Varangs
Watching Quaritch brutalize the ta'unui idk how anyone can like this man
Here are some more thoughts on my Neytiri/Spider mother-son relationship where she raises him to be her instrument and attack dog against the RDA and Quaritch. Bonds That Bleed AU ended ambiguously, so here are more headcanons that have been swimming around my brain.
-) Neytiri raised Spider with the ways of the Na’vi, but never let him forget what he was. A human. A creature of destruction. A son of the demon. Every lesson was laced with quiet loathing, every word a seed of hatred planted deep in his heart. "They are destroyers, Miles. They will never stop until our home is dust beneath their feet." She does not temper her words, does not shield him from the ugliness of truth because he must learn, must hate as she hates.
-) And Spider listened. He learned. He fought. He killed. It was easy to lie to him, to pretend to love him, to smile at his victories even when her Jake was deeply troubled by the boy's eagerness to kill RDA soldiers, even when her mother stared at her with eyes full of quiet disappointment. But somewhere along the way, something changed.
-) Oftentimes, Neytiri found herself reaching for him in the quiet moments, pressing her forehead to his like she did with Neteyam, Kiri, Lo’ak, and Tuk. She would find herself soothing his wounds, braiding his hair, smiling at his laughter, glowing with pride when he respected her customs and spoke her language fluently. The lines between tool and child blurred, and before she even realized it, she loved him. Her little blade. Her son.
-) But the damage was already done.
-) Jake had warned her. "You’re filling his head with hatred. This has to stop. You need to stop. He's just a kid." She ignored him. The little demon was hers. Hers to mold. Hers to teach. Hers to wield. He was hers.
-) Until the day Spider leaped on Quaritch's back like a starved animal, clinging onto his father in a death's embrace, blade flashing. The monster who once haunted Neytiri’s nightmares did not even get the chance to scream before Spider drove his knife deep into both of his own father's eye sockets. Once. Twice. Again. Again. Again. Again. A frenzy of violence. His face was expressionless, his hands steady, his body drenched in blood that should not have been on him. The blood of his own father. There is no hesitation. No mercy. He is everything she raised him to be and more.
And for the first time in her life, Neytiri felt fear.
Not for herself. For her son.
She had wanted this—had spent years preparing him for this very moment. So why did it feel like her heart was shattering?
Because in that moment, she saw him clearly—not as the boy she had raised and manipulated, not as the child she had grown to love—but as a reflection of her own hatred. And she knew, with cold, crushing clarity—
She had stolen his innocence just as the Sky People had stolen hers.
Seriously, some of the theories are just so bad or have been explicitly stated as false by the creators... some people are in for a rude awakening when Avatar 3 comes out.
Did I miss any other bad theories?
Apologies for accidentally deleting your ask, anon! I’ve been mass-deleting a bunch of weird spam from bot accounts, and unfortunately, your message got caught in the crossfire. Whoever you are, here’s my answer:
Are you interested in a Solo Leveling and Avatar crossover? ;)
Short answer: YES!!!!!! I’m very interested in an Avatar/Solo Leveling crossover AU where Spider discovers a mysterious program that lets him level up and kick ass. That said, he wouldn’t be a carbon copy of Sung Jin-Woo (because that man is the GOAT), but Spider would still be a total badass in his own right. With his natural stamina, agility, and strength from years of running with Na'vi, he’d become seriously overpowered with every level-up. Maybe Eywa has her own version of dungeons that let him boost his stats, and over time, the kid bulks up and hits a growth spurt. Eventually, he wouldn’t need his breathing mask because his body would evolve and adapt to Pandora’s environment with each level gained.
-) Training in secret while balancing his everyday life.
-) “Dungeons” manifested by Eywa, such as corrupted forest areas, rogue wildlife, or sites that need purifying.
-) His power increases, and Spider encounters more RDA soldiers and begins sabotaging their operations using what he learns to ruin their plans using stealth, even going so far as to kill them. His first kill leaves him with nightmares and crippling guilt because this isn't what he wanted, but it's too late to turn back time. He has to protect his home.
-) Internal struggle over his identity, which involves Spider sometimes feeling a little detached from his humanity. Spider is still mostly the same (mostly), but he's colder and more serious to the point that his friends start to notice and jokingly compare him to a boring adult. Spider chuckles at that, but his smile doesn't quite reach his eyes, and his laughter is forced. He feels like he's pretending to be himself, and it's driving him crazy. Kiri, Lo'ak, Tuk, and even Neteyam are all just kids, while he feels...less and less like his age.
-) A dangerous dungeon triggers a major power boost but also reveals part of Eywa’s plan, hinting that she is preparing Spider for a larger threat and that Kiri is the key to ending it. He'll need to grow even stronger to protect her.
-) I don't see Quaritch surviving for too long in this au. The scene in Way of Water where the kids are being threatened by Quaritch and the Recoms will probably end with Spider allowing them to kidnap him so that he can be taken inside their base and just straight up slaughter everyone before they can interrogate him. Afterwards, Spider sifts through the gore and blood to steal all the information before setting everything on fire and cutting off his father's head to dump it on Jake Sully's doorstep with a note that says, "My debt has been paid in full. Best of luck to you, Mr. Sully. Goodbye." Dark? Yes. Traumatizing? Yes. But Spider has changed from that kind boy who would never harm a fly. Maybe he'll raise his father's spirit and the spirits of the recoms to serve him. Either way, he did his part and he travels Pandora to grow even stronger while occasionally popping up to help the Sullys out of some more craziness before fucking off again to do his own thing.
Okay, this has gotten long and out of hand, but you get my drift! Does this plot make sense? Absolutely not! Still, I've been a mega fan of Solo-Level since it first came out, and the anime SLAPS. Spider would have his reasons for obsessively leveling up, and it starts off with him wanting to protect his home and friends...and then his desires slowly start to shift outside of just acting like an attack dog.
Anyway, hope this answers your question, anon!
Spider will be, at least ever so slightly compared to other humans, respected. he protected the clan. the Na'vi.
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So, I've been having thoughts about Spider wielding Chaos magic.
Crazy, right? In a galaxy where blue people exist and humans have found a way to colonize planets, red magic wouldn't be too farfetched.
That would be absolutely wild—Spider awakening as a Chaos witch in a moment of extreme pain and trauma, unleashing a force that he never knew existed. It would make him a terrifying and awe-inspiring figure on Pandora, a force of nature devoted to Eywa and the planet of his birth. Throw in Kiri, and you've got two overpowered siblings.
Anyway, here's a drabble:
Captured by the RDA, Spider endures days of torture as they demand the location of the Sullys. They push him past his limits—electric shocks, water deprivation, beatings—until something inside him snaps. It’s not just pain that fuels the transformation, but sheer, unfiltered rage. He had spent his entire life being nothing but a pawn to everyone. A demon to the Na’vi, a prisoner to the RDA, an afterthought to the humans of Hell's Gate. No more.
The air distorts. The room trembles. A deep crimson glow seeps from Spider’s fingers, crackling and sparking like liquid fire. He doesn’t think—doesn’t even understand what’s happening—before an explosion of red chaos energy erupts outward, flaying the RDA soldiers alive. Metal warps and melts, bodies twist and contort, their screams merging into a sickening cacophony of agony. Blood paints the walls.
Quaritch barely has time to register what’s happening before he bursts apart, his entire form breaking down on a molecular level.
Spider stands at the epicenter of the carnage, breath heaving, eyes glowing a deep, menacing crimson. His feet leave the floor as he ascends, floating weightlessly, surrounded by swirling tendrils of chaotic energy. He looks down at the ruin he has created, the shredded remains of his captors, the metal reduced to slag.
And for the first time in his life, Spider feels powerful.
He doesn’t run. He doesn’t hide. He flies, the red glow of his magic cutting across the Pandoran sky like a falling star of crimson.
The Omatikaya stare in shock as he arrives, his form wreathed in pulsing red light. He doesn’t wait for their judgment. He knows what he must do. The RDA has taken everything from him, from the Na'vi, from Eywa, from this world. Jake Sully had done what he could, but these demons were relentless in their pursuit for more. Never again.
With a single whisper, the forest bends to his will. The skies darken. The very fabric of reality trembles as he vanishes in a flicker of crimson energy, reappearing in the heart of Bridgehead City.
And then, with a single motion of his hand, he tears it apart.
Buildings collapse. Mechs crumple like paper. Soldiers scream as the very air around them shreds them into nothing. There is no mercy, no hesitation—only raw, undiluted vengeance. The Wrath of Eywa.
Spider doesn’t stop until the RDA is gone. Until their machines are dust, their weapons are ruins, and the very land they corrupted is cleansed by his power. As the last embers of destruction fade, he stands amidst the wreckage, his red eyes burning like twin suns. He is no longer just a stray human, no longer the son of a demon.
He is the harbinger of chaos.
And Pandora is his to protect.
It took me 2 weeks to complete this Avatar 3 concept art. I called it "The Chosen One". I hope you like it! 😊
I love the idea of Tsu’tey adopting Spider so here are some headcanons I have of that old grumpy guy raising his little son.
Tsu’tey’s injuries from the Great War caused him a lot of mobility issues. He often wakes up in pain from stiff joints and muscle spasms. To help, Spider will crawl over him and lay on whatever limb is hurting him to most in the morning because his body puts off a lot of heat and relaxes his muscles. He’s like a little heat pack.
Spider originally did need to wear his mask constantly, but over time, through constant communion with Eywa, she changes his lungs to be able to breathe the air. He doesn’t tell anyone though, because it happens years into him realizing nothing he can do will make most see past his humanness. Tsu’tey, however, finds out after seeing Spider lift his mask to shove a large piece of fruit in his mouth that he specifically told Spider not to eat.
Spider’s English is abysmal. He barely has the patience to sit through the normal lessons he gets from Mo’at and some of the other elders who like him, let alone enough to go to Hell’s Gate to learn about Earth. Mo’at scolds Tsu’tey for slacking in teaching Spider his native language, but he isn’t too worried about it.
Tsu’tey’s biggest mistake as a parent (in his mind) is letting Spider believe his hiss was intimidating. It was the best thing in the world for Tsu’tey when Spider was a baby. But then came a stint of time where Spider would hiss openly at anyone when annoyed which just made his reputation among villagers worst. The kids who made fun of him got bitten, mask be damned, which does not help his case.
Despite his short stature, Spider can actually fight and hold his own against fully grown Na’vi. Tsu’tey teaches him how to strike fast and hard, going for weak points in Na’vi anatomy and focusing on their legs and feet, places Spider can reach easily and do a fair amount of damage. This does mean Spider gets into a larger number of fights with other Na’vi adolescents compared to canon.
Spider is still best friends with Lo'ak and Kiri in this AU, much to Tsu'tey's dismay. He likes them well enough, Lo'ak is kind of loud and Kiri has an unnerving tendency to stare directly into his soul when talking, but overall they're good kids. He does wish they would stop eating him out of house and home though.
In canon, Tsu’tey has a brother named Arvok, who lives with them. Tsu’tey also takes in Tarsem, whose entire family died in the fall of Home Tree. He and Arvok are best friends, so it makes sense for him to live with them. The boys are like Spider’s brothers, but they pull out the "We're your uncles" card whenever he’s not listening to them or when they want to get out of doing chores.
Regardless of who you ship Spider with, Tsu’tey would find a fault in them. Neteyam? Too obedient to his parents, he needs to rebel more. Lo’ak? Too rebellious, he will get Spider killed doing one of his hair-brain stunts. Kiri? Eywa help him; she’s too much of everything. Any of the Metkayina kids? It’s laughable you’d even think for a second he’d let Spider marry into another clan.
Spider has an ikran in this AU cause I say he does. He finds a baby ikran abandoned during one of the trials he attends with his father. She’s the runt, too small and weak to fly with her family away from their nest back to their rook. Spider takes pity on her and nurses her back to health, hiding her away so no one knows because it’s technically illegal to raise an ikran. She imprints on Spider and the rest is history once Tsu’tey finds out she exists. He’s adamant they cannot keep her but one look from their combined puppy eyes breaks his will.
Tsu’tey and Spider’s ikran have the same relationship as those dads who say they hate the dog and then the dog becomes their best friend. When Spider gets kidnapped, Tsu’tey spends several nights awake with only the ikran for company, praying and begging Eywa to bring his son back to him.
Spider overall was a pretty healthy child, but there was one time when he got very sick and slipped into a coma. The scientists genuinely thought he wouldn’t make it for a while. This is the first time Tsu’tey has ever contemplated suicide, something that is forbidden under Eywa’s laws. He cannot imagine a life without Spider. The second time is after he’s taken by the RDA, but seeing Spider’s friends rally to try and get him bad makes him push the thoughts away.
After the battle at Three Brothers Rock, Neteyam lives but is mortally injured. The combined knowledge of Norm, Max, Ronal, and Mo’at is the only thing that keeps the boy from being paralyzed for life, but he’s essentially got the same disabilities as Tsu’tey now. And he’s a shell of himself. Tsu’tey doesn’t really have time to focus on him, though, because Spider is in just as bad shape as Neteyam, but mentally. After weeks of seeing both boys break down physically and mentally, Tsu’tey comes up with an idea. He gives both boys the task of planting and raising a plant together. Almost everyone thinks he’s crazy for this, but after a few weeks of watching their efforts to make this tiny plant bloom, they see that their moods have improved. Neteyam does his physical activity more to get outside and care for the plant, and Spider uses the plant as an outlet to air thoughts he knows would devastate his family.
When asked how he knew making them care for a plant would help, Tsu’tey simply replies by saying that the only thing that saved him after his injuries was Spider. Carrying for another helpless creature forced you, in turn, to care for yourself. His son saved his life.