Just Some Reflections On Tiri Idk—

We got our first official look Peylak, olo’eyktan of the Wind Traders who are known as the Tlalim clan!!

She seems shy👉👈🥺

Had this idea that Ronal would take kindly to Spider because he’s a child aimlessly trying to find family and I feel she’d take pity and show compassion. Also with Ronal’s animosity with Neytiri - she’d prob feel some solidarity with Spider. It’s a bit hypocritical cause Ronal literally calls the Sully kids demons for being half human but idk she’d prob have a change of heart seeing such a young kid being held hostage by the RDA, abandoned by the Sullys, and the scientist at hell’s gate.

Oh yeah in this version the RDA cut his hair and gave him clothes, washing away any Na’vi evidence.

Not going to finish these WIPs, the inconsistent art style is killing me

Me, running out of Spider Socorro healing his trauma through found family fanfic after searching through 50 pages on ao3:

I find it deeply depressing that every adult in Spider's life had children, yet he was never anyone's priority. every adult he could and most likely attempted to match in to. the adults he remembered as the closest things he had to parents since birth (Jake and Norm, even if they weren't acting as his parents, because Spider, genuinely, would not know better). down to his actual foster family (the McCoskers). essentially went out of their way to de-prioritize him.

like I'm not faulting them for having kids, for having a family. but Spider was their first priority. he didn't need to be adopted by any of them, per say, but he was their responsibility. he was their orphan, Jake especially, considering he was the chief of his people, but Norm as well, seeing as he's a prominent figure head of the clan/Hellsgate.

the McCoskers took him in, but over the years, as they had their own children, he was more and more neglected. he was now no longer his actually appointed guardians priority. and that only gets worse and worse as he ages until they become outright abusive (Nash does anyway, cause thats what I'm gonna call violently kidnapping his, throwing him in a room and locking him there, and trying to kill all of them, him included, when they run away. as abuse. and I'll get back to the whole "you have to turn yourself in to the RDA" x2 speech from Jake in a second). they also didn't really accept his culture. with their resentment towards the Na'vi brewing, Spider most definitely faced some heat for being more of the forest than of humans, in terms of culture.

3 times over, Spider came first and was put last. put last by parents who know damn well how much love, time, care, and attention a child needs. who should be able to see when a kid is being neglected. who dialed to advocate and protect him from neglect (instead of calling him a stray).

he was a child and they were his advocates. all three parties failed in their duty as advocates, to protect Spider. to ensure he always had a loving home that made him their priority. that fulfilled all his needs, not just the physical ones. but all put their own families first, and abandoned Spider to the scraps of their love, time, and affection.

imagine being Spider, an orphan who can't even mention his birth parents and is always treated like he is the physical rebirth of his father's sins by half the people around him. every adult in your life has kids and seems like they're such a good parent. you watch their kids being loved and tended to and having a steady home. they receive love and affection constantly. but your fosters pay less and less attention to you as they have babies. and now your a stray to the man you look up to so much. and the man who probably taught you how to put an exopack on has less and less time for you. no one has time for you. you're no one's child. no one's priority. just a stray. a nuisance. and you don't truly belong anywhere.

no one was putting him first. children need to be someone's priority. psychology. they need it.

and then the RDA returns. the McCoskers leave, Spider is expected to leave everything he has ever known, to join the very people he hates and has been trying so hard since he could understand what it meant, to prove that he wasn't like them. Jake, the man he once looked up to, was telling him to leave. sending him away. stripping him of the little amount of family he could somewhatly claim, that being his siblings.

once again, Jake is his chief, should be looking out for him. not even as a father, per say, but as his duty to Spider as his chief. a chief should never be sending away his most vulnerable ward, a child he should consider his own (as all of his clans children should be one with his own children), to the opposing enemy force.

this happens again when they're running away, Jake tells him ever more directly to hide in the forest alone until the RDA stops shooting at everything that moves and then turn himself in so he can his own children could run. once again, putting him last, instead of protecting all of them.

then for a year, Spider has no family. no one. the McCoskers are gone and no one has stepped up to bat for him. he's 15/16 and alone. his the big sibling to the Sully's. those kids are all he has, but they aren't really looking out for him. he's looking out for them. cause he's the oldest. that's just how it is. he is one with the clan. lives with them. does chores. watches out for his siblings, the whole nine. but Jake isn't doing his duty of watching out for his ward. he is once again giving and giving and giving, and not receiving.

and then he is taken, he is taken, and while Jake may not have had the means to go back for Spider, or been able to take the risk of going back for him, he abandons him without a thought for his safety, and puts his children first. it's the language and attitude be poses towards the situation that is wild to me. he has every right to be worried about his children, but he could not spare Spider an ounce of concern, even knowing the danger he was in, and is more concerned about him spilling details then anything else. Spider is, once again, not his first, second, or even third priority. he is a means to an end. a necessary loss.

people only care about Spider when there's nothing else they can put before him.

FREE TIDE

3/3 of my Avatar Illustrations exploring the beauty of Pandora!

This time it's a snippet from the reef!

I went for a calm but playful moment while still trying to keep that glittering wonder and awe pandora invokes.

Their happy moments

twi || FA || inkblot || DA

It’s the “let’s talk about characters who portray colonialism in avatar” until it’s your fav…riiiiight.

Ahhhh, still thinking about a Spider and Tsireya friendship because I love the idea of these two just vibing because they get each other.

-) Tsireya becomes someone Spider can breathe around, not literally, since he wears a mask, but emotionally. She's calm in a way that soothes his inner anxiety. He’s so used to chaos and danger and being misunderstood that her presence feels like the calm after the storm.

-) For Tsireya, Spider becomes someone she can be unfiltered with. Around her family and clan, Tsireya is often held to a higher standard. With Spider, she can laugh loudly, roll her eyes, tease, etc.

-) They develop nonverbal signals: a raised eyebrow, a subtle hand motion, or a look that means “You good?”, “Let’s get out of here”, or “I’ve got you.”

-) Spider likes to playfully mimic her voice when she gets serious, and when he does, she chucks a little shell at him. It hits perfectly.

-) They have a long-running competition to see who can sneak up on the other more times in a week. Tsireya usually wins. But when Spider does get her, it’s with flair, like jumping down from a tree and accidentally kicking sand everywhere. They have a nice, long laugh at that.

-) Spider once showed Tsireya Earth stuff Norm kept, like stickers and bubble wrap. Tsireya was obsessed with the bubble wrap, and the two sat together for hours popping it in silence as if in a trance. Tonowari had to pry it out of their hands because the popping sounds could be heard throughout the village, driving everybody crazy.

-) If Tsireya is in a bad mood, Spider pretends not to notice and will immediately start doing something dumb or dramatic until she cracks a smile.

-) One time, they tried to race each other backward just to see if it was possible. It was not. They both tumbled in the sand and laughed so hard that their sides ached.