Anyway, as someone that tries to stay away from human weaponry and gear in AFOP, I do respect those that have a preference for it. “I only use Na’vi weapons against the RDA to show that our customs and tools can match theirs. Our ways of life are not inferior” vs “I use human weaponry against the RDA to mock their ways of life. The cruel irony of being eliminated by your own arrogance” are sibling concepts in my opinion, not necessarily at odds. Different tactics but all from the same side.
So like, I don’t have an issue with Na’vi that use metal weapons vs Na’vi that only use their own. I acknowledge that canon Tamtey does use both. I didn’t think Neytiri and the Metkayina’s aversion to RDA gear in F&A was bad, nor do I think Nor’s repulsion of metal in its entirety is either. These are all valid trauma responses that simply is not an issue.
The only issue, in my opinion, is when Nor bleeds his internalized disgust onto others. This has always been one of his flaws. He upchucks his self loathing onto everyone else. Unintentionally instilling doubt into Tamtey during their iknimaya as just one example. But now he’s significantly more forceful with it. No longer slips of the tongue, but intentional weaponization. Yelling at Rasi for being open minded. Scolding Ri’nela for how he thinks she should behave as tsahìk. Going from idolizing So’lek to, apparently, seeing him as a cautionary tale.
As sad as it makes me, I can understand how Nor, completely on his own, has spiraled in this way. He needs to bleed. He has so much hatred for himself that he simply can’t hold all of it. And the toxicity is that he can only release it onto others. It needs to come out, but Nor has only ever allowed himself to remember pain and know pain, and so his only coping mechanisms are letting his insecurities leak out or forming them into weapons himself. I hope I’m making sense.
Nor’s aversion to metal is not the issue. It is, and has always been, the ways he (unintentionally or intentionally) hurts others when trying to cope with his trauma. And his self imposed isolation after stabbing Alma’s avatar has clearly heightened these unhealthy habits to dangerous levels.
And I do think some part of Nor, maybe subconsciously, is aware he’s spiraling out of control. He returns to save the Sarentu, but he refuses to fully join them. Watching them all embrace So’lek after the Wukula fight, watching from a distance everyone bond with the tarsyu. We are Sarentu while Nor chooses to stand on a cliff by himself. The Sarentu are his family, he says this and he does recognize Ri’nela as his tsahìk, and yet he still cannot really go to them.
I think Nor is aware he’s losing it. That he’s becoming a little monstrous to his own family. I think it does scare him otherwise he wouldn’t punish himself with continued distance. But he also cannot stop. A wound that needs to bleed.
