@tigrain1994 I can’t address this comment properly in my comments with the text limit!!
Bestie, my friend, my darling, kidnapping a child and taking him to be tortured for information and then coming into the child's prison cell and saying "you can come help me rn or you can stay here and be tortured more" is not saving him from torture. It is manipulation, textbook. It makes us (the audience) understand how Quartich can endear himself to Spider, how Spider, the vulnerable and manipulated party in this, can begin to get to the point where he would save him at the end. It makes us understand and sympathize with how Spider would empathize with Quaritch, because in Spider’s warped perspective it seems like Quaritch gives Spider a choice, a way out. That is not a choice, and he doesn’t. Quaritch just deliberately puts himself in the perfect position to seem like it. Understand? If you (or James Cameron, idk I’ve never heard of this interview) find that relatable or sympathetic, that’s sus buddy!
Now, I know they have emphasized how they wanted the show that love is not always good or healthy in the relationships in the movie. We can debate all day and go in circles about if Quaritch loves Spider, but if he does, it is distinctly not healthy or good! The scene of Quaritch and Spider in the cell is not a sign of redemption or something to see as sympathetic. It is another major part of his manipulation.
I do not and did not say anything about Quaritch fans. I criticize people who think Quaritch can be redeemed, because this is a media trend that is harmful. He can’t be, not by anything in this movie that’s for sure, and he has not started down that path. I don’t think he ever can. The themes he represents are extremely heavy. A path to redeem him properly while treating these themes with the proper respect and seriousness, and doing it in a way that doesn’t spit on the movies point would be very complex and layered and much more complicated, frankly, then the writers have shown themselves capable of. If you want a story of a bigot being redeemed in a way that respects the seriousness of bigotry, watch the other Avatar. Zuko is a masterclass in a proper redemption arc, and we shouldn’t take anything less in our stories. These topics are serious, and they shouldn’t be swept under the rug because you find the white man hot.
