I have a theory that Janai didn’t even realize that Amaya was deaf the whole time and simply thought that the sign language was a cultural choice:
Until Amaya looked away from the light as Janai screamed, “You have to look!”
Obviously, Amaya didn’t hear her.
And what’s great about this is that Janai had to have wondered why Amaya was still turning away from the light, when she was told to look at it. As far as Janai knew, Amaya was their enemy, but she was still a brave warrior. If Amaya knew that she had to look at the light, she would have looked at it. She wouldn’t have been afraid. She would have looked. Ergo, she must have not heard Janai.
And that’s when Janai realizes that she genuinely can’t hear at all and races forward, risking her life, so that Amaya can read her lips:
I could be wrong but that’s definitely the impression I got from this scene.
Janai spent weeks fighting Amaya, respecting her as a warrior, to the point where she bargained for her life against her sister (the queen), and only after all of that did she realize that Amaya was deaf. I don’t know, it’s just pretty cool to realize that Amaya’s deafness was never a definer in their relationship.
