Oona Chaplin talks the dark past – and dark playlist – of her Avatar villain, the leader of the Ash People. Read more at Empire.
From Empireonline./com:
The Mangkwan, or Ash People, will play a more antagonistic role in the Avatar saga, hardened by a tragedy that has left them less-than-enamoured with Pandora’s spiritual entity, Eywa. “They have a bunch of unresolved trauma,” says Oona Chaplin, who plays their leader Varang – set to be a formidable force in Fire And Ash. “They got hit by a natural disaster and what Varang did was say, ‘Well, fuck Eywa.’” Where the Omatikaya and Metkayina both believe deeply in the interconnectedness of Pandora’s ecosystem, Varang has led the Mangkwan down another path. “She basically goes towards a different power, and tries to harness that, and in so doing kind of raises her people out of misery,” Chaplin explains. “It’s easy to fall into the villain mentality, but actually she’s the hero of her people. Because she’s saved them out of misery and starvation and begging.”
* Bolded is mine; in red for color theme
While its a little cliché for a character/people to basically say 'fuck god' and turn to a destructive force for empowerment, I think we'll see Varang as less a villain and more an anti-hero according to what Oona Chaplin describes here.
I had a feeling that the villanous imagery surrounding Varang and the Mangkwan was a a little, deliberately misleading; Im sure Cameron and the writers knew how sensitive it would be to make an indigenous-coded character antagonistic for the sake of being 'bad', on top of fire, possible athiesm or blasphemy, redness and dark colors associated as their image.
So maybe with the fact that Varang is seen as a hero to her own people for leading them out of misery it may be that she's an antagonistic force in the film because whatever Jake and the Omatikaya and Metkayina have in mind for their own clans and safety, it clashes ideologically and perhaps even logisticslly with the interests and self determination of the Mangkwan.
But I wonder what she meant by 'begging', too?
I saw this comment on Reddit that made some good points about what Chaplin could be hinting at when she implies part of Varang's heroism is leading her people to be less dependent after tragedy:
From u./anbaric26 on r./Avatar on Reddit:
But it’s an interesting note that the Mangkwan kind of became like beggars after their home was destroyed. From everything we see about the Na’vi in the previous films and FOP, it seems like the clans would always work together to help other clans in distress. It’s kind of interesting that it seems like perhaps other clans were reluctant to help the Mangkwan? Maybe because the Mangkwan had broken some of the laws of Eywa or had done something to warrant an exile or punishment? Either way it makes sense that the Mangkwan would resent other clans if no one came to their aid when their home was destroyed.
I like the theory that the Mangkwan were possibly rejected by certain clans that could have helped them which explains their 'hardened' demeanor and challenging and probably isolated lifestyles. Ive seem some people suspect that the Mangkwan were hardened because they lived in poverty or are currently struggling but they look like theyve adapted well and are embracing a rather unconventional way to live a s a way of saying 'fuck you' not only to the concept of Eywa but to other Na'vi who disparaged them.
What do you all think?
