagine. A world where Thomas Sully survived. Survived but Jake still took his place on pandora bc he was in a coma from getting stabbed durning the mugging and loosing blood. thomas Sully who sees how his brother treats Spider and immediately realizes that Jake is the very type of man that they swore they’d never become not towards his children. no. towards mine who is innocent. (You don’t have to answer this part of the ask, I just thought it would be a fun ask. )

Well, let's get into it! I love long asks!

PART 1

Not gonna lie? I feel like Neytiri is too sunken into her hatred for that. Again- when I called Spider "almost patriotic" I very much meant it in the sense that he is absurdly loyal. He has this rose tinted view of earth and what humanity truly is- in part to cope with his own loneliness and past- and as such would seem incredibly dangerous to Neytiri. Even if Spider would never ever do anything to Pandora, in her mind it's just a question of time until he will chose his kind over them. Especially once the RDA get back. She honestly believes that Spider would jump into their arms at the first chance, even if he hates their guts and isn't shy about that fact at all. It's irrational and cruel but Neytiri just can't help herself.

Not to mention that she would hate for Spider to "corrupt" their children by showing them human stuff. She could barely stand them hanging out in canon when he was 100% Na'vi in everything but body. You seriously think she could stand Spider introducing them to his interest in Earth in this AU???(no attack, dw. Thanks for the ask still!!!). I love Neytiri to bits but I fear she is NOT that quick in dealing with her trauma T-T. Especially not with Jake "Enabler" Sully as her mate.

PART 2

Spider is a sweetheart who would never do anything to Pandora while in his right mind, with the sole exception being my AUs where he kid was explicitly raised to see them in a negative light for all his life. So I don't think it will get much worse than "Spider humanises himself more but still stays loyal to Pandora as a whole" without him being OOC.

But we can always do a brainwashing AU.

When Spider was captured by the RDA they realised pretty quickly that they won't get shit out of him. But at the same time they also decided that they don't just want to kill him for pure information as he can be a valuable asset. So what do they do? They start messing with his mind to make him "usable".

Now the type of brainwashing used in the AU would actually be pretty complicated. It's not just putting him in a machine or giving him some drug or whatever. It's a long process that takes months at the very least- a gruelling process of slowly but surely breaking down and rebuilding a person via chemicals, hormones, active sessions in that neuroscanner to induce targeted brain damage, perhaps some hypnosis... All that matters is that it's slow and subtle as hell. Spider thought the runs in those machines were them trying to extract info instead of them messing with his brain. He's proud of how well he resisted giving them any without even noticing the true damage they are doing. Spider honestly believes him becoming "more human" and developing genuine anger at Jake are his own doing. Meanwhile, the RDA and Quaritch are over the moon at how well it's working. Everytime he takes intrest in human stuff is one more time their methods succeeded. The day he cut off his dreads Ardmore congratulated the scientists working on Spider's case after Quaritch informed them of it. It's dark as fuck, honestly! By the time Spider gets out he's none the wiser still, the fact that he's still loyal to the greater planet of Pandora is a miracle of god tbh.

........But when Spider is captured once more in AFAA, they take no second chances and rush the finishing steps. To everyone else (and to Spider himself) it seems like he actively chose to betray the Na'vi. The memories, the interviews, all the talks he holds for the RDA's propaganda...Spider thinks those are all his own thoughts. He thinks that those people care for him, instead of just viewing him as an investment finally paying its dues. He shoots and is cruel and is horrible and just spirals further and further as Ardmore keeps on ordering her men to mess with his mind. They send him on missions and project his image in the sky and taunt Jake/the Na'vi with it.

And only Kiri knows that something is wrong.

She noticed Spider's mind being messed up when she blessed him. Eywa told her that something is wrong with him. She is screaming at her about it anytime she sees him. Just a constant thrum of wrong-wrong-wrong and save-him-save-him-save-him. Whenever Kiri looks at Spider (who now calls himself Miles Quaritch Jr.) all she can focus on are how dead his eyes look. How strange they glint. How weird he moves and talks. Completely unlike himself and how he used to be. And she just knows the RDA had something to do with it.

Kiri will figure out what has happened to her friend, and she will fix it.

PART 3

Hear me out. Thomas Sully who was in a coma due to the knife attack and thus had to remain on Earth, waking up to find the og Propaganda AU having happened. He looks up at the news or opens the internet and all he can see are the images of the dead boy his brother murdered. Of the negelect and abuse and horribleness that Spider had to suffer at his hands. He reads about the boy saving Spider during their escape only to be found with a slit throat in the forest hours later. Wound obviously having some from a weapon with clear intent to kill.

Lady with Harp Eliza Ridgely-Sully

Artist: Thomas Sully (English, 1783-1872)

Date: 1818

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States

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