Ahhhh, still thinking about a Spider and Tsireya friendship because I love the idea of these two just vibing because they get each other.
-) Tsireya becomes someone Spider can breathe around, not literally, since he wears a mask, but emotionally. She's calm in a way that soothes his inner anxiety. He’s so used to chaos and danger and being misunderstood that her presence feels like the calm after the storm.
-) For Tsireya, Spider becomes someone she can be unfiltered with. Around her family and clan, Tsireya is often held to a higher standard. With Spider, she can laugh loudly, roll her eyes, tease, etc.
-) They develop nonverbal signals: a raised eyebrow, a subtle hand motion, or a look that means “You good?”, “Let’s get out of here”, or “I’ve got you.”
-) Spider likes to playfully mimic her voice when she gets serious, and when he does, she chucks a little shell at him. It hits perfectly.
-) They have a long-running competition to see who can sneak up on the other more times in a week. Tsireya usually wins. But when Spider does get her, it’s with flair, like jumping down from a tree and accidentally kicking sand everywhere. They have a nice, long laugh at that.
-) Spider once showed Tsireya Earth stuff Norm kept, like stickers and bubble wrap. Tsireya was obsessed with the bubble wrap, and the two sat together for hours popping it in silence as if in a trance. Tonowari had to pry it out of their hands because the popping sounds could be heard throughout the village, driving everybody crazy.
-) If Tsireya is in a bad mood, Spider pretends not to notice and will immediately start doing something dumb or dramatic until she cracks a smile.
-) One time, they tried to race each other backward just to see if it was possible. It was not. They both tumbled in the sand and laughed so hard that their sides ached.
Headcanon that as Spider cares little for Jake and Neytiri then he lets on. One day, maybe after the 2nd movie took place, Jake just tells Spider he accepted him as one of his own and pouring out his heart to Spider.
And Spider just hits him with a "Okay, but I have never accepted you or Mrs. Sully." And just states matter of factly that he only cares for the Sully kids because they had never treated Spider like dirt. Maybe when he was little, he wanted a mother or father figure in the couple but he could only be let down so many times before he gives up on them and stop caring for them.
Just Spider tearing Jake a new one as he states that the only ones to matter to him in the Sully family are Neteyam, Lo'ak, Kiri, and Tuk. Mo'at also means a lot to him too. But how both Jake and Neytiri are on a similar level as Quaritch but for different reasons. It didn't hurt Spider when Neytiri cut him and he 100% believes she would have killed him that day, he expected it from her. Spider tells Jake that suddenly opening your heart, or your heart "always" being opened to him will not erase the years of hate and disrespect.
Spider let's it be known that he would never forgive Neytiri and Jake for causing the rift between him and Neteyam, and using their eldest son's people pleasing nature to their own benefit. Neteyam is gone and Spider will never get those years back and he blames Jake and Neytiri for that.
Spider holds little care for the couple and if Spider never saw either of them again he would be fine, it's only the love that Spider has for their children is what keeps him with putting up with their bullshit.
After saying all this, Spider just walks away without looking back, uncaring of a response, let alone an apology. Leaving Jake, who is still as a stone.
Okay, but here's a dark au where Spider drags Quaritch from the water and promptly kills him, and now no one knows what to do with this human child soaked in the blood of his own father. Blood is thicker than water, right? Why would a son kill his own father? Pandora's greatest enemy is dead. The scourge of the Na'vi is gone.
So, what is this feeling of discontent?
-) The moment Spider pulled Quaritch from the water, he made a choice.
-) The once-mighty colonel was barely clinging to life, his body battered, his strength drained. Weak. Helpless. A man who had terrorized Pandora, who had burned forests and spilled the blood of Eywa's children, now lay before him, gasping, vulnerable.
-) The knife in Spider’s hand felt light. The motion effortless.
-) One swift drag across the throat was all it took. Just like Neytiri would have done to him. 'Do you see me now?' Spider thinks. 'See me. See me. SEE! LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE MADE OF ME!'
-) Quaritch barely made a sound, just a wet, choked gasp as his lifeblood spilled into the water, dark ribbons mixing with the lapping waves. His body seized, his fingers twitching—but Spider only crouched there, watching, waiting. He waited for the flood of emotion. For the relief. The triumph. The guilt. But there was nothing. Just… numbness.
-) The monster was dead. The one responsible for so much suffering, for so much destruction, for everything—gone. And yet, Spider felt nothing. His father’s glassy eyes stared up at him, lifeless. Eywa’s grace had abandoned him long ago. And with any luck, Quaritch’s soul would never find peace. Never find acceptance. Spider exhaled slowly, running his tongue over dry lips, blinking at the bloodied body at his feet. His hands weren’t even shaking.
-) It was done. His brother avenged. The souls of Neytiri's family are avenged. His debt to the Sullys was paid in full. Everything is calm.
-) A soft rustling pulled his gaze upward. His father's Banshee crouched a few feet away, its golden eyes locked onto Spider with an eerie intensity. Spider tensed, half-expecting it to lunge, to attack, to avenge its fallen rider. But it didn’t. It simply watched. And then, without a sound, it lowered its head. Acceptance. Recognition.
-) As if possessed by something beyond himself, Spider stepped forward, his hand outstretched. His fingertips brushed against the creature’s snout, and for the first time that horrible day, he allowed himself a small, hollow smile. Perhaps it was a good thing that Quaritch never truly bonded to this one.
-) The rest of the Na'vi find him hours later, and Tonowari approaches first, his large shadow stretching over the scene, but he hesitates. The Metkayina chief has seen many battles, many bodies. And yet, this is different. This is a child, soaked in the blood of his own father. Why would a son do this? Spider meets his gaze, his expression empty. He waits for judgment. Condemnation. Something.
-) But when Tonowari speaks, it is not with anger. "The demon is dead." A statement. A fact. The warriors behind him exchange uneasy glances, but none argue. Some murmur in agreement; others simply watch. None move to comfort the boy who did the deed. Perhaps they do not know how.
-) The Sully are more horrified than relieved. Even Neytiri, who should feel the greatest relief of all, does not celebrate. Her bow hand clenches, fingers twitching as though her body is caught between two instincts. To praise him… or to fear him. She does not understand. She had thought she knew hatred. She had felt it burn through her when she held the blade to Spider’s throat on the Sea Dragon, her grief drowning out reason.
-) Jake had told her stories—of how humans could be cruel to their own offspring, how some children were beaten, abandoned, even killed by those who were meant to love them. How those same children woke up one day and decided to kill their parents. She had never believed it. Not until now. She watched Spider wipe the blood from his blade with mechanical precision, his movements too calm, too practiced. There is no triumph in his face, no relief, no sorrow.
Just a hollow emptiness.
-) Something dark and quiet has settled in the boy’s chest, a coldness that should not exist in one so young. The boy named Spider died on the Sea Dragon. Drowned beneath the weight of Neytiri’s hate, choked on the understanding that he would never belong. And what remains in his place is something else. Something Tonowari's people and the Sullys do not understand. Something they accept but fear all the same.
-) Jake takes a step forward, but Spider lifts a bloodied hand, stopping him before he can speak. "Don’t." His voice is hoarse, flat. "Your son has been avenged. The debt is paid. I am done. We are done." Jake stares, tears in his eyes, something unspoken hanging between them. "Kid, I never wanted this--" Spider turns his back, mounting the ikran with the ease of someone who had done it a thousand times before. And then he was gone. The wind howled as the graceful creature lifted itself into the sky, carrying Spider higher, farther, into the unknown. Jake’s voice rose behind him, calling his name. Kiri's voice is the loudest, crying and screaming for him, but he hardens his heart. They call his name. Spider does not return. Spider does not look back.
Just got done watching Spider-verse and now I can't help but think about Spider as the Pandoran version of Spider-Man.
-) While practicing his archery a mile away from Hell's Gate, Spider is bitten by a strange arachnid creature unlike anything catalogued on Pandora: Eight eyes, a small bioluminescent body, and too many limbs that skitter up his arm too fast for him to bat away with his bow.
-) The pain on his upper arm is searing, cold venom is flooding his system, and his body is shaking. Spider knows he should tell Jake and get himself checked out, but Jake is spending time with his family, and Spider doesn't want to bother him. Instead, Spider stumbles back to Hell's Gate alone, locks his bedroom door, and sleeps for days, plagued by fevered dreams of glowing silk threads covering his entire body in a cocoon and the feeling of being watched by all eight eyes.
-) Eywa does not speak, but he feels her. The bite was no freak accident. It was an acknowledgement. A transformation.
-) The mutation amplifies his strength, speed, and reflexes to rival young Na’vi. He can leap through the trees with uncanny grace, run silently across branches, and wrestle his siblings with ease.
-) Spider hits a sudden, aggressive growth spurt. His bones stretch, he shoots up like a weed, and his posture shifts. He grows into a broad-shouldered, coiled force of nature in just a few days. Norm jokingly asks, "Did Jake feed you a special protein powder?" But Spider just shrugs, quietly avoiding the question with lowered eyes.
-) Against RDA soldiers, Spider is terrifying. He moves faster than their sensors can track, weaving traps of glowing silk webbing that strangle, immobilize, or slice. He’s even developed kill zones in different parts of the vast forest, leading enemies there like a spider luring prey into its web.
-) Spider's methods of killing are precise. He drops from a tree in total silence, snaps necks with his super strength, and webs the body into the trees as a warning. In moments of desperation, he uses a special venom-infused bite passed down from the spider that changed him. It paralyzes instantly and causes intense hallucinations. Some unfortunate survivors go mad from the encounter.
-) Spider takes no pleasure in killing, nor does he look forward to it, but when he kills, it is swift, silent, and deliberate. Spider kills because he knows that every RDA life he spares will cost dozens of innocent Na’vi or creatures. To show mercy is to be complicit because these people will never stop.
-) Even Lo’ak gives Spider a curious once-over and mutters, "You been lifting boulders or something, bro?"
-) Spider wants so badly to tell everyone about his abilities, but he fears that Neytiri will misunderstand and see him as a threat. No one trusts him as far as they can throw him, and as far as Spider is concerned, he's on his own.
-) When Spider connects his webbing to a living thing: beast, plant, even another person, he feels a tug in his chest, a strange warmth in his mind. It’s not language, but sensation. A feeling. Spider’s webbing can read an enemy's next move, like a spider sensing a fly tremble in its web. He wraps it around their weapons, and in that fleeting connection, he feels intention. He dodges before they shoot. He moves before they do.
-) Spider can breathe the air, but keeps his mask on to avoid suspicion.
-) His "spidey suit" is made from his webbing, and he even wears a handmade mask to hide his identity. At first, the mask was entirely blank until Spider decided to draw eight eyes on it, giving him a more intimidating look.
-) The cat is out of the bag when Spider uses his webbing to "heal" Netyam's injury, but that's a story for another day,
Tree of Souls painting by me, from a few months ago!
Still gnawing at the bars of my enclosure about my Wanderer au for Spider.
Spider taking his life by the reins and living for himself and choosing not to go back.
Not to the Omatikaya. Not to the Sullys. Not to a place where he was always caught between love and rejection, between being theirs and being nothing.
He leaves with his ikran and travels.
Spider soars over vast oceans, over floating mountains wreathed in mist, over uncharted lands where even the Na’vi and the RDA have never stepped foot in. He learns from wandering clans, from nomads who do not ask where he came from or who he used to be. He listens to the hum of Eywa in the trees, in the waters, in the very air he now breathes.
And for the first time in his life, he is free.
The Sullys search for him. He knows this. He hears whispers of their desperate attempts to track him, to follow the ghostly traces of a human who needs no mask, who rides an ikran like he was born to.
They never find him.
Because this time, his life is his own.
They showed footage of Avatar Fire and Ash at Cinemacon and I wasn’t there 💔
Spider, struggling with his spirituality and faith in Eywa as a human boy born on Pandora, a planet he cannot neurally connect to:
Varang:
Is there a Discord for fans of Spider from James Cameron's Avatar?
Dilla and Caleb meet baby Miles, and adopt him not long after! Love at first sight 💙 An alternative to this:
My heart broke and melted for Spider/Mile's hardships and neglect, therefore me and @katerinaaqu keep including him in our Avatar AU, and I'll be damned if I won't draw this sweet lad the loving family he deserves🥰