So when Jake says "Get that crap off your face" to Lo'ak it actually irks me so bad bc like. 1. He's just a kid and 2. Don't call his war paint "crap" when he's clearly trying to live up to YOUR example
Reblog if you’re part of it.
Here's a wip fic based on this where Spider befriends a curious little Symbiote and tries to navigate through life being the host to an alien parasite.
"You are restless," Tshaheyl's voice curled through his mind, an amused hum laced with concern. Spider exhaled through his nose. "Yeah, well, can you blame me?" he muttered, weaving between the thick tree roots. "You make me look like a lunatic."
Tshaheyl giggled, the sound vibrating through his skull like a pleased purr. "I do no such thing. You talk to me. They do not hear me. It is not my fault you have a weak excuse for subtlety, Little Spider."
Spider scowled. "Don't Little Spider me," he grumbled, reaching a clearing bathed in soft bioluminescent light. He crouched beside a stream, cupping water in his hands to peer into his reflection. The coolness was a relief against the heat of his frustration and annoyance.
Tshaheyl’s presence curled around him like an affectionate shadow, tendrils of warmth pulsing through his chest like a warm blanket. She was inside him, a part of him, and that meant she felt everything he did. The mental exhaustion. The frustration. The loneliness that had settled in his bones long before she arrived.
"You are worried about them," she mused, her tone shifting into something softer. "These...Sullys. You worry they will fear you."
Spider let out a slow breath, watching the water ripple beneath his reflection. "They're suspicious," he admitted. "Lo'ak especially. I think he caught me talking to you earlier, and Kiri's been staring at me."
Tshaheyl was quiet for a moment before replying, "You do not trust them? You will not tell them about me? You gave me a name and a home, and still you will not tell them. Why is that, Little Spider?"
Spider frowned, rubbing a hand through his hair. "It’s not about trust. It’s about safety. If they knew about you, they'd freak out. Neytiri would—" He stopped himself, jaw tightening. He didn’t want to think about her reaction. Neytiri barely tolerated him as it was. If she found out he was bonded to some strange, sentient parasite that thrived off consuming living things, she’d probably kill him on the spot.
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.
Atwow side of TikTok is VERY different from here. For example, they heavily loathe Spider. You cannot say a single good thing about him or defend him on there or you'll be torn to pieces in the comments by people who enjoy bullying a child, regardless of said child being fictional or not.
To those "fans" in particular: Do you honestly think what he did was bad? Sparing an unforgivable man's life? Plenty of heroes do that in media, and those are usually ADULTS.
You have to remember: Spider is not from Earth. He was born and raised on Pandora. He only knows balance, peace, and serenity. He's never once ever dealt with Reddit and the 10 Best Satisfying Revenge Stories that we have here on Earth. All he knows is Eywa and the balance of life.
From what I understand, Spider saw that Neteyam was dead and as a teenager, probably wanted this terrible night to be over. No more death. He saw Quaritch, still alive, and remembered this man protected him and saved him from literal TORTURE.
And besides that, Eywa is a protector of balance. I theorize that with Neteyam already dead, Quaritch needed to live to regain that balance. Eywa is not done yet with Quaritch, and I'm intrigued to see what she has in store for him. To be clear, I'm not defending Quaritch. I don't like Quaritch. He's unforgivable in my eyes.
But Spider? Fuck yes, I'm defending him because he is still a CHILD.
If I, someone born on Earth, were in Spider's place, I would've done A LOT worse, and it would've been intentional if I had been put through the same amount of pain and trauma he was put through. I would've been the quote below:
“A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth” - African Proverb
Spider is nothing like that. If he were born on Earth, maybe he would've been, but he was born on Pandora. He loves his friends, the Na'vi, and was very clearly distressed whenever the Na'vi, his friends, and their homes were under threat. He begged and pleaded for the Recoms to spare the Ta'unui Clan and their village once they started to kill their ilu and set fire to their homes.
If he were anything like the proverb, I wouldn't blame him for going after all the adults who wronged him. Clan leaders, Na'vi, humans, Hell, especially his foster family. Every single one of those adults failed him, and here's a link to another post that highlights that. So yeah, if he wanted to go after them, I'd probably cheer him on.
I can't fathom hating Spider and defending Neytiri all in the same breath. You're allowed to defend both because both characters went through traumatic stuff (it's not a competition), and both characters had their reasons when it came to their choices.
Another note: I better not hear that these same "fans" decided to go after Jack Champion for his portrayal of Spider or I will lose my fucking mind. It's ACTING.
Tsu'tey had every damn right to be a hater. I will forever stand by my unpopular misunderstood unfairly judged king. He deserved so much better. I will never forgive JC for the treatment he gave him. He deserved to stay alive and lead his own people (properly).
I have some thoughts about an au where Neytiri decides to adopt Spider, but with a twist. Neytiri starts off with a cold, calculated plan to mold Spider into her weapon against the demon who destroyed her family, only to genuinely bond with Spider over time and see him as her own.
-) From the moment Neytiri laid eyes on the squirming, pink-skinned demon, she felt the fire of hatred coil around her heart. He has his father’s face. The same features, the same blood in his veins—Quaritch’s legacy, staring back at her with wide, unknowing eyes and a gummy smile. Instinct screamed at her to cast him away, to have him banished to her mate's former planet, to spare her home from the cruelty of yet another sky demon. But she didn’t. She couldn’t.
-) Instead, Neytiri shoved her hatred into the deepest, coldest part of herself and made a choice. She would raise him. Not out of kindness. Not out of pity. Certainly not out of any foolish maternal instinct. No, she would raise him as a weapon. An instrument of vengeance.
-) Quaritch had stolen everything from her—her father, her sister, her brother, her home, countless lives of her people. And now, she would take everything from him. She would mold his son into something unrecognizable, shape him into the very antithesis of the man who sired him. Spider would walk like the Na’vi, speak their tongue, fight with their weapons, and live by their beliefs. He would forsake the demon blood in his veins until nothing of Quaritch remained. And when the time came, she would watch the fear dawn in the demon's eyes as his own flesh and blood struck him down.
-) There are times when Jake watches her with wary eyes when she helps Spider take his first steps, when she shushes his pitiful bleatings, and when she cradles him in her arms and holds his little hand in hers. There is an unease in Jake’s stare, as if he sees the shape of her plan but does not know how to stop it—or perhaps, deep down, does not want to. It does not matter.
-) Neytiri is resolute. She has a path, and she will walk it to the end. She will strip away every trace of Quaritch’s legacy, reshape him, teach him to hate the sky people, to despise the blood in his veins. He will not be human. He will not be Omatikaya. He will be a blade—her blade. He will be hers. And one day, when the time is right, he will drive that blade into his father’s heart.
-) But like all well-laid plans, this one did not go as intended.
-) Neytiri had expected wariness. She had expected grudging respect, perhaps even a smidgen of pride that he was picking up her lessons with eagerness. What she had not expected was love. Spider is eager, desperate to prove himself. As he grows, he stumbles, falls, bleeds—but always gets back up. He grins at her when she corrects his stance, laughs when she gently tugs at his hair in reprimand, glows under her approval.
-) It should not matter. He is a means to an end. And yet, somewhere along the way, the pretending stops. She began to see him. To feel warmth towards him.
-) Not the reluctant duty of a mentor or the cold satisfaction of a hunter circling its prey, but the aching, unbidden love of a mother.
-) Somewhere between teaching him to string a bow and scolding him for climbing too high, between pressing healing paste to his scraped knees and watching him giggle as Lo’ak and Neyteyam drag him into trouble with Kiri chasing after them and Tuk toddling along, something in her heart shifts. She no longer sees Quaritch in his face and instead sees Miles—a boy as unpredictable and beautiful as the forest, as fierce as any warrior, as stubborn as herself. A child who saw her as a mother.
-) And when the day finally came that she looked at him and realized she could not bear to lose him, Neytiri understood the cruelest twist of fate:
In trying to make him her weapon, she had made him her son.
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I highkey want Varang to use and betray Quaritch.
I actually want her to dog walk this dude I'm not playing. I need Quaritch to be strung along like he finally found a place to belong, then be dumped like a used napkin it'll be so funny.