Discover Top Posts Tagged with #(spreading misinformation)

II. Media literacy / II.XIII illiteracy

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1. Criticism vs hate

To mention beforehand: The ability to critique people is a skill that has to be developed. You have to put time in the development of it. It’s not just the having of an opinion, it’s knowing the time and place to critique, it’s knowing when somebody is looking for critique, it’s knowing what to critique on. It’s knowing what to say once you’ve started a critique.

And at this, TikTok as a whole is failing miserably because having an opinion, having a differing opinion, hating something, not having understood something, and having an actual critique about something is all the same thing on there. Nothing has meaning anymore because everything is blown out of its proportions.

“I don’t like this”/”I like this” is neither a critique nor is it a defence against someone bringing up points against or for a story, a plot point, the writing of a character, etc.

Of course you can feel that, but sliding into a discussion with nothing more to say except “I like/don’t like this, though” holds neither importance nor weight for anyone but you. You are not participating in discussion, you are giving your opinion when a real discussion was what was requested.

Of course you can comment, but you have failed the basics of engaging with a post in the matter that was requested, which was the basics of seeing more than black-and-white and looking just a metre further than your own perspective and opinion.

People don’t know what actual discussions and disagreements are and how to handle them.

2. Complaining about the war story… being a war story

“I miss when Avatar wasn’t just about war”

Avatar’s basis is the conflict between their sci-fi version of the conflict between native Americans and European colonizers.

Yes, the visuals are also a big magnet for viewers, but the story itself has always been war and how people life with/through it.

It is valid to want more information about Pandora, its wildlife and other Na’vi, but for that we have extra material, which is called extra material for a reason - that being that this information is not the focus of the franchise. The focus remains the conflict between Na’vi and RDA because that is what the story has been and is centred around.

Avatar has always been about war.

It will likely stay a story about war.

You’re complaining that there’s steak on the menu of the steakhouse.

3. unwillingness to watch/read and comprehend, willingness to argue

This is only a problem because people are once again willingly making themselves look stupid and instead of others around them fact-checking the stuff they hear about for themselves, they also just run with it.

This is how misinformation spreads and it’s just so unnecessary. You can just finish the TikTok you’re watching and read the text in the TikTok or the caption. It oftentimes explains what may be confusing for you. Do people have no shame anymore? I know I was and am really anxious about getting my facts wrong in any way, especially in something I post publicly. How TikTokers don’t have that same feeling is beyond me. That’s how misinformation is spread. That’s how people start believing shit that isn’t true.

Examples:

1: “Every Na’vi is born twice”

This quote from Avatar 2009 has been ripped right out of its context and is now thrown around as proof that the Na’vi believe in rebirths.

That is factually incorrect.

Here the whole quote from Avatar 2009 (01:20:36-01:20:48)

“The Na’vi say that every person is born twice. The second time is when you earn your place among The People forever.”

The movie isn’t talking about the Na’vi having a belief of rebirth. It talks about how they have the belief that, when you enter a new stage in your life and become a true accepted member of the clan, you are “born a second time”. Fundamentally different from what TikTok thinks this belief is.

Because TikTok uses this cut out of context line as justification as to why they think Neteyam will come back.

AvatarTok is boring like that.

Everything is brought back to either Neytiri or Neteyam all the time, real discussions are rare to be had because people can’t stand others not blindly agreeing with them anymore.

What do the Na’vi actually believe about their dead? Well, Avatar 2009 also has an answer for that.

(01:04:00-01:04:21) “I’m trying to understand this deep connection the people have to the forest. She talks about a network of energy that flows through all livings things. She says… all energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back”

That’s what they actually believe. That is the way of the Na’vi. Balance. You have life energy when you live and when you die you give that energy back to Eywa, who gave you that energy in the first place. You get, you give back.

The same is reiterated atwow for the belief of the Metkayina, thus it is adjusted to the sea: (1:09:28-1:09:55) “The way of water has no beginning and no end. The sea is your home before your birth and after your death”

Again, all three of these exposition points are stated to us viewers verbatim as a voice over. It could not get lazier story-telling-wise and people still miss it and run around painting their misunderstood opinions as fact. We got this spoon-fed to us and yet people have to cut things out of context to have their make-belief fantasy have validity.

2: forgetting Kiri was kidnapped when Neteyam died

This one is baffling and makes me believe people just talk to talk or don’t know the movie they’re complaining about.

Why did Jake and Neytiri leave Neteyam’s body right after his death? Why did Jake have to rip Neytiri from her grief? Why did we get the infamous “Neytiri rage” scene?

Because they were aiming to save Kiri and Tuk. It is clearly stated in the movie.

Quaritch taunts Jake with “The ship is going down and your girls with it” right after Neteyam’s death

We get to see Kiri and Tuk tied up.

We get a whole shot of the people who are there when Neteyam dies and Kiri and Tuk are not present.

Kiri and Tuk get a reaction shot when Quaritch says “Your boy didn’t have to die” because they only find out right then that someone even died.

But on AvatarTok we have people running their mouths about how Kiri was right there when Neteyam died and she could have saved him, revived him, the whole thing that we have no evidence of that she can do. Because once again everyone is responsible for Neteyam’s death (especially the other teens involved or not involved with his death) except Lyle - the one who shot him and is not sorry - for some reason.

No. Kiri was on the ship. She didn’t know someone died, let alone who until Quaritch uses it to taunt Jake and remake their deal. When finally gets to Neteyam’s body, he has been dead for a good bit.

Between Neteyam’s death and Kiri getting to his body we have the following scenes:

Neytiri and Jake (+ Spider) going back to the ship for their daughters

Jake and Neytiri raiding the ship

Lo’ak following them

The whole hostage scene with Quaritch, Kiri, Spider and Neytiri

Them fleeing onto the wreck because the oil in the water caught fire + Jake’s and Quaritch’s fight

Them getting caught in the sinking ship

The kids searching for and saving their parents from the sinking ship

The family re-gathering on Payakan

And then, finally, they get to the rock where Neteyam’s body is

We have no confirmed time span for this, but I’d recon it’s at minimum half an hour to an hour until Kiri even gets to see Neteyam’s corpse.

And even then, as stated before, we have no evidence (yet? - to be gracious) that she can reanimate corpses.

3: afaa: painting Jake as the bad guy for telling Lo’ak to not let Neytiri see her broken bow

Such a small scene, such outrage and hatred because once TikTok has deemed one character as horrible, every breath they take must be them doing something horrific.

In reality, this scene is Jake trying to protect his wife from falling deeper into her grief by seeing one of her most important possessions broken at a point in time when she cannot handle seeing more things taken from her.

Yes, he is saying it very harshly, that is how his character is. That is how his character acts in grief. He had taken Lo’ak with him to gather weapons from the sunken wreck to have something to defend themselves with in the inevitable case that Quaritch returns and Lo’ak brings up a broken bow. Jake isn’t in the mindset to think about fixing the thing. He sees that his son didn’t gather weapons and ammo, but brought up a bow that’s literally useless. It’s broken, it needs mending. They are preparing for war, Jake doesn’t look at it from the perspective that they can mend. He needs things that are ready for use - now. He is not demeaning Lo’ak or diminishing Neytiri’s emotional bond to her father’s bow, even if Lo’ak does take it that way. He is not in the right mindset to think about fixing. He needs things that work. A broken bow does not work. A broken bow presented to his already struggling wife does not help.

He’s not the villain for not being able to see that Lo’ak has good intentions.

He’s a flawed individual.

He’s not right in what he does, but not every breath he takes makes him a villain. He’s flawed. There’s a difference. God damnit, TikTok.

4: EVERYTHING being Spider’s fault

Like... everything. The Sullies leaving, the hunting of the tulkun, Quaritch’s actions, Lyle’s actions, Neteyam’s death, the Tlalim/windtraders being shot down by the Mangkwan (no, I seriously found a TikTok claiming that and they shut off the comments after getting people protesting their claim.), humans maybe being able to replicate his gift from Kiri, the entire plot of afaa by some.

And while yes, Spider is at fault for saving Quaritch, as I stated previously, the actions this grown-ass man takes are his responsibility. It’s not his son’s fault he’s choosing to stay an asshole when Spider gave him an olive branch to start anew. What Quaritch chooses to do is on him.

The rest of these things he’s blamed for are not things he could even remotely influence. He’s getting blamed for things he was a bystander or unwilling participant in and is treated as if he jumped around eager to volunteer in helping Quaritch because he yearns for destruction and death when that is simply not the case.

Again, you can dislike characters all you want. But if you start spouting bullshit to justify your hatred of a character, you look stupid and your arguments seem and are worth less.

1. different perspectives exist

literally just the sub-segment title. For that there has to get pointed out that seeing different perspectives is a neutral ground. You’re just walking around the situation, hopping from character to character and looking at the situation from their eyes so you can see each perspectives in-universe before you as the viewer can come to your own conclusion. Then you see how the story plays out and what perspective prevails in a scene and why.

Same with fans. You can and should at least try to see the other’s perspective, even if you don’t agree with each other. If the other doesn’t see, don’t immediately dismiss them as a stupid hater, lay out your thought process and reasoning as well as you can if you want to keep the conversation going, and keep an open mind for counter arguments. Then it is up to the person you’re arguing with to give their reasoning, and if they don’t do so or can’t back themselves up with anything, that is on them. If they insist to go against an informed opinion with an uninformed one you can stop interacting with them.

Of course interaction is important in fandom. Discussions are important. But some people lack the ability to take in different viewpoints, just as some people lack the ability to word their stance properly. We all have those moments, I’d say. I know I sure do.

But I want to point out with this segment that we should develop the ability to take in differing opinions if we don’t already have that.

Taking an opinion in isn’t agreeing with it. It is listening to what someone else has to say and making your own judgement on it.

I strongly believe that this is also part of media literacy.

Making stuff up/not giving sources

Aka: the problem with TikTok’s non-verification of facts and linking of sources; theories are fun, not fact

To preface: I am very much open to get corrected on these examples, as long as the correction is backed up with actual proof - TikTok’s and Reddit posts aren’t proof (as long as they’re not literally confirmation posts from the creators of Avatar of course), interviews, canon information from comics, books, etc. are.

TikTok is so, so big on the front of spreading misinformation because TikTok in itself is not build to inform or educate, it is built to make you addicted and stupid. It builds not on giving its users information, let alone correct ones, but on keeping them on the app and using it further and further for everything.

TikTok is not a search engine.

TikTok doesn’t require you to give sources and even if you give links - on TikTok those are even less likely to get checked out than they are on YouTube. Because people don’t have their brains on when scrolling through TikTok. That, or they’re too young to think that someone would make shit up on the internet and they believe everything they see. In that case they shouldn’t be on TikTok at all and I believe you have to be at least 13 to be on TikTok. That in itself is insane. 13-year-olds are so incredibly naïve and gullible that that is too early to have and be on such an app in my opinion, considering how addictive it is.

Pair that with how TikTok has ruined fandom and doesn’t know what fun facts, headcanons, hot takes, cold takes or any fandom terms or words at all mean… and you get people making stuff up around every corner and going semi-viral and before you know it half the fandom believes a funny little headcanon to be an actual canon fact despite there being no evidence for it and when you ask them for evidence you’re not getting answers or sources for their claimed “facts” because there are none.

They’re made up headcanons. But dubbing them as facts sounds fancier, I guess?

It’s misinformation if you package a headcanon as fact.

You’re lying about the medium you’re passionate about.

How are you not ashamed or at least embarrassed?

How are you willingly so gullible that you just blindly believe the “facts” or headcanons someone else spouts and decide to make it into a “fun fact”-TikTok?

What fun fact? - “Fun fact - I believe whatever I want to believe when I see it on the internet, I don’t fact-check because it sounds cool and thus it’s a fact now?”

Lazy.

Lame.

How are people not ashamed of just blindly following whatever non-verified headcanon they see?

In the following I’m going to list a few examples I have stumbled across:

“Aonung and Neteyam were supposed to be canon and that was confirmed, but it was changed so Aonung wouldn’t need to grieve his boyfriend”

My problem is not the ship. The ship is completely fine to ship, I don’t care.

My problem is… you got this from where? You’re spouting this as confirmed… by who? When? Where?

You never get any other answer other than “it was confirmed”

Because as far as I can find, I can barely find any interviews about Neteyam besides the impact he left on his family, because that is the only impact his character existed for. I can find nothing that discusses his relationship with Aonung. I’m willing to get corrected, but I personally, have found nothing but TikToks/TikTok comments saying that it was confirmed somewhere, somewhen.

Giving Neteyam a side-romance makes no sense in-canon, he was made to die.

Fandom will fandom and that is fine and normal, but to act as if the canon material backs this up is nonsense. It doesn’t make your ship more or less valid, it doesn’t add to the story, Neteyam is dead, Aonung gets no focus in the story, so even if this were to be correct… this holds no relevance in the story.

But I’d digress…

This is not confirmed. At least I cannot find confirmation of Aonung and Neteyam having been supposed to be canon in actual canon material.

Stop making headcanons into facts on TikTok. You’re spreading misinformation.

“Fun fact: Neytiri’s Mangkwan paint is actually blood”

Again… from where did you get this?

For the life of me I cannot find a source of this.

Is it stated in there that Neytiri used blood to paint herself with in her Mangkwan disguise?

I don’t know because all my research only leads me to TikToks claiming this as a “fun facts” and those are not sources.

Again: Stop making headcanons into facts on TikTok. You’re spreading misinformation.

In afaa: “Neteyam is riding Seze in the Spirit world”

Again, to sound like an old senior… from where do you take this information?

I have seen the explanation because Seze is dead and Neteyam’s ikran isn’t and that could be an idea… if it weren’t for Lo’ak and his ikran being in the same scene, both of which are still very much alive at this point.

Neteyam’s ikran certainly looks similar to Seze, but that is not Seze as far as I can tell and it would not make sense for it to be Seze. Why would Neteyam have Seze? We have no confirmation of the spirit world or the memories being stored in the spirit tree not having the rules of the one-time-in-a-lifetime bond between and ikran and their rider.

Why would Neteyam ride Seze when he has his own ikran?

If Lo’ak has his ikran and they’re both alive, then why shouldn’t Neteyam have his ikran? The memories of that ikran are stored in the spirit tree, Neteyam connected to it.

For all information we have, the ikran Neteyam rides in the beginning of afaa is his own.

Seze:

Neteyam’s ikran atwow:

Neteyam’s ikran in the spirit world in afaa:

Those two ikrans look similar. We have no reason to believe that this is Seze Neteyam is riding in the spirit world in afaa.

And, based off of the forehead markings of Seze and those of Neteyam’s ikran, the ikran Neteyam is riding in afaa is his own. That’s the same ikran he rode in atwow. That is not Seze. The markings on their foreheads are completely different.

Neteyam is not riding Seze. He never has ridden Seze in canon, in the spirit world or otherwise.

Again, again: Stop making headcanons into facts on TikTok. You’re spreading misinformation.

“Tsu’tey’s parents are/were Mangkwan”/”Tsu’tey is/was Mangkwan”

That’s a misreading.

Ateyo and Artsut were Omatikaya.

They were banished after convincing their second son Arvok to try and kill Jake with a poisoned blade and the last canon knowledge we have about them is that they will try to find and join the Ash clan (comic – the next shadow). As far as we’re aware, that’s where their story ends. No confirmation if they ever found or managed to get accepted by the Mangkwan. But then a cut-out of the afaa visual dictionary started going around of the skull cup that’s referred to as Artsut.

So Tsu’tey’s parents found the Mangkwan and they likely both died by their hand. Artsut’s death is very likely confirmed with the skull cup from the visual dictonary, Ateyo’s death is theorized but seen as likely since he’s not mentioned at all anymore.

But they were not Mangkwan. Tsu’tey is not and was never Mangkwan.

His parents were Omatikaya and were banished after Tsu’tey’s death because they tried to overthrow and kill Jake and they wanted to search for the Mangkwan after getting banished. None of them actually ever were Mangkwan.

Again, again, again: Stop making headcanons into facts on TikTok. You’re spreading misinformation.

“Female Na’vi are stronger than males”

No idea where this has suddenly come from. It seems to be fairly recent factified headcanon as of May or at least spring of 2026.

Again, frustratingly, I cannot find anything to back this claim up and even canon seems to work against it. Firstly, I cannot find anything that states either gender is stronger, so we will have to go off of physical indicators like we do with humans. In the Omatikaya, we cannot see it as obviously, though it is there, but with the Metkayina the physical difference in build between males and females is more prevalent.

Males are broader around shoulders and chest, have bigger arms and seem to build more muscle mass. Only slightly in the case of forest Na’vi and clearly visible in the case of reef Na’vi.

That indicates that they’re stronger than their female counterparts. The Na’vi overall are physically stronger than humans, male and female alike. Maybe this is where this headcanon came from that was then blown out of proportion? Female Na’vi are stronger than humans, male or female. But from as far as we can tell, female Na’vi are not naturally stronger than their male counterparts, similar to how it is to us humans. I’m sure there are exceptions, just as there are within humans, but as far as we can tell, broadly speaking, this is also not true.

Again x4: Stop making headcanons into facts on TikTok. You’re spreading misinformation.

Spider sleeping in Neteyam’s hammock in afaa

I just never believed this one. Why?

Because of this scene of afaa.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFlp4g9pLeQ

This scene that shows that Spider fits snugly into the hammock he’s in.

Neteyam is canonically 8’’2/262 cm, according to the Avatar the Way of Water Visual Dictonary

Spider is canonically 6’’/183 cm, according to the Avatar the Way of Water Visual Dictonary

That’s a difference of 2’’2/79cm (over 3/4 metre)

For comparison: Spider goes up to Jake’s stomach/lower chest size-wise. Neteyam reached up to Jake’s shoulder. That is almost an entire arms length of difference. Does it look like Spider can stretch himself out on that hammock? Does it look like he has all that much space?

If he were in Neteyam’s hammock it’d be noticeable. If the hammock Spider is in were Neteyam’s he’d have more space.

That is not Neteyam’s hammock because he would have been too big for it.

What hammock is Spider in then? - we don’t know, but we could assume that he got Tuk’s hammock, since she’s 5’’7/170cm (source: Avatar the Way of Water Visual Dictonary) and thus closer to Spider in height and that the family just swapped around hammoks. That would explain the tight fit.

But AvatarTok doesn’t see that.

Because Spider is on screen, so there must be something hateworthy going on. That’s why they took this theory and ran with it because it covers AvatarTok’s favourite three things: Spider-hate, boohoo-Neteyam and poor Neytiri and no thinking as a free bonus.

No. Just use your fucking brain. Just watch the movie with your eyes open. This is not hard to see.

(Quick, disgusted side rant: it’s vile that this headcanon is used as a reason to solidify the theory that Neytiri hid Spider’s spare mask. That that theory isn’t seen as sad in it of itself is vile. Said theory being that Neytiri wilfully hid Spider’s spare mask, which is why she didn’t help look for it. The theory suggests that Neytiri wanted Spider to die. And in true AvatarTok fashion, that is Neytiri’s just right and “I was so mad when they found the mask”/”I just knew [Neytiri] was pissed when they found that mask”. That is vile and I find it to be disgusting how comfortable AvatarTok is with excusing the murder of a child because they don’t like him while crying about another dead child and not having been able to let him go since 2022. You’re not against child murder, your promoting it because the “wrong” child died. The wrong child. No. No child should have died at all. Ever. That is the tragedy of Neteyam’s death. That is the horrible reality of having to raise children during war that Avatar portrays. No children should be dying, whether they be human or Na’vi. The part of AvatarTok that’s hell-bend on wanting to see Spider dead is genuinely disgusting to me. You not liking Spider, finding him annoying or preferring Neteyam over him is a preference you’re allowed to have. It is a you-issue if you continue watching the franchise if this one character being prevalent ruins it for you, it is your choice if you want to keep watching. Work that out with yourself. Neteyam’s death was pre-destined, just as Spider’s further relevancy was. It is also fucking vile that they would excuse Neytiri in the case that she did hide the mask. I’m saying “in case” because we don’t know for certain that she did hide it, only that she did not help search for it. This scene shows that Neytiri is so done, so in grief, so dead inside from everything that happened that she just cannot bring herself to even pretend to care for Spider because she doesn’t. And that is fine. She doesn’t have to. You could just leave it at that. But no, AvatarTok just needs her to be Spider’s murderer and needs that to be justified. And that is so vile and incredibly disgusting and I don’t know how these people can genuinely see themselves as having the right opinion in this.)

Again x5: Stop making headcanons into facts on TikTok. You’re spreading misinformation.

I want to emphasize that I have nothing against headcanons and people having fun in fandom. Headcanons are a key component of fandom-whimsy. What I am against and what this section is about is the spreading of misinformation that TikTok makes so easy with its non-verification-policies and its muddling of the meaning of fandom terms.

A headcanon is not a fun fact because it is not factual at all. It is something you either noticed or a trait you give a character that you think in your head to be canon, but there is no confirmation of it, thus it becomes/stays canon in your head.

A headcanon is not a fact. That’s the opposite of a headcanon. Fun fact/fact and headcanon cannot be used interchangeably with each other because they oppose each other.

Headcanon away, find your actual fun facts, share those with people. But please don’t make shit up just to go viral. People are too stupid to see what’s fact and what’s not, what’s an opinion and what’s a fact, as can be seen here.

Know your terminologies. This is not about your opinion. This about people getting facts wrong because they’re mulling it together with opinions and not knowing what terms mean anymore. As mentioned earlier, hot/cold takes, fun facts and headcanon all fall into this cluster now.

I find this as sad as I find it staggeringly concerning.

How are these people able to engage with and understand media or even real articles when they can’t differentiate opinion from fact? A controversial take from a common criticism? An opinion from a personal attack?

Not everything you see needs to be made into a TikTok first and actually thought about never. Reverse that order. Please. Please don’t spread misinformation. Please don’t start branding your misinformation as fun facts or headcanons when people don’t fucking know what those words mean anymore. Inform yourself all around before posting stuff on the internet. Do your research. Don’t blindly believe and repost everything you come across. Use your brain. Please.