No wonder recoms Warren and Brown had to die almost instantly. Gareth and Steve were too busy coordinating all those awesome fights on ships in the water and on air and making sure no one gets hurt by the real fire. And Steve Brown had all that faceplanting to go through (although imagine the comedy if we got to see recom Brown do this after getting his ikran but it would make recoms way too likeable for sure).
From the new Empire Magazine article about what happenes next after that leaked Sneak Peak:
One sequence in the film sees the benevolent airborne Wind Traders, led by David Thewlis’ Peylak, attacked by the fearsome new Na’vi antagonists – the Ash People, aka the Mangkwan clan. It’s a skybound skirmish that, for all its astonishing effects, was produced as practically as possible. Including the use of real fire. “We want people to feel the heat,” second-unit director Garrett Warren says, teasing the sequence as “a cross between a pirate-ship [invasion] and an air-to-air combat battle, with the ikran, the flying creatures that move through the air, like fighter jets”.
There were huge practical builds to augment the shooting process – replica aluminium airships measuring 100 feet long, and ikran puppets for stunt performers, like second-unit stunt co-ordinator Steve Brown, to ride on. “Steve basically had to jump off a moving bird the same way the Ash Warriors do,” says Warren. “There were a couple of good faceplants.” Even with a location like Pandora, there’s no excuse for not doing things the real way. “This is Jim Cameron, you know?” laughs Warren. “We’re not doing stuff for fake.”
Also @cyren-myadd - Tlalim might be benevolent but they for sure aren't pacifists - just look at Peylak swinging that staff.