As long as I can remeber since I started following your work I have always been curious about your AVATAR OC's mainly Dilla and Caleb what are their backstories? Does Dilla come from another clan? Does she have or is an anomaly/unique among other Navi? How come her eyes are white/cloudy? Are Neytiri and Della best friends? How did Caleb get in the Avatar program? Is their love story the same as Jake and Neytiri?
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your interest in my characters ❤️❤️❤️ That really means a lot, it makes me so excited when someone is curious about them! Dilla and Caleb are actually going through a bit of a redesign. They started out as part of a collab, but now I'm working on them as my own project so I’ve been updating their looks and stories.
Dilla is Omatikaya. In earlier designs she had milky white eyes and was blind, but I changed that idea. If you noticed in more recent art she now has pupils and irises.
Caleb wasn’t part of the Avatar program directly, he was a soldier assigned to protect the scientists and Avatars. He lost his way in the forest one time due to a machinery malfunction, and it was Dilla who found him and helped him return to safety through the path. That act of kindness stayed with him, and he eventually returned to seek her out again. They were very curious about each other and began meeting in secret, since humans were forbidden in Omatikaya territory.
After the war Caleb becomes Dilla’s mate and an Avatar body is made for him allowing him to act, alongside Dilla, as a sort of bridge/ambassador between the Na'vi and humans who are willing to seek a peaceful path forward.
As for Dilla and Neytiri they aren't really close. They both carry the pain of loss and displacement but their perspectives clash a lot and they deal with trauma differently. Neytiri, understandably carries deep scars from what the RDA did to her people and land, and her bitterness is directed to humans in general because of this. Dilla also carries her own scars and traumas, but her experiences with the Avatar program, her natural curiosity and empathetic will to understand, and later her connection with Caleb, pushes her toward a more complex view. Through her learnings she came to realize that the RDA doesn’t represent the whole of humanity and she recognizes the suffering and fear many humans face on Earth with their imminent extinction, and her heart breaks especially for the vulnerable and the children stuck in a dying world. She doesn’t see humans as “demons,” but as people capable of choosing their path, good or bad just the same as Na'vi. She shares Neytiri’s pain over losing their home and will always fight to protect her people and loved ones, but she also hopes for understanding, unity, and the sharing of knowledge between Na'vi and humans one day, rather than endless war. You can imagine how Dilla and Neytiri's conflict worsens after Dilla adopts Spider.
Although there are some parallels (Na'viXHuman pairing have some limitations XD) I like to think that Dilla and Caleb are also different from Neytiri and Jake. While Neytiri was reluctant at first and had no choice but to guide Jake due to her mother choosing her as his teacher, Dilla and Caleb were drawn to each other by mutual interest since the start, they were both curious to understand and connect. I also wanted to explore the idea of Caleb remaining just in his human body for a lot of their relationship and how that affects their bond, and the challenges they both face not only through a cultural, but also physical divide (which perhaps becomes less and less of a divide as their relationship progresses).
It’s still very much a work in progress, and I’m always refining things, but I hope that makes enough sense. They were basically my comfort characters for a long time so their story is very wholesome on purpose, I wanted an excuse to draw the most sweet peaceful scenes as a contrast to my more chaotic ideas XD Sorry for the long reply!
