I actually liked the direction the movie took with Neytiri and Spider. To me it was always clear that she didn’t hate him in particular, but rather what he represented. Spider was a painful reminder of what she has endured, and, in a way, the only place she could put that pain — express it without being judged as much as she’d be if she was open about her feelings towards humans as a whole becuse Spider is the son of Quaritch. Everyone (scientist, Jake) gets it, cuz they themselves keep him at an arms length.
And I really like that it wasn’t her trying to murder Spider in the end. She’s not evil, but deeply wounded, so when Jake’s cold military utilitarianism takes hold and he decides to sacrifice the boy FOr the GrEaTeR GoOd, she rushes to stop him. At the end of the day, she’d never want innocent blood spilled.
I see what you mean but for me it felt really weird to see Neytiri lose so much to humans and then turn around and have unwavering loyalty to protecting a select few, including a kid she never had a reason to care about (and who saved the man who became a threat to her and her family again).
Even if Spider wasnt Quaritch's son and just wanted to feel at home with Jake and Neytiri's family unit or among the Omatikaya, I dont see why Spider's desire to be accepted outweighed her grief and need to be liberated from the terror of human colonization.
Sure colonization is a system and not a trait or habit of being human, so Neytiri could have seperated the system from the people and accepted Spider's attempts to prove loyalty and assimilation. But when the majority of humanity came with intent to invade and pillage for extractive industry at the endless cost of Pandoran life, it makes sense for Neytiri to have solidified a hatred of human beings by associating the terror they caused with their presence.
I mean after all humans are aliens. They can and did go back to where they came. Not to mention they killed so many people she knew and loved, displaced her from Kelutral and destroyed their spirit tree (access to cultural and historic information), and killed so much of the forest and its other 'people' (flora and fauna).
And tbh i dont even understand why se humans get to be honorary Na'vi at all? They too are alien and are still liabilities, potentially defecting again for the RDA or otherwise human-centric interests (we see how some of the defector humans that stayed got rlly worried abt staying on Pandora long term w/o contact from Earth, and how the McKosters or whatever turned face in the comics and aided Ardmore in the space battle n shit. I gotta read it again). We saw how Spider saved Quaritch, which made him a major liability that he never got to rlly pay or reconcile for.
If Neytiri felt human riddance was what would finally bring her and her world peace then I cannot blame her. Its a radical position, but it wasnt a bad thing that she felt that way considering the insane trauma shes endured by humanity, even when shes knows humans can assimilate and sympathize w the Na'vi.
So yea I just dont see the point in Neytiri, the native of Pandora who lost so much to humanity, being portrayed as wrong for her reactions against humanity's actions and for suggesting to kill Spider, bc to me it felt cheap and honestly in rlly poor taste to portray Neytiri as a reverse racist, and her loss of empathy for human suffering on Pandora and Earth as evil. The fate of Pandora—herself and the collective of life shes a part of—over the life of an alien child that she doesnt know brought her more suffering.... from her perspective, one is clearly so much more important, and im inclined to support a narrative of native self defense and determination.
Call it speciesism or cruelty but her having that moment of unwavering, radical passion and protection of her people and Eywa'eveng was so much more important to me especially than some cheapshot at portraying double standards and spiraling grief and hate.
And her accepting Spider as an honorary Na'vi also rlly made her look like a model minority, portraying what a white man seems to think how colonized ppl should manage their anger and trauma at colonizers who destroy and truamatize them.
I dont really dont like how theres an implication that Pandora has to be a melting pot of human settlement to be "fair" to humans, and that having hatred from pattern recognition and trauma from a real threat is shown as poor personal character that needs improvement. Cant even say Neytiri wanted seperatism cuz shes home and humans arent, so her want for Spider to be "with his own kind" isnt.... like, its not racism! Not even xenophobia!
'Hug it out and trust again or you are just as bad' is what I get from all this. Its an awful message.
