@brownstudys I didn't mean to imply Quaritch is a good father to Spider. He isn't. But I wouldn't say he doesn't care. He just doesn't understand Spider. At all.
Quaritch is a mirror to Jake and he has exactly the same problem with Spider as Jake has with Lo'ak. Both of the fathers think they know best. They are doing what they must to keep the kids safe. Jake does it so hard Lo'ak almost kills himself. Quaritch gets Spider through torture and trauma. All for the kids own good. But in both cases this is a physical safety and it just ends up trying to keep kids in a cage while destroying what they care for.
Jake tries to squish Lo'ak's sense of right and wrong and get him away from "the bad crowd" to stop him from doing stuff Jake finds reckless because of unintended consequences of those actions. All the while unintended consequences of Jake's own actions are just as bad. But Jake meant well when he made his choices (see how defensive he is about it when in his fight with Neytiri). Lo'ak just doesn't think so someone who knows better has to make hard decisions for him. Jake projects his own failures on Lo'ak. He only understands what Lo'ak was doing and that it was correct choice at the very end when he sees intended consequences pay off in their fight. This is when Jake learns his lesson and recognizes Lo'ak was right. At least Lo'ak got this kind of an apology.
Quaritch has lost his advantage and forfeited his mission for Spider repeatedly. Keeping his son safe overrides all the other objective his has but he still has other objectives and tries to combine them all. This means advancing human presence on Pandora no matter how much Spider hates it. He doesn't understand the bigger picture. Kid is a minor and that let's a parent make decisions for him. Including medical ones.
If keeping Spider safely in Bridgehead, away from war and other danger, means it'll have to hurt a little then it'll have to hurt a little. Spider is going to save humanity and earn his place in the world RDA is building and that's a win-win scenario. Kid doesn't want that but he just doesn't know what's best for him.
None of the things that happen to Spider when he gets kidnapped the second time are a danger to his life. All the procedures he goes through are safe. The fact that this is all against Spider's will and that makes it abuse doesn't even register. What's a little pain to get what you need? Quaritch would get over it himself like he did with Varang. Spider will get over it too. Quaritch, as always, is unstable to look at things from anyone else's perspective.
All his conversations with Jake are about refusing to see. It's true for the Pandora in general but most of all he doesn't see Spider. He loves him. But he doesn't see him.
@holyraconteur This bothers me so much. People shit on Jack's acting in that scene but he has no problem to act with Lang or Weaver in the emotional scenes they have together. However, here Spider has to act in such a abnormal way - what normal person would react like this to almost being murdered by their most trusted adult - that it all falls apart.
That whole scene is for Jake. It's Jake trying to save his feelings by being shitty to Spider. It's Jake fighting with his conscience. It's Jake deciding he cannot do it. Of course, Sam's acting in it is what carries it.
Spider and his emotions are not even a factor. He could've been a prop there. There is no consideration and no response to what Spider is feeling in this situation. Jake just has this struggle with his thoughts, morals and faith and comes in the other end realizing this is wrong all on his own. Not a thought spared to how he just traumatized a kid for his own character development.
So Spider cannot be traumatized by it. He cannot be angry. How would that make Jake look? Why would talk abut how Jake acted like a monster when he had an epiphany here and he's found his way? Some with Neytierie. She understood error of her ways and that fixes decades and a half of abuse, right? Otherwise, it would mean we had to let Spider's feeling about any of this matter and it was about Jake and Neytiri finding their way to once again. Jake can be the man the people need and Neytiri can be the heart of the story so what does it matter what they did to others to get there? The kid is grateful to be alive and that's enough, right?
And I really hate when people justify this by saying Spider is so Na'vi that he forgives it all. That's not how Na'vi work. We see them hold grudges (Varang made this her whole personality) and hate those who wrong them (Neytiri did that to Spider even when he wasn't one at fault). But Spider is never allowed to be angry at the good guys. He has to understand their trauma. They never need to consider his.
The film tries to make a point that Spider shouldn't be judged for his origin but at the same time shows us that he had to pass a test of being a "good" human. He has to forgive all the shitty treatment because that proved his merit and shows he deserves his place among the people. Now the hazing is done and he earned his place. Now we will care about him and let's forget how we got here. It's all bygones, right?
