#toruk

I’m not the best at writing fanfics, I just don’t have a knack for it. I express my imagination through art and this is the best way for me, so the only thing I can really do is simply describe how I picture these stories in my head.

I started the lore a bit from the wrong end, because the scene I drew is the moment when, this time, it’s not Quaritch but the RDA who kidnapped Neytiri and the kids to pressure Jake even further. He returns to the RDA city and unleashes total havoc, not caring about the consequences.

I have a lot of ideas and visions about this moment. In my version, Jake falls into a controlled fury – he’s ruthless.

I’ll explain briefly what’s going on, but it’s still a long text.

Before these events, what is important, I imagined a situation where Jake gets shot in the spine and becomes disabled again. He’s in the forest with the kids, without Neytiri. They were fleeing from RDA recoms, they managed to escape partially, but Jake was wounded. He took it very hard, afraid that without functioning legs he would become useless, so he prayed to Eywa for help.

The village was far away, and the children refused to leave him, so they stayed by his side. At one point, countless atokirina appeared, and one of them settled on his wound, pressing its seed into it – similar to what Kiri did for Spider in A3. This time, however, the seed didn’t form a structure in his lungs like it did with Spider. Instead, it fused his severed spinal cord back together, wrapping around the bullet lodged in his vertebra (and that bullet will never be removed).

The children comforted their father the entire time, especially Kiri. I see her connecting his kuru to the roots when he lies on the ground, instead of her own.

Jake felt an intense, burning pain and regained movement in the lower part of his body. Though he wasn’t fully strong yet, but finally they all managed to make their way back to the village. I imagine this scene as filled with pain, but also hope.

After that incident, the structure Spider carries in his body spread into Jake’s as well. In Jake’s case, however, it was directly connected to his nervous system, and after some time he began to feel the consequences. He became more attuned to Eywa’s will and understood her more clearly. His power as Toruk Makto also grew – as if it were preparing him for what is yet to come. The fights will be fiercer. Now Eywa is directly connected to him, and that will be important for the rest of the story.

I originally planned to illustrate this scene first, but in the end I jumped ahead of the story and started from the battle instead, ehh.

From that point on, a few more things have happened, until we finally reach the point where his entire family is kidnapped, and that’s where things really take off. Before that happens, though, I should mention that I came up with another plot thread that takes place between Jake’s healing and the kidnapping of his family. I haven’t fully developed this thread yet, but generally it goes like this:

One day, in the Omatikaya clan, where the Sully family has been staying for a longer time, a conflict breaks out between Jake and several high-ranking warriors. One warrior in particular cannot stand Jake and openly blames him for Neteyam's death (Jake goes through something similar to what Lo’ak experiences in A3, when his father blamed him for his brother’s death). The difference is that Jake, unlike his son, does not protest. He stays silent and accepts the accusation.

The warrior doesn’t stop. He continues hurling accusations at him, even claiming that Jake is a threat to the community. Eventually, someone asks Jake whether he intends to defend himself against these charges. With tears in his eyes, Jake says no, because they are right. He still deeply blames himself for Neteyam’s death. Then he walks away.

Influenced by the warrior’s words, the clan decides to put Jake on trial and determine whether he should be exiled. Jake breaks down. It is the hardest moment he has faced so far. He falls into depression. Later, he apologizes to Lo’ak for those words, but his son does not hold it against him. The family shows him immense support, yet it does nothing to soothe his heart.

At this point, the story still needs refinement, because I have several possible outcomes regarding the council’s decision, for example:

1. This option is temporary banishment. Jake settles deep in the forest, but secretly keeps watch over his family. It is a very longing driven storyline, especially in relation to Neytiri.

2. Another possibility is that during the trial, Jake does not say a single word and accepts everything they say about him, even the lies. At a certain moment, Eywa gives a sign, similar to the one in A1 but stronger, with even more atokirina appearing. Mo’at notices this and reminds everyone that Jake is Toruk Makto, whom the Great Mother did not reject, so why should they?

If I choose the first scenario, I imagine that in his depression Jake gains some weight. He becomes broader, visually more severe, almost intimidating/fierce. That is the physical version of him I see in the scene I illustrated. He is not dramatically heavier, but it is noticeable. He also begins wearing darker clothing, which is why I picture him dressed in black.

So we’re at the point in the story that’s shown in the illustration.

Jake breaks down. He knows he might never see them again, and feeling powerless, so he asks Eywa for help again (remember that he carries within his body the structure of an atokirina seed). During his attempt to breach the city, he is severely shot and begs her to keep him alive at least until he frees his family. He even promises to give his life for theirs, but only after he saves them.

Eywa answers his plea. She stops his heart from beating so he won’t bleed out. In the meantime, she spreads her structures through his organs, taking over the function of circulation, drawing in oxygen and delivering it directly to his tissues, since his blood is halted and thickened, but Jake can still feel pain.

During the rescue attempt, he is mortally wounded several times, yet he does not die, Eywa sustains him. He is pierced by an arrow from an Ash Clan warrior – the arrow enters from behind and strikes the lower part of his heart (as seen in the second version of the artwork), and he keeps fighting with it still lodged inside him. His knees get shots, he has a bullet in his head, and he suffers multiple additional gunshot wounds.

When he finds where his family is being held, a glass-walled room, he smashes the panes with his bare fists in a rage, arrogantly taunting the soldiers guarding his family before killing them. For a while, he doesn’t free his family, not wanting them to interfere with the fight. He takes down a large number of soldiers on his own, picking up various weapons and ammunition along the way.

The room is near a helicopter hangar, and that’s where most of the battle unfolds. Jake puts up overwhelming resistance. He is utterly determined. He treats it like the final battle of his life. He didn’t come to negotiate – he sets the terms.

Sometimes I imagine Toruk fighting at his side, executing those Jake points out.

At one point he encounters Selfridge. After a brief exchange of words, the man of course dies – I have several scenarios planned for both his death and their conversation. During this scene, they engage in an intense verbal confrontation. When Selfridge demands Jake’s death, Jake replies sarcastically that maybe he’ll die later, but for now they can’t kill him anyway, because technically he’s already dead, his heart isn’t beating. At one point, he throws a cold line at Selfridge: Today, I have no heart for you.

Here I need to briefly mention what happens in the second part of the battle – this is very important for Lo'ak.

When Jake finds a moment to breathe, he frees his family and tells Toruk to fly the girls back to the forest and wait for him there. However, he wants Lo’ak to stay. He plans to rescue Garwin as well. Why? Jake intends to kill many of the people in the city, but he wants to spare the one who once saved his life (A3).

He knows he might die once he returns to the forest, Eywa may stop keeping him alive, so he offers Lo’ak a kind of gift – tsaheylu! He wants to pass on all the knowledge he gained as a soldier – about combat, strategy, and weapons. Lo’ak is shocked, but eventually agrees. They exchange memories and experience. The boy doesn’t fully feel it yet, but when the moment of direct confrontation comes, he will instinctively know what to do!

Here, it’s obvious what’s happening – the battle. It’s total chaos with the father-son dynamic!

In short, they carry out the plan, free Garwin, and take him with them when Toruk returns for Jake (though I still need to expand that part of the story). After everything is over, Jake returns to the forest with Lo’ak and Garwin, where he reunites with his wife and daughters. What happens next also has several possible scenarios.

Over time, I’ll be creating illustrations for this narrative. I have many scenarios in mind about Jake and his loved ones, especially his relationship with Lo’ak and Kiri.

BONUS

I can also reveal that I have a story about Jake and Neytiri’s unborn daughter, whom he named Lily. She already resides in the spirit world, how she ended up there is something I’ll describe when I fully develop that storyline. She was meant to be born between Lo’ak and Tuk. She resembles her father, like Lo’ak does, but looks different because her body never fully formed (Neytiri miscarried).

It’s a compelling spiritual arc. Her siblings remain unaware of her existence for a long time, until one day Neteyam meets her in the spirit world. She shares a special bond with her parents and knows what is happening in the world of the living, what others carry in their hearts, and she explains many things to them. Jake has tender relationships with his daughters, including Lily. Neytiri, in turn, begins to see the world from an entirely different perspective.